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Title: XPS driver works / Qimage Intelli-center: Not So Much [Solved the Problem] Post by: loganross on July 23, 2020, 07:58:06 PM Hi.
I have been printing for the last few years with the XPS drivers on the Canon 1000 and never had any issues with print quality. *Note that I had custom paper profiles made for each of my papers (using Chromix Color Valet Service and printing the targets using the XPS driver). **Note also that I went through the trouble to using the Canon Media Configuration Tool to create custom media types for each paper (these custom media types now show up in the "Media-Type" list in the printer driver options). Where I have had trouble was with uneven borders when I print in Qimage (I generally like 1/2 to 1 1/2 inch borders depending on paper size and image). No matter what I have done, the left/right borders (In portrait orientation) are off by at least 1/8 of an inch (with the border on the side of the print closest to the power button being wider). It is noticeable on smaller prints and larger prints with smaller borders. Based on comments here recently, I switched to the standard driver (non-XPS), but still the same problem. I called Canon Tech support, and they took me through the process of printing outside of Qimage (in photoshop and Canon Print Studio). Outside of Qimage, My borders are even as expected. Out of last effort desperation, I changed Qimage from Intelli-center to Center. It worked!!! My borders are even. Bottom Line: (1) I am sticking with the XPS drivers. They work. I have had and continue to have no issues. (2) From now on I will use Center, rather than Intelli-Center in Q-Image. Title: Re: XPS driver works / Qimage Intelli-center: Not So Much [Solved the Problem] Post by: admin on July 24, 2020, 01:56:25 AM As long as people realize, this is not good advice in general. Sometimes you get the right results... for the wrong reason. IntelliCenter centers prints on the physical paper; it works even if the non-printable margins are not equal. Center placement mode centers prints within the printable area, so when using Center placement, if you have a half inch non-printable margin on the bottom and a .25 inch margin on the top (which is common for some printers/papers), the Center placement option will not center the print on the page. It will be too high on the page due to the larger bottom margin. IntelliCenter on the other hand, will center the print even in that situation where the non-printable margins are unequal, provided you don't make the print so large that it is impossible to center it given those unequal margins. If your printer does have equal non-printable margins on the left/right and top/bottom, both center and IntelliCenter will perform identically.
IntelliCenter is what you want to use if you want the print centered on the physical paper every time. The only time it won't, as I pointed out, is if your printable area is not centered (your non-printable margins at the edges are unequal) and you do something like fill the entire printable area with a print (fit to page). In that case, you've filled a non-centered printable area with a print and there is no "slack" to move it to the center so no placement option will be able to center your print. But for most printing such as printing an 11x17 on 13x19 paper, an 8x10 on 8.5x11 paper, and so on, IntelliCenter will work perfectly. Now, if it doesn't work, the fault does not lie with Qimage as there are other issues that can cause what you describe! These are listed below in order of probability. (1) Paper is not the size you think it is. Measure your paper! I cannot stress this enough as I see it all the time. You buy a pack of 13x19 paper, print, and the print isn't centered. Get a tape measure and measure it. More than half the time when someone has this exact complaint, I'll get a response saying that the customer is shocked and the paper measured something different, say 12.75 x 13.1 inches. One tell-tale sign that this is the problem is when I ask them to turn on "Print Preview" in the driver so you get a driver preview before the print is actually printed. They usually find that the driver preview shows the print centered but when it comes out of the printer, it isn't. That's proof that Qimage has done it's job and the driver thinks the print should be centered: the reason it isn't is because the paper is not the size you told the driver! (2) Paper loading mechanism isn't loading the paper properly (or straight). The loading mechanisms aren't perfect so they may load the paper a bit too far to one side (or even crooked). (3) The driver doesn't have the proper margins stored in its selection for the media size you selected. I put this last because I've only seen it once, but after ruling out the first two, this is the only other option. Remember that Qimage gets all specifications for the paper from the driver and that includes the non-printable margins. Ruling out the first two scenarios, the only way Qimage can be wrong when centering a print in IntelliCenter is if the driver itself is wrong. Mike Title: Re: XPS driver works / Qimage Intelli-center: Not So Much [Solved the Problem] Post by: loganross on July 24, 2020, 04:11:59 AM Much appreciated, good point about Intelli-Center value in top to bottom centering. I can only tell you what my experience is:
Given the following: -same result for various paper types, sizes, manufacturers, as well as canon media type selections -use of either the XPS or regular driver -latest Qimage, and canon drivers and firmware -image always sized/cropped so that it falls within the printable space for a given media-type selection (for example - 1 inch border for Canon Pro-Platinum) Results: - In Qimage (Intelli-Center turned on): the right long-edge border of the print (when facing the printer) is always slightly larger that the left long-edge border of the print - In Qimage (Intelli-Center turned off): print is perfectly centered - Outside of Qimage: print is perfectly centered ***same result regardless of paper types, sizes, manufacturers, as well as canon/custom media type selections To be clear, I am a huge fan of Q-Image and will continue to use it (note that I stopped directly printing out of photoshop and stopped using Image Print once I mastered Qimage a few years back). I was mortified this morning as the Canon tech took me through the process of successfully printing in Print Studio, we could not get the exact same success in Qimage, and I thought I might be forced to use it instead of Qimage. I was thrilled and finding a solution in Qimage that was so simple that worked. Bottom Line: -What can I do to help you troubleshoot this issue? I will go and measure the paper for example. Until I can find a fix: -I would rather use center where I am getting measured equal results and worry about 1-offs when I encounter them. I don't expect many as the variation is margins seems to be at the top and bottom in portrait mode where I am having the problem on the left and right. As long as people realize, this is not good advice in general. Sometimes you get the right results... for the wrong reason. IntelliCenter centers prints on the physical paper; it works even if the non-printable margins are not equal. Center placement mode centers prints within the printable area, so when using Center placement, if you have a half inch non-printable margin on the bottom and a .25 inch margin on the top (which is common for some printers/papers), the Center placement option will not center the print on the page. It will be too high on the page due to the larger bottom margin. IntelliCenter on the other hand, will center the print even in that situation where the non-printable margins are unequal, provided you don't make the print so large that it is impossible to center it given those unequal margins. If your printer does have equal non-printable margins on the left/right and top/bottom, both center and IntelliCenter will perform identically. IntelliCenter is what you want to use if you want the print centered on the physical paper every time. The only time it won't, as I pointed out, is if your printable area is not centered (your non-printable margins at the edges are unequal) and you do something like fill the entire printable area with a print (fit to page). In that case, you've filled a non-centered printable area with a print and there is no "slack" to move it to the center so no placement option will be able to center your print. But for most printing such as printing an 11x17 on 13x19 paper, an 8x10 on 8.5x11 paper, and so on, IntelliCenter will work perfectly. Now, if it doesn't work, the fault does not lie with Qimage as there are other issues that can cause what you describe! These are listed below in order of probability. (1) Paper is not the size you think it is. Measure your paper! I cannot stress this enough as I see it all the time. You buy a pack of 13x19 paper, print, and the print isn't centered. Get a tape measure and measure it. More than half the time when someone has this exact complaint, I'll get a response saying that the customer is shocked and the paper measured something different, say 12.75 x 13.1 inches. One tell-tale sign that this is the problem is when I ask them to turn on "Print Preview" in the driver so you get a driver preview before the print is actually printed. They usually find that the driver preview shows the print centered but when it comes out of the printer, it isn't. That's proof that Qimage has done it's job and the driver thinks the print should be centered: the reason it isn't is because the paper is not the size you told the driver! (2) Paper loading mechanism isn't loading the paper properly (or straight). The loading mechanisms aren't perfect so they may load the paper a bit too far to one side (or even crooked). (3) The driver doesn't have the proper margins stored in its selection for the media size you selected. I put this last because I've only seen it once, but after ruling out the first two, this is the only other option. Remember that Qimage gets all specifications for the paper from the driver and that includes the non-printable margins. Ruling out the first two scenarios, the only way Qimage can be wrong when centering a print in IntelliCenter is if the driver itself is wrong. Mike Title: Re: XPS driver works / Qimage Intelli-center: Not So Much [Solved the Problem] Post by: loganross on July 24, 2020, 04:27:55 AM Hi. Re-read your note. Thoughts below in RED. Also, your #1 seems most likely to me. I am going to check the paper setup again. As an FYI, I am using Ilford Fiber Silk Gold (11x17 paper), with the Canon Semi-gloss Media Type.
