Hi
I discover that Qi (Ultimate) has changed the color bit depth in processed images from 16 to 8 !! (Where) can I change this behavior? I can't find anything under Prefs or Color Management. Also searching the Help for "bit depth" returns nothing relevant, nor does searching this forum.
Hening

Thanks for clarification, Mike!

> you should really go back to Custom size and re-apply Fit to Page.

I did that, and had 1 bright idea myself (this happens) - I chose Center in the button underneath the image preview. Result as before - EXCEPT that mouse over image now shows 638.9x480! AND there was no "too large" warning. So the image is OK. Still I am confused that the display at top of the preview does not show the 0.1 m reduction as exspected.

I see that you have posted in the meantime. Thank you that you go to the extent of experimenting yourself. Your results are slightly different from mine. You have the same data displayed on top of the preview as under the mouse, whereas in my example, the preview data are reduced in 1 direction, not the other - where I had exspected in either, after reading Mikes article. And after it was exactly like that in the 2 other images (verticals).

2 other differences:
How do you manage to get Crop Scissors off? Mine snap back to On when I click the BORDERLESS button. Maybe you have not done that?
Thinking over it, it occurs to me that this Borderless stuff is irrelevant since the output from Qi is not going to the printer.

And:
I have never seen the scissors icon at the bottom of the image as in your first snap.

Now I tried to avoid BORDERLESS. I discover that there are 2 places where to choose Fit to Page: Print Properties and Print Properties/Custom/Special Sizes. I clicked both.

Still, I get 479.9 mm over the preview, 480 mm under mouse and in Print Queue.

I can hardly imagine that this has anything to do with the screen resolution being too coarse - I wouldn't think that Qi gets its data from the screen??

The image, treated by Qi, then re-opened in my editor and displayed at 720 ppi, shows no sliver and no cropping, and is displayed as having the exact same pixel count and metric dimensions which I entered in Qi.

So it may look like Qi does the right thing - but just the display is confusing. This is however bad enough, because how would I know.

Still worried - Hening.

> You could calculate the PTF page size accurately using the whole number of pixels and use that.

I tried to do this.
To calculate the exact size, I faked resizing in my editor (on a dup of the image). Setting 720 dpi and the short side to 480 mm, the pixel count became 18,111 * 13,606 = 638.9 * 480.0 mm.

I entered these mm values into Qi in the PTF dialog and in Print Properties/Custom/Enter specific SIZE, and clicked BORDERLESS.  I got the exspected "Is-too-large"-dialog. As the result, Qi displays the following:

Top of image preview:    638.9 x 479.9 mm
Print Queue:            637.7 x 480.0
Mouse over image:      637.7 x 480.0, 137 dpi

Something must be wrong. On the long side, the page is larger than the image (by as much as 1.2 mm), on the short side the page is 0.1 mm smaller than the image, as exspected. This can not be a matter of the second post-comma digit.

The image is displayed correctly in landscape orientation.

Hening.

Hi Terry

>> But the mouse hovering over the image still shows 240 ppi

I have now loaded a new copy of the same image, after having set Qi to 720 ppi, and now, the mouse hovering over the image says 116 ppi, a lower value, as exspected.

The 0.1 mm white sliver on the 757.3 x 569 mm image:

>I eliminated it by checking the PTF size in the Queue tab (the page size above the preview was the same value too) and then entered that value in the PTF dialogue as the page size. You would get a white sliver otherwise.

I understood this in the way that you entered the reduced size in the PTF dialog? in this case 757.2 mm

I did that and got a message "The new page size is too small for some of the prints in the queue. All prints larger than 1 page will be resized to fit on the page."
 
and now the display is as follows:
Top of preview dialog:    757.2 x 568.9 mm (720 x720)
Print Queue dialog:       757.2 x 590 mm
Mouse over image:       752.2 x 569.0

So the page has been reduced, but so has the image, and the sliver will still be there. And the print service can not cut it off: it will be between "net" image and frame.

The 2 images where everything seemed to work were in portrait orientation, whereas this one is in landscape. Could it have something to do with this?

>>And I thought that changing the printing resolution was less damaging to the image than interpolating
>I'm not sure what you mean here?

