Mike Chaney's Tech Corner

I'm trying to print a number of images to individual files to send off to an external printing company. The source images are of different sizes and different orientations, but each needs to be 'printed' to an individual file scaled to a specified maximum dimension on whichever is the longest side. I can't figure out how to do this, though I'm sure I've done it before. Currently using version 2014.210 - can update to latest version if necessary.

Can anyone advise, please?

To make your prints conform to their own aspect ratio, and be sized according to your requirements, click on Custom.
Then select Special Sizes, Specify One Dimension.
You can take it from there.

After you get what you want in the queue, then just tell Qimage Print To File and Do Not Change Sizes.

Fred

OK, I set custom, specify one dimension, size 24 (LONG), auto crop off, orientation lock, apply permanently.
select an image and its placed centrally in the page;  the area not used being changed to paper white rather than the diagonal pattern, sharpen 0 (requested by the printer, so he can optimise sharpness for paper and maybe later resizing)
print to file, and the image generated is 24" square with white border added top and bottom, rather than a horizontal format image 24" wide and much shorter

First of all, Orientation lock comes off by default as you click on Custom Specify Dimension OK.
What size page did you tell Qimage you are using.?
What is the resolution of the image that became square?
What size print?
I want to simulate here.

If you forced a LOCK on a page size that can only work one way, ????
Need information here.

Fred

Sorry for delay, but Qimage is not doing anything sensible with this file, so I've decided to give up for tonight (UK time) and comeback to it tomorrow, starting with an install of the new version

After some experiments, I can get it to almost work

What I want is a set of output images sized at 240dpi (occasionally 360), and (and typically 30" on the long side - all the same in each processing run). The smaller sides will vary (and I don't know beforehand what they are).

I have to set a paper size that the image will fit on before I start otherwise it creates multiple pages (even though I've set it to print to a file), however, if I set the page size to unnecessarily wide, it will add white borders to fill the unneeded space. If I have batch of images of differing aspect ratios there's no way I can see to automtically set the 'width' to fit. In practice, I will almost always have images of differing apsect ratios.

Unless there's a way to specify that the file should hold just the image, and shrink the image (paper size) to fit, I'm always going to end up with white borders on two sides of most images. 

Of course I can 'fix' this by opening the output files and cropping manually to the image border and saving again. I'd rather avoid having to do this if possible. (Or perhaps there's an easy way to 'trim' a file of excess surrounding white space (or red or whatever) space?)

I hope that explains what I'm trying to do.

Use the "RIP" option on the print dialog.  When you click the print button when you are set up for print to file, check "RIP individual prints".  That will rip each print from the page with no white space and it'll print print-by-print instead of page-by-page.  I think that's what you want.

Regards,
Mike

Thanks Mike!
yes, that's exactly what I needed, hidden in plain sight!