Hi Stan,
Let's go slowly for my sake.

I have selected a 7900 epson as my printer. I have also selected Super A3/B from Epson's paper size choices  which is the US 13 x 19 paper selection.
That produces a printable area  (Above the preview panel upper right) of 18.783 x 12.719

Plenty of room for a 12 x 18 print.



I make my print size 18 x 12 and I get about 1/2 inch margin all the way around. Crop scissor on
One side is .51 and the other is .48 inches.


That is the selected print size that shows when you hover the cross hatch. It says so on the pop up.
That says to me you have the wrong print size selected.
Open Print properties and select CUSTOM size. Type in 18 in one box and 12 in the other and OK out.
Let me stop here and see if we match!

Fred

Ok Stan,
Read carefully. I used the same paper size that you used in your first
So all I said was that Super A3 329 x 483mm is 13 x 19.  So we are on the same page.

Then you say, the 18 x 12 should fit even "with my smaller printable area.

STOP! Right there!

We have the same printer and the same paper selected (Super A3 329 x 483 mm) we must get the same printable area before we proceed any further.

Please see the snap attached. It shows a 12 x 18 print, and on the right, the position.
It shows the print size and the left over white.... even on both sides... Notice Print Placement set to Optimal Spaced.

So, Stan, please back up a step, take a breath and set the printer as I describe. Paper size Super A3; Print size 12 x 18... Printable area is 18.783 x 12.719.

You have to get those numbers or you have something else turned on...
Did you mess with Margins in Qimage?
Do you have Borderless on?
Did you change the output size, although you specifically said no!
See second screen snap. Make sure it looks like that.


That's what would do it!

We will figure it out. Don't give up!

Fred

PS I forgot. Auto crop ON . You open Print properties where all the preset sizes are, and click on the scissors.. This way you are sure to get 12 x 18 and not smaller.

I did read carefully, Fred, and I discerned an ambiguity.  You said the Super A3 is the US 13x19 paper selection.  Well, the Epson paper selecetions include two categories of  sizes called US sizes, and the 13x19 is not in either of them.  So that opened the possiblity that for some reason we have different paper selections and I just wanted to get that clarified in case I need to reinstall my program or driver or something.  No problem, we are both using the same thing.


Totally agree, that is why I stopped before even selecting a print, as the printable area did not seem correct, and I had an unexpected result when doing the mouse hover over the printable area in the preview pane with no print selected.  From your snapshots I can see that we have some differences in settings.  I specified exactly what my settings were, as I started by resetting all printer settings and making the settings I described and only those.  Three differences we know now are Auto Crop,  Optimize Enlargement, Landscape vs portrait, and optimal vs optimal/spaced. 

I originally selected sheet paper and had the same printable area that you now report when you select sheet paper, so your original settings must have been roll paper.  This is the printable area that I referred to as my smaller printable area, which seems to be enough for a 12x18.

So the reason for one difference is resolved.

But wait.  We are getting ahead.  I'm sure that if we match our settings we will match our numbers.  What my problem is is trying to understand the settings and numbers, why a given setting results in a given number. 

Let's go back to what I think the printer driver reports as minimum margins, given in Edit/Preferences/Print and Page Formatting/Page Margins shown in the first snip.  The numbers are .1167 inches for Top and Left, 0.1194 for Right, and 0.5528 for Bottom.  So the printable area should be 12.764 x 18.330.  QU reports 12.719 vs 18.350 on the preview pane.  Differences are small, .04 and .02 inches, but why are they different?  At 360 ppi, the differences are in the 7-12 pixel range. 

The 12x18" print size, using Optimal spacing, has location (margins) of .12L, .84R, .12T, .91B.  These sum to .96 in the short direction, and 1.03" in the long direction.  These are considerably different from the margins just discussed.  For Optimal/Spaced, the margins are .48 L and R, .29T, .73 bottom.  These sum to .96 in the short dimension and 1.03 in the long dimension, exactly the same as for Optimal.

These numbers raise another question, why does QU report printable area of 12.719 x 18.35?  It is quite closely, but not exactly, consistent with the margins given in Preferences. The margin numbers given in the Size/Loc tab of the Full Page editor suggest a printable area of 12.04x17.97.  One of these is large enough for my 12x18 print, the other is not (without resizing or cropping).  Why are these margins/printable area not the same?

If I press the "Center" button in Size/Loc, the left and right margins are equal, but the top and bottom differ by .09.  Why?  I also get the message about the print cannot be centered within the printable area........   But why?  there seems to be enough printable area.  There is 0.96" of unusable space in the short dimension, leaving 0.04" spare room, seems OK. There is 1.03 unusable in the long dimension, but I can only stand 1.00 inch, so there is the reason for the error message.  It needs to crop or resize.  You were set to Auto Crop, I was set to Auto Resize, either way should do it. 

Once I understand these numbers, I will understand how QU works and how I can exert control over it to achieve my desired result.

Fred, I know you are a master user of QImage, and I would like to learn why you use some of the settings you do.  Specifically, Optimize Enlargement in the driver.

Stan

Stan,
Looks like Terry found the answer.
Super A3 is not exactly the same as 13 x 19

He found this, 330.2 x 482.6 mm = 13.0 x 19.0
Not the same as 329 x 483 as noted in the driver and package...

Fred

I did that calculation early on in this process, but dismissed the differences (0-.3-0.4mm, or 0.012-0.016 inch) as insignificant.  And they will usually be insignificant in terms of the final print size, but I have learned that small differences like that can trigger behavior in QImage which I just need to understand better.  And I am not saying that there is any problem in QImage, I know that computer programs make decisions based on numbers, and when numbers reach certain thresholds, certain things happen.  I am just trying to improve my understanding, just my nature. 

Fred, thanks for your helpful and patient replies.  I am going to go off and study this some more to clarify it further in my mind, I will report back with anything that I think might be of value.  Then I can move on to the rest of my issues!

Best Regards,

Stan

Stan,

I also have v2013, a 7900, and 64 bit Windows 7.

To replicate your problem, I defined a custom 13x19 sheet paper size in the Epson driver. QU reports a printable area of 18.333 x 12.766 for that custom size.

After creating an image with 12x18 proportions, I added it to the print queue and found that whether it works or not depends on the QU page margins setting.

With Center on Physical Page it fails. With Clear Margins it works.

See Edit Preferences / Print and Page Formatting / Page Margins

Some time back I had a problem of a print not being centered on the paper and someone here pointed me to the Center on Physical Page option. That fixed it. So now I'm just passing on what I learned here. Except you need the opposite: Clear Margins rather than center on page.

Tom

Stan,

I don't see how you can expect a 12x18 image to be centered on 13x19 paper with this printer.

To center 18" in the 19" dimension requires 0.5" for each margin.

Looking at the printer's minimum margins in portrait mode, the bottom margin is over 0.5", so that leaves less than 0.5" for the top margin.



So 19" minus the 18" image and the 0.55" bottom margin leaves just 0.45" for the top margin.

A further test shows how it can be done. I chose borderless with minimal expansion and after a warning from the driver and a conversion to Super A3 from the custom 13x19, it shows plenty of room:



The driver warning is about the quality near the edges in borderless mode. I often use borderless with roll paper with good results but haven't tried borderless sheets with my 7900.

Tom