Mike Chaney's Tech Corner

Hello...
Bought software about a month ago for various reasons, and Id like to share my frustration and a few requests if I may.
First of all, not relevant, but my mum was ill briefly and died in hospital beginning of July so I'm sorry if I ever come across a bit raw.
It does also rather cloud the mind to say the least.

I bought the software after intense searching for a solution to my problem. While I strive like most for printing perfection, I am a bit new (thick and slow to learn) all the technical nuances of the art.
My problem is windows, actually MS in its own style and frustrating ways, it pains me to try and understand it.
My printer is an Epson an oldish 7880 24" that works well and 'can' produce stunning results. However the printer pages, beyond the basic programme I happen to be using is a wash with features and settings. But windows goes beyond this. In printer properties there is at least a 'default' settings page. And beyond this an 'advanced printer settings page. All eventually use the basic printer - print pages for which there are 3, along with there sub menus and options.
So which is which and used in what order? And if one obscure setting or option is missed would I end up with a print on the reverse side of the paper? Hardly, but often its that unnerving and easy to miss an option or requirement that I ended up holding my breath each print or weary to leave a whole roll of expensive canvass or proofing semi-mat in case I had. Mystified I turned to Qimage and duly paid. I didn't hesitate at discounts either, so desperate for a solution.

However I'm almost as bewildered as ever. A myriad of option seeking print perfection, but no easier to use or set up a series of prints easily and confidently, that I KNOW, I will get what I want.

Clearly time and patience will help but yes it could be a tad easier to use, especially If I don't print on a daily basis.
So what would help?
A direction arrow of which way the print will appear from the printer (up or down) and layout. Layout is key to the program. Despite its many advanced features, setting and options a WYSIWYG screen showing easily and clearly, perhaps with a scroll bar for more than on long print would be very handy.
Its clear to me Qimage is a supremely advanced programme, that perhaps (hopefully) does away with the need for the driver print menu, yet its still there. So now I'm even more confused.
Which exactly is it that takes priority / pecking order of final settings options. Qimage-> MS properties default -> MSproperties advanced -> Epson print and then preview.  ???

What a headache.

What a headache.
Dear PD,
You have given us a tidy picture of your dilemma, which we will attempt to unravel.
We, being myself, Terry, and a few others.... as we get information from you.
We know you have an Epson 7880.

We need to know what type of printing you do.
1) Single print on a page or multiples?  What size range?
2) What kind of paper?  Type and whether sheet or roll?
Are you familiar with color management?

If you can just reply to these questions above we can get through this very quickly and easily, I might add since most of your problem is self inflicted by over thinking.

We will end up with opening the driver screen one time to set the paper selection, the print quality, (DPI output), and the color management.
Then we will save this printer set up in Qimage to recalled anytime we use the printer with the same selected paper.
That takes most of your worry away right there.

If you use three types of paper, we will do this three times.


I am attaching 2 screen snaps here to show you the simplicity of setting an Epson 7800 driver for an 13 x 19 print on 17 x 22 paper.

With the answers from you to the questions above, we will be able to set you up, as well as explain some answers.

Fred

Hello, and thanks for a fast response.
I've been scratching my head for a few weeks, but to be honest I haven't printed much because I've been off the ball with other issues. So forgive me if I'm slow.

What do I print - and what media?
I do very few prints at the moment, but they tend to be posters or portraits.
I tend to use Coreldraw / corelpaint x5 mostly but occasionally Irfanview. Because that's what I'm used to.
I very often switch as the need arises between canvas and paper.
The printer has standard epson pigment inks.

The canvas I have / use is Inkjet Canvas Roll 24" Bright White Matte. results are generally superb and I'm happy with the quality/ colour.
The paper I use (I have 2) only because I have them. The quality is v.good.
One is a Cromalin Largo proofing paper Semi-matte, thick high weight?. The other is a HP proofing matte(146g/m2) but is very much less quality.
So canvas - landscapes. Cromalin -semi-matte portraits etc. Hp for cheap posters / signs etc.

