I have long used Qimage to print pano's on my A3 printer - now deceased. new Epson 4900 coming next week. Setting up print drivers again in Qimage.  I set a user defined paper for a 17" roll of 432mmx127mm and borderless (no expansion) as I did in the past for smaller papers. Then drag pano into this paper setup and it asks for the OK for multipage print - and I'm all set for pano printing. HOWEVER - the print previews all show the print hard against the top of the page segments. I.e. no top print margin. I can't seem to force it down the page with the print preferences>paper margin>top margin adjustment.

I had this proble before but never bothered to resolve it. With larger papes / pano's I reallyl do want to get control of the vertical centering.

Can't find anything in the FAQ's or forum to help. But anyone doing pano printing must have this issue.

PLUS - how do I set the print resolution in the job properties to 720dpi? (i.e. epson 4900 native). Can't find clues to this anywhere? I res. my originals to be right for the printer - I don't want them downsampled... Or do I just turn it off to bypass all that?

THANK YOU FOR ANY RESPONSES!

Thank you Fred for your kind and swift response. Sorry if my text was a little garbled; it was rather too late at night.

Topic 1: pano print margins ------------------------------
From your response on the pano printing we are using different approaches I think. You are setting the printer driver to be the pano length, I set a print length which is as short as possible, but borderless, then use Qimage to send as many "pages" as required to print the pano. This means all the pano can be controlled from Qimage with no additional mucking around in the print driver for every individual print. This has worked well for me in the past.

I attach a screenshot of this set up with the print preview showing what's going on and what my issue is. Since the post it occurred to me that the 4900 (unlike my older Epson) has a "Roll banner" print mode, which may reduce my top/bottom margin problem. Indeed, as you can see from the attached screenshot the top/bottom balance is not too bad - but it is still not vertically centered. In Qimage I use the print settings "set long edge" to be just longer than the actual print size and Qimage sends the requisite number of pages. You can see why the printer has to think it is borderless as it assembles the print as a banner. In the past this was a workaround for long prints where the official printer driver would not allow them - but also has the handy feature as I noted above for avoiding changing the print driver settings for different panos.

But the top/bottom imbalance is what I was trying to sort out. And the screen shot shows the margin adjustment screen - which does not seem to be having any impact on this print. That is the reason for that part of the post. Why can I not adjust the top/bottom print margins on the output?

Topic 2: resolution of data sent to the print driver------------------------------
Indeed. However, the settings for interpolation show the "Maximum" as 360PPI. The native resolution of the Epson 4900 is 720dpi (of course its ink dot size is much smaller, delivering a higher dot resolution than this -but this is essential for colour mixing/dithering). However, other 4900 users are suggesting that actually sending the printer 720dpi data optimises print quality. Of the images that I print that require upsampling (many, being Gpx images, actually require downsampling), the route I take depends on the quality I want. However, generally I will use a tool like genuine fractals to move the image to final print size at the driver-native resolution. (in the past 360dpi, now needs to be 720dpi).

However, now it appears that if I leave interpolation to Qimage, it will only move an image to 360PPI and then pass it on to the print driver for final interpolation to printer-native 720dpi. So... ...double resizing again. Something we both recognise is to be avoided.

So I have to assume, if I want printer-native 720dpi delivered to printer, I need to turn off interpolation (so it does not try to down-res to 360PPI). And if I am happy with Qimage upresing, it will be doing so to 360PPI max - not my native printer resolution...

Thanks Terry

mmmm... I did read it indeed. The 4900 does not have a "finest detail" setting but I had previously selected as "maximum quality" which sets the driver to 2880x1440dpi. IF Qimage detects this - terrific - but from a look at the print preview at full magnification I suspect this may not be the case. (of course the print preview may not reveal dot level data). In any case the above dpi as displayed by the printer I believe are likely to be interpolated ink delivery resolutions for reasons I noted in the previous post. The best information I have is that the "input - native" resolution of the printer is 720dpi

All that being the case - what is the interpolation setting "Maximum - 360PPI" doing?


Thanks too for that suggestion. However, you might notice in my post that I have been using qimage for some years with the technique I outlined and the problem is not overcoming printer length limitation. (BTDT) It is controlling the vertical positioning on the print roll output when using these techniques that is my issue.

I do recognise that with the 4900 I can manually set roll cut length for each pano printed (and then directly control all margins) - but I am trying to find a method which will work well for panor's of arbitrary length. (which the method I outlined does - by and large for full roll-width panos)

I am appreciative of your reflections and any further insights will be much appreciated.

See screen shot for 4900 finest detail 720ppi setting.
You've not said why you are borderless and yet wanting a border (margin).
You show 4mm top bottom margins; turn off borderless, add 1mm to the standard 3 mm margin and with banner mode you will get a seamless long print.
Terry

I think I am getting very muddled with too many mixed numbers and page settings.

What I was trying to tell you was that I got the feeling that you were printing poster panels as a pano and wanted to paste the panels to make a long pano.
This is OK if you didn't have a wonderful printer like a 4900 that has roll paper and banner mode.

This allows you to print one sheet with the pano printed.

You mention setting the "long side" in Qimage
 
That setting in Qimage sets print size not paper size.

So that's incorrect.


Then you start talking about
That confuses INPUT ppi with output DPI.

Let's get on the same page so we can help.

I have tried to explain the correct way to make a pano on a 4900.
My friend Peter has the 4900 and prints my panos on it.
You select roll paper banner mode. You describe the size page you want.
You only know the 17.01" at the beginning, you MUST set the long side of the print paper to larger than the print.
Then Qimage can calculate and make set up a print using the allowable print area of the 17.01 inches and the all the length it needs.
Then you can either reset the User defined page length or use the Auto cut feature in Qimage which will stop the print and paper feed just after the end of the print.

You say you are a long time user of Qimage, but you don't seem to understand its capabilities. It is better than Genuine Fractals, proved over and over.


You cannot see PPI in the screen unless there's a lot lower ppi than the screen resolution of the monitor, so don't bother looking at the monitor for a difference.
Whatever the PPI of the print, ***  Depends on the size print, how many images you stitched together in your stitching program which determines the resolution of the image you are going to print, Qimage will look at the native  720 ppi setting of the driver, and take whatever ppi is currently created by you with the image and the print size, and send 720 ppi to the printer driver.
It will down sample if you gave it too much, and it will upsample if you gave it less.
That's it's strength!!!!
Let Qimage do the job and you will get the very best prints.

If you let Qimage do its job, it will send the 720 ppi print file to the driver which will do nothing but use it to print. That's the point!!!
We want the printer driver to be dumb. Do nothing but print. Leave the interpolation to Qimage.

Previously, were you printing 20 prints and pasting them together?
This method will produce a perfect Pano all one sheet, with margins that are even (see snap)  (even to the extent that it shows a centered print with excess paper becoming the margins.)
Best I can do in general.
Please follow up with specific questions on specific areas.
If you have a question on PPI vs DPI, keep it as a single question.
If you have a question on page length, keep it single.
Otherwise, I have trouble following your thoughts.

Fred