Its even easier to save a blank white background page in any photo editor then import that in the first step instead of scanning, is it not?
I am still try to justify to my self why I need to buy this software when I have lightroom3.3 and CS5
The borders thing seems to be one of them as I don't think I could do this in the lightroom print module.
I could create ablank with ab order and save the images with borders and add them but its long winded.
Alistair.

If you have to ask that question, then I know you haven't made a print on paper using Qimage.

Fred

Hi Alistair,

It depends on what sort of printing you do, how much up-sizing, how often you run repeat jobs, if you want to print a number of images on one large sheet, etc. If you are familiar with cs5, you will find, most likely, that the qi interface is very 'different'. However, the qi tutorials and inbuilt help are quite good, and generally if you can't find what you want, provided you can describe the problem adequately, you will normally get a prompt reply from Fred, Terry, or Mike or others on here. Plus, if you go for ultimate, and you have a sensible request, the chances are that Mike will try and incorporate that idea in a future upgrade.

There is no other software that I know off, certainly at this sort of price, that will produce consistent high quality large format prints. Adobe products are very weak when it comes to printing, but if your printing is nothing larger than postcard size, say, and you are printing one per sheet, then I guess the Adobe products will handle that OK, anything larger, than there is a difference, even if _you_ can't see it.

However, when it comes to editing, if you want to work on the image details, layers masks, that sort of thing, then  I expect you will prefer to use the more feature rich adobe cs5, but if you have good images straight from camera, then staying in qi will produce far quicker prints.

So, if you are wanting to print images, then you need qi, to get the best possible results at an acceptable price.

Now, you referred to viewing distances, etc. with the older, lower res. cameras,  qi up-sizing was far better than the adobe offering. This still applies. You can severely crop an existing high res image, and still get an acceptable A3 print. You can get a decent print from a camera/phone, you can up-size a 10MB image to way beyond A3, and then you can save the job, the layout, whatever, and recall it when required.

It's horses for courses....


Best wishes,

Ray

ps - info more eloquently supplied here - http://ddisoftware.com/tech/articles/march-2010-smart-photo-printing/

This matches my experience when printing severe crops.  Even in a 4x6, you can see the effects of Qimage interpolation in the fine detail.

But I've also printed high-res images full-frame, fit-to-page on 8½x11 with & without interpolation, and I agree that it's difficult if not impossible to see the difference.  Mike notes in one of his articles that with today's high-res cameras, there's less need for interpolation.

However, interpolation is only one of many reasons to use Qimage.  Another recent thread has reminded me that cropping and/or re-sizing can be quite complicated and error-prone in other programs.  In Qimage, it's something I don't even think about.  I just do it, and print.

Good point.  Another "set it & forget it" advantage of Qimage.

Some of those test images are here, I think: http://www.ddisoftware.com/qimage/quality/

I can remember running onto this page very early on (fortunately) in my adventures with Qimage.  I didn't have a high-end camera or printer, but the downloadable test images at the above link made it crystal-clear that you can indeed see the difference between 300 ppi and 600 ppi in the final print...and if memory serves, my printer at the time was a Deskjet 9650.

Back then, I had no idea what I was doing, but I shot photos with my Canon G2, printed from Qimage, and got great results.  What a bargain.

You can use the same trick of using  a plain image for making uneven borders too.
Terry

You forgot to go to FREEHAND MODE, or, you are not dragging the image on to the same page.
When using freehand mode, double clicking to get them into the queue doesn't work. They must be dragged.

I know, I do that double click all the time...

I don't know which Qimage you are using, but you need the print properties box to change sizes.
You must deselect the previous prints so they do not change sizes when you change sizes for the subsequent prints.

Tell me exactly what is happening when you try to follow the steps 1-5.
It even says to DRAG the images in the steps.
Should be easy to track your moves.

Fred