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Author Topic: Interesting? Printing issue  (Read 4674 times)
studio2107
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« on: July 15, 2020, 07:29:15 PM »

I was printing about 40 images of tattoos for my daughter, 2 5x7 images per 8.5x11 sheet of landscape paper. All images had been cropped to 5x7 ratio in Lightroom and using Qimage plugin to send all images to Qi. All looked correct on the screen in Qimage. Canon pro-100 with the normal driver (not XPS) as shown in screen capture. All 20 pages printed properly except one image of a spider tattoo, it was cropped almost square. I just thought oh well things happen and reprinted that sheet. It cropped again, even though everything looked correct on the screen. I wondered what would happen if I reversed the order, the spider image still cropped. Then I used the same setup, same computer but printed to my Canon Pro-1000 and it printed just right. I go back to the Canon Pro-100 and it does it again. Just for kicks, I print one ( on Pro-100 using QI) with only the spider tattoo on a landscape letter-size sheet it crops again. Finally, I tried the same two images,  (5x7 on landscape petter size paper) using Lightroom and pro-100 and no problem.
I got the job done using the Pro-1000 but I just found this an interesting problem.
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Fred A
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« Reply #1 on: July 15, 2020, 08:01:08 PM »

Quote
Quote
I got the job done using the Pro-1000 but I just found this an interesting problem.
Curious...
Was the crop scissor on for that image?
Did you set the print size to 5 x7 in QU?
What are the image dimensions in pixels?
The question above is important.
Fred
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studio2107
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« Reply #2 on: July 15, 2020, 08:11:01 PM »

Thanks for replying
Auto Cropping = off
5x7 print size set in Qimage all 40 images loaded at one time.
When hovering over the image in it says 5x7: 350 ppi  In Qimage editing screen it shows the pixel resolution to be 1748x2447
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Fred A
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« Reply #3 on: July 15, 2020, 08:48:36 PM »

Quote
Auto Cropping = off
5x7 print size set in Qimage all 40 images loaded at one time.
When hovering over the image in it says 5x7: 350 ppi  In Qimage editing screen it shows the pixel resolution to be 1748x2447

I would try turning crop scissor on. My thinking is that turning the crop scissor on should not affect an image that is cropped to 5 x 7 dimensions, and it should force the odd one to a 5 x 7  print size.
Any chance of making a jpg from whatever that type that is and emailing it?    wathree.ssz@verizon.net I can handle a  30 Mb email file.
Fred
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« Reply #4 on: July 15, 2020, 10:30:44 PM »

The bottom of the print is just missing.  Partial prints like this are often caused by Qimage sending the data to the driver but the driver not being able to handle all the data (due to memory issues).  How is your Pro-100 connected?  If it's on a network, that could cause an issue when printing that many photos just due to how data is sent across the network.  One thing that can help is going to Edit, Preferences, Printing Options, and setting the spool type to raw.

Regards,
Mike
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studio2107
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« Reply #5 on: July 15, 2020, 11:26:51 PM »

Thanks for the response Mike. You are always prompt to reply.
It is not a big deal, I was able to print it on my Pro-1000. (Printer in question was pro-100) I was also able to print the same combination using lightroom. I just thought it was interesting. I figured someone would say it was a print spooling issue and indeed it might be, you are the expert after all. However, as I mentioned it also did it when printing only the two images shown (not 40), reversing the order, and then only the one image alone. When I have had what I suspect were network issues the whole page partially prints and the remaining is ejected. In this case, as you see part of the first image did not print always in the same spot, and the second image prints normally. I guess the pro-100 simply does not like spider tattoos.
PS In response to the other kind gentleman, just for fun, I turned the auto-cropping on and it still did the same thing.
PSPS Just for fun I thought I would see what happens when I add a black border to both images. They both print fully with a black border. I take away the border and it goes back to a partial image on the spider only. I turn on raw in spooling as suggested, no change, only part of the spider prints. Smiley
No worries, thanks again.
Jason
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« Reply #6 on: July 16, 2020, 01:49:16 AM »

Thanks for the details.  I have seen data problems cause missing pieces of one print while another was fine: all prints are printed in tiles.  But printing it alone and having the same problem makes it unlikely it is a data/memory problem.  It's possible there is something messed up in the image header or image file.  The border part is even more perplexing, especially if you used a B+ border which would make the print the same size.  In that case, QU sends the exact same print data for the print.  The only difference is that it paints a recangle on the page first.  Can you provide a link to that image or send it via email?  I'd need the TIF file that LR exported (the one shown in your screenshot from that export folder) and not just a copy to be sure it's not something about that image file.

