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A little research has reveals that Affinity Photo is happy to print an image having less than 512Mpx, but crashes when printing an image having more than 512Mpx. I would like to better understand this limit. The limit is relevant to me because I am printing large, high-resolution images on an Epson 20000.

Note: 512Mpx = 536,870,912 pixels = 1/2 Gpx

Note: Although Preview has difficulty displaying some images that are larger than 512Mpx, it nevertheless prints correctly even when it can't display. For example, Preview can print a 2Gpx image. Therefore I conclude that the limit is not a MacOS limit, but is an Affinity limit.

Hypothesis: Photoshop has this same limit. My print-person uses Photoshop; he reported that he can't print the large images I am giving him -- that's what led me to investigate using Affinity Photo.

Method: I export TIFF from vector graphics on Affinity Designer, and then print the TIFF with both Affinity Photo and Preview.  For these tests I don't actually print on paper, but instead simply observe whether or not the print command results in a CUPS print job having a non-empty PDF file in directory /var/spool/cups/ . When the image is larger than 512Mpx Affinity Photo crashes almost immediately after pressing "print", resulting in a CUPS job having an empty pdf file. 

Thanks for any news on this, as well as the possibility that the limit will disappear in future releases.

Martin Brooks

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What are the dimensions of your TIFF file (not just the total number of pixels)?

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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I tested Affinity Photo's sensitivity to print dimensions as follows: Using Affinity Designer on a vector graphics image, I exported a 72 pixel-per-inch 430" x 241" image. In pixels, this is 30,931 x 17,356 = 536,838,437 pixels, just less than 512Mpx. Affinity Photo printed it with no problem.

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And do you have the dimensions for the one that failed?

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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Here is a telling example, starting with the same vector graphics in Affinity Designer:

Affinity Photo prints successfully: 360 pixels-per-inch, 57" x 71.2" = 20,520 x 25,991 = 533,335,320 pixels, slightly less than 512Mpx.

Affinity Photo crashes on print: 360 pixels-per-inch, 57.5" x 72.8" = 20,700 x 26,219 = 542,733,300 pixels, slightly more than 512Mpx.

 

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Seems to work on Windows, at least with the Microsoft Print to PDF driver.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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Thanks for that. I just now tried the Mac print-to-pdf. The results were failed but Affinity Photo behaviour was inconsistent. Tests were performed in the following order:

1. I printed-to-pdf the previously-failed 57.5" image; Affinity Photo did not crash, but the pdf file was only 4k and contained no graphics, just a white background.

2. Without exiting Affinity Photo, I printed-to-CUPS the same image; Affinity Photo did not crash, but the CUPS pdf file was empty (0k).

3. Relaunch Affinity Photo, print-to-CUPS on the same image: crash, with an empty CUPS pdf file. This is the behaviour I experienced in previous tests.

4. Relaunch Affinity Photo, print-to-pdf: crash, generating a 0k pdf file at the requested location.

5. Relaunch Affinity Photo, print-to-CUPS and print-to-pdf with the previously-successful 57" image: success for both.

Although the inconsistency is confusing, the result remains: Always fail when slightly larger than 512Mpx; always succeed when slightly smaller than 512Mpx.

Could you please confirm that your pdf file contains the printed image? Thanks.

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Yes, the PDF had the image. However, as in your #1 the file was only about 4KiB.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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2 hours ago, Martin Brooks said:

I export TIFF from vector graphics on Affinity Designer, and then print the TIFF

Why use TIFF, or pixel file at all?

OK, it is not relevant maybe to the problem, but if the original is vectors, pixel art is not needed.

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3 minutes ago, Martin Brooks said:

Confused: How can an image having more than 512Mpx fit into a 4k file?!?

Compression? Vector technology?

I haven't tried to figure that out for my specific image, but the image dimensions and dpi are as you suggested.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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4 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Compression? Vector technology?

I haven't tried to figure that out for my specific image, but the image dimensions and dpi are as you suggested.

Actually, I was mistaken. It was  4Mib, not 4Kib.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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