Epson printer using CMY to make black instead of K

[m8thy]

Hi,

I'm new-ish to affinity and have an issue with regards to printing black.

I make/sell a few things on etsy using sublimation printing (ink releasing transfer paper to print on different mediums via heat transfer) for mugs, coasters etc. For as long as I have been doing this, I've been unable to get certain images to transfer properly, they always appear more brown in the thinner areas where the ink volume is lower.

You can combat this by reducing the amount of heat, but I can't reduce it any further or it will transfer all patchy in other areas.

One of my pieces we also sell as a regular print and the other day the black ran out and all the black text was printed with just the blue "shiner" layer. The rest of the image was black created using CMY. Looking at the arm/eye in the attached images it appears to be related to the brush that's used.

My question is, how can I get the other areas of my artwork to also print in black, as I've now deduced that the reason for the browning is in the use of the CMY fake black, and it is fine with the standard K.

Thanks in advance, I'm hoping there's a simple solution but knowing my luck it'll be the opposite 😂

Matt

[Lee D]

If you've used raster based brushes and not had the correct black selected, you may need to redo them. You could potential use a Recolour Adjustment but it may depend on how you document is laid out. If you used vector based brushes you can select the curves and reselect the correct black.

[m8thy]

Hi, it's all vector with exception of eyebrows/iris. I've tried recolouring and also using FX and doing a colour overlay of black. Same thing happens. It's only when I've printed in grayscale to isolate the CMY from printing that it stops. Really frustrating. 

[m8thy]

Hey, yes directly from affinity. 

[walt.farrell]

25 minutes ago, BofG said:

What @Lee D didn't mention (and what the sales copy also neglects to point out) is that you cannot send CMYK data to a printer directly from Affinity. It will convert it to RGB (most likely sRGB but no one has confirmed that aspect).

True.

However, the topic title says this is about an Epson printer, and in my experience Epson printers want RGB documents, not CMYK documents. Of course, I haven't seen all the different kinds of Epson printers, and I don't think we know what kind of Epson printer is being used.

[R C-R]

I may well have misremembered what was said about Affinity sending CMYK data directly to printers but I believe one of the staff once mentioned that on Macs that does work, but only if it is a PostScript printer.

[Dazmondo77]

1 hour ago, BofG said:

From page 2 of this thread there is some testing done:

I contributed to these posts in the past, and have trailed through a ton of waste running print tests  - my standing conclusion is it's not currently fit for purpose, I love a lot of things about Affinity but it still needs a lot of work in these areas - I really miss the simplicity of setting up once and synchronising Adobe apps, then forget about it, and having complete confidence in the output, wether sending pdfs or printing direct from apps  

[m8thy]

Wow, honestly you guys are so knowledgeable you're leaving me for dust. 

Basically the images I create I've always made with a CMYK profile as I sell them as prints using my Canon Pixma printer also. 

I have no problem in exporting and printing from another application if that's what it takes. I just really thought I was doing something wrong. There is text and a Vector Brush (from the markers drop down) on the same page. The text is always acknowledged as black it's the brush that it struggles with. If I change the brush it can print using K (but obviously I want that particular brush). 

I'll try exporting and using Adobe as mentioned above. Again, thank you for all the advice but when you're talking serif and postscript I'm done 😂

Below is what I mean, solid black using K, all good. CMY mix, brown edges. 

[m8thy]

See attached. This is when I chose grayscale. I undercooked it slightly as I was in a hurry as you'll see from the speckled part on the dress. But even at this temperature using the standard settings you will have already seen the browning edges. 

I'm away from home at the moment, I'll see if I can get my wife to export it and print from Adobe. 

What document settings do you recommend prior to export? And what format should I export in, jpeg, tiff etc? 

Cheers