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printing with Affinity
#51785 05/28/19 01:13 PM
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jchuzi Offline OP
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I pay Adobe's extortion fee for Photoshop and Lightroom (I don't use LR but it comes along for the ride). The cost, on a monthly basis, is something I don't feel ($10.79 USD) even though I resent the thievery. I use PS instead of another app because I get absolutely accurate color with it. My display is calibrated with i1Profiler and I let PS handle the colors.

My question: Does anyone print using Affinity? If so, what are your settings and how accurate are the colors? I have never tried Affinity but I'm open to suggestion.


Jon

macOS 11.7.10, iMac Retina 5K 27-inch, late 2014, 3.5 GHz Intel Core i5, 1 TB fusion drive, 16 GB RAM, Epson SureColor P600, Photoshop CC, Lightroom CC, MS Office 365
Re: printing with Affinity
jchuzi #51787 05/28/19 04:54 PM
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Are you referring to Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer, or Affinity Publisher? Never mind I am pretty sure they all use essentially the same printing engine. In any case there are so many variables that it is almost impossible to answer your question directly. I seldom print my output (other than to PDF) so I haven't spent any time optimizing fro my printers. What I can tell you after a quick test is using the default set of color profiles in Affinity Photo the rendition on my Canon IP110 at its "best" quality setting on plain paper is perceptually accurate. The same image printed on a Brother MFC-J4710DW is a bit softer than the original seen on the screen and the color a bit more muted.

There is no question in my mind that I could easily and probably substantially improve the results for either or both printers by tweaking the color profiles, the printer settings, and switching to a higher quality media. However, given all the variables it is equally valid to say the settings work best with my printers would NOT be the best for yours.

As to the Affinity products, I like them. I don't use them enough to become expert in their use and I don't get anywhere close to stretching their capabilities, but they are very powerful, work well, and the development curve has slowed to a sustainable rate as opposed to the almost frantic expansion of capabilities in the beginning. Not all Photoshop commands and features are duplicated but from reading the Affinity forums all but some of the most esoteric functionality in Photoshop is also in Affinity Photo just not in the same place.

Affinity also offers a lot of free training videos, lessons, etc to get you up and running.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: printing with Affinity
joemikeb #51788 05/28/19 05:51 PM
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jchuzi Offline OP
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Thanks for your input, Joe. I'm happy with the quality of prints that I make using Photoshop, so that's why I hesitate to use other photo processors. My preferred paper is Epson Premium Glossy. I have tried printing by letting the Epson printer driver determine color, but that has not given satisfactory results. When I let Photoshop control color, the print colors are virtually identical to what I see on the display.


Jon

macOS 11.7.10, iMac Retina 5K 27-inch, late 2014, 3.5 GHz Intel Core i5, 1 TB fusion drive, 16 GB RAM, Epson SureColor P600, Photoshop CC, Lightroom CC, MS Office 365
Re: printing with Affinity
jchuzi #51789 05/28/19 06:25 PM
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Originally Posted By: jchuzi
When I let Photoshop control color, the print colors are virtually identical to what I see on the display.

Among the various profiles available in Affinity are:
  1. RGB
    • Apple
    • Adobe
    • Colormatch
    • Display
    • Display P3
    • Generic
    • ROMM
    • SMTP
    • Thunderbolt Display 2
    • sRGB IEC61966-2.1
  2. 32 Bit RGB
    • ACES
    • Adobe
    • Apple
    • Colormatch
    • Display (linear)
    • Display P3
    • ...
    • Thunderbolt Display
  3. CMYK
    • Euroscale
    • Generic
    • several Japanese variants
    • U.S. sheetfeed coated
    • U.S. Sheetfeed Uncoated
    • U.S. Web coated
    • U.S. Web uncoated
Then there is Rendering Intent:
  • Perceptual
  • relative colorimetric
  • saturation
  • absolute
I suspect that by proper selection of profiles you can get as accurate color rendition as Photoshop, perhaps by using Adobe's own profiles. As I said, I have not really tested printed output as most of my work is for the web.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein

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