Mike Chaney's Tech Corner

I am possibly missing something painfully obvious, but puzzled. I have set up an image to print 13.08" x 11.02" centred on 17" x 13" roll paper. For some reason it keeps printing the image at the correct size, but on 17" x 18" roll paper.
screen shots attached.

Qimage Ultimate ver 2016.157
Windows 7 64 bit Pro
Intel Core Duo  CPU E8400 @ 3 GHz, 4 GB RAM

Hi Bill,
I replicated your condition as best as I could... No problem found as far as Print Preview from the driver.

So let's go back over the settings.
4800 Epson
Roll paper; paper size set to 17.01 x 13.0  (See snap)
Set print size to 11.02 x 13.80  see snap (13.80 is shown in your screen grab) Your text says 13.08... not important
Place your image into the queue, crop on.
 See next screen snap, 041. What does it say above the preview image? Printable area size and ppi

If the print is changing size after it leaves Qimage, then check the driver (layout tab) There should be no checks on the left side of the screen.... "Enlarge or any scaling)
Output Page size should say, SAME AS PAGE SIZE

Fred

Thanks for looking into this, Fred. [yes, I see that I wrote 13.08 by mistake instead of 13.80]
Epson printer driver is not set to enlarge or reduce (see snap); it is definitely set to "Same as Page Size".
Above the print preview in Qimage I see Page: 12.766 x 16.766 in. (720 x 720)

OK Bill, I think I see it.
You are not set on roll paper (and Banner if you have it).
You seem to be on Sheet paper 17 x 13
Otherwise the printable area would say 13.0, not 12.766. See my 041 screen snap in previous post.
Also page size should say USER DEFINED
See snaps

Fred

It looks like you're using 17" roll paper and you've set up a page size of 13" x 17": 13 width and 17 height (length).  When you do that, it sets the printable area to 13 inches but it can't change the width of the roll so your 13 inch printable area is going to be part of the 18 inch width.  That's why it's 18 inches on one side.  Your defined length on that roll was 17 inches so you get an 18 inch width (dictated by the roll) and 17 inch height.

I would suggest setting your size to 17 x 13 instead of 13 x 17.  Define the length as 13 inches and the width as 17 and that will cause QU to auto-rotate the print into a landscape orientation: less paper waste because you're now using 17 out of 18 inches of the roll width.  Just be aware that when you set the length smaller than the height in the driver, a "portrait" page will actually LOOK landscape when you're working with it.  Other than that, no down side.

Mike

Thanks, I've reset the roll paper dimensions to 17 x 13 from 13 x 17. Will test and report.

Problem solved - thanks so much!

I've encountered another persistent and possibly related issue:
when I set up 17" wide roll paper to print a 19" long sheet, it prints it 20" long.
I can't figure out why it's adding one inch.
(note: the right margin is wider to allow for paper trimming and packaging.)

and the initial QimageUltimate window with the job...

Bill,
It works ok here. The only thing I have set up differently is that I tell the driver, under size, USER DEFINED.
You have size as 17 x 19.
I don't know if that is what is wrong but it is worth a try.
My user defined size is 1701 x 19.0.
My output size says USER DEFINED
See top of p-review screen. Printable area reflects the USER DEFINED. It shows the page length to be 19.00 inches

Fred

Thanks, Fred. I should mention that my actual goal is to print on a 17x20 sheet; I set up this job @ 17x19 to compensate for the additional inch that's been creeping in ;-)

I would like to be able to set up custom roll paper sizes using the User Defined dialogue, save them, and print with confidence that the output will match the setup. Usually this has worked, but occasionally jobs print an extra inch. This is one of them.

I notice I haven't checked Optimize Enlargement or Reduce/Enlarge>Fit to Page, and I have set my User Defined page width @ 17.00 inches (not 17.01), then saved it with 17x19 as its name which appears in my driver options. Not sure if that's an issue.

Also, I had been avoiding checking Reduce/Enlarge>Fit to Page in case that might cause the image to resize from what I have set up in the Full Page Editor.

When I do check Reduce/Enlarge>Fit to Page for my 17x20 roll paper size (the size I actually want to print on), I now see "User Defined -> User Defined" showing up in the driver. Page size showing as 16.998x19.998 in upper right. Unfortunately, this still prints an additional inch, i.e. 21" instead of  20".

PS I am using version 2016.158 now.

Bill,  I did the best I could using the 4800 driver and Print Preview turned on.
I wish I actually had the printer and the roll paper.

!) Have you tried to turn on the Qimage sheet cutter feature?
See snaps.

2) Have you tried the setting for ROLL PAPER Banner Mode?

Just guessing

I wouold have hoped a 4800 user out there could come to the rescue.

Fred

Thanks - v interesting. I never noticed the sheet cutter feature and haven't tried the Banner Mode (QU has so many features and I know I'm only scratching the surface!). Will see if it makes a difference.

Darn, I tried the "Remove white space at bottom of the page" option *and* set the printer to Roll Paper (banner) @ 17" x 14" and it printed 17" x 15.25" :-(
I can trim this manually, but this glitch in the driver or whatever option I've mistakenly set is slowing down production.

