I have a HP Z3200ps printer that I have been printing multiple 8x10 images across the width of a 44-inch roll of Hahnemuhle ultra smooth inkjet paper (matt) without any issues.  I would trick the printer by creating a custom size of 44x66 inches.  Once the printer is done printing the four 8x10s across the top, it would move the paper out of the printer 66 inches, just like a 44x66 sheet would.

Today I tried the same process with a different paper, a 44-inch roll of “Hahnemuhle photo rag bryta high-gloss” with two 9x16 aspect ratio photos; and I ran into some problems.  Since this is a high gloss paper, I turned on the “Gloss Enhancer” option to have it cover the whole image, which is something that I always do with this kind of paper when single images were printed.

Using the custom size option in Qimage, I expanded the images to approximately 11x20 inches each with a boarder of 1 inch all around (2 inches between the photos), the two images were oriented side-by-side in landscape mode across the 44-inch width of the paper.

Instead of 11x20 inches photos, I ended up with something slight smaller… 10 1/2 X 18 7/8 inches.  The bigger problem was the printer continued to print after the two images were completed, but in gloss enhancer only.  I finally hit the “cancel button” on the printer’s front panel to stop it after about another 6 inches of paper were covered with gloss enhancer.

I think the “Gloss Enhancer” option causes the printer to cover the whole 44X66-inch sheet with it.  I did a search online and found a post by Ernst Dinkla that explains how he used “a print filter in Qimage with a small correction on a curve that brings R-G-B 255-255-255 to 254-255-255. That way the whites in the image get GE too but not the border.” 

Below is his instruction in Qimage… “First set an image in the print queue, then go to actions>preview-queue actions>batch process>batch filter. Clear any settings there (bottom of menu), go to curves (top of menu), select Red and click at the top of the line, change numbers next to the graph: the input to 255 output to 254. Click OK on the preview window. Go to the top left of the total window and save the filter there as say: Gloss enhancer Economy mode cure. Extension is flt. Go back to the batch filter menu and click clear and after that cancel. Remove the image from the print queue.  Now click on the P filter choice at the bottom of Qimage's normal menu. The filter is now available and if selected it will only be used at print time as a last step in the print process on all images in the print queue. If you want to use it per image in the queue you have to right click on that image and use the predefined filter choice selection. The filter will appear there too.”

The problem is that I couldn’t find those options in Qimage.  Mr. Dinkla wrote that post back in 2010, are those options still available today but may be hidden somewhere in the tool?  How do you create a filter in Qimage?  Is there something that I can read up about it?  Is there a different way to apply gloss enhancer to a certain color channel?

Best Regards,
Kelly

Mike,

Thanks very much for the fast response and taking the time to go through my questions, and providing very thorough explanations and instructions.  Unfortunately, the filter that I created based on your instruction did not stop the printer from covering the whole page with the Gloss Enhancer.  Also, I made sure it was selected under Print Filter before I hit the print button.  I’m just totally lost about what to do next.

When I tried your second option of RIGHT clicking the “Page Background Color” button under the live view to reset the page background color to white, the screen blinked once without a separate window coming up for color selection.  Is that normal?

With respect to the size problem, I think I found a clue based on your feedback.  For some reason the Resizing Option inside Printing Preferences of the driver was set to “90% of actual”.  Although the actual size of the print is 93% of what it was shown in Qimage, I will reset that parameter to 100% for my next try.

I appreciate any other ideas that would stop the printer from covering the whole page with the gloss enhancer ink.

Best Regards,
Kelly