Overdrive is a Qimage Ultimate feature that allows you to send data to the driver at twice the driver's native PPI.  It is not available in Qimage One.

Some of the Canon drivers allow you to enable 1200 PPI directly in the driver.  Sometimes you have to click "Print Options" from the Page Setup tab of the driver and set "Prevention of Print Data Loss" to "Off" to be able to get the driver to actually run at 1200 PPI.  It doesn't look like the Pro-200 driver offers that option even though you can do it on the Pro-100.

Have you tried printing 24 images on your lenticular sheet?  Qimage will allow you to print as many images as you like no matter what resolution so it's not like you can't print 24 images.  You can print them and I doubt there would be a significant difference because the printer cannot produce 1200 PPI full color images anyway.  Meaning, at a high enough magnification to be able to see 600 vs 1200 PPI, you are going to see ink dots.

And a final option is, if your images are high enough resolution, you could always turn interpolation "off".  That will send the images at full resolution.

Regards,
Mike

Thanks for your reply.
As I said, I already succesfully printed 1200 ppi images with the Qimage demo version, using the overdrive setting. Surely it should work with the licenced version then!
Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't and the only explanation I could think of was that it was a memory issue.

Now I tried loading the image from hard drive instead of using the Photoshop plugin. No difference, I just get 12 images. Pro-200 is a terrific printer and on glossy paper it makes a big difference whether it's 1200 ppi or 600 ppi. On 30 lpi sheet I was actually able to get a whopping 40 images and in the finished 3D picture I was able even count them all (objects that "hover" very var from the surface, so the difference between each image is noticeable).

I'm testing this with a very small images, so now it's definitely not about shortage of memory either. So any ideas what to try next?

You have some odd assumptions that are just not true so I'm going to need to know more about the specifics.  Printers only care about input resolution and final print size.  You have an image with a certain resolution (doesn't matter what it is) and you want to print that image at a certain size (doesn't matter what that is).  Qimage can take any image and print it at any size you select so it is not true that Qimage "can't print" at the size you need: it can print any image at any size and it can put 24 images on any size media.

Now let's talk about resolution.  In your last example, you say 1200 PPI means 24 lines per each lenticule on a 50 lpi sheet.  So that's simply 12 lines per lenticule at 600 PPI: but Qimage can still print the 24 images at the same size as it did at 1200 PPI.

Now let's look at my example.  You have 24 images that are 1200x1200 resolution and you intend to print them at 1x1 inch on a 6x4 inch lenticular sheet (borderless).  So you add each image at a size of 1x1 inch and you get 6x4=24 images.  It makes no difference whether you have Qimage set to 300, 600, or 1200 PPI: there will be 24 images on that 6x4 sheet no matter what resolution you choose.

With that said, if you select "Overdrive 1200 PPI" in Qimage, it will send 1200 PPI to the driver.  There is no path where Qimage can not read the full resolution: it's job is to take all the pixels in the image and spread them out to whatever print size you choose.  Each of your 24 images prints at a specific size: set that size when you add the 24 images and make sure the resolution says "Overdrive 1200 PPI" and Qimage will send those images at 1200 PPI regardless of image resolution.

So let's get to the real meat here.  You haven't discussed what really matters when doing any printing (regular or lenticular printing): what is the resolution of the images you are printing and what is the print size for each of your 24 images?

Mike

I was afraid this would happen: all that explanation and you still didn't answer my question.  I need to know the resolution of the original image and the final print size.  And I don't mean 1200 PPI.  What is the pixel resolution of the original image you are printing (X and Y pixel dimensions) and the final size you are printing with Qimage?

I have done some lenticular printing but it was about 15 year ago.  Still have some sheets here.  Up until now, you've been talking about putting 24 "images" onto one lenticular sheet.  I didn't take that to mean you have a 24 frame lenticular image but now I see what you meant once you specified 24 frame.  I've seen people print small lenticular stickers, large lenticulars, etc. and I had no idea what you are doing because so far you are asking us technical questions without any information on how you are actually using Qimage.  But the bottom line is the same.  Qimage could not care less what is in the image you print: it takes the pixels in the original image and spreads them out so they fit in 1200 PPI (if you are using Overdrive 1200).  Period.  Qimage has no other job.  So in Qimage, you are taking an image of unknown pixel dimensions and printing it at an unknown print size.  I'd like to know those values because those two values are the only ones that matter (along with your overdrive 1200 selection).

So if you have ANY image and you print it at 8x10 with overdrive 1200 selected, Qimage will send the driver 9600 x 12000 pixels and tell the driver to print that in a size of 8x10.  I don't care if every pixel in that 9600 x 12000 image is black or there are 24 alternating frames in that image: it is printed the same.  If you prepare your lenticulars correctly at your desired 1200 PPI, an image intended for 8x10 will have 9600 x 12000 pixels so if you use overdrive 1200, the output resolution matches the input and Qimage does no interpolation (none is needed because the pixels all align).  But if your original is 4800 x 6000, Qimage is still going to send 1200 PPI (9600 x 12000) to the driver for an 8x10: 75% of the pixels will just be interpolated.

