Mike Chaney's Tech Corner

Hi, I'm using an Epson Stylus Pro 7800 with Qimage studio edition. I'm having problems getting exact measurements. For instance: I need to print a 20.5x10.5 album page and it always comes up short. The reason for this is that I have to trim the album page for fitting the album cover. When using user defined settings, no matter if I make the page larger than the print or not it always comes up short. Any ideas?

Hi,

When you say 'I need to print a 20.5x10.5 album page and it always comes up short. ' What do you mean, exactly. What size settings do you set in the printer driver, and qimage, and what is the size of the resulting page? What size bordrs have you set, etc.

Best wishes,

Ray

Hi Ray, Thanks for your response. Ok I'll tell you what I do and hopefully you can help. I go to user defined and make a custom page size. normally I make the size about a .25 inch larger than the page I need. In this case I made the custom size 24.02x10.75. The album page size is 20.5x10.5 which should fit the custom size with room to spare. I have tried a couple ways to print. The page loads in the queue fine, indicating in the view/print queue that my page is in fact 20.50x10.50. In the print properties I can either use original size or I have made a new size tool at my 20.50x10.50 and after printing I am about a 1/4 inch short on all sides. I'm not sure what else to do. Perhaps you could give me a step by step on what you would do. It would be much appreciated as I am at wits end. I am printing on 24in roll paper. I hope I have explained enough. If not please ask more ??? I need to resolve this. I have a lot of jobs to get done. I haven't set any boarders that I know of.

Thanks very much,
Glenn

Glenn,
I think Ray has a 7800 so he would be able to go step by step with you.
In the meantime, when you say that the correct print size is shown in the View Print Queue, it does not say "Includes borders" does it.?
The other item might be a driver setting which has a checkmark in Reduce /Enlarge. That should be taken out. It would be under the page layout tab in the driver.
You might click Edit, printing options, and set the Spooler to RAW.
You can also try HELP in Qimage and RESET Printer.
You will have to re set the paper, quality, and print settings afterwards, but that usually fixes printer anomalies.
If no joy, see what Ray comes up with.
Fred

Hi Glenn,

I think the answer is related to 'I haven't set any borders that I know of'.

Settings appear to be scattered all over the place, and sometimes they effect what you are doing, and sometimes they don't. Hopefully Fred or somebody who understands how it meshes together will jump in, but in the meanwhile, there is a margin setting that may be effecting your print. If on image loading, the image is automatically cropped, something to do with the scissors icon, you will not notice it happening. I suspect, if you go to page formatting (the drop down menu at the top, where you set the printer driver stuff), there is a Page Margin item under there. Check that those margins, the minimum of which afaik are printer dependant, give enough page width for your needs. Also check if there  is some template loaded that you do not require - a little icon just above the print properties to bottom right of your screen. It may be that you have to print 'borderless' if the paper margin can not be reduced.

Just a few things to try, hopefully you will spot something on the way, better still someone who understands Qimage  will jump in and answer.

Best wishes,

Ray

Fred beat me, but I didn't see it as I was writing my reply. I haven't got a 7800.

Ray, Glenn
There are two places in Qimage that are the keys to solving the printing size problem.
The View Print queue which tells you the size of the print that is being sent to the driver, and the printabale area of the page above the preview panel.
The queue tells you what size the prints will be and even mentions if you have borders turned on.
The printable area above the preview panel on the top right will tell you if you have MARGINS turned on provided you know the printable area of the page you defined.

I have a 9800 driver here which is close enough to a 7800 to work with.
Setting the User defined page to 24.02 x 10.75. selecting roll paper, banner mode.  Printable area is showing as 10.750 x 23.786.

Banner mode give more printable area space.
I set custom print size in Qimage to 10.50 x 20.50 and I have my crop scissor button on in Qimage.  My placement setting is Optimal Spaced.
I add my image to the queue.
My print in the view print queue is showing 10.50 x 20.50 as the print size that will be sent to the printer.

(Previously I reminded you to set the printer options in EDIT to RAW, so that is OK.)
Let's go from here.
See if your numbers match mine.
Fred

Just installed the 7800 driver.
Exactly the same as the 9800
Fred

FWIW,
Just got off the phone with Glenn, and all is OK, printing perfectly.
He matched the settings from the post, and the problem was gone, but we strongly suspect that changing the Edit Printer options, Spooler to Raw did the trick.
Didn't want to leave anyone following the topic hanging by a test strip.  ??? ::) ;D
Fred