Mike Chaney's Tech Corner

Hello folks!

This has been perplexing me for awhile, and while I enjoy some of the freedom of using Qimage, I can't seem to figure out a few things:

I normally print images with a little white border around it. For example, if I am trying to print multiple 4 x 6 prints: I save the file in photoshop as a final jpeg file with a white border included and then open up either Adobe Indesign, Photoshop or Qimage for imposition/manual n-up printing.

I also use custom paper sizes that are not borderless for my printer driver, which means, the borderless setting in Qimage won't work for me.

Here is what I am trying to do, I would like to be able to place several of these small size 4x6 prints on a large parent size sheet of 14x18 and use the sheet edge to edge or 'borderless' for paper economy.

Now, my printer does NOT have a borderless setting for 14 x 18 so in most programs that I have used for n-up layouts (Indesign and Photoshop), a little of bit of the image n-up layout gets cropped off all around the edges of the paper where the printer driver default margin is. My workaround this is to allow Photoshop or Indesign to go ahead and crop this area because my print borders are white/paper-color and thus my images are not affected, and I would just trim the pieces by measurement (no crop marks).

With Qimage, no matter what I do and I have tried so many things, it likes to be smart and changes things for me in a very strange and illogical way:

1. When I lay out all my small prints on a parent sheet edge to edge in Qimage without borderless setting turned on (I can't turn borderless on because my printer driver doesn't support custom paper sizes for borderless printing) it tries to resize my images to fit INSIDE this default print margin of the parent sheet.

2. So I go into the Qimage settings and adjust margins, and make it so that the parent sheet size print margin is 0 for all sides and try to lay out my little 4x6 prints on the 14x18 sheet again. This time, it fits and looks great. But when I print it out, all the 4x6 prints arranged near the edges of the 14x18 paper gets cropped, but here's the crazy thing, they get cropped from the MIDDLE of the 4x6 image. I don't know what Qimage does, but suddenly a huge chunk of that 4x6 print is now missing and the image is distorted. This ONLY happens when I try to add smaller prints to a large sheet edge-to-edge/borderless.

Is there a way around it? Why can't it be more like photoshop and just try to crop from the edge where it goes beyond the default print margin? Right now it is so frustrating for me that it is trying to distort the image by cropping a huge middle piece out of it.

Help!
Thanks,
-at

So I have been able to

No! Not illogical, if you specify a size, that's what you  get, or if too big for the page, Qimage warns you - unlike other programs that kid you into thinking you are getting the size specified.
Of course, the printable area is controlled by the DRIVER and Qimage works within that. The printable area is reported, from the driver, above the page preview.
This will not work as it is controlled by the driver. Some drivers when set to borderless do allow small adjustments to the margins to correct transport errors etc.
Because, Qimage is a "proper" PRINTING program and works with the driver and gives you accurate data.
You have already said that you trim the 4x6 prints, so specify a custom size a little smaller than 4x6; make the white border smaller.
or use a different size sheet; use 4x6 paper & set to borderless.
Sorry to be a bit critical but I think you need to re-think what you are doing and work within the real driver limits if you want to get Qimage print quality.
Terry