Print Preview

[Vijayanand.L]

Hi,

I have been testing the Affinity Publisher Beta since its launch and find it to be performing well in most departments, but for a few glitches here and there which is being actively resolved by the developers in the subsequent builds. Kudos to them for the good work!

One feature I would really like to see added in APUB to its already impressive list is "print preview". The ability to view the file to be printed, make imposition layouts, multiple ups, booklet layouts, add bleed, trim & registration marks will be a great help to the printing fraternity.

With this one addition Affinity Publisher can break the monopoly of Corel Draw among the print industry in India. That said I have nothing against Corel Draw, it is a good, steady and mature software with lots of features and amazing ease of use. Its main drawback is its forbidding cost!

I feel another able competitor in the market will bring about the right balance.

Really appreciate if the APUB team can consider this feature for the future builds.

 

Regards,

Vijay

[Ray C]

Please, please, PLEASE make a print preview I can see without leaving nose prints on my screen.
I print labels for everything, and the print preview in Publisher shows an ANSI Letter page on the screen the size of a postage stamp. I cant see what will print.

Please make this more useful.

[fde101]

If you are referring to the preview in the Print dialog, that is provided by the operating system and its capabilities governed by that.  The Affinity applications cannot and should not try to change that.

On the Mac you can preview the settings by selecting Open PDF in Preview from the PDF popup menu button in the lower-left corner of the Print dialog.

[walt.farrell]

12 hours ago, fde101 said:

If you are referring to the preview in the Print dialog, that is provided by the operating system and its capabilities governed by that.  The Affinity applications cannot and should not try to change that.

On Windows it's Affinity providing that preview within the Print dialog, as that entire dialog is generated by Affinity. It might work differently on Mac.

[walt.farrell]

On 1/3/2019 at 10:42 PM, Ray C said:

Please, please, PLEASE make a print preview I can see without leaving nose prints on my screen.
I print labels for everything, and the print preview in Publisher shows an ANSI Letter page on the screen the size of a postage stamp. I cant see what will print.

Please make this more useful.

All the printers that I have used on WIndows can provide a Preview function of their own, controlled by the printer driver. These previews are much better than the one provided by Affinity. If you're on Windows and your printer offers that capability you might use it until Affinity can improve. You would reach it, if available, by clicking on the Properties... button in the Affinity dialog.

[Ray C]

Walt. I'm on Windows 10, printing to an HP Laser Jet Pro MFP M225 PCL 6. I previously used an HP Laser Jet 5. I cannot find any print preview Function in the printer properties. The predecessor to Affinity Publisher was Serif PagePlus, I had PagePlus X9 which might have been the last iteration of that product, and it contained a full screen print preview that was as good as a proof print. Until Affinity publisher has something like that, I can't see using it.

!!! I checked my Canon color inkjet, and that DOES offer a nice preview. (This is news to me!) But my HP LaserJet does not.

Edited January 6, 2019 by Ray C
Checked another printer.

[obiwanceleri]

I think some of the people answering this post are simply missing the point. 

I could, if I wanted to, export my document to PDF and look at the result in another program. That kind of defeats the purpose.

I usually have guide lines all over the place and most of my objects are side by side so it can get confusing to the eye. 

In Corel Draw I'd punch F9 and I'd get a full screen display showing me what Corel "sees", without the UI, the guidelines and all the other symbols aimed at giving information to the designer. I got a final result, on demand. It makes catching design errors so much easier. And no, Toggle UI is not the same thing. 

While it's not a crucial must-have, being able to quickly preview a design is - at least to me - damn useful and I find myself hitting F9 all the time because of my time with Corel. I'm sure I can get a similar result by manually deactivating everything I don't want to see in Affinity designer / photo / publisher but it's not the same as a "one button does it all".

Also, suggesting we use another piece of software instead of using Affinity designer / photo / publisher is not the best way to proceed IMHO. 

[walt.farrell]

15 minutes ago, obiwanceleri said:

I think some of the people answering this post are simply missing the point.

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums.

This discussion is not about a general Preview function, which you seem to be discussing. Publisher already has that (separate from Hide UI).

It is specifically about providing a Print Preview function, not to see how the design looks without Guides, etc. (which is available in Publisher) but to see how it will look when printed. That is, how it will fit and be arranged on the page (or pages).

[garrettm30]

Walt beat me to it.

It is worth noting that the last post until today was several months before the public release of Publisher. I can't remember when preview was implemented, but I would like to at least confirm that you have in fact tried Preview Mode. It does not hide the studios and toolbars, but it does give you a view of what your document looks like printed. You can find it in the View menu, or try using control-W. There is also a button on the toolbar in stardard set that looks like a windshield wiper.

[Ray C]

The Preview in the View menu is not a Print Preview. It does not reflect the page setup, printer, pages to skip or repeat, or other printing related issues. When I use the View Preview to view labels, I see one label, not the ten labels I want to print.

Publisher does in fact provide a Print Preview in the Print dialog, but it is a little larger than a postage stamp. Really not very informative. If that Print Preview could be enlarged to about half the screen, I would be happy.