Cutting a design into 4 parts

[Sheryl]

I created a pattern that needs to be printed out on standard size paper and then taped together. I used a large canvass to make the design and now I need to break it into 4 pieces. Some of my pattern was grouped together. I tried using the knife tool but I'm not having much luck. Should I start with the entire design grouped as 1 object?  Is what I'm trying to do even possible? 

[NotMyFault]

If you want to print, I would suggest to save as tiff, png, or other bitmap format.

then open that file, and use export persona and slices. A grid or ruler / guides can help.

ensure that the size in pixel is even in both x and y axis to avoid visible seams at the edges.

[walt.farrell]

The Affinity applications support Tiled printing, which may allow you to do what you want, though this can also depend on your OS, I think:

 

[Sheryl]

16 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

The Affinity applications support Tiled printing, which may allow you to do what you want, though this can also depend on your OS, I think:

 

Thanks but unfortunately that doesn't help me. I also need to be able to save each piece of my design as a pdf. I just found a You tube video that uses masks as a way to break a large design into pieces that will print on multiple paper. I'm going to try and figure out what that video is explaining.

[Alfred]

22 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

The Affinity applications support Tiled printing, which may allow you to do what you want

 

2 minutes ago, Sheryl said:

Thanks but unfortunately that doesn't help me. I also need to be able to save each piece of my design as a pdf.

Does the ‘Printer’ dropdown list in the Print dialog offer a PDF printer driver as one of the options? If so, that should give you the result you’re looking for.

[Sheryl]

1 hour ago, Alfred said:

 

Does the ‘Printer’ dropdown list in the Print dialog offer a PDF printer driver as one of the options? If so, that should give you the result you’re looking for.

When I go to print in Affinity, there's no option for PDF.

[Alfred]

5 minutes ago, Sheryl said:

When I go to print in Affinity, there's no option for PDF.

What options do you have there, Sheryl? What is your OS?

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, Sheryl said:

When I go to print in Affinity, there's no option for PDF.

If you're on Windows, there's often a specific printer to choose from your printer list.

[thomaso]

2 hours ago, Sheryl said:

I just found a You tube video that uses masks as a way to break a large design into pieces that will print on multiple paper. I'm going to try and figure out what that video is explaining.

Alternatively to additional masking objects but similar and without a need for rasterization, you can achieve four separate details of your document, each with a page size in 1/4 of your artwork but with all objects in full width/height but 3/4 off the page. Therefore you divide the canvas size by 2, then either export the first PDF (e.g. the top left quarter) or copy this page if you want a PDF with 4 pages, then move the selection of all objects / all copied pages accordingly before export.  –  If opened in Affinity the exported PDF still contain the unclipped objects. Like so:

[Sheryl]

1 hour ago, Alfred said:

What options do you have there, Sheryl? What is your OS?

I made a mistake about saying there was no PDF option. It's there but using that option doesn't help as far as splitting my design into 4 sections. I haven't figured out how to do what I need to do by making a mask. I also found a video on using Artboards but haven't had much luck doing it that way either. I think I may have to start all over and make separate pieces of my pattern but that's going to probably be more challenging since my pattern has a design in the center that has to be broken up and then able to piece back together in the exact same place it came from. 

[Sheryl]

1 minute ago, thomaso said:

Alternatively to additional masking objects but similar and without a need for rasterization, you can achieve four separate details of your document, each with a page size in 1/4 of your artwork but with all objects in full width/height but 3/4 off the page. Therefore you divide the canvas size by 2, then either export the first PDF (e.g. the top left quarter) or copy this page if you want a PDF with 4 pages, then move the selection of all objects / all copied pages accordingly before export.  –  If opened in Affinity the exported PDF still contain the unclipped objects. Like so:

That looks like it might work but I see it's done in Publisher. I don't have that program. 

[thomaso]

27 minutes ago, Sheryl said:

That looks like it might work but I see it's done in Publisher. I don't have that program. 

You also can do it in ADesigner or APhoto. I used the Photo Persona for it's anchor option when resizing the canvas. In AD you can use the Artboard Tool + Transform Panel.

[Alfred]

40 minutes ago, Sheryl said:

I made a mistake about saying there was no PDF option. It's there but using that option doesn't help as far as splitting my design into 4 sections.

Using the ‘Tiled’ option in the Print dialog will split the design into four sections, and choosing the PDF option will give you a four-page PDF file. If you need a separate file for each page and you don’t have access to a PDF splitter, you should be able to create the four files by printing each page separately to PDF.

[Sheryl]

20 minutes ago, Alfred said:

Using the ‘Tiled’ option in the Print dialog will split the design into four sections, and choosing the PDF option will give you a four-page PDF file. If you need a separate file for each page and you don’t have access to a PDF splitter, you should be able to create the four files by printing each page separately to PDF.

It didn't split it into 4 sections. It split it into 6 and not in any way that could be pieced together easily. 

[Sheryl]

36 minutes ago, thomaso said:

You also can do it in ADesigner or APhoto. I used the Photo Persona for it's anchor option when resizing the canvas. In AD you can use the Artboard Tool + Transform Panel.

Sorry, I don't understand what you did.

[thomaso]

40 minutes ago, Sheryl said:

Sorry, I don't understand what you did.

I changed the page size in APubs Photo Persona.
The equivalent in ADesigner would change the artboard size, or, if no artboard exists, the document dimensions, in APhoto it's the canvas size (as in my screenshot above). AD + APh offer the anchor when changing that size, e.g. to place the object in the upper left corner for first tile.

This workflow can be used if you want to preserve the entire objects positioned on a page of 1/4 object size in your resulting files. If you want to get fully rid of the cropped area you can either group all objects + rasterize the group before export, or you can go the way via print-to-PDF (without PDF export options).

[Alfred]

1 hour ago, Sheryl said:

It didn't split it into 4 sections. It split it into 6 and not in any way that could be pieced together easily. 

Sorry, I assumed from the description in your original post that it was possible to split it into four and that you simply needed guidance about achieving that.

[Sheryl]

I think I finally figured out how to separate the pattern into 4 pieces using the pieces as masks but I didn't line the paper that the pieces would print out on correctly so nothing matches up right. But at least I'm on the right track. I can't believe I  started working on this before 8am this morning and it's now after 5pm. that's all the time I have today to make this work.

[Sheryl]

Just thought I would report back on how I was finally able to break my design into 4 sections, have it print out on standard letter paper and all line up perfectly.
I had no luck trying to mask my design but I found a video on doing what I needed to do using Artboards and it worked perfectly, after a couple first failed attempts. I can't believe I finally got it. Now I just hope I like the pattern I designed.

[Alfred]

21 minutes ago, Sheryl said:

Just thought I would report back on how I was finally able to break my design into 4 sections, have it print out on standard letter paper and all line up perfectly.

Yay!

21 minutes ago, Sheryl said:

I had no luck trying to mask my design but I found a video on doing what I needed to do using Artboards and it worked perfectly, after a couple first failed attempts. I can't believe I finally got it.

I’m sure you’re feeling both pleased and relieved.

22 minutes ago, Sheryl said:

Now I just hope I like the pattern I designed.

LOL.

[Sheryl]

2 hours ago, Alfred said:

Yay!

I’m sure you’re feeling both pleased and relieved.

LOL.

I'm feeling very pleased and very relieved and so glad I decided to upgrade to version 2.

[Oufti]

2 hours ago, Sheryl said:

I found a video on doing what I needed to do using Artboards and it worked perfectly

Would you share the URL of this video?
It could help others reading this topic.  

[Sheryl]

She's a Scottish girl. Easy to follow video.