Ernst,
There's an often missed feature in Qimage in the tools of the batch screen.
If you want to make 5 x 7 crops for proofs, or any other size, there's a button to the right of the image called Crop Wizard.
Just check the size you want, and Qimage automatically places a crop box over your image in the size you want; either landscape or portrait.
Then it locks that size crop in CROP LOCK allowing you to leave the results as you see them, or drag a corner of the crop maintaining the print size you selected.

Fred

Hi Ernst,

I think the user interface you are looking for is similar to my and many other folks requirements. It is easily simulated in photoshop, drop you image into a new larger image to represent a page, then using the crop tool, select the area you want, including any 'white space', whatever. The existing crop facility in Qimage does not have that ease of use. The test strip is a print function, its requirement being decided at print time, so using photoshop is nowhere near the best option for carrying this out. 

If, as I was trying to do in Qimage, the requirement is to crop an image that was not as wide as the page, then the image becomes distorted to the full page width. You have to fiddle around making unnecessary data entries.

Best wishes,

Ray

Hi Terry,

I spent hours trying the various methods of getting the test strip in the way in which I wanted, following closely, in particular, Mike's instructions on the previous page, and ones of my own derivation. However, they did not work for me. There was an assumption being made , that 'the test strip must be smaller or equal to the size of the original (in both dimensions)' - the case of a ten inch print in a 17inch wide strip had not been considered. If the image is smaller, then depending on other settings, the resulting image is stretched to fit, or as I said it is distorted.

It is unnecessary to have to specify a precise size by entering numbers, which may well need copying from elsewhere, compared to sliding a resizeable selection box over the area you wish to select.  My reference to the photoshop example in the previous posting was merely to show the sort of user interface for an easy way of doing this. For a test strip purpose, it needs to be emulated in the printing side of things in Qimage. It now appears that this is not possible. Sometimes precision is needed, sometimes it is not. It is tedious to have to enter precise sizes and dimensions when they are not required.

Whether it is a mountain or a molehill depends on the viewpoint of the user. This type of posting becomes lengthy when folk do not understand the question, because not enough information is given, or they don't read or understand what is being said. This type of posting becomes lengthy because folk do not give the full information, because the assumption is made that the reader will understand what they are thinking.

Best wishes,

Ray

Terry,

The thread started with an aspect ratio action whether it was a bug or a feature is another thing. That has been removed now. There still are issues with deformed previews though. And crops that stick to the filed image.

Whether you use Original Image or a Custom Size, if one of the print page dimensions is overlapped by the selected image size and the other one not you do not get a crop on the intended size but a fill to the print page size + a crop. In all the examples of how it has to be done by Mike, Terry and Fred that is ignored as the choices are presented as either having the two print page dimensions larger or smaller than the image size choice. Just ignoring that problem doesn't help. Calling it the wrong sequence doesn't help either. It delivers no deformation but it doesn't deliver what is needed either

If you want to print an image on a wide format you will fit the image for 99% of the jobs within the size of the roll. That's why you bought a wide format. If you need a proof and it is time consuming to unload the roll you will use a strip of the roll. 3 inches is a nice size, it can be 4 inches too. That is not the problem. But if you use a strip for just one proof then use the total area of it as much as possible while keeping the 1:1 scale relation to the intended print, not the aspect ratio. To keep it simple use the total width of that roll, easy to recall a setting like that. The image however will fall within the total of that roll, that is why you bought a wide format. The image will be larger than the proof crop in the roll length dimension, 3 or 4 inch isn't much. So it will be larger in one dimension and smaller in the other dimension. And you will get the fit to page + crop you don't want.  The people in the know have shown all kinds of methods to avoid that and I can think of other methods too along that line. It is all tedious: repeating crop size reductions, setting new print page dimensions, another step to get that crop from another area of the image etc. It doesn't offer the proofs from more images on one test strip in an easy way either. Or what happens in practice too: more patches from one image printed on one proof print.

I can not create all that with Qimage's Thumbnail Actions Filter either but it goes a long way. An inclined test crop is even possible with straighten horizon tool. Changes the 1:1 resolution but I think not the original size relation. Have to test that. That tool with a mm or inch addition is all we need for proofing on a wide format.


met vriendelijke groeten, Ernst Dinkla

Try: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/

Mike,


Ever wondered why this topic activated you, Terry and Fred and nobody else at that side of the fence and only two at the other side?

Could it be that this feature is hardly used for some reason and not at all to the grade Fred had to search for in the manual?

I have not seen a list of requests that was promised a year or so ago. Maybe a poll on urgency of the requests and a poll on what users would like to see changed in existing features? It is entirely true that you are open for requests and discussions but at some point you find it very hard to recognise some logic in the arguments of others if it doesn't follow your predestined path.

