Printing Software conundrum

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Rincewind

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Okay, so unlike many people I process my photos with PS and then print via Lightroom using ICC profiles for the paper / printer combination in use for the image. My workflow has evolved over time and works well for me and the print output is spot on for what I want. This process creates prints that are exactly how I want them and I had no difficulty selling them. However, now I am retired I have no wish to pay Adobe the best part of £200 a year for what is now a hobby and will result in far fewer prints.

I have Downloaded Afinity and will spend this autumn/winter learning how to use the aspects of it that i need to gain the image I would want to print, but, how does it do in printing? or what software - free/low one off cost would you recommend to use for printing?

If it makes any difference I print to a Canon Pixa-Pro 100s at A3
 
Has your Adobe subscription actually expired now?
If not then you have the option to contact Adobe and switch to Annual billing for the Photography plan - if you are on the PS + LR + 20Gb plan the Annual charge is ~£120, same as it was when it first came out (It's just the monthly payment option that has increased)
Unfortunately, if you don't have an active existing subscription there is no way to get back on the plan.
 
Mr Perceptive said:
Canon Print Studio Pro (free to download and use, works with your printer, can use ICC profiles and has excellent soft proofing)
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not for win10 apparantly - This software is not supported with the operating system selected and is not available for download.
 
Rincewind said:
not for win10 apparantly - This software is not supported with the operating system selected and is not available for download.
Click to expand...
Have a look at image-https://www.ddisoftware.com/qimage-u/. Used this when had a Windows system, plenty videos on YouTube. Russ.
 
I use QImage now.

I also had issues with the Canon software - it would install and not run. Seemed to be very poorly supported. I wasn't overly impressed withe the printing support in Capture One. So I got QImage.

I now use an Epson and the nice thing about changing over was ... no change in software. Just a matter of finding the relevant profiles.

QImage is idiosyncratic in terms of UI. But it just does what it does.
 
There used to be a LR yearly subscription available with a big discount on Amazon Black Friday.
I'm still using LR 6.14 for printing and editing, so not sure about the current prices.
 
tijuana taxi said:
There used to be a LR yearly subscription available with a big discount on Amazon Black Friday.
I'm still using LR 6.14 for printing and editing, so not sure about the current prices.
Click to expand...
That stopped a couple of years back, when Adobe discontinued the PS + LR + 20Gb plan for new subscribers - but if you were already on that plan you can continue, with the annual price of £120 unchanged if you pay annually (in advance).
 
Mr Perceptive said:
I used it with Win 10 and now Win 11, I’ll check what I have and let you know (I have download files)
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My main machine is running WIndows 10 Pro, and Canon Print Studio Pro as a plug-in for Lightroom. It will however woirk also as a plug in for PS and Elements, but it is also a plug in for Canon's Digital Photo Professional.

So OP, for a free solution, you could use Canon's Digital Photo Professional and install the Print Studio Pro plug-in. As I said the plug-in is working on my machine under Windows 10
 
Rincewind said:
Okay, so unlike many people I process my photos with PS and then print via Lightroom using ICC profiles for the paper / printer combination in use for the image. My workflow has evolved over time and works well for me and the print output is spot on for what I want. This process creates prints that are exactly how I want them and I had no difficulty selling them. However, now I am retired I have no wish to pay Adobe the best part of £200 a year for what is now a hobby and will result in far fewer prints.

I have Downloaded Afinity and will spend this autumn/winter learning how to use the aspects of it that i need to gain the image I would want to print, but, how does it do in printing? or what software - free/low one off cost would you recommend to use for printing?

If it makes any difference I print to a Canon Pixa-Pro 100s at A3
Click to expand...
Have you seen this? It's the old Affinity Photo, but Canva Affinity, as far as I aware, has the same or greater capability than the old Affinity Photo

lenscraft.co.uk

Affinity Photo Printing for Photographers - Lenscraft

Don’t be frustrated using Affinity Photo printing. Learn how soft proofing works and transform your results. Achieve consistent prints with this tutorial.
lenscraft.co.uk lenscraft.co.uk

That apart, like others, I have used QImage for printing (first on Windows and now on a Mac) and have no real experience of printing without it, at least not for the last 20 years or so.
 
Thanks all, I have Affinity, will dig into that a bit more but also Nikon NX studio, I have the latest version of that and looking at that it hits all the buttons I want - as far as i can tell. I will play with that a bit more on the next print I want to produce and see how it goes. I suspect that it will do what I want and it much easier to 'get into' than Affinity at the moment. The actual print when I do one will either confirm I have a solution or re-start the search :)
 
Rincewind said:
Thanks all, I have Affinity, will dig into that a bit more but also Nikon NX studio, I have the latest version of that and looking at that it hits all the buttons I want - as far as i can tell. I will play with that a bit more on the next print I want to produce and see how it goes. I suspect that it will do what I want and it much easier to 'get into' than Affinity at the moment. The actual print when I do one will either confirm I have a solution or re-start the search :)
Click to expand...
I have C1Pro and also Affinity Photo 2. I can print from either, and both offer the usual ICC profiles, as they are in the printer driver for my Epson ET-8550. However, I find them both equally annoying to use, as neither makes it easy to centre my print on the paper. They allow me to set margins, but when I set one another will change. Luckily for me, saving to Epson Print Layout (free, but I guess not helpful to you) makes that easy. I also like to add a border sometimes. I looked at QImage 1 for both these features; ISTR it would centre, but the controls for borders didn't seem to do what I wanted, so I decided it was not worth the money, and learned how to make the borders I like in Affinity Photo 2.
 
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