Bill,
I found something that might help.

I checked my 4800 driver, and it is version 6.50, not that old.
I just checked Epson's driver set for the 4800 and there's a new version; 6.62
It is dated April 01, 2016

Please check your version and possibly you could be behind one version.
It certainly smells like a driver problem.

Fred

I see that your Auto Cut option is set to "Normal Cut".  From reading the 4800 documentation, it appears to add extra margin on the top/bottom when using that cut option.  See if the problem goes away when you select "Single Cut" or "Double Cut".

Regards,
Mike

Thanks, Fred - makes sense. Will do and report later...

Yes, I've had the 6.50 driver version; downloading new one now.

Installed newer driver and tried again, but I'm still getting additional paper at the top and bottom.
I can't find other cutting options other than "Normal cut" or "Off" (see attached). I will see if there's another way to access the cutting options you mentioned.

Tried the "Remove white space at bottom of page" option with the job set as Roll paper (banner), and it still prints 17x14" as 17x15".

Since the printable area defined by the driver is 17x14 and it is cutting the sheet at 17x15, I think it must be the cutting option.  Try checking the borderless option and then clicking the "Expansion" button and checking "Retain Size".  That will open up the "Single Cut" and "Double Cut" options in the roll paper options which you can try.  By clicking "Retain Size" on that expansion tab, it won't expand the print so the print will still be the correct size.

Mike

Thanks, Fred - you have solved it 99%! Single cut and Double cut seem to yield the same result; I'll stick with Single cut.

The one last idiosyncrasy is that the E4800 cuts off a 3 1/4" x 17" strip of paper *before* printing. The printer's console is set to the cut roll paper icon; I generally pull the roll paper through the feeder to the "Other" line on the paper tray surface, then reset the paper levers and the printer rewinds the paper to what has supposedly been the correct position (I followed the same procedure with the Epson 4000 for several years). Then I print.

If there's a way to avoid losing 3" of paper each time, that would be ideal. However, I'd rather live with some wastage and have prints emerge correctly than have an inch of paper added to each job, at last for the time being ;-)

Hi Bill,
I think you want to direct any thanks to Mike who added in the things to check about single and double cut, etc.
Hope the ship is righted.
Fred

I've not heard of the 3 inch strip problem.  I wonder if selecting "Roll paper (banner)" and cutting manually could solve that?

Mike

Thanks, Mike, and my apologies for not crediting you previously! Obviously I wasn't paying attention :-o

I had previously selected "Roll paper (banner)" with Single Cut, so I tried turning off the printer's cutting option in the printer's console, but that generates an error message saying the paper size is wrong, can't be done with Borderless printing, to reload. I can try printing another with all the cutting settings off (i.e. in the printer's console and via the printer driver), but my goal is to not have to cut these prints manually. I'd like them to emerge in the correct dimensions, ready to wrap in sleeves or matte and frame (we're in a gallery production situation).

I doubt there's anything you can do about the 3 inch waste.  I think they all do that because roll paper has a curl to it and it has to load past a certain point to verify that it passes the front rollers.  The solution would be to feed sheets.

Mike

Thanks for explaining this feature, Mike ;-)

Well, I use an Epson 4900 and had an Epson 4000 before.
Both printer I set to 3mm margin via the display panel at the printer.
So I am quite shure that there is an option to set/select the margins for the Epsin 4800.
I use just roll paper (no banner mode) and normal cut.
With normal mode the maximum printing is 15m. So far there was no need to use the banner mode.
The margins for roll paper and sheets are different. With sheets the lower margin is allways 15mm.
Maybe this helps

Winfried

I read this thread with interest and wondered if i might add something. I too owned the Epson 4800 and now use the 7890. but with the old and new printer I am often finding an error that stops the printer printing and it is invariably that I have the Qimage interface set to roll or sheet, and the printer set to the wrong one (ie not matching the Qimage setting). My question is, why, when the printer can receive lots of information from the computer when printing, does it not receive whether it is roll or sheet? I tend to flip from one to the other often get caught out with this miss match.

Hi Jules,
Perhaps, I am missing the question, but if I open the driver ( Printer Page setup) and set paper to roll from sheet or tray, that is the driver. When I open the driver properties, as you can see, the paper, feed and roll/sheet changes  also.

Please explain what you are seeing/getting.   That is a 4800 driver in teh snaps

Fred

As Fred pointed out, the roll/sheet selection is part of the driver settings.  It actually does communicate that information which is why you get the mismatch.  Since the roll/paper selection is part of the paper loading process on the printer itself, if the driver is set for sheet and the printer is set to roll (or vice versa), you get the error.  There's no way to auto-correct or auto-switch though because the two source options have different requirements as far as margins, top/bottom feed, cutting, etc.  For example, if you have a roll loaded and your driver is set to sheet, you cannot automatically switch the driver to roll during print time because that will change the printable area on the page and require reformatting of the document.  That's the basic reason that the driver can't just read what the printer knows is loaded as far as media and automatically switch: the driver settings have to match the parameters used for sheet vs roll.

Regards,
Mike