Just a comment as this inability to fit to size has impacted me again making holiday cards.

I create cards using qimage and like to use one geometric/abstract image as a background (instead of solid color with solid color qimage borders) for laying out other images and text on top of.  Unfortunately I have to create a different background image size for each crop ratio - my library of custom backgrounds it getting overwhelming due to so many different crop sizes of the same geometric images - instead of one I can crop from or fit to size to keep the pattern/border intact.

Alex

I am well aware there is no difference when printing 16 vs 8bit, which is why I asked.  My RAW files get developed as 16bit tiff and I further process them this way and don't bother saving as 8bit, just keep them 16bit.  Other than extra computing time (never been an issue) and storage (DVD s are cheap) I wondered if there was any other reason not to use 16bit.

I realize that there will be no visual difference between 8bit and 16bit tiffs.  That known is there any other negative to using 16bit tiff with qimage if the extra storage and/or computing time is of no issue for me.

If all you do w/Qimage is print you can have a basic PC set up not even connected to internet and with no other stuff loaded and everything not print related disabled in the OS.  Transfer image to it via memory cards, or a shared HD, Maybe (I'm not pc networking person) thru a network.  If set up right you can isolate that system reducing any infection chances as long as you scan the outgoing images from the mac and any software updates.

My photo 'studio' pc is not connected to internet.  I have a separate PC for that.  I don't even run AV on it as there is no way for it to become infected except from Qimage & photoshop updates which I trust - everything else is self contained.  Never had an issue with that type of set up in over 10yrs.

Under View...  Thumb/File Browser... Sort by...   there are three choices to sort by either ascending or descending:  name, date and type.  If I choose 'date' it sorts by file date, not by the date that with a Cntl-I (Image Info) is displayed as the Date/Time, which is the shot date for all my images.

I'll certainly check (again?) tonight.  I remember checking for this with an older version of Qimage and only found sort by file date.  I'll keep my fingies crossed and hope I was wrong.

Yes I have the correct date info retained in the right exif fields from RAW development thru image editing.  My files names vary as I use three different cameras for the same period of time and I never started a file rename process so I have thousands of files with the out of camera name, this has worked as they each have a different suffix.   I haven't found a good way of sorting by shot date and I will not at this point rename all my files as they exist in duplicate on DVD and 2nd hardrive.  Probably should have when I started out, but the risks are too high to go back and do that for the past years of images.
Anyway this is off subject, but got my curiosity as if Qimage use the exif field with the shot date for some capabilities then there might have been a way to sort by this field as well.

Is the date photo taken available as a field? (not in front of Qimage right now)

I ask/wonder as a feature I would love in Qimage is to be able to sort images in the Qimage 'browser' by date taken, right now I can only sort by file created date, not imaged date.

Alex

Yes I do that, which works for my general landscape and photographic printing, but not for other types of artistic images and applications as the resulting print space is not an exact ratio depending on for who and what I am printing for.  In one application am given geometric designs that need to have entire image printed and mounted to variety of media, but do not require zero geometric distortion.

I think some people may be set or limited in imagination in what an 'image' is and rightly can't imagine 'distorting' a portrait or carefully planned landscape for a fine art print - I wouldn't either.   But I don't see Qimage as just a tool printing fine art prints, but as a tool for printing images.  For the later options for fitting such images in a specific space are more important than zero geometrical distortion.  I also find the comparison to 'fun house' distortion overblown.  These very small proportional changes are not even noticeable without side by side comparison.

Sometimes or actually most often I do 'compromise' on borders (actually not compromise as I too prefer uneven borders for 'fine art' prints) sometimes the application requires perfectly even borders.

Right now I feel restricted by this limitation in Qimage, not enabled.   Yes, this can be done in photoshop or the like, but the resulting manual calculation to resize exactly to slight variations in print size in photoshop and bring back to Qimage to print gets very tedious, especially with modifications to sizing and borders.

There are many things to screw up in Qimage.  It would be very easy to control via a checkbox.
I am not adding borders in photoshop or the like - often they are part of the original abstract image.  Today I have two or sometimes even three .tiff versions of nearly the identical image with every so slightly different aspect ratios so I can print this series with two border types and without - such a waste of hardrive space.  Before I got into this series one thing I liked about Qimage was that I could have one source image and print it in a variety of aspect ratios by cropping in Qimage.

Anyway my reasons are not to make a noticeable artistic change to image, but to accommodate these small aspect ratio changes for very slight different fits. (don't even get me started on how to adjust for same issue for different levels of overspray depending on which printer I am using)

Seth,  I unfortunately have not had time to try this yet (although in the past I have used B and B+ borders)  But logically/mathematically there is no way that using a total print size of 4x6 with a border within can be done and retain a true 2:3 ratio image unless that image is either cropped or non-proportionally resized to the new ratio that results by putting a border inside a 4x6 total print size.
If using B within print size already non-proportionally resizes the image that goes inside the border that is something I did not realize, if it doesn't then that is the exact new capability I am asking for.

Not sure.  Let me give an example for illustration purposes.  I am given an image with an embedded border that is 2:3 ratio.  I first need to print as 4x6 borderless.  It prints perfectly, no cropping, no image or border lost.  Then I also need to print same image on 4x6 card but with a 0.1" Qimage added white border around entire image.  This means I need to either crop the image if I want even borders which cuts off part of the border that is already part of the image (very noticeable and not acceptable) or I can have a 0.1" border on short side and 0.07" on the long side.  This delta in border is noticeable - it looks like a sloppy cut job.

Instead what would be nice if if Qimage allowed the image to be non-proportionally stretched to fit into the resulting 3.8x5.8 ratio needed to print with a 0.1" border.  In almost all cases this small amount of non-proportional stretch is not detectable and acceptable.

I too would very much appreciate this capability in Qimage.  For me the benefit would be to fit an entire image within an exact size outer dimension if additional borders or various sizes are added in Qimage.  This would result in a very minor and in many cases visually unnoticeable non proportional stretch - for example for abstract images where a border is already part of the original image.

Having to create multiple original images to fit different border configurations is counter to the Qimage concept of using one source image for multiple output variations.

I got it all figured out.  Sorry for wasting some of your time.

I had five 'image spaces' on the page, but only made four of them to a template.  That fifth one was hiding with not image nor template and since it wasn't in template format caused an error when I saved it as a Layout and then later added an image to it thinking i was adding to one of the four template spaces.

Thanks again.

Other templates do it as well, not sure about the standard provided ones.  What is strange is I can pull up a recalled print job, delete the images in que and add new ones in place, works fine.  If I save it as a layout with the images I can pull up layout and delete the images then add new one and it works.  But if I remove the images first, then save as layout then I get the error when adding new images if I use custom... layout... and select that layout.
WinXP SP3, printing to Epson 4800