Hello Mike,

The auto roll length function is working almost perfectly for me when I specify both dimensions (custom -> enter specific size). The only problem is it returns a page size slightly longer than needed. If I turn the function off and select "set paper length" it shaves about a centimeter of excess.

When trying to use a custom size specifying only one dimension it fails almost every time and behaves erratically. When trying to place an image larger than the actual length sometimes it crops the image (with crop set to off), sometimes it shrinks the image to fit the paper. When placing multiple images sometimes it overstretches the paper leaving half of the page empty.

Printers tested: Canon Pro 4000 (regular driver and XPS), Canon IPF 8400
Windows 10 pro

I am out of the office now, but tomorrow I can send some screenshots and additional info if necessary.

Thanks again for this new feature, I am sure you will get it working 100% soon.

I like the auto-roll feature and will find it very useful. It leaves a bit more than 1/4 inch slack with my P9000 setup. In Intelli-Centre it leaves about 1/2 inch top and bottom, before the extra slack that my P9000 driver adds by default. In Intelli-Cut/Space it leaves about 3/4 inch at the bottom, again this is in addition to the driver slack. This driver slack is approx 2/3 inch.

I don't need this much slack on my P9000 so my reaction was to set up a layout with auto-roll on, using Intelli-Space, and then turn it off and hit CTRL-W to trim off the extra space at the bottom.

The CTRL-W command behaves differently now in the Intelli-modes. Previously, in V2019.110, it used to just trim off the space at the bottom, and leave the prints as placed. It also asked for yes/no confirmation. But now it removes all excess space and bunches up the prints, without a confirmation dialog. Pretty much the same behaviour as CTRL-L (which still asks for confirmation, btw)

If I switch to, for example, Compact or Optimal then it behaves pretty much as it did before, but it leaves a touch more slack than it used to. It used to happily chop the page down to 4mm from the last print, now it leaves 6.3mm.

Qimage negotiates with the driver to determine if the "User Defined" media size is available from the driver.  Some versions of the Z driver may list this option while others do not.  The ones that do have a "User Defined" entry for media size are bugged and do not use that size properly.  DMPAPER_USER (which enumerates to a value of 256 in Windows) is a reserved word that is to be used for user defined sizes.  When this value is set in the driver, the driver is supposed to use the media size defined by software (the values specified by DM_PAPERWIDTH and DM_PAPERLENGTH) and display a media name of "User Defined" or "Custom".  Instead, the Z drivers are incorrectly using this reserved word as a predefined size: ANSI A.

So... when Qimage sets the media size to "User Defined" and then you open the driver properties, the Z driver shows either ANSI A or Letter as the size.  Worse, if you close the driver with "OK", the driver will override whatever custom size was set in Qimage with 8.5 x 11 and that will foul up your layout.  Again, this problem surfaces due to the Z drivers improperly trying to assign their own predefined value to what is a Windows system constant.  In the end, I decided not to "lock out" Z drivers specifically or try to work around its bugs; instead Qimage will querry the driver and work as it should.  If, after that, the job doesn't work properly, that's on the manufacturer!  The proper procedure for any software when working with custom media sizes is:

(1) Querry the driver to see if the "user defined" media size flag is set, indicating the driver allows custom media sizes (this flag is set for all Z drivers)
(2) Querry the driver to see if the "user defined" media size actually exists in the driver's media size table
(3) If 1 or 2 fail, display a message to the user that "user defined" sizes are not supported for this printer and stop here
(4) Set the media type to "user defined"
(5) Set the media width and length
(6) Read back driver settings to confirm that setting media size was successful

#2 above is where some Z drivers may pass or fail.  Some of them don't even have the "user defined" entry and some do, and the ones that do: theyll have the conflict mentioned above.

Simply put, you can try it but YMMV depending on the specific bugs in your specific Z driver.  Also keep in mind that Windows itself has a 129 inch limit for paper length (3276mm).  So as your paper length extends beyond 3276mm, Qimage will automatically make two pages and will optimize the prints on the two pages so you get the minimum amount of wasted space.  Obviously if you have one 3200mm print and one 8x10, the page length has to be at least 3200mm and you'll end up with one 8x10 on page 2.  No other way to do it: the page length has to be big enough for the biggest print.  So the efficiency of multi-page auto roll length is highly dependent on the print sizes you are using.  If you are printing a bunch of smaller size prints, it'll work very well.  If you have a few very large prints and then just a handful of smaller ones, it might be best to simply print the big prints first and then do the smaller ones as a separate job.

Closing notes: Due to the Windows built-in limit of 129 in (3276mm), the auto roll length feature cannot be used if you intend to print any one print that is larger than that.  You can specify lengths longer than that in the driver (properties) but lengths beyond that limit are not "software settable".  In addition, due to the Z drivers reserved constant clash mentioned above, if you want to try auto roll length on the Z drivers, you'll have to set up all your driver properties in advance (paper type, quality, color management, and so on) before you activate the auto roll length feature and then avoid opening the driver properties after you start using auto roll length: because that driver bug/clash will wipe out the "user defined" media size setting when you "OK" out of the driver.  This disclaimer about not touching driver properties after turning auto roll length on only applies to HP printers; all drivers from other manufacturers work properly and don't have this issue.

Regards,
Mike