I don't use colour profiles / management more than I need to, other than defaults. Most settings are default (max quality 4 the media) other than paper type and size. I tweak colours / contrast etc. and save the final image I'm happy with that prints how I want it. I'm really quite easy.

My main bug bear oddly is sizes and positioning.
If I do a canvas (I hate waste) It's usually the full width either profile or landscape -3to4 inches for frame, and the other dimension optimum for the image. If its a portrait, it's usually with a few smaller versions as well. i.e. someone asks for 3 prints 6x8 as well as a 500x600mm. One feature I know of from other packages I use is nesting. If I could use this properly it would be great. This is why for me, an easy layout features highly.

i generally muddle through setting OK both default driver and now with Qimage. I mainly have issues if I'm trying to do several prints at once (one after the other) and try to configure each print (image size / print size / paper size. because as I'm sure you know. If a 20x30 inch is printed with a default paper size of A1, the printer tends to leave large spaces. What worries me is choosing settings on one page, knowing defaults are different on another.

Hope that helps. Your example pic is spot on. That is the driver page I get.
No panic about reply. I appreciate the time differences.
rgds

I have Coreldraw 4, 6, 11, and 12.... I use them when I am making a flyer, generally on plain copy paper.
Those versions have no color management at all, and I guess they don't need it.

Qimage will blow you away when you use it to print photographs.
For the moment, we wont even go there as you declare your main problem to be image placement on a page or multiple images on a page, or multiple pages.
Regarding solving the above, I call your attention to the videos available which address your main issue.

http://www.ddisoftware.com/qimage-u/learn.htm


If you want to print a 20 x 30, you can set User Defined page size to 21" x 31" if you wish.  Although you wouldn't save that much paper.

This one I don't understand.
Are you referring to default size, default orientation, what?
In Qimage you can make one page set to print a different size and color set from a second page.

I think you should spend some time with the videos, and then come back with specific situations or problems.
Waiting to hear from you.... it will take a while, but worth the time to go through them.

Fred

Yes OK perhaps I should. thanks for the link & heads up. Wasn't aware of any and only had limited use to be fair.
Although read my first line. It's been hard to focus on anything :(
Yes I have tried a few photos. And they were good. Although one was canvas, so not the best to asses with.
My confusion is with the different property pages.
It's bad enough with MS and its printer options (which call up the base printer driver options) but sets different (default? values for each)
Add to that the same printer option page appears when printing.
And thats why I wanted a program to circumvent all this and use its own settings.
You can imagine my confusion when after using Qimage the same printer options page pops up ???

If nobody is certain what I meant by ms defaults,
go to printers -right mouse click properties, look in General - preferences.
Also click on the Advanced tab, and again preferences. (which are different to the first.) See what I mean.

Sizeing images and printing is an art by itself. The prog Qimage is confusing to say the least to use. Straight off anyway. It's not intuitive. It's not even clear which direction the layout will print.
But I'll watch the vids and with help it should make sense soon enough. :)

By the way, unrelated but I'm looking for a good suitable forum to register with, where I might off load a lot of printer parts. (UK )
I scrapped and stripped a canon w6400 and salvaged all the useful bits. No good to me now with an epson, but handy for someone perhaps.

In Printers and devices, if you go to change a setting in your driver, it becomes the default.
That is the only place.
When you finally stop wiggling and learn Qimage, you will see that Qimage remembers the settings each time you use it, can have the settings saved for use next time when you have the same needs, can have the settings adjusted and saved over and over so you can select tomorrow: I want to print a 13 x 10 on Canvas today. All I have toi do is click RECALL in Qimage and the settings for 13 x 19 canvas will all magically appear.
On Thursday, you want to print 20 x 30 inches on matte paper.  Go to RECALL, and click 30 x 40 matte. All set to print.
What could be easier?
Remember, I said you were over thinking the problem? You still are.!!



You haven't watched one video yet and you are blaming the program?
Sizing is a cinch!
Click Prit properties, select from the preset size list (2 x 3 >>>>>>>>>   11 x 14........... 24 x 26    plus custom sizes. CLICK. ALL done. Want to change the size, select the image you want to change by clicking on it, and open that same size box and select a different size. All Done!

