Printing 6in x 4in greetings card

[itsRachel]

Hi and apologies for being very non technical, bear with me right, well I got Affinity because it seemed to help with my greetings card printing. I've managed to print a couple of sizes so far without a problem which has been great as I struggled previously. HOWEVER, I've just run into an old problem when trying to print some 6x4 cards. My method so far has been to create a custom sized document - eg: 5 x 10 for a 5 inch square card, then place a prepared image (correct size and 300 dpi) to the right of the document - after doing this, I've managed to print some perfectly aligned cards. Not so with the 6 x 4, the image aligns to the left as the attached image shows, which is exactly what was happening pre Affinity. Even if I align the image to the right edge after placing, it still prints too far to the left. Does anyone know what I am rembling about and what I may be doing wrong with this?

[AlanPickup]

May need to share which Affinity app you are using Photo Publisher Designer and whether you are printing direct from the app or saving as a file and then printing through your printer app. There may be a setting in either the affinity print dialogue or it is picking up your printer settings. Attaching in a file is also good so the settings can be investigated even if using any image

[Oufti]

At first glance, I would assume that the problem is related to an unwanted "resize" option in the printer dialogue box. 

Current printers [Edit: I meant "common printers"] cannot print all the way to the edge of the paper. There is always a white border around the edge of the paper. Therefore, if the placed image was exactly half the size of the paper, it must be reduced to fit within the printable area, otherwise it will be cropped. 

When the printer driver resizes the page document to avoid this, it does so on each of the margins of the whole page. This means that your photo will be closer to the centre - what you see as a shift to the left... 

If you want to obtain a 6 x 4 (folded) double card with a well-centred image on the right half of the page, you can create a 6 x 8 document and centre on the right half a slightly smaller image, say 5 1/2 x 3 2/3 in size, to have a safe "margin" on each edge of the half page. Then, when printing, you uncheck all the resizing commands (no adaptation, no reduction) and ask for a scale of 100%.

 

P.S. In the Affinity Document setup dialog, you should also untick "Include margins" in the Margins tab — even if they are set to 0. 

Edited July 19, 2023 by Oufti

[itsRachel]

This reply is for Oufti and AlanPickup - I'm not sure how to do it properly but HEY. Thanks for your replies. Im using Designer 2. I knock the images around in Gimp first then place them on a document in Affinity. Hopefully the attached screen shots will give you an idea what I'm up to. I tried a slightly smaller image in dimension and although the overall effect seems improved,  it still printed a bit to the left. I've removed most of the image cos I'm wasting too much ink!

[itsRachel]

I've no idea why you need to select a paper size when you are inputting a custom size though, seems no way of getting past this.

[Oufti]

It seems that a bleed is defined around the page in your Document setup.

If you accept a white border around the image, you should set all bleeds to 0 (cf. screen shot #2) and proceed as I explained above. 

If you don't and prefer an image extending fully to the edges of the paper, you have to print on a larger paper and trim it to the desired size after printing. In this case, you will use bleed… but it will probably need more explanations. 😇 Let us know what you want.  

[AlanPickup]

Whilst you are trying to get this right use a basic rectangle to give you the dimensions and save ink. On selecting the type from the Designer options of sizes pick Print selections, not press ready, that automatically includes a bleed and changes the colour profile to CMYK which is a four-colour process for commercial printing, selecting print will give you RGB/8 which is used for home printers.

I tried different things and found that when I created a custom size in my printer set up it reduced the paper size when transferred back to Designer, only slightly but maybe the reason.

I found if i exported to a print pdf when I came to print that my output was correct from the left side, because I had to use A4 paper to test. I have attached the file I used, and the pdf created which may help you test.

I am having problems attaching the Designer file so have zipped it to see if that works

designer test export to pdf.pdf Designer photo card.afdesign.zip

[itsRachel]

Thank you once again AlanPickup and Oufti, I was delighted to see your replies but had to wait until the end of a long day to try out your ideas and unfortunately I am no better off.  Selecting a paper/print size truly confuses me, I understand to choose print and not press-ready now which is great, but the size I want is not listed there, and is there any need to select one of those options if you are creating a custom size anyway? I randomly chose A4 because it seems I need to choose something, then had to change that in my printer settings as I went through the printing process.

Unfortunately I couldn't view some of your files AlanPickup cos I don't have Affinity photo, the use of the rectangle box for printing (to avoid ink wastage) is great. However, I exported to a print PDF and it still printed to the left. I printed your test file, I may be missing a trick here (wouldn't be the first time!)  but printing on A4 isn't going to help, is it? To show that the margins look ok though, yes.

Oufti - I changed those margin settings but still no success. That was the only setting I could find (apart from me having selected the print-ready option before, which I changed) that would affect the bleed/margin. I've read your list of things to check, sure I've not missed anything.

I really appreciate your help and although really dissapointed as i got Affinity to solve this problem and it hasn't worked - I don't want to give up yet. If either of you have any other clue what the hell I'm doing wrong do let me know 🙂 i hit that spoiler button out of sheer curiosity and can't get rid of it now, in case you're wondering

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

 

 

[Oufti]

Could this example file help? 

Greeting card.afdesign

[itsRachel]

Thanks for the file Oufti, I actually realised I could open it in Designer which is a major step forward 😄 but still no success with the printing. I must work on this and for the time being I must walk alone as this is going to take TIME thanks for your help though, it amazes me that it is possible to actually enjoy helping people work through technical hell! 🤬😄

[Alfred]

On 7/16/2023 at 8:00 PM, itsRachel said:

This reply is for Oufti and AlanPickup - I'm not sure how to do it properly but HEY.