I think you've already found out the problem is not Qimage.  You say the demo worked and then all of a sudden didn't work (even before you got the registered version: which prints the same BTW).  So that means you have a problem outside of Qimage.  Per my examples, I can tell you one thing for sure and this is the bottom line: if you have Overdrive 1200 PPI selected in Qimage, Qimage will send 1200 PPI to the driver.  Now there could be other problems here which is why I asked for the specifics (image resolution and print size).  One other problem could be that the Pro-200 driver always runs at 600 PPI internally.  There is no way around that.  So Qimage can send 1200 PPI to that driver but there is no guarantee that the driver won't immediately step it down to 600 PPI internally because it doesn't have a 1200 PPI native mode like the Pro-100.  I don't have a Pro-200 so I can't check physical output.  Lastly, you cannot get 1200 PPI of information on any media with any printer whether the driver supports it or not.  The media cannot handle it and neither can the printer hardware.  If you are doing something that truly relies on 1200 PPI resolution, you are going to be disappointed because no inkjet photo printer can exceed about 800 PPI of actual detail with any scrutiny.  At 1200 PPI, you can only fit 4 printer dots of one primary color into each lenticular frame line.  That is far fewer than needed to make a full color "pixel".

And if you print in landscape mode, the printer can only lay 2 dots per line.  Have you considered that?  The Pro-200 is 4800x2400 so if you print a lenticular portrait and then print one landscape, the landscape print will be half the resolution in the X direction.

Anyway, if you hold your mouse over the thumbnail of the image you intend to print, it'll show you the resolution on the bottom EXIF bar in Qimage: then you'll know how many pixels Qimage sees in the original.  We need that... and the print size you are choosing.

Mike

Okay, maybe we're getting somewhere. I must say I don't understand what's the relevance of the image dimension because this is a general issue regardless of the printed image size. For example, now I've printed different sized details of the same image and the same info always applies.

But okay, let's take the test image I last used: Pixel dimensions 2016 x 2018, resolution 1200 ppi, which means 42,67 x 46,74 millimeters. Lenticular lines are horizontal. This is all set in Photoshop.

Setting in qimage:
Original size (so the same dimensions as before)
Media type: Photo paper pro platinum
Media size: A4
Orientation: Portrait
Printer profile: Let printer/driver manage color
Printer setup (Pro-200 driver): Photo print, Print quality custom-1 (highest accuracy), Photo paper pro platinum
Printer setup (qimage): Interpolation Forge (have tried others), Antialias off, Overdrive for both normal prints and poster, print sharpening off, spool all pages

I believe these are the max quality settings in each department. The same settings I originally used, when I DID get the 1200 ppi print (except I probably didn't mess with the Qimage printing options under Printer setup).
If the source image size changes, it doesn't affect anything when I print in original size which is defined in the file itself (TIFF format or exported to qimage from Photoshop).

Yes, the problem seems to be outside of Qimage. To my understanding there has been no update to the printer's own driver and since I already got 1200 ppi out from it, the driver can't be the problem. Now that I mentioned it, I can check if I can find an older version. It's a long shot though.

Also, if I was able to get 1200 ppi with the native driver, I never would have needed Qimage. I understand the point of the overdrive mode is to double the native max output resolution anyway.

It's Qimage One and Forge interpolation is the first choice in the list (quality 10, speed 1).
Yeah, perhaps you're right and I didn't get 1200 ppi and it was something else. It's not possible to see 1200 ppi with the naked eye, but in the finished lenticular image it's possible to actually count the frames. I printed a picture with 30 lpi lens and to my recollection I was able to count 40 frames - this would only be possible if it's a 1200 ppi print. Unfortunately I don't have that particular picture anymore so I could check.

Why is it that pixma pro-200 cannot produce 1200 ppi output? It offers the same 4800 x 2400 max dpi as pixma pro-10, which does produce 1200 ppi. I had test prints from Canon for three models: pro-10, pro-200 and pro-300. Pro-10 was the only one with 1200 ppi (I'm sure of this), but I chose to buy pro-200 because the overall print quality was clearly sharpest of the three. And because I understood that with Qimage you can double that native 600 ppi.

If it's not because of the max dpi resolution, what is the hardware limitation?

And when does the Qimage overdrive actually produce twice the ppi that the native driver offers? Say the native driver supports 1200 ppi, why do you need the overdrive since you can just choose the max setting to get 1200?

Here is a test I just ran on the Canon G620 and scanned at 1200 PPI.  The G620 is not even a pro printer and it's max driver resolution is 600 PPI but it still shows a small detail difference when you use overdrive.  Notice how only the high contrast detail is improved like the black numbers in the clock and the black and white cloth on the left.  Other areas like the person's hand, golf balls, etc. look the same and at this level of magnification you can see why: there just aren't enough printer dots to resolve full color but contrasty light/black areas can benefit.  Overall you wouldn't really look at the one on the right and deem it as a better print unless you were looking at this extreme magnification and looking in very specific areas.  The whole print from left to right here is 13mm wide (half inch) so this is an extreme magnification of the print.

Original image was 3600 pixels wide, printed at 3 inches across so the original had 1200 PPI worth of data.

Mike