That trinity thing you three have there may not be so healthy for Qimage after all. That is just a personal opinion of course.



met vriendelijke groeten, Ernst Dinkla

Try: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/

Ernst with all due respect, I do not belong to a holy trinity since only my socks are holey. Smiley
I do take issue with you, however, when you single out Terry and me as being against anyone or anything in particular.
I do also take issue when your requests are so convoluted that no one can even follow your problem.
That's why there are only THREE that reply.
I had already explained to you once before that I checked the HELP file on the test strips, not because I cannot understand them, but because I never use them. There's a difference. I do not print huge prints so my paper loss draws no tears if I have to reprint one.
Next item I must take issue...
When I get in here to try to help people, it is because I am trying to help someone achieve what I believe is a task that he/she needs done.
I have no ax to grind except when you keep coming up with the gospel according to Photo Shop and consider it a biblical publication.
If that were so, Mike would never sell a single Qimage because Photo Shop did every thing perfectly including printing.
For example, and I know you will fight to the death, spaghetti throwing at 20 paces, that you make sized files (e.g. 5 x 7, 8 x 10) in Photo Shop and then want to bring them into Qimage as such.
There is no such thing. You may size the ratio of pixels from X and Y axis to be in a 5 x 7 ratio, but that will also print at 2.5 x 3.5 and come out the same.
That's where I jump in to defend Qimage and many people that do not have/use Photo Shop by telling them that Qimage will make a perfect 5 x 7, better than Photo Shop and without image cropping.
Qimage is loaded with features that would otherwise stay obscured if I didn't try to explain how to do what they ask for in Qimage.
Except for swapping heads on subjects or making phony clouds and sky, and some cloning, Qimage can do most anything simpler and faster than you can request in your convoluted attempt to make Qimage into Photo Shop.

Trinity healthy or not for Qimage?
When Terry spends hours working on the expansion prints for Canvass print stretching and then finds time to create greeting type wrapping paper for the holidqy season all using Qimage, I think that's healthy.
When I spend time working out printer setups for those having difficulty getting them all in order and post it so others can use the information too, I think that's healthy.
When you asked about cropping to a size, I responded with the Crop Wizard.
There are two basic ways to crop. One way is to crop aesthetically, meaning crop for beauty and effect not worrying about the print size. Frame to be determined later.
The second way is to have the frame size and print size in mind, and crop for that ratio.
Both of these are simply done in Qimage.
You were offended because you felt that my offering of help was beneath you?
It might have been, but it wasn't beneath everyone's acumen.

I think I have said enough for you to understand what I do here.
It is a forum, open to all, with help and learning going on for all of us, with me especially learning; citing the new stretch and mirror borders for printing.
Never heard of such a thing before. I do now! I am grateful to those that spent time creating this feature and refining the feature.

I have great respect for your knowledge and abilities, especially in the HP large printer area, and would not demean your roll on the forum.
I expect a small percetage of that same respect from you.

With regards,
Fred

I'd like to say something, but I won't - oops! just did  

The answer is posted a few post's back, by Mike - there is a bug, he will fix it.

Fred, I respect my elders

elder flower cordial is quite nice, as is elderberry and apple pie......
 
I will ignore the rest of it.

Best wishes,

young Ray

Fred,

Isn't it a sign that noone else participated in this thread because it is a complex route to get your test strip crops done, especially if things are not falling in the sheets on a desktop machine category? Could it be that they just throw 4 smaller images on a sheet and consider that a proof because it is more of a hassle through that test print feature? Or just set a smaller size on the full width of the sheet and print half a crop and the next time the other half. Where I refer to that trinity thing it is in the sense that you are reassuring one another that it is good while I think that there are users that need Qimage for another kind of jobs than you are used to. For example depend more on the test strip function while it may not work well for them. So not holy but then the three high on a mountain.

The same goes for the Original Size subject. We have been there before.  I get all kinds of images from people. I could get a list of formats for every image that I have to print and apply the sizes in Qimage. It is just easier and delivers less faults when I get the files with the sizes they have to have in the print. And like I explained to Terry in the past you can add a size to an image in Photoshop without a resampling done. Nothing degrades that way, no flexibility in Qimage is lost. I even suggest that it would be a nice feature for Qimage to add that virtual size in inches or cm. It is nothing more than that. It is also easier for repeat jobs.  We have lost Qimage logs in the past when the default was still on the last 100 jobs. A Tiff that has the size attached at least tells me what size it probably has been. Then there is the educational aspect, a customer that has to fix the size in Photoshop is confronted with the aspect ratio. If he calls me that a 50x65 cm print must be printed at a size 110x90 cm I have to explain him that something has to be compromised. If he does it himself then he can take the time to think it over when that 110 side doesn't deliver a 90 cm side in rescaling. Next time I ask him to add 10 cm borders and he knows then that that changed the total aspect ratio. And I tell them not to resample.

I'm not a Photoshop advocate, I have some issues with its CM and never touch its printing side. I advocate Qimage on other lists. Do a search on my name and Qimage. That has been going on for at least 6 years. In this list however I ask how things have to be done and what I see as possible extentions and what doesn't work for me. Next to more general help I give from time to time. I'm not the guy to preach to the choir on Qimage's merits. I thank Mike for solutions made that help me too.

Terry's excercises in canvas wrap land could have happened three years ago. And I probably would have been supportive in defining them and trying them out. I asked for that feature then but it wasn't honored for yet unclear reasons. The reasons mentioned lost their value three weeks ago it seems. I wouldn't have made the Canvas Wrap Actions in PS then but I needed them so I made them. Been there so to speak. Have been using them for 3 years and more people use them, Qimage users among them. They do what is needed for canvas printing on wide formats.

I wasn't offended by your help but like the scout that helps the old lady to the other side of the street it helps to listen first where the other one wants to go and take that serious. The solutions you have may not work for the other person. I have respect for your efforts to help people and from time to time I learn something and use it. But not all your solutions are mine and I'm sure it is the same the other way around. A healthy situation that that is possible in Qimage.

I think when Mike calls what I have been struggling with a bug then there must have been something wrong in the tool provided. Maybe something I could define in this thread.


met vriendelijke groeten, Ernst Dinkla

Dinkla Gallery Canvas Wrap Actions for Photoshop
http://www.pigment-print.com/dinklacanvaswraps/index.html