Thanks,
Mike
« Last Edit: July 16, 2020, 01:57:46 AM by admin » Logged
Fred A
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« Reply #7 on: July 16, 2020, 09:29:18 AM »

Quote
I just thought it was interesting. I figured someone would say it was a print spooling issue and indeed it might be, you are the expert after all. However, as I mentioned it also did it when printing only the two images shown
Good morning,
Just in case I got lucky, I was playing around in QU. To what end, I don't really know since I don't have the spider image, but I just wanted to see....
I made a 5 x 7 in QU, using crop lock on, in the image editor. I saved it and opened it using Custom.... Open with Original Size which I set to 350 ppi with over ride checked. Came out perfect. I was just wondering what you would see if you opened the image using the above method.
I BELIEVE Mike asked for the image. That would be great. I guarantee he will find it.
Fred
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studio2107
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« Reply #8 on: July 16, 2020, 02:39:37 PM »

Thanks Mike,
Below is a link to the actual file used. Please don't go to any trouble, I was able to get the job done. I did figure it is something about that file and its interaction with the other variables.
Jason
https://www.dropbox.com/s/o1e3up032hbcutu/%5B001%5D%205E034D79-C292-4A7A-BDDE-0614A75AD967.tif?dl=0
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« Reply #9 on: July 16, 2020, 03:21:14 PM »

Thanks for the file.  It's no trouble.  I set everything as close to your settings as possible and printed on my Pro-100.  I even set Matte paper and your Pyramid selection for interpolation.  The file printed fine (the whole 5x7).  So I'm afraid I have no explanation for this one.  I do have some suggestions for dealing with a job like this:

- First, don't use LR to rescale or crop images.  Cropping to 5x7 and resampling to 350 PPI in Lightroom will actually degrade quality a little bit: let Qimage do all of that.

- The cropping and resizing is more easily performed in Qimage: just add the originals at 5x7 print size and then adjust crop as necessary.  Then Qimage automatically upsamples to 600 PPI at print time (at higher quality than LR).

- Switch off the old Pyramid interpolation and always use Fusion.  It's just better.  Smiley

Honestly, just point Qimage at the folder containing all the tattoo pictures and add them all at 5x7 print size.  If cropping is needed (including rotating the crop to the other landscape/portrait orientation), that is super easy using Qimage's print cropping tool.  That would save you a lot of time and in the end give you the highest quality prints... without ever having to open Lightroom.  If you need to make minor adjustments like contrast, levels, etc. and would rather do those in LR instead of QU because you are familiar with doing it in LR, that's fine... but don't ever resample (change the resolution) in LR.  That should only be done at print time.  As a general rule, pixel dimensions (file size) should never be changed from the original size in another program.  Qimage can get a better quality print if it knows how many original pixels were captured!

Regards,
Mike
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Fred A
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« Reply #10 on: July 16, 2020, 05:48:38 PM »

Quote
Thanks for the file.  It's no trouble.  I set everything as close to your settings as possible and printed on my Pro-100.  I even set Matte paper and your Pyramid selection for interpolation.  The file printed fine (the whole 5x7).  So I'm afraid I have no explanation for this one.  I do have some suggestions for dealing with a job like this:

- First, don't use LR to rescale or crop images.  Cropping to 5x7 and resampling to 350 PPI in Lightroom will actually degrade quality a little bit: let Qimage do all of that.

I have to ditto Mike's post. Before even seeing his post, I did a print to file, and then used matte paper and printed.  
No problem here.   Mine has tiny annotated text indicating the jpg side and the tif side. I printed 2 5 x 7 to a sheet.
I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW THE ANSWER IF YOU EVER FIND IT.
Fred
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studio2107
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« Reply #11 on: July 16, 2020, 06:37:44 PM »

Thanks so much for the efforts!
No wonder why you have so many loyal QU followers.
Thank you for the recommendations, I am always looking to improve. I have been using Qimage for just over a year.
May I ask one follow up to your recommendations?
I actually just recently started trying the old pyramid based on my (miss)reading of "help" screens, I had been using the fusion at the default setting. Most of what I print I think would be considered largish files of good quality, 75% portraits, so the cellphone prints in this discussion are the exception. Are there any other recommendations for best print quality. Canon Pro-1000 w/OEM ink used for professional work and Canon pro-100 w/3rd party ink used for play and experimentation. Typically I am using ICC profiles I created with i1Studio.
I look forward to looking closer at your recommendations.
And thanks to Fred for his efforts.
Best wishes, Jason
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admin
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« Reply #12 on: July 16, 2020, 07:21:53 PM »

The most important things to getting the best print quality is to never change the pixel count (resample) in other software and use Fusion with the sharpening setting on the main screen set to your preference for sharpness.  The default 5 usually gives the best compromise for quality and sharpness but some people prefer a little more or less sharpening to taste.

Regards,
Mike
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