On the monitor, If I set resolution to 240 ppi, I get an image of a certain size if viewed at say 100%. If I decrease resolution to 96 ppi and still view at 100%, the image is much larger. So here I can increase image size without interpolating - i.e making up new pixels which are not real, as I understand it, and which I associate with reduced image quality. But obviously, I miss something here.

>>If I specify 2 different solutions, which one will Qi choose for a given image?
>Again, not sure what you mean here.

I have loaded 1 image. In Job Properties, there are 2 Resolution fields. If I enter 2 different values, which one will Qi choose for this one image? I think it must choose Poster only for the cases where Poster is specified by extending over the paper border.

> Qimage chooses (normally) the native resolution of the printer from the driver setting.

So I must check with the service to get the driver setting. If he does not do it on beforehand, I hope I can talk him into using Finest Detail and 720 dpi.

Puh this is complicated!
Thanks again for your help. Hening.

Hi Terry,

thank you for your fast reply.

I leads me to new questions, and some clarification I may need to do.

Concerning the procedure:
I think the print service will print on rolls. He just advised me to supply 1 file per image, so this 500x700 was just to give a rough idea of the sizes I'm talking about.
(This is the paper size I will have to pay for.) Also they will cut the image in the end, so I need not worry about that. I only want to avoid any cropping or adding unwanted stripes before I add the frame.

Adding the frame before resizing will not work for me. The width of the frame is calculated WRT to the final size, and so is the size of a little text inside the outer black frame. I will not adjust the frame to fill the paper size. The frame is part of the image in the sense that its proportions should be as I want them.

So I think if my above procedure is in fact correct and giving me a non-cropped image, I will stick to that. In the end it is more important that it works as intended than that I understand it…

I have now set 720 ppi in the PTF dialog, and it is reflected in Edit/Prefs/Printing Options and on top of the image preview. But the mouse hovering over the image still shows 240 ppi - ??

On 2 images, my above procedure seems to have worked. On a third, there is a little  problem. In Print Properties/Special Sizes, I entered 757.3 x 569 mm. On top of the Page Preview, it says 757.3 x568.9. So one direction is reduced, the other not. I guess it has something to do with mm and whole pixels. Will it produce a narrow white stripe on the one side? 0.1 m does not sound much, but my frame contains an inner light-gray edge which is just 3 pixels wide, which then would be widened by 1/3rd  on one side only (at 240 dpi, where 1 pixel is about 0.1 mm).

Then a question that has actually nothing to do with procedure or understanding Qi in particular, but print scaling in general.

I thought like this: There are 2 ways of resizing an image: changing the printing resolution, or interpolating the image. And I thought that changing the printing resolution was less damaging to the image than interpolating. Hence, since I want to enlarge the image, I set the lowest acceptable resolution. Now I understand on you that I should print at the printers native resolution regardless that this would require heavier interpolation. Correct?

Regardless which resolution I end up choosing: Why not the same for print and poster? Is a "poster" in Qi (in Job Properties) defined as stretching over the edge of a given paper size, or just as a print above a certain size? For 1 given image, what relevance has it to specify 2 (different?) resolutions? In other words: If I specify 2 different solutions, which one will Qi choose for a given image?

Thanks again for your help. Hening.

I want to send images to an online print service using Qimage's Print To File feature.
AFTER resizing in Qi Ultimate, I want to add a frame in my photo editor, PhotoLine.
The paper sizes are from 500 x 700 mm to 700 x 1000 mm. The service uses Epson printers, 9600 amongst others.

I have fiddled around in Qi and got confused. In Mikes article "Wide Load: Tips for Printing LARGE",
 http://ddisoftware.com/tech/articles/february-2006-wide-load-tips-for-printing-large/msg25/#msg25
chapter "Understanding software differences WRT sizing",

I am relieved to read

"In Qimage, you will be told that the print size is larger than one page and will be asked if you want a poster. If you say no, you'll end up with a 15.766 x 19.333 inch print (same size as PhotoShop) but without the edges cropped off."

This is what I want. It does not matter that the image is slightly resized, but it must not be cropped, and it must not have a margin. So how do I achieve this?

The following settings seem to work, but I'd appreciate if you could confirm, and I have some questions.

