BTW if you only care about the image size and you still want to arrange with the mat added around a specific size image without cropping the image, it's really no more difficult. OK, maybe 3 or 4 clicks more...
Lets say you have some portrait orientation images that you want to be 10 inches wide with the whole image printed (not cropped to size) with 1 inch borders and a 2 inch on the bottom:
1 Starting in optimal or optimal spaced placement mode
2 In the print properties, turn crop (scissors) off
3 Select "Custom" size, "Size by one side", and enter "12" for the "short side" (the 10 inches for your image plus the 1 inch left/right mat border)
4 Add your images to the queue: they will be 12 inches wide with the height calculated automatically
5 Select all prints on the page and add a white mat, 1 inch on top, left, right and 2 inches on the bottom and choose "shrink"
6 Click "Edges", select the type (mark corners, crop marks, etc.) and print
You'll end up with nicely placed 10 inch prints with your specified mat edges nicely aligned: no need to move anything.
Let's say you have a 36 inch roll and you just want to fit 3 prints across the page as large as they can be including the mat:
- Repeat the above steps except in step 3, enter "3x" for the short side instead of 12 inches. Done.
Mike
Mike,
This is the best approach to what I actually needed. It does not exactly replicate what I got though. The size of portrait images and landscape images were kept the same so the matte aspect ratios differed after the signature space was created and the landscape images could not fit 3x in the width of the roll while the portrait ones could hence their different positions in the print page.
I was not aware of the 3x formulation trick in the short side menu, can not find it documented either (so far). Is a nice feature. With a 0.5mm border+ for all I see differences of 1 mm between the short side on them however and the images did not nest as rows in the width of the roll/print page . Removed the 0.5mm border and they did nest properly and they got the right small side size. With the integrated 0.5mm border it worked correctly. Something similar happened a long time with the fit page function and border+ settings but that was cured not so long ago.
With my preferred method of images sizes set by the customers in the images (PS Tiffs) it gets more difficult when mattes have to expand. I should abandon that method for uneven borders and make the calculations first (image size + uneven border sizes) to get them fitted in the print page and then shrink the image to the customers specified size again with short side fix set. I probably will add the 15mm white in PS though and the rest with normal borders in Qimage, still more convenient.
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Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst
http://www.pigment-print.com/spectralplots/spectrumviz_1.htmJanuary 2014, 600+ inkjet media white spectral plots.