• Please use real names.

    Greetings to all who have registered to OPF and those guests taking a look around. Please use real names. Registrations with fictitious names will not be processed. REAL NAMES ONLY will be processed

    Firstname Lastname

    Register

    We are a courteous and supportive community. No need to hide behind an alia. If you have a genuine need for privacy/secrecy then let me know!
  • Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!

Affinity Publisher has proved so valuable.

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Interesting proposition Asher, but not the type of commitment that I would be interested in. I am just thankful that you tolerate my disjointed posts with related screenshots and findings that I come across as I am working on projects that I love doing. Instruction and deep dives into research, don’t fall into that category I’m afraid. 😉👍🏻
I wish you were nearby! I now have to look up the location of Toronto compared to Los Angeles! Then you could be my tutor!

OMG, Toronto is about 1/8th of the circumference of the world at the latitude!

Looks like the videos are better idea!

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
I received my cards yesterday and Doug the day before and we are both so impressed. Doug will share with you a he is so inspired that he’s preparing to hopefully follow your path.

He will be using QImage Ultimate for printing which seems to be amazing and even unclogs printers and increases sharpness of images brilliantly far better than Lightroom.

Have you had experience with QImage yourself?

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Thanks for the update Asher. Doug contacted me when he received his package. Enjoy.

I am not familiar with qimage.
When I had pictures printed for a major exhibition, I looked for a printer that used QImage as this is a miracle controller of most pro modern printers and does amazing things, from batch printing to improve appearance far beyond sharpening and curves we are used to in Photoshop!

For any commercial job, if one is paying anyway, it’s an idea to consider first those who use QImage as they can get the most out of your file!

Asher
 

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
Hi, Rob.
Thanks for the update Asher. Doug contacted me when he received his package. Enjoy.

I am not familiar with qimage.
Qimage Ultimate is an elaborate photo printing program, with many nice features and excellent performance. Itvis only avaiable to run under Windows, but there is a cousin program, Qimage One, that I understand is avaialable in a Mac version.

But I think it does not have the convenient layout control features I suspect Affinity Publisher does.

In our test work so far on preparing to print greeting cards, I have composed the back of the card (wholly text) in CorelDraw, a "vector" illustration program somewhat comparable to Adobe Illustrator. Then I export that as a high-resolution GIF file, with "reported size" 4"×6", so it can easily fit with no resizing in the 5"×7" back of the card.

Then in Qimage, I place the photo and that image file of the back of the card text on the 7"×10" page. Qimage does not, for example, exactly automatically help me properly align these two images to their desired locations on the respective halves of the page, but there are a number of things that help me do that. I may even be able to save a "layout template" that will facilitate that. I will work on that when I can.

So I think this is moving on well.

Best regards,

Doug
 

Robert Watcher

Well-known member
Definitely Doug. I’m all for using the software that you already have. You have taken me down memory lane mentioning CorelDraw.

CorelDraw and it’s Photo application were the first software that I used for processing images as well as handling all of the graphics work that I did for logos, marketing layouts and brochures for clients, and design elements for my web design work in the early days of my going digital for my business in around 1999. I was so familiar with it and for as long as my desktop computer was a PC - I had no interest in using expensive Adobe products.

It was only when I started travelling and purchased a MacBook laptop, that I found the value in Lightroom and I used that almost exclusively for my street and travel work starting in 2008. In fact I spent a nice hunk of money to upgrade to Lightroom 6, only to realize they were dropping support for the standalone app, 6 months later in 2017.

When Affinity Photo was released in 2015, I purchased it for my MacBook for compositing work to go along with Lightroom. I continued on with my copy of Lightroom 6 on my MacBook right through my return home from Central America, five years ago yesterday (March 20, 2020) because of the Pandemic - that is until I purchased the brand new MacMini M1 desktop computer a month after it was released in November 2020. I subscribed to Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop for one year and dropped it after coming to value other softwares that I have spoken about on OPF.
 
Last edited:

Robert Watcher

Well-known member
Then in Qimage, I place the photo and that image file of the back of the card text on the 7"×10" page. Qimage does not, for example, exactly automatically help me properly align these two images to their desired locations on the respective halves of the page, but there are a number of things that help me do that. I may even be able to save a "layout template" that will facilitate that. I will work on that when I can.


Just curious Doug why you aren’t simplifying the process by designing your complete 7x10 layout (text on back as well as the front image) in CorelDraw, and then Exporting it out to make use of Qimage, if that is the app that you want to use for your printing?