As an example, I have chosen an image which is 480.0 x 665.3 mm, to be printed to a 500 x 700 mm sheet.
(The 480 measure is chosen, the 656.3 is obtained by resizing in my editor with Lanczos 3, just to try out.)

Here are the settings I tried:

File/Print to/File:
Page width: 480 mm, Page height: 665.3 mm, Resolution 240 PPI.

DEFAULT Print Properties: (Print Properties accessed via the button at bottom right under the preview image).
Here I don't know if I am to select B or B+. I have read the popups, but don't really understand what they mean. I think what confuses me is that I am not sure how "print" size relates to (net) image size on the one hand and to paper size on the other. Anyway, I have set Borders to 0. Also I see that choosing "add borders" or not in Properties/Custom/Specific SIZE changes this setting automatically backwards, so to speak.

Special Sizes FIT to page: Auto Cropping OFF.
Special Sizes BORDERLESS:
Here, Auto Cropping can not be turned off, which confuses me.
When I go back to FIT, it looks like I left it, Auto crop OFF. But if I click OK, THEN go back to FIT, Auto Crop is turned ON.

Then, in the Print Properties for the INDIVIDUAL image, (accessed via the button inside the image; however, this opens the same dialog):
Print Properties/Custom/Special Sizes/Enter specific SIZE: 480 x 665.3
I chose not to add borders, but wonder if it makes any difference with borders set to 0.

Result:

Now, the info on top of the preview image says Page: 479.9 x 665.2 mm
The mouse pointer hovering over the image itself says 480 x 665.3 mm - success!
So this is what Mike writes, the image slightly larger than the page.
Opened in my editor, the image does not look cropped - can I be sure that it is not?

Another question concerning print resolution in Job Properties: Help, Example 1, §2, says that the first of the 2 resolution values should be set to Max, the second to High - why not both to Max? This is also what is recommended in the table at the end of Mike's article quoted above.

Also in Job properties: Printer ICC: My print service has advised me to use a standard profile (ProPhoto in my case), NOT their paper profile. The Help example 1 §3 however says OFF. ?.

Thank you for any help!
Hening.

Thanks for that link, David!

Hi

Many thanks to the both of you for your extensive replies.

(Concerning the Help)
> Using the display button with Qimage Functions and then CTRL F after clicking on the right hand side, I got everything.

So do I when trying today. Maybe I had a system error of some kind.

(Concerning preview in Image Sharpening)
> Click the View menu and make sure Auto Preview […] is ticked.

That did the trick.

(Concerning sharpening done in other editors)
I understand that Qi will "see" all (sharpening) changes done in other apps if they are saved into the image, but (of course) not if they are stored in sidecar files.

I think I understand the relationship between the different  access points for sharpening now. E.g. I understand that the Final Print Sharpening scale in Edit/Prefs/Printing Options is so to speak just a coarser edition of the 0…20 scale in Job Properties. Worth noting.

I understand the theory behind Tone Targeted Sharpening - my question referred to the abbreviation TTS.

> it is likely you are not familiar with the variety of cropping tools in Qimage.
That is for sure. I will have to look into that later, re-viewing the video you linked to. For now, it was faster to do the cropping in an editor I am familiar with.

My residence is in Oslo, Norway, so the time zone is CET.

> If you have a certain item that is confusing, or not doing what you wish, let me know, and I can make a video and sent it to you.

Thank you! I will most likely need your help with Qi, but there is no reason to make a video - I am in fact more happy with a verbal description like the one you have given here in the forum.

Thanks again! - Hening.

Hi Terry

thank you very much for your extensive answer. There is something to study.
I start right away.
I had looked under Qimage (List of major) Functions for an entry "sharpening", but there is none.
Clicking the Search button in Help and entering "sharpening" returns 4 results ranked 1 to 4:
Qimage Functions
Learn by Example
Overview
Trouble Shooting

Double-clicking these entries, or clicking the Display button, returns the respective start pages, but nothing about sharpening.
First using ctrl-f and entering "sharpening" returns a match, but only one, the occurrence in "smart sharpening" in the last paragraph of Example 25a. The Previous and Next buttons are dimmed and don't work. ("Highlight all matches" is checked).

