Double Sided Printing

slipperx

Newbie

Posts: 2

« on: February 14, 2022, 06:36:38 PM »

Hi
I am a little new so please pardon any stupidity in my issue.

I have a Canon TM-300 printer in which I use a custom size sheet 652 x 452mm. I have a photoshop document with a canvas size of 650 x 450mm and which includes a blank area to allow for printer margins. The images are in a grid. The grid is centered on the canvas.

I want to print on both sides of the paper (hence centering).

When I add the image to Qimage and set the printer properties to match the loaded paper size (otherwise I get an error), then Qimage tells me the paper is not big enough and the image may span over 2 pages and asks me if I want that or not - in which case the image will be scaled to fit (I think that is the gist). In fact, if I accept the image spanning to 2 pages it actually doesn't do that but just occupies one page,

I am concerned that the image print will be off-center because of Qimage adjusting it and in order to turn the paper over and print on the back side I must have the images centered so that each image in the grid has the matching printing in the correct place.

I was looking to see if there was a way to force Quimage to accept what it believes is an oversized image and print it centre of the image to center of the page. That way I can be sure the image prints will print in almost the same position front and back. Is it possible?

Alternatively, there may be a best practice for this sort of thing and I am approaching it entirely incorrectly.

Any assistance greatly appreciated.

Incidentally, I often get an error using the Automate in Photoshop where Qimage incorrectly believes the image is in the wrong mode. I automate the export of the psd file and the Mode is definitely correct. Any ideas why Qimage doesn't like it?

Ian


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admin

Administrator
Forum Superhero

Posts: 4219

Re: Double Sided Printing

« Reply #1 on: February 14, 2022, 08:27:31 PM »

Unless you print borderless, your printer can't print 650 x 450 on a ~650 x 450 page. If you look above the live view in Qimage, it'll tell you the page size (printable area) which would be the largest size you can print. Due to the non-printable margins, you can't ask it to print 650 x 450 on a page that, for example, can only handle a 600 x 400 print. So... Qimage is telling you the truth. None of this has anything to do with Qimage: the printer driver/printer dictates the non-printable margins on the paper and Qimage cannot override those as they are "hard margins".

Whenever you design an image that is the same size as the paper, you have two options. One is to print borderless (no margins) via the borderless setting in the driver, but sometimes drivers will not allow borderless on custom size paper. The second option is to choose the "Fit to Paper" print size from the print sizes list. That will align the image so that it would print over the entire paper if possible, but note that the printer still cannot physically print in the non-printable margin area so some parts of your image will be cropped: the pieces that lie in the non-printable margins. Sounds like this is what you want. Just note that if you didn't account for the non-printable margins correctly and leave enough of a margin in the image(s) you are printing, you may lose some of the sides of your image or end up with more white space than the margins require (if you went too large on the margins).

As for PSDs: don't use them! Save in the internationally supported TIFF format. PSD files are proprietary to Photoshop and not supported outside of Photoshop (to third parties or even within Adobe). They are so bad (compatibility wise) that even Adobe's own Lightroom requires that you save PSD files with the "Maximize reverse compatibility" option checked when you save them. So if for some reason you must save PSDs, do it the way you have to in Lightroom: save them with that maximize compatibility save option checked and Qimage should be happy with them as Lightroom would be.

Regards,
Mike


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slipperx

Newbie

Posts: 2

Re: Double Sided Printing

« Reply #2 on: February 15, 2022, 05:18:26 PM »

Hi Mike

Thanks for your excellent reply.

So to achieve a double-sided print printing over the same area I must center the document and either A) set up my canvas to be the printable size of the paper and forget allowing any margins (I don't need bleed in my case) OR B) make allowances myself for the needed margins where I can choose Fit to Paper which will simply Crop off the bits of the image that fall outside the printable area. Right?

In fact, if I had a really large image say 900 x 900 and tried to print it on 600 x 450 paper then QImage would pick the centre point of the image and match it to the centre point of the printable part of the paper - chopping off as needed top, bottom and sides - did I understand correctly?

Of course, using the Auto Crop might change things that experience will teach me.

Just making sure I understood what was going to happen. I ask becasue setting Print to Page or Print to Paper seemed to produce entirely identical results - probably because my image has a transparent background so you can't see the edges.


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admin

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Forum Superhero

Posts: 4219

Re: Double Sided Printing

« Reply #3 on: February 15, 2022, 05:57:23 PM »

That sounds right to me. I would recommend sticking with IntelliCenter placement based on what you are doing.

Regards,
Mike


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