Not sure if the links here might be if some benefit to you. Red River (the amazing card stock I am using) has all kinds of templates and instructions related to printing greeting cards. Here is a link to a variety of different applications —- https://www.redrivercatalog.com/cardshop/help/red-river-greeting-card-setup-tutorials.html


——-
 
Last edited:

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
Hi, Rob,
Just curious Doug why you aren’t simplifying the process by designing your complete 7x10 layout (text on back as well as the front image) in CorelDraw, and then Exporting it out to make use of Qimage, if that is the app that you want to use for your printing?
I wanted to take advantage of Qimage Ultimate's processing of the image for printing. If I had just embedded the image in a CorelDraw document (which I can do), and then exported the while thing as, say, a JPEG file, I'm not sure I would fully take advantage of that. (But of course I really don't know!)

Another issue is that JPEG is not ideal for the text because of compression artifacts. I have no idea how serious that is. But of course a GIF file does not have those.

But there are many things I don't know about all of this!

Thanks for the suggestion. I may do one that way and see how that works out.

Best regards,

Doug
 

Robert Watcher

Well-known member
Another issue is that JPEG is not ideal for the text because of compression artifacts. I have no idea how serious that is. But of course a GIF file does not have those.


I’ve never used Gif except for the old days with web animations. PNG is the equivalent to GIF but much better quality. Although neither is ideal for raster images such as photos. If you aren’t wanting to use JPG, TIFF - which CorelDraw can Export the photo as —- is the best option. I do have to say though that I’ve worked with a couple of the best pro labs, and they prefer JPG files, even for the largest sized prints. When a photo is Exported as a JPG at 100%, I haven’t been able to notice any degradation - especially if the source file for processing has been kept pristine. But I also understand your desire to experiment with different processes and find the results for yourself. I am happy that you have found this enjoyable project.
 

Robert Watcher

Well-known member
An afterthought. I just remember that a few months ago, I designed some text based layouts for my daughter to send to a professional printer, for creating vinyl signs for her business. They requested PDF. CorelDraw also Exports to PDF, which may be the best way to handle vector and raster content, if the most pristine quality is desired.


Here is some content on the different formats:

Here's how TIFF stacks up against PDF and JPEG when it comes to printing:

1. TIFF:
- Advantages: It is a lossless format that supports high resolution and preserves quality, making it ideal for professional printing, especially for detailed images and text.
- Disadvantages: Large file sizes due to its high-quality nature can be a downside, and it doesn't have features for embedding fonts or interactive elements.

2. PDF:
- Advantages: Highly versatile, it retains text, graphics, and layout perfectly. It supports vector graphics, embeds fonts, and includes interactive features. PDF is often the gold standard for printing, especially for documents combining text and images.
- Disadvantages: Unlike TIFF, PDF can be less suitable for specific image-heavy workflows and might introduce compression artifacts if settings aren't carefully chosen.

3. JPEG:
- Advantages: It has smaller file sizes and works well for photographs due to its compression.
- Disadvantages: JPEG is a lossy format, meaning the quality can degrade, especially with repeated edits or if the resolution is insufficient for printing. Not ideal for text or sharp graphical elements.

Verdict: Use TIFF for high-quality images, PDF for mixed media (text + images), and JPEG only if file size matters more than quality.


———-
 

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
Hi, Rob,
I’ve never used Gif except for the old days with web animations. PNG is the equivalent to GIF but much better quality.

For many years I have normally exported all my line drawings (made in CorelDraw) as GIF files to then embed in MS Word Documents. (Much earlier, I used WMF files, which of course are vector based for vector-based source elements, which would seem advantageous but it didn't seem to matter much in the Word documents!

I just took a typical recent line drawing (with some grayscale) and exported it from CorelDraw both as GIF and as PNG. Just comparing the two files in a good viewer, the PNG is perceptibly better looking than the PNG.

As embedded in a test Word document, I can on very close inspection see a just perceptible edge to the PNG file over the GIF.

I may change to PNG as the normal format for this porting. Thanks for the tip.

Best regards,

Doug
 

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
Hi, Rob,

Based on two of your suggestions, I composed the entire greeting card recto in CorelDraw, importing the actual picture as a JPEG file and placing it in the page.

I then exported that page as a PNG file, and loaded that into Qimage Ultimate (which was very simple).

At least on the regular cover stock I am using at the moment for these tests, I can't see any difference in the renderings.

There are some wrinkles about scaling and margins that I need to work out. But I know how to do that.

This may be a very good workflow. Thanks so much for the tips.

Best regards,

Doug
 

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
Hi, Rob,

Although composing the entire card in CorelDraw worked well, I am concerned that the photo quality may suffer from CorelDraw downsizing the image before making it an ingredient in the exported PNG file of the whole page (although I hardly know the details of that, so I might be wrong).

It also turns out that for some reasons the details of which I won't trouble you with, making the proper layout in CorelDraw so the exported page will be properly laid out in Qimage Ultimate requires some fussiness that is comparable to what I have to do when composing the whole thing in Qimage Ultimate.

So I think I will stick to composing the greeting cards in Qimage Ultimate. But I will export the text half-page (for the card backs) from CorelDraw as a PNG, rather than GIF, file.

Best regards,

Doug
 
Top