But you have to invest a little effort in learning. The videos make that easier, plus the help you get on the forum with pictures of specifics from us also help.

Good Luck!

Fred

Your forum name seems to be appropriate - don't you know anything about Windows printing? What come up is the printer driver settings, that is what controls the printer; no different from any other Windows program, from Notepad to Corel Draw to Qimage Ultimate.
Fred thinks you are UK based, if so, send me a personal message via the forum if you would like to phone me and I'll let you have my number. It should be possible to arrange a mutually convenient time for a call with both of us running QU.
Terry

Hello thanks for the continued replies.
I have now watched a few of the videos, and very helpful they are. I haven't yet found one that answers my question about the 'default' driver settings.
OK over thinking again a bit here, but if I may ask again, of the 2 printer driver settings pages, default and advanced in properties (each can have different options selected). Why does the printer driver page pop up still after making all my settings in Qimage after I click print. Does Qimage over ride them? Do I clik OK or cancel without choosing paper type size etc. because I know I've already done that in Qimage and does Qimage tell the driver today I'm using roll canvass even though the default (printer driver setting might  A4 semi-gloss or whatever?) I still don't know.

yes I am a dunce, but I am brave enough to ask about what I don't understand. (If you don't understand something, how can you fix it? ) Well that's why I bought the programme  ;) But didnt expect to have to see or set the driver page and print driver options again. Maybe it should be removed ?

I now rather understand about the page numbering in preview (and why my selections were disappearing when I added new ones ha. )  as separate individual pages. A simple feature which is great for sheet printing, but as the video spoke of canvas printing, it would make sense to have the preview here as a scrollable page when roll printing - as long is as needed to accommodate the print queue. (hope that makes sense). And it would be nice to see this confirmed somewhere so I know that Qimage knows that. Perhaps with page width and print direction also :)
Somewhere in the driver print options there is a preview so you can see what you get. And for some reason it shows the preview upside down. But what the hell is happening there I don't know.

Remember I might be a printer dunce but I hope you see that my concerns and assumptions might well be those of many that use the program for the first few times or entering the world of printing..
I love the programme, especially all the image views in folder panel. (reminds me of picasa) And the features I know are there are very useful to have.
I'm going to rip a few old canvas frames apart later tonight that I've been meaning to print new images for. So I'm looking forward to trying the stretchy canvas borders and outline for marking cut line.
Should be fun  :D

Really, I have no idea what you mean by default and advanced...
I explained the other day that the default printer settings are set/found in Control Panel, Printers and devices.
All other locations set the printer for current use.
Qimage goes even further by remembering the settings for current use after you are finished.

When you click the print button a print setiup box becomes available just before you click the actual print button, in case, in case you have an oops! You want to change the paper or something.
You are over thinking everything.

Tell me how you find you "Basic" and "advanced".
Maybe if we had a common starting point, we could get through your maze of self ignighted smoke screen grenades.
Still trying!
Is either of the attached screen snaps one or both of your Basic/Advanced?


Fred

Yes the 2nd image.
I apologise I should have included an image to better explain what I meant.
In that 2nd image you will see preferences at the bottom. When I click it, my printer properties page pops up. (your first image)
So for example, in here as I will never be using A4 (original default) I select A1. And so on.

But close, and then back in the properties box (2nd image) click the advanced tab, then click printing defaults. And low & behold up pops the driver settings page again. But these settings are different from those changed / set before in basic properties. ???
Don't you just love MS

I can fully understand setting basic defaults, but to me its mad and confusing. You can perhaps understand when the pop up driver appears when I click print,  and these defaults apparently are what the printer will be using (after selecting all the settings and options in Qimage for this print job) that I might wonder what are being used.

I would prefer the default settings just weren't there. So when I select ROLL PAPER , or perhaps black & white and high quality in Qimage,  I shouldn't have to then change the default paper size, quality and colour options in the printer driver page.
Do you see what I mean??

