Unable to Print A3 Size With Affinity Photo

[SherryB]

I am just starting with Affinity to decide whether I can use it instead of Photoshop. I print a LOT of art prints at the A3 size. No matter what I try, I have been unable to get Affinity Photo to successfully print the correct size on the A3 paper. It leaves a huge margin of over 2" on the right side, 2" on the bottom and then 1/4" on top and left side. I've tried different settings and nothing works. When I look at the Soft Overlay, everything is fine. I have the right ICC profile for the Epson 3880, the little image shows that my image is taking up the full space as it should. These are files I've printed for years on Photoshop so I know the file itself works. I've looked at the documentation, I've tried searching online and I'm not finding anything to help me trouble shoot this issue. I hope you can help. This will be a deal breaker for me using Affinity if it cannot also handle the printing since I already know how to use Photoshop. The print output itself is just fine in terms of the color integrity. It is just that I cannot get the size to work. I've even resaved the image at the exact dimensions I want it to print, rather than using the Fit/Scale options - still prints too small. Many thanks to anyone who can point me in a direction to trouble shoot. The A3 paper I use is Watercolor Radiant White and is very expensive so I can't waste more sheets just stabbing in the dark. Thanks!

[walt.farrell]

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums, @SherryB.

1 hour ago, SherryB said:

I can't waste more sheets just stabbing in the dark. Thanks!

As far as that goes, Epson offers a print preview option (at least on Windows) via the Printer Properties, which will help you save paper. Turn it on, and you get to see what the printer plans to print, and can Cancel if it's wrong.

What OS do you use?

What are your document dimensions?

Can you give us a screenshot of the Print dialog, showing the options you've chosen?

[thomaso]

To bypass Affinity's print dialogue as a workaround you could export the document as a PDF and print it with your PDF viewer app.

[RichardMH]

I use Mirage for printing, using the small studio edition, which is affordable. (Cost depends on printer size). Recommended by our local printing guru. Just export a tiff from AP or ON1 and its all straightforward. Life is too short for the idiosyncrasies of printing from some programs.

[SherryB]

Thank you all for the replies.

I looked more closely at some settings on the print job and compared between how they appear on Photoshop and how they appear on Affinity.  I noticed that the printer setting for "Centered" is set to "off" in both cases. This doesn't matter in Photoshop because centering is set and managed from within the software. But I cannot find a similar setting to change in Affinity. I am wondering if that is the issue. I can find nothing in Epson support that tells me how to modify that setting for a particular media type. I can see the setting but it won't let me change it. I looked at the manual options on the printer itself and there is nothing there I can change either. So I've reached out to Epson to see if they can at least tell me how I can change that setting so perhaps I could create a Custom Profile that might work with Affinity for Watercolor Radiant White paper. It would seem to me that setting could be the heart of the problem. If the print settings do not allow for centering, then the printer can only start at the left side and scale the output paper accordingly. This may be a blind alley and not the problem at all but there is a stark difference when I do print preview from Photoshop and from Affinity. It is centered properly on Photoshop - but not Affinity. It LOOKS centered in Affinity when you see it in the little preview window, but when the printer opens it's Print Preview, it is clearly offset to the left and top. Do you all know of any setting in Affinity that would allow me to center the print output? None of the three Fit Types make any difference at all. And scaling doesn't make any difference because it is still scaled from the left once it starts printing. I am on the trial version of Affinity so I don't know if that matters in terms of any limitations on settings. I do print from PDF files, JPG, and PNG, as well as TIFF from within Photoshop. Was hoping I could do the same from within Affinity. Using Photoshop itself when printing any of these formats gives me more control over the final printed product rather than using a PDF-specific printing option. I don't want to change my whole printing process since we have worked this out over MANY years of trial and error and Photoshop has presented no significant production obstacles other than their prohibitive cost structure. Keeping my fingers crossed I've just got some settings that I have to figure out. Whatever I find out, I'll share here. Again - I really appreciate your responses!

 

 

 

[SherryB]

I also just found a much older post from someone having the same issue. Maybe they just haven't had time to mess with this kind of issue. 

[Lem3]

@SherryB ,

I had a similar issue printing to my Canon Pro which I solved by adding the following to the workflow:

1. Use Document -> Resize Document to set the final document (image) dimensions, e.g., 4" x 5"
2. Use Document -> Resize Canvas to set the final overall image + border size, e.g., 8" x 10".  Use the center positioning point for the operation.

My results with the Canon were the same for either option "Scale" or "Shrink to Printable" in the Print dialog, your Epson may be different.

[thomaso]

36 minutes ago, SherryB said:

I am on the trial version of Affinity so I don't know if that matters in terms of any limitations on settings.

Hardly, at least I never read about limited features for the trial versions.

39 minutes ago, SherryB said:

I noticed that the printer setting for "Centered" is set to "off" in both cases. This doesn't matter in Photoshop because centering is set and managed from within the software. But I cannot find a similar setting to change in Affinity.

I noticed in macOS that Affinity does not show all options my Epson printer offers, while it seems to be influenced by macOS, too. With a default printer installation the default macOS "bonjour" protocoll with "airprint" are used (which is described by Apple to be a "driverless technology"). But if I install the printer via TCP/IP then the Affinity print dialog shows more option menus, one of them is called "Printer Features" with several settings, others concern color options only. (but I don't get a "center" option for this printer). So, possibly you can experience a difference in the software via printer installation in your Windows, too. I assume such a "center" option will only occur in Affinity if it is implemented in the printer driver – regardless of the setting "off" you read in the print spool file. Your "Printer properties" screenshot (white background) doesn't show a "center" option, – does it offer it anywhere in its menus at all?

Another workaround, aside the PDF viewer print + the one mentioned by Lem3, is a bit cumbersome: Affinity offers a "Document Layout" option "N-up", there you can enter values for x and y offset of your image on the sheet. So, if you know the discrepancy this might work to correct it. I never tried this and don't know how reliable its dimensions work, for a test and detection of the divergence you would not need to use your special watercolor papers but just any quality in that size.

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, SherryB said:

But I cannot find a similar setting to change in Affinity.

In your screenshot, it is probably found (if at all) in the Printer Properties (Properties...) button. But your screenshots of the Printer Properties dialog showed only the Main tab. Perhaps the option you want is on the Layout tab, which you did not show?

[SherryB]

Let me check the layout tab! Thank you! I will also check out the other suggestions from Lem3 and thomaso. Thank you all so very much! 

 

Edited January 8, 2022 by SherryB

[SherryB]

OK - got it to work! In Affinity, the Canvas Size has the "align" option defaulted to the upper left corner. Resetting that - not the actual Canvas Size, allows me to do exactly what I can do in Photoshop. I have to "scale" the image up/down to best fit the paper size once it is aligned. I initially (screen shots below) physically resized my document as Lem3 had to do, and that worked but the margins were to wide. So I reprinted and used the Super B/A3 paper size in Affinity and set the Epson to treat the printing as a Custom Size in regard to the paper and let Affinity control the actual dimensions of the paper instead. My second printing was a much smaller margin and that works just like my Photoshop settings.

Thank you all very much for your help! I could never have figured this out on my own. Your tips and thoughts were EXTREMELY helpful! Thank you so much!