Hello,

I have been forcing myself to learn and use Qimage ultimate more often as I really like the results and some features of it, but this is something that keeps taking me back to other applications.
Let me explain:

My printing studio receives work from a great range of artists, not only photographers but painters, illustrators, digital artists... you name it. A lot of them create their work with a fixed size in mind (usually ISO A sizes) and they bring their work ready to be printed on a sheet of the desired size (A4, A3, A2... whatever). I always insist on the minimum margins and they take it into account when creating their work.

But my problem is: If an artist bring a work already sized to an A4 sheet with white margins big enough to avoid problems with the minimum page margins requested by the printer, how do I place it on the queue without shrinking the image?

When I face this problem I have two options:

A) I take the image to Photoshop and manually crop the minimum margins from the white border, save it, return to Qimage, adjust the new cropped image to fit the printable area and print.

B) I take the image to Photoshop, open the Canon print Plug-in, set the page size (A4), set the desired image size (also A4 21x19,7cm) and print. It would automatically crop the image beyond the minimum page margin witch is totally OK as it is only white space anyway. Everything is exactly on the desired size and position.

I also tried setting negative numbers on the page margins to make it zero and it worked on the screen, but when I print the driver adds another 5mm (the minimum margin) on the top and on the left pushing the image down and to the right.  

I would love to be able to do something like option "B" on Qimage, fit the desired size on the page ignoring the minimum page margins and when printing crop off the page margins before sending it so the driver does not push the image down and to the right.

If there is already a way to do it, please tell me!

Thanks in advance.

Hello Fred,

Thanks for your quick answer.
My clients way to create their images is irrelevant, the point is that a lot of times I get images already sized to fit specific sheet sizes with more than enough white margin to be able to print properly but I can't do that easily on Qimage.

With the page size already set to A4, if I try to load an A4 sized file to the queue I face two options as you said:
- Fit to page: will shrink the image to fit inside the printable area, no good.
- Original size (or custom size setting the original size manually): It will say that the image is bigger than the printable area and offer to shrink to fit or span on multiple pages. No good also.

As I said before I would like to have an option to automatically crop off anything beyond the printable area.

Not necessarily, you need to use a print crop in the Page Editor, access with icon below preview or double click in the preview area outside the page.
Use Fit to page, go the the page editor and in the crop tab and zoom to remove the excess at the edges. Use precision crop (+ icon below crop preview) for accurate cropping.
See attached screen shots where I've used an image with wide borders which I've then print cropped to remove them and enlarged the actual image to fit the A4 page.
Terry

As you can see on the previously posted image the wide white borders makes hard to know where to crop on Qimage and the client (always) demand precise placement and size.

Just to help on thin example I created another version of the image with a red outline just on the edge of the printable area of my printer (attached at the bottom).

Looking at this file inside Qimage on an A4 sheet we have this:


But we should have this with a true "Fit to page" (not "Fit to printable area") selected. (Example made with the unprintable negative margins setting) :


I am certain that those who print for others will find a feature like that quite useful.

Geraldo

I'm not sure about your printer, but could you set it to print 'Borderless' and turn Borderless Expansion off with
Edit>Preferences>Print and Page Formatting>Borderless Expansion>Disable

Brian

Another approach would be to crop the image in QU image editor.
See screen shots below of editor and page preview with crop scissors off.
Terry

Hello Terry, thanks for the attention.


Sure, as I said it is clear it only works on the screen and that is perfectly understandable. I used it only to show what I would like to have.


No... unfortunately that is not an option because "borderless" would increase the image size a bit beyond what is necessary, rendering a slightly lager magnification of the image. Very small for sure, but unacceptable. Besides, large format Canon IPF printers do not allow borderless on cut sheets, so that is not an option.

Just to clarify, I placed that red line inside the printable area so it should be visible on the edge of the printable area, still inside of it but touching the unprintable margin. Have a look on the second screenshot I posted, the one made with the negative margins. That is what it should look like when perfectly cropped.

Hello Mike, thank you for joining in and for heraing your clients needs. That is what makes Qimage such a great tool.


Sure, but we should keep in mind that I am not the artist and my clients create their pieces to fit standard paper sizes. Obviously we would never be able to print anything that goes beyond the minimum required margin and I warn them about that, but asking them to provide their files already cropped to fit our printable area is not a viable option, specially because we work with different printers with slightly different requirements. As long as they provide a file on the desired page size with enough margins to be "cropped" by the printer I can't ask for more and is up to me to adequate it to the needs of our equipment, which is fine and I am just wanting a way to do this inside Qimage as fast, as easy and precise as I do on other software. I was hoping that my lack of knowledge of the software was the problem, but it seems that is simply not the way you think it should work.

Your last suggestion does not work either, at least if I am doing it properly. After going to the full page editor ad clicking on the test strip button I get this:


The placement is not correct (for what I need) as you can see by the red line on the bottom, sure I could correct the placement manually with precise crop on this image because of the red lines, but the real image does not have that visual reference. Have a look on the second screenshot I posted before (the one with the negative margins) to see the desired placement.

Please know that I am aware that this is not a Qimage "problem", I am just stating that other softwares have a much easier approach solving it and helping me with this real life problem and I am asking/suggesting that a solution/alternative to this (non-Qimage but common) issue inside Qimage would be a great improvement. At least for me and I am sure to some others and it would make me use Qimage a lot more. As it is today I have to go to Photoshop to adjust the images quickly and precisely and I really believe that it is (should be) possible to do it inside Qimage.

The whole idea is: An option to fit the image to the whole page (not to the printable area) and let the area beyond the printable area go blank.

Thanks again for your time and attention and for all the effort you put on this great software.