Not to worry about the gender Fred, if I'd told you from the off that you were dealing with a dumb blonde we might not have progressed so far so quickly. 

Point taken about choosing the print size option but it was the pop-up that I received and explained in my second post that put me off a bit - visions of expensive ink splashing around inside of the printer etc. 

Located in Germany I'm unfamiliar with the TV commercial you refer to but I take the point and yes, having managed to produce what I consider to be an excellent print I suppose one could say that we went a long way in QImage today. But what about tomorrow? As the big man once said - I'll be back. 

Ok - all clear now I think.
This is how QImage's Job Properties looks like now (see below) and the printers Properties is set as follows:
Media Type - Canon paper type set
Print Quality - Custom - Fine(2). It won't go as far as 1 with the chosen paper. Halftoning - set to diffusion from the default Auto.
Colour Intensity - Manual - non of the colour correction boxes ticked.
Page Setup - Print Options - ICM enabled (default is checked, disabled).

By the way, he is a she - just posted an avatar to clear that one up LOL

Yes I've read that article thanks, it was pointed too by Fred further up the thread. It was this that made me question his reasoning for setting ICM when the article specifically says not to. Maybe Fred will get back with his thoughts.

Fred - your time and effort are very much appreciated please believe me. 

Just a final point - if I set QImage up as your last post suggested i.e. letting QImage manage the colour using the profile below' then why reset the printer driver to ICM? Surely with QImage managing the colour plus the printer (with ICM set) won't this be double profiling?

Thanks for your concise reply Fred. Yes you are correct, I didn't choose the borderless print option in the Preferences menu. When I did so it popped up a dialogue along the lines of 'you have selected borderless printing. The document to be printed is enlarged so that it slightly extends off the paper. Print quality may deteriorate or the sheet may be stained top and bottom depending on media used'. I shall try your best and quality way. 

Profiles has always been something that I've been unsure of in the past. In fact, at this moment in time I am using a Canon printer as well as Canon's own paper. The choice of paper of course appears in the Preferences menu so I'm correct in thinking am I not that as long as I choose the correct paper from the drop-down list that matches the paper in use QImage will automatically use that profile? I also take it that if I'm happy with the results from this printer/paper combination that no additional ICC profiles are needed???

Now off to first find and then read Mike's articles. Thanks once again. 

 Ok then, first off I have to admit that having a brand new printer plus brand new software for printing (QImage) isn't helping much. Additionally, I've only skimp read the QImage help pdf file (167 being a bit heavy for one sitting) so that isn't helping. First impressions of both printer (Canon MP601) and QImage are good with excellent results being produced from the first test image. At this point I'd like to ask a couple of questions if I may that are totally baffling me and either I can't find the relevant help section or it's so obvious that I'm overlooking what is before my eyes.

(a) I have exported a test image from Photoshop (CS4) to a temporary folder on the desktop. This image has been resized to exactly 4 x 6" (101.6 x 152.4mm) and so SHOULD print out full sized, borderless, to a sheet of 4 x 6" photo paper. In the Properties box of the printer this is also the size of paper that has been selected. However, in QImage the Preview box (top right) indicates Page: 144.3 x 94.7mm. (600 x 600). Can someone kindly explain the reason that this size is indicated, can/should it be altered and why?

(b) Whilst the quality of the resultant print is excelled as previously indicated it has NOT resulted in a full sized print. The printed size is in fact 81 x 122mm which neither matches the print size chosen in the printers Properties box or QImage's Page size as mentioned earlier i.e. Page: 144.3 x 94.7mm (600 x 600). I'm obviously setting something up wrong here but at am a loss as to why I am not getting a full 4 x 6" print.

(c) The Print Properties box (bottom right) indicates (102 x 152) with the drop-down menu showing zero for borders.

(d) The help file indicates that the Prtr ICC menu option should be set to OFF unless using a dedicated ICC profile. Am I correct in thinking that these ICC profiles do not include the profiles included with the installed printer driver or instead of choosing OFF should I be choosing one of the other options?

(e) In the printers Properties box there is a setting for Manual Colour Adjustment with the options of choosing Driver Matching, ICM (Windows Image Colour Management) or None. I have set this to None as I take this to be the same as disabling ICM. Is this correct?

Thanks in anticipation of anyone actually reading this post to it's end.  :-\