Hi again,
Yes, just a longer route to the printing preferences dialogue.
No problem here but I did click the APPLY button!
In normal use there is no need to use the Printer Properties dialogue, just use printing Preferences as that controls all that you need.
This is what opens when you click the Printer/Page Set up button (top right of QU screen and 3rd in from right). The QU page set-up dialogue opens first and then click the QU Properties button which opens the driver settings -  the same as Printing Preferences in Control Panel.
I wonder if this has caused some confusion: the QU "properties" is the same as Control Panel "preferences".?
As Fred said, do all your setting from within QU, set the paper size first and then the driver settings: paper type, quality, colour management etc. QU remembers this next time it's opened, and again, remember what Fred said about saving a Printer set-up so that different sets ups can be re-called with a couple of clicks.
Hope that was of some help.
Terry

EDIT: added screen shots of QU Print Set Up and printer Properties dialogue boxes.

Ok I see what is confusing you.... but why you go down that road confuses me.
The defaults are there so programs that are able to print have paper, size, and quality settings as basics so the printer will operate.
FINISHED!!!   DONE!!   OVER!!  FINITO!  FERTIG! FINIS !!!
Now open your Qimage and tell the driver (while in Qimage) what paper type, size paper, quality setting, and color management setting.
Make a print or don't make a print.... Makes no difference.
CLOSE QIMAGE.
OPEN QIMAGE.... look same settings were kept' paper type, paper size, color management, Quality.... Anything I set in the driver while in Qimage  Qimage even Borderless is saved as the next default.

See 4 snaps.   Two with new settings. Two after I closed and opened Qimage again.... same settings.
Regardless what settings are in Devices/defaults.

If you open other programs that print, they will rely on the defaults in Devices and Printers.

Same  for Photo Shop or Lightroom. Although they wont remember the driver settings like Qimage, they still expect you to set the driver from within the Photo Shop program.

So conclusion. Open Qimage, set the paper size in Printer Properties (driver), the paper type, color settings and quality settings...
Now put an image in the queue at the print size you like that will fit on the paper you chose, and then Press the PRINT button.
Do you think you can do that for me?

Fred

Fred,
You're wrong about Lightroom.  In Lightroom, you can set a preset in the print module that will remember everything about the print job and print driver.

This may not be important to the current OP's problem, but QU isn't the only application that saves print/.printer settings.

Wil

Thanks Wil,
That's the way Photo Shop used to work so I guessed.
Don't have LR....
Thanks for helping.
Fred

OK thanks. I get the hint.
Just forget what printer driver options are, and set them in Qimage. Then save and recall as needed. :)

However one perhaps un-related question. If I print one single image that is 22"x 18", (portrait) and I want to print close to margins and paper width. If I set the paper size as 24" x 20" the printer would print this and then cut the paper just above the image. :)
But if in my settings paper is roll paper or set for A1 - it could be somewhere after this it cuts, wasting a lot of paper.

Just having another, look and straight away I ran in to problems. Maybe I should watch the vids a few more times because Im not sure what I set wrong here.
Hopefully you can see from the image below the print queue screen has a size set of 23 and a bit x 7 and a bit. I don't know how I got this setting.
When I check printer settings as suggested 3rd button from right, you can see that I have roll paper and user defined size set. And when I add a picture with a size about 22x18, Qimage asks if I want to go over the page???
So unless I choose a page size in printer properties, that is bigger than my image, it will see a problem.

But I don't want to see or set a page size. I've told it I have a roll. I just want to add my images, choose how big I want them, and avoid all the 'over thinking'

From your attachment, it looks like you set the user defined size paper to one side of 8+, not 18+. Reset the user defined size carefully.

You always need to tell the driver a page size.
Otherwise the driver cannot operate. When using roll paper, it's not enough to just say ROLL PAPER, you must User Define a page size.

If you do that and say Roll Paper, and my size page will be: 24.0 x 20, the driver will tell Qimage that the printable area (largest print you can make on that paper) will be 23.776 x 20

If you tell the driver that you are back to a sheet of paper at A1 size, Qimage will report 32.444 x 23.152 as the printable area (largest print possible) on that sheet.

You can even tell the driver: Hey I have roll paper, but I want to use the A1 size, and it will set up for 33.111 x 23.152.



