Economical Roll Printing - How to stop wasting paper

bennybennison

Newbie

Posts: 21

Economical Roll Printing - How to stop wasting paper

« on: July 31, 2018, 12:28:50 PM »

Hi there!

I'm wondering if there is a way for me to stop wasting so much paper without having to manually adjust for each print. So I print using rolls of paper on 24" Epsons. So if I'm printing large prints I will be using my roll but it the paper size will be 24" by 34". This is fine for standard paper sized prints but then a square print will have a whole lot of white unprinted paper on the print too. I would love it if I could just load my images up and then print and Qimage puts the image as early as it can and then stops printing as soon as the image is done regardless of the paper size.

So if I have a square image at the minute and print it to best fit on my 24" roll using my paper size as 24" by 34" the image is just thinner than 24" by 24" but the paper is still 24" by 34". Can I get it so that it starts printing immediately and then cuts straight after so the paper used is 24" by 24"? But, I want this without changing my paper size option as I might be printing 20 images all different shapes.

Thanks in advance!

Ben


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atb

Jr. Member

Posts: 71

Re: Economical Roll Printing - How to stop wasting paper

« Reply #1 on: July 31, 2018, 12:42:00 PM »

Its already there...
Right click on an empty part of the page and then select 'Set Paper Lenght (Trim White Space At Bottom)' or keyboard shortcut Ctrl-W

I always print on a roll and use it all the time... its one of the features that make qimage so good!


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bennybennison

Newbie

Posts: 21

Re: Economical Roll Printing - How to stop wasting paper

« Reply #2 on: July 31, 2018, 01:17:59 PM »

Ah cool, didn't know that was there! Will that take into account if I have a bunch of images all different sizes? Will each sheet be a different size? I can try it out later on I guess.

Thanks so much for this simple solution.


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atb

Jr. Member

Posts: 71

Re: Economical Roll Printing - How to stop wasting paper

« Reply #3 on: July 31, 2018, 02:12:03 PM »

Ummmm... I have a feeling it changes the page size for all the pages to be the same size.... though Without trying it I'm not 100% sure.
I tend to print one page at a time unless it's lots of the exact same image so I've never needed to know!


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atb

Jr. Member

Posts: 71

Re: Economical Roll Printing - How to stop wasting paper

« Reply #4 on: July 31, 2018, 04:59:41 PM »

Just checked now I'm in front of my computer....
I was right, you can only have one page size per print job. when the paper length is set it sets all the pages to whatever the longest page needs.

hope that makes sense!


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Ernst Dinkla

Sr. Member

Posts: 410

Re: Economical Roll Printing - How to stop wasting paper

« Reply #5 on: August 07, 2018, 08:43:39 AM »

If you are able to cut 24" wide manually after printing then it can be done by making a much longer print page and keeping the prints apart by manipulating the border B+ size per print or adding white images in between and at the end crop the last waste paper off on that print page with the feature already mentioned. You have to roll it up and cut afterwards. It creates issues with corner or crop marks though as Qimage does not allow crop marks set per image on the print page but does it overall. There are more ways to do similar nesting on a large print page and all take more time and have their limitations. However I use this often with many odd sizes on rolls 36 or 44" wide, nesting horizontally and vertically, keeping an eye on cutting issues but even then scissors can help to separate the prints first.

If you are fixed on 24" wide then I do not understand why you can not create custom print pages in the driver that all have the same 24" width but vary in length by half an inch or so, including one that creates a square print page. Give them names or sizes in the title that set them at the top in Qimage's print page choices (there are sorting choices in preferences) and if done smart they are arranged at increasing length order. You use the print page that you need most and afterwards the odd print pages for the odd sized images. All nicely cut and less paper waste.

Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst

http://www.pigment-print.com/spectralplots/spectrumviz_1.htm
March 2017 update, 750+ inkjet media white spectral plots


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bennybennison

Newbie

Posts: 21

Re: Economical Roll Printing - How to stop wasting paper

« Reply #6 on: August 07, 2018, 09:36:36 AM »

Thanks, printing on a much longer page size might be a good idea. I'm just a little worried about scratching the print when feeding it through my trimmer. I'm sure if I'm careful it should be fine. It's just a matter of time really, I might set 50 things off to print and they will all be unique images so to size each up would take quite a lot of time. Using the function described earlier has saved me a bunch of paper but I think changing the paper length to make 150" or something might do the trick.

Thanks!

Just wish it was even simpler and could make all pages different sizes by removing all blank space.


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Ernst Dinkla

Sr. Member

Posts: 410

Re: Economical Roll Printing - How to stop wasting paper

« Reply #7 on: August 07, 2018, 04:21:43 PM »

Quote from: bennybennison on August 07, 2018, 09:36:36 AM

To avoid scratches. Have a kind of roller bar in front. Get a thick carton core, say 6 inches in diameter for thick paper. Add a paper sleeve to it, 30 inches long for example, crosscut will look like a Q but with a longer tail. Try to roll the print against the curl in between the paper tail and the core. Cut at the end of the print run. Keep the printed paper on the core if have the time for that. It will get flatter and easier to cut afterwards. Transport is easier too.

Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst

http://www.pigment-print.com/spectralplots/spectrumviz_1.htm
March 2017 update, 750+ inkjet media white spectral plots


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