Type an @ sign immediately followed by the first few characters of the username, and then click on the desired name from the list that appears. For example, if I type @its I get ‘itsRachel’ at the top of the list, and when I click on that entry I get @itsRachel in the message composition box.

 

@Oufti @AlanPickup

[v_kyr]

1 hour ago, itsRachel said:

but still no success with the printing

Well since you have some sort of Canon printer check first the common paper formats that your specific printer model supports for print outs. - HINT: you can use Canon's "Easy Photo Print EX" software (which is available as a seperatedownload for most Canon printers, additional to the drivers) in order to see the various supported paper types & formats. You can also try to print instead with that Canon software images on cards and the like.

[itsRachel]

13 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

: you can use Canon's "Easy Photo Print EX" software

It was this software that drove me in a taxi to Affinity's door. I was doing fine there until I tried the 6x4 greetings card. Haha, ah well

[itsRachel]

37 minutes ago, Alfred said:

Type an @ sign immediately followed by the first few characters of the username, and then click on the desired name from the list that appears. For example, if I type @its I get ‘itsRachel’ at the top of the list, and when I click on that entry I get @itsRachel in the message composition box.

 

@Oufti @AlanPickup

@AlfredThank you sir

[Oufti]

2 hours ago, itsRachel said:

still no success with the printing

If the second page of my "Greeting card" example file (the page beginning with "This page must print correctly…") doesn't print well, it is probably your printer settings which are in  cause.

Perhaps could you post here a screen capture?

[v_kyr]

46 minutes ago, itsRachel said:

I was doing fine there until I tried the 6x4 greetings card

Which Canon printer model do you have in use?

[AlanPickup]

I noticed in a previous posting it showed you used the rear tray for the supply, most printers have a click in notch system for sizes, it could be this is giving the problem. May be worth turning it on its head and try a 6 x 8 (rotating your image) to see if that moves the offset to the other dimension. You could then factor that into the design to compensate. Once you have got a design that works you can save it as a template.

The forum does not seem to let me upload adesign files of 5 or 6mb just hangs, so cannot attach, may be my security settings?

[PaulEC]

On 7/16/2023 at 6:46 PM, Oufti said:

Current printers cannot print all the way to the edge of the paper.

Just for the record, there are actually quite a few "borderless" printers that can print up to the edge of the paper. including (AFAIK) the Canon iP8700, which is the printer that itsRachel seems to be using. 😉

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, PaulEC said:

Just for the record, there are actually quite a few "borderless" printers that can print up to the edge of the paper. including (AFAIK) the Canon iP8700, which is the printer that itsRachel seems to be using. 😉

Some printers also restrict the ability to do borderless printing based on the kind of paper, the size of the paper, and the paper tray that is being used.

[v_kyr]

19 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Some printers also restrict the ability to do borderless printing based on the kind of paper, the size of the paper, and the paper tray that is being used.

Yes and their manual usually tells which printing areas are supported. - For that Canon iP8700 ...

• How to Create Custom Paper Sizes Canon Desktop / Windows  (Youtube video)
• https://gdlp01.c-wss.com/gds/8/0300013768/03/iP8700ser_OnlineManual_Mac_EN_V03.pdf#lbg-loading2010
• Borderless printing
• Execute Borderless Printing
• Custom Paper Sizes
• ... etc.

[itsRachel]

5 hours ago, v_kyr said:

Yes and their manual usually tells which printing areas are supported. - For that Canon iP8700 ...

• How to Create Custom Paper Sizes Canon Desktop / Windows  (Youtube video)
• https://gdlp01.c-wss.com/gds/8/0300013768/03/iP8700ser_OnlineManual_Mac_EN_V03.pdf#lbg-loading2010
• Borderless printing
• Execute Borderless Printing
• Custom Paper Sizes
• ... etc.

A fine set of links thank you very much

[itsRachel]

9 hours ago, AlanPickup said:

May be worth turning it on its head and try a 6 x 8 (rotating your image) to see if that moves the offset to the other dimension.

@AlanPickup dear fellow, this appears to have worked 😮 Rotating it set the orientation to 'automtic' too which I don't get, and don't much care if it works. I'm not even sure if I did what you said exactly but I'm going to add some screen shots in case it helps anyone else. Thank you! 😊

This is not my photo by the way so I can't take any credit for it..colours are terrible too, perhaps due to lack of ink 😉

[itsRachel]

23 hours ago, Oufti said:

If the second page of my "Greeting card" example file (the page beginning with "This page must print correctly…") doesn't print well, it is probably your printer settings which are in  cause.

Perhaps could you post here a screen capture?

@Oufti do you think, looking at how it finally worked out, and how rotating the image worked, that this was an issue with my printer or with Affinity settings ?

[Oufti]

Well… I can't really say. As long as the result pleases you, that's all that counts, isn't it?

Spoiler

I am not sure that the image is really centred in your Affinity document. 

According to the image box dimensions (5.5 x 3.667) and the paper size 2x(6 x 4), inner margins should be respectively of 0,1666 in. and 0,25 in.  

Magnetism and snapping could help, if you prefer not to calculate. 

 

[itsRachel]

7 hours ago, Oufti said:

Well… I can't really say. As long as the result pleases you, that's all that counts, isn't it?

  Reveal hidden contents

I am not sure that the image is really centred in your Affinity document. 

According to the image box dimensions (5.5 x 3.667) and the paper size 2x(6 x 4), inner margins should be respectively of 0,1666 in. and 0,25 in.  

Magnetism and snapping could help, if you prefer not to calculate. 

 

Yes and no, it's getting to know the equipment you are working with isn't it. Anyway, I'm very pleased with progress made during this project