Fonts look fine on screen, then print with missing/distorted letters

[futurshox]

Hi, I'm using Affinity Designer on both iPad and Mac. Most of my designs are created on the iPad, then I move them to desktop for final touches and printing.

I've had a couple of instances now where a font prints differently to how it's shown on screen. Examples are in the image.

"Don't squat on your spurs" is in a font called "Old Standard". The 'Regular' variation prints with the letter U in outline, whereas the 'vintage' variation does not.

"Give me your braaaains" is in "Dreadful" font which is in two parts. The white is in 'regular' which is behaving OK. The red is in the 'Rot' variant which lays over the top of the white. The 'M' and 'N' appear to have slid sideways in this case.

I tested printing from the iPad and in both cases, the files print fine. (Unfortunately I can't seem to print in high resolution from the iPad or I would just do that, but that is a separate issue). So I think this is a desktop-only problem.

Does anyone have and fixes or pointers, please? Thank you.

[Dan C]

Hi futurshox,

Welcome to the forums

Sorry to see you're having trouble, could you please upload a copy of your Affinity file and fonts used in the design to the following link, so I can investigate this here?

https://www.dropbox.com/request/bD8Ton0enY1Ax38ugIax

Can you also please provide a screenshot of the PDF export settings you've used, including the 'more' options?

Thanks in advance!

[futurshox]

Thank you, Dan!

I have uploaded a batch of files for the Halloween/"braaains" document. I'm less bothered about the "spurs" one since the second variant of that font was OK.

I also tried exporting as PDF just there and again, it looks fine on screen and then prints awry. Does Affinity create a PDF each time it prints, is that how it works?

I have now tried just converting the red part of the text to curves; that prints just fine. So there's that option at least.

Thanks,

Jo 

[Dan C]

Thanks for that Jo, I've installed your fonts and printed the file directly in Affinity, as well as printing the PDF from Acrobat and both versions print as expected here. 

How are you printing your PDF please? What printer are you using?

On 8/5/2019 at 9:37 PM, futurshox said:

Does Affinity create a PDF each time it prints, is that how it works?

AFAIK this isn't how our printing function works, however we use the Mac System Print Dialogue currently, so this may export and print in the background, I'm not certain.

Do you have any 'Speed' settings on your printer? If you do, please change this from Fast to Quality and let me know if this helps!

[futurshox]

Thanks Dan. Curious that it works for you.

I have a Canon TS8220 printer and I'm using the high quality print setting, on plain paper. I just print straight from Designer though; I don't export a PDF first usually (although I did try that and it didn't change anything).

 

[Dan C]

Thanks for confirming that, my apologies for the delayed response.

When you created your PDF, was this through the Print dialogue ('Print to PDF) or did you use File>Export? If you used the print dialogue please try File>Export then use the PDF (for print) preset, and try printing this exported PDF. Does the appear to print correctly?

[futurshox]

I never use print-to-PDF, in fact I forget it's there most of the time.

The PDF tests I made were with the file-export option. I tried both the for-print preset as well as one of my own. They did not print correctly.

 

[Dan C]

Thanks for letting me know, this sounds as though it must be printer related as I've tested on 3 separate printers (2 at work and 1 at home) and I'm yet unable to replicate this issue. 

I've found the following from the PIXMA Manual for the driver in use with your printer: 

Quote

If image data is not printed correctly, display the Print Options dialog box from the Page Setup tab and change the setting of Disable ICM required from the application software. This may solve the problem.

Could you please try this and let me know if it helps?

If not, please try changing the Print Quality from High to Custom, then set the slider to Fine and try printing again.

Also, under Page Setup, make sure Layout is set to Normal-size and try unchecking 'Automatically reduce large document that the printer cannot output', then try printing again.

[futurshox]

Hi Dan,

Sorry for the delay; life getting in the way again! I appreciate your reply, and the trouble you have taken.

By any chance, are the instructions you are reading for a Windows machine? I'm on a Mac, and the dialogue boxes I get don't have any of the things you mention. I see a 'document setup' button in Designer, but none of the options in there match the setting you quoted, nor do I see any uncheckable boxes in the Layout section of the print driver. 

In the print dialogue, I see a quality slider under 'Media & Quality' but it only has the choices of 'Draft - Normal - Best'; no custom options.

Unless I'm looking in the wrong place?

[Dan C]

No problem at all, these things happen

I was using the PIXMA manual provided by Canon online, but I'm not sure if any of the options mentioned were OS specific, my apologies.

Please can you open the Print dialog in Affinity, then provide a screen recording showing all of the options available to you, from each dropdown menu beneath the Paper Size option?

If you're unsure of how to record your Mac screen, please see here - https://support.apple.com/guide/quicktime-player/qtp97b08e666/mac