Mike Chaney's Tech Corner

Hi,

Finally got my driver working on Windows 10 (thank you Phil Steadman! https://ddisoftware.com/tech/printers/running-epson-7600-in-windows-10/msg27026/#msg27026 )

So I installed the trial of Qimage - and am able to print - but can't get the sizes to come out right.

I created a media size in the printer driver of 24"x24" - but when I select that in the Job Properties in Qimage, it still says W: 9.45 L:9.45 - greyed out, in the boxes on the line below Media Size (24" x 24").

As a result, the "Page" in the center of the window is 9.45"x9.45".  Is this a trial limitation, that will go away with a purchase, or am I doing something wrong?

Thank you.

That driver was never designed to run on anything past XP so I suspect the driver is going to have limited functionality.  If you created a 24x24 sheet size in the driver, select it in the driver: don't select it in the media size dropdown in Qimage.  Actually open the driver with the "Properties" button and select the 24x24 size in there.  You may have to make all selections including media type, media size, souce, etc. in the driver and not try to change those on Qimage's UI due to the "hobbled" nature of the 7600 driver on Windows 10/11.  If you do it that way (by setting all parameters in the driver), Qimage will work like any other Windows printing software with respect to how the driver operates.  If you have any trouble after that, the trouble lies with the driver.

Regards,
Mike

Understood about the age of the driver - but I'd expect that to mostly be an issue with working/not working at all (e.g. unsigned) - vs functionality not working correctly.

I did set the media size in the driver. When I do that, it changes the "Media Size" in the Job Properties to match what I selected. but still shows 9.45"x9.45" in the W/L as I mentioned, and the "Page" for doing layout matches the W/L rather than the Media Size.

Thanks.

From the context menu on the page, selecting 'Set paper length' -> 'fit all on one page' did get the page length to go beyond 9.75" - but the width is at 9.449 and won't increase.

When you set the page size in the driver, what is listed for "Page" above the live view right after exiting the driver is what the driver is reporting as the page size.  If it is 9.45 x 9.45 after setting the size in the driver, the driver is broken and it will operate that way in any printing software.  Remember: Qimage is not in charge of the media size.  The driver is.  It (like all software) has to work within the bounds of what the driver is telling it and if you see 9.45 x 9.45, that is what the driver is reporting.  Qimage cannot fix broken drivers or otherwise circumvent driver capabilities.

The last thing to try would be to reset the driver: hold the Shift key while you click the Properties button to open the driver.  Set your page size to 24x24 (or whatever you want), make sure no scaling options are turned on in the driver, and then "OK" out of the driver to save changes.  Immediately read the "Page" size listed above the live view.  If it still says 9.45 x 9.45, the driver is irrepairably broken and it isn't going to work with any software!  Remember, it's the driver that is wrong here.  If you set it to 24x24 and it reports a page size of 9.45 x 9.45, that's a question for Epson.  I suspect their answer would be "that driver was never intended for Windows 10".

Mike

Ahh. Thanks for the shift-properties tip. That made some testing easier.

All of the pre-defined paper sizes can be selected, either through the printer dialog, or in the Media Size dropdown, and be reflected on the Page preview size correctly (minus margin, unless borderless is selected, then only -0.003" in width)

It's only the user defined options saved in the print driver that get truncated.

If I select 'User Defined' from the Media Size drop down, and enter W/L, and click the green checkmark, it looks like things will work fine. Doing a test print now....

Test print was successful. Fine-tuning to be done - and license to be bought. Thanks!

Good to hear.  Keep an eye out for any idiosyncrasies with the driver as there may be some.  That is typically what happens when running a driver not designed specifically for your version of Windows: the base code often works OK but you run into certain features that may be "off" due to various API calls being deprecated or changed so they are no longer fully compatible.

Regards,
Mike