Mike Chaney's Tech Corner

Here's the scenario: I set up parameters for a job, or maybe open a saved job, I'm happy with everything, but before sending to print I go into the printer driver, maybe to change the print resolution, maybe to check if roll cut is on or off, but even if I make no changes, when I exit the printer driver some parameters in Qimage have changed: interpolation setting, sharpening & corner crops will all reset to Qimage's defaults. That's not too bad, but it also drops my custom ICC profile and reverts to 'Let printer driver manage color' - and as the printer driver has color management turned off, results are terrible, and this is expensive if I'm doing a large print or a long run - I have wasted huge amounts of paper due to this 'reset' behaviour.

Oh, I just discovered that if I go into the printer driver and make no changes but press 'OK' to finish, the above happens, if I hit 'Cancel ' it doesn't happen.

This didn't happen in previous versions.

Hi,
Can't make it happen here on my setup, so I must ask: What printer, and how are you going into the printer driver?
Is there a green check mark on the properties button in QImage?

Fred

The problem has manifested itself while I'm printing to an Epson SC-T5200. Is there more than one way of getting into the printer driver from Qimage?

Green tick or no tick, makes no difference: if I call up the printer driver and make no changes, if I exit the driver by pressing OK things get reset. If I press cancel, all is well. Obviously if I do makes changes, e.g. changing roll cutting to ON or OFF, I have to press OK to exit and things get reset.

I can't trigger similar problems if I print through the printer driver directly from Photoshop, so I don't think it's a driver issue.

I have several other wide format printers (all Epsons normally run via a Wasatch RIP) that I could use with Qimage so I'll test using their drivers when I get the chance,

One thing I've noticed lately and this seems to be triggered by Windows updates...

With the printer in question selected as the current printer on the Printers and Settings tab, click the "Reset preferences to printer defaults" button to the right of the "Properties" button on that tab.  Then click "Printer" to clear all the saved setups by media type for that printer.  Once you've done that, use the Properties button to set up your driver settings as needed and that will create a fresh set of saved settings.  See if doing that clears the problem.

Regards,
Mike

Answering my own question in my previous comment: yes, there's more than one way to get into the printer driver - you can go through the dropdown menu or corresponding keyboard shortcut (my normal workflow) or you can click on the yellow triangle or green tick next to 'Driver Setup' - using the second method  avoids the issues I outlined originally.

From there, you access the driver which contains the options you set up from Qimage.
Qimage stores them.
For example, I can call up a printer setup for Platinum glossy, Luster, Matte, even Ilford and Qimage will bring up the settings for each as determined by what I selected when I saved it, or when you last closed Qimage.
You should be fine

Thanks.  I can confirm something is wrong with using the Ctrl-Alt-P shortcut.  If I select a thumbnail so that the thumbnail grid has focus, Ctrl-Alt-P works fine.  If I click on the live view page, however, and click Ctrl-Alt-P, I get the problem you were having.  Strange!  Will fix that in the next 102.

Regards,
Mike

It does NOT happen for me.
Fred

It should!  I found the problem (fixed for the upcoming 102).  Go to a printer/media that is already verified with profile, etc. (green check on Properties button) and then click on the preview page on the live view.  Then press Ctrl-Alt-P.  You get the old style printer setup (dark skin) and when you click OK on that, it resets the preferences on the Printers and Settings tab.  The Ctrl-Alt-P shortcut when the live view has focus had the wrong "hook" which went to the old style printer setup that is not compatible with the new smart settings.

Mike

I got it.
I have to do CTRL ALT P and open properties. Then OK properties. Then click Properties again from that same box. Now OK again, and then again closing the black box it makes a yellow warning, but it did not change anything.

Fred

Yeah, you found one way but my way is easier.  ;)  Just Ctrl-Alt-P and when the first gray dialog appears, click OK on it (no need to click properties first).  It changes the properties button to unverified but it also removes whatever printer profile you might have selected and sets it back to "Let printer/driver manage color".  So it does create a problem.  Anyway... fixed in 102 which I'll try to get out today.

Mike