Based on the above quote, I assume you haven't set the User defined page size, but then again, maybe Brian is correct. You just set the wrong size.
Also, just for the baby steps, make your print sizes FIT TO PAGE. Hopefullym you will be able to see what is happening better.

Fred

Thank you all appreciated. But I'm still trying avoiding 'over thinking'. I assumed by what you inferred previously that I shouldn't touch driver settings.
But this is becoming cyclic.

The current page settings must have been set from when I last did a print. But this is precisely what I meant by the various defaults and settings. Setting a paper size bigger than needed will just waste paper. So if my one print is 15 x 20 and I have A1 already in the defaults somewhere this is what gets churned out, wasting half the A1 page. But if I set page size as mentioned, it isn't enough. But it least it told me. But setting 24 x 16, my print will cut the paper just about at 16 and not 33 or what ever and wasting half a sheet.

So say as in your example I have several images I want to print, all at once, one after the other. Each has different sizes and profiles i.e. landscape. What paper size do I set, and where? In properties when printing or properties default?  So if I set them all as the same paper size clearly the larger landscape 24 x 30+ won't fit to the page.
I began to think the program would take care of these dilemmas. That as clever as the programme is, it would 'tell' my printer driver my (total) image size is the sum of the images I have in the queue. And cut the paper appropriately. Or am I expecting too much.
So it seems that although I dont need to set any defaults in my printer driver, I still have to do most of the work and choose the most appropriate size options for each job.
Sorry if this is my fundamental stupidity or perhaps touching on an area people manage instinctively, but it seems to be perhaps an area that might be improved upon to make life a little easier. At least for idiots like me.

Cyclic for you, Idiotic for me.
I never said don't touch the driver. What I did say was don't bother with the default setting in the driver.


I specifically told you to make a printer setting, paper size, print size and all the others, paper type etc, and then SAVE the printer setup. I also said that you do this for various sizes and various paper types, including some for roll paper with single and multiple prints.  Each time you print some different array, you save the print setup.


Next time you don't worry about anything, just recall the size and paper from the list of printer setups, and recall it.
Some of us have 40-50 saved setups.   (Example: 5 x 7 Epson Luster. 8 x 10 Epson Luster. 11 x 14 Epson Luster. A3 Epson Luster... Again usin Epson Premium Glossy.... and again with roll paper size where you have 24 x 60, etc.)


If you are using roll paper, you will have to tell the driver the size paper will be a little larger than the total length of the images put together.
Qimage will sort the images for you to conserve paper.

After you set an over sized page, and have your images set to print, you can set Optimal placement, and then look at your page in Page Editor and see the waste. Reset the page size.

If you are using sheet paper, Qimage will sort your images even on multiple pages to make the best use of the printer paper size.

You can print all at one time including changing printer profiles for each image.



I think here is where we part company.   The work you need to do is to learn how to use your tools rather than blaming the tools.
I am done, sir!
I think Terry hit the nail on the head.
I have repeated the instructions over and over, sent you screen snap after screen snap, asked you to play the videos, and still you come back to the same starting point.
Have you ever heard the old proverb? "A poor workman blames his tools?

I have been looking all around my house, and inside the computer room for the hidden camera. I must be on Candid Camera!!  This cannot be real!

If anyone wants to take a different approach, I wish them luck, and you too...

Fred

Fred,

Take a deep breath.  Pour a scotch and soda.  Take the first sip.  Re-read the first post from the OP.  That should tell you that this whole exercise was impossible.  If you can accept that, the remaining sips will ease your mind and let you put this behind you.

Good Luck
Wil

Thanks Wil.
I always wonder if I lose my patience more rapidly than other people.
I usually do well especially when I am able to call  or get a call from a North American user. (Free Call)
Sometimes, it takes an hour. Sometimes more than one call. We match screens and we solve it.

This was Candid Camera, for sure...
Thanks for making me feel a little better. (I don't drink, so have an extra for me.)
Fred

Fred-Some people were just meant to get their prints at Walmart.

Jeff

"This was Candid Camera, for sure...
Thanks for making me feel a little better. (I don't drink, so have an extra for me.)
Fred "

If you keep going like this, you will drink!

Good Luck
Wil