(1) Paper is not the size you think it is. Measure your paper! I will measure. (2) Paper loading mechanism isn't loading the paper properly (or straight). The loading mechanisms aren't perfect so they may load the paper a bit too far to one side (or even crooked). If it were a physical issue, the issue would persist outside of Qimage. (3) The driver doesn't have the proper margins stored in its selection for the media size you selected. I put this last because I've only seen it once, but after ruling out the first two, this is the only other option. Remember that Qimage gets all specifications for the paper from the driver and that includes the non-printable margins. Ruling out the first two scenarios, the only way Qimage can be wrong when centering a print in IntelliCenter is if the driver itself is wrong. Question: Wouldn't this mean consistent results (success or failure), regardless of app I am using? As long as people realize, this is not good advice in general. Sometimes you get the right results... for the wrong reason. IntelliCenter centers prints on the physical paper; it works even if the non-printable margins are not equal. Center placement mode centers prints within the printable area, so when using Center placement, if you have a half inch non-printable margin on the bottom and a .25 inch margin on the top (which is common for some printers/papers), the Center placement option will not center the print on the page. It will be too high on the page due to the larger bottom margin. IntelliCenter on the other hand, will center the print even in that situation where the non-printable margins are unequal, provided you don't make the print so large that it is impossible to center it given those unequal margins. If your printer does have equal non-printable margins on the left/right and top/bottom, both center and IntelliCenter will perform identically. IntelliCenter is what you want to use if you want the print centered on the physical paper every time. The only time it won't, as I pointed out, is if your printable area is not centered (your non-printable margins at the edges are unequal) and you do something like fill the entire printable area with a print (fit to page). In that case, you've filled a non-centered printable area with a print and there is no "slack" to move it to the center so no placement option will be able to center your print. But for most printing such as printing an 11x17 on 13x19 paper, an 8x10 on 8.5x11 paper, and so on, IntelliCenter will work perfectly. Now, if it doesn't work, the fault does not lie with Qimage as there are other issues that can cause what you describe! These are listed below in order of probability. (1) Paper is not the size you think it is. Measure your paper! I cannot stress this enough as I see it all the time. You buy a pack of 13x19 paper, print, and the print isn't centered. Get a tape measure and measure it. More than half the time when someone has this exact complaint, I'll get a response saying that the customer is shocked and the paper measured something different, say 12.75 x 13.1 inches. One tell-tale sign that this is the problem is when I ask them to turn on "Print Preview" in the driver so you get a driver preview before the print is actually printed. They usually find that the driver preview shows the print centered but when it comes out of the printer, it isn't. That's proof that Qimage has done it's job and the driver thinks the print should be centered: the reason it isn't is because the paper is not the size you told the driver! (2) Paper loading mechanism isn't loading the paper properly (or straight). The loading mechanisms aren't perfect so they may load the paper a bit too far to one side (or even crooked). (3) The driver doesn't have the proper margins stored in its selection for the media size you selected. I put this last because I've only seen it once, but after ruling out the first two, this is the only other option. Remember that Qimage gets all specifications for the paper from the driver and that includes the non-printable margins. Ruling out the first two scenarios, the only way Qimage can be wrong when centering a print in IntelliCenter is if the driver itself is wrong. Mike Title: Re: XPS driver works / Qimage Intelli-center: Not So Much [Solved the Problem] Post by: admin on July 24, 2020, 05:15:39 AM On 2 and 3... not necessarily, on both counts. Other software doesn't have the capability of Qimage so most don't care about non-printable margins: they know they can't print there so they don't care. When you say "center" in another program, they could be centering within the printable area because they don't care about where they can't print. I looked at the non-printable margins for 11x17 paper size on the Pro-1000 as an example. The margins are not equal. They are .1333 on the left, .1350 on the right and .1175 on the top, .1975 on the bottom. If you use "Center", it will center the print within that area and your print will end up being too far to the top and too close to the left edge (leaving larger margins on the bottom and the right sides). In fact, the margins were biased in that same direction (not centered) for all the media sizes I looked at.
You seem to be getting the opposite of that (at least left to right) which tells me one of two things is happening: either your paper is loading too far to the right (facing the printer) and printing with simple "Center" positioning compensates for that small offset by accident (it shouldn't be centered but it is due to error in paper loading)... Or, the paper is a slightly different size than what is being chosen in the driver or in Qimage's media size. As a reminder, turn on print preview in the Canon driver: get an on-screen depiction of what that page is supposed to look like before it even prints. Does it look centered on that driver preview when using IntelliCenter? If the driver preview shows centered but you don't get a centered print, that rules out bad driver internals: it means either the paper is the wrong size or the printer isn't loading the paper properly. Mike |