So your quote is my first and only source.

I believe to understand from it that IMAGE sharpening (in the Image Editor) is what also is called CAPTURE sharpening, as opposite to output/print sharpening.

> Sharpening in the Editor is for IMAGE sharpening, get that to look right according to your taste.

That sounds like the image in the Image Editor should show the changes in real time? My image does not respond at all.

Will Qimage "understand" image sharpening done in a different editor, say Focus Fixer or Photo Kit Sharpener?  I mean will Qi translate THAT sharpening to Smart Print Sharpening?

So much from my first lesson on sharpening…

Ceterum censeo that this software needs a systematic documentation, and a Help that works.

Kind regards - Hening.

Hi again Terry

Now I gave the thing a first try.
The cropping in Qi is not to my liking, so I tried to modify the procedure a little: I prepared a couple of cropped images in my editor and loaded these. However, the Sharpen in the Job Properties pane (0..20) can only be applied to the page, not the image.
There is also sharpening available in the Image Editor: USM (Radius and amount in %) and a scale from -9 to +9. How do these latter 2 relate to each other? And to the sharpening in Job Properties?
A third place where sharpening can be adjusted is Edit/Prefs/Printing Options; USM can be adjusted in about 4 steps, and in 2 ways: Smart or Normal.
How do all these adjustments relate to each other??

BTW what is TTS?

Kind regards  - Hening

Hi Terry,

thank you for your advice. It is first now that I see that you have answered on sept. 03rd already, I got no notification e-mail, maybe I forgot to click the Notify button. - Anyway, I'll try your description ASAP - not sure when that can be: Trying to calibrate my monitor, ColorEyes has rendered my desktop Mac, which contains the Windows partition and QU, non-starting… but that has nothing to do with QU… (I write this from my MacBook).

Thanks again - Hening.

I try to prepare for having test strips printed by an online service.
In the List Of Major Functions, I find an entry "Test Strips" and try to follow that:
"From the main window in Qimage, start by adding the photo you wish to print at the desired final size (20x30 inches for example).  Then click the "Edit Page" button below the preview page, select the print on the page, click the "Cropping" button on the right
--there is no Cropping button in this window;
and the "Test strip" button will be visible under the small crop window."
--it is visible to begin with.
"The test strip button can be used in any of the following ways:"
I'd like to use way #3:
-"You may select a smaller paper size (4x6 for example) and add your large print to the queue, specifying that it is OK to create a poster larger than one page." 
--Where would I do that?
Learn By Example #6a may sound like it contains the info needed:
"1. Click the "Printer Setup" tool button and select "roll paper" …"
--there is nothing called "roll paper" in that window, there are entry fields for page width, height, and resolution, and 3 buttons: Use Current Printer Stats, OK and Cancel.

Well, I had to choose the latter for now…

How would I  do what I want: making multiple test strips of a larger image, strips to be printed with different amounts of sharpening? (QU)

Hi Terry,

thank you for your concern and the experiments you have done.

I made the following monitor adjustments through Windows:
Control Panel > Appearance > Display > Adjust Resolution/Change Display Settings (which latter two both open the same pane, namely Change Display Settings; the resolution pane is the one open when Display is clicked);

NVIDIA control panel:
Change Resolution
Adjust Desktop Size and Position
Set Up Multiple Displays

I tried to eliminate the dual monitor problem. Turned off the 2nd monitor and started QU on the main monitor. Opening the Image Editing window seems to return nothing - but when I switch the 2nd monitor on again, the Image Editing window is THERE - a collapsed vertical stripe at the left edge, as before.

I tried a different Windows program, PhotoLine. It also opens on the 2nd screen even if that screen is turned off. But obviously only because it was opened there the last time it was opened - If I drag the window to the 1st monitor, then quit and re-start the app, the window opens on the 1st monitor. And it opens correctly. Well, the main window of QU also opens correctly, as do other sub-windows of QU, it is only the Image Editing window that does not.

Uff - the window opens if the former second monitor is made 1st monitor, i.e. contains the menu bar at bottom. The window fills the whole screen and can not be resized, but at least it's open… It can be dragged to the now-second monitor, filling that entirely.

Thank you again. Hening.