Mike Chaney's Tech Corner

Hi there!
I just got a new Epson R285 printer, and as I am running linux mainly (bibble + argyll cms), I thought to dual boot to vista and use Qimage to print my images. To my glee, qimage does the job very well - the images are very nearly the same as the output from the pro lab I use.

However, I am wondering why there is a white strip not being printed, I have set the border expansion to minimum in order to allow my crappy image border to show through, is that the reason? It does seem right in the image preview, so would this be a hardware limitation of the printer?

Thanks! If all goes well I will get Qimage and use it as my main printing solution.

Cheers!

Regards,
Alvin

PS: I've attached screenshots of qimage, as well as the physical prints.

Hi Alvin, welcome to the forum.  ;)
The simple answer is "yes", it's a common problem with borderless printing although I'm a little surprised that you have it "with border expansion to minimum" in the driver; my R800 still expands a little even on minimum.

The reason why there is expansion on the borderless setting is to allow or paper feed inaccuracy on the printer. If the white strips are consistent then it can be compensated for in Qimage by tweaking the page margin settings. I recommend that you leave the expansion setting at maximum in the driver and set Qimage to disable it from the Page Formatting-Borderless Overspray-Expansion menu.
Read Help-Contents-Qimage Functions-Borderless Overspray/Size Expansion. That tells you how to compensate for paper feed errors and white strips. Once set (you'll need to test a couple of times), save as a Print Set-Up for future use.
NB. make sure the paper guides are as snug as possible to minimise errors and improve consistency.

Terry.

Hello Terry!
Thanks for the explanation - I will test it out when I get back today (hopefully I can find a new pack of paper to test it out...) - will let you know :)

Regards,
Alvin

Hi Terry!
Just to update, your tip works perfectly. I still need to fuss with the margins to get them perfect, but the first time out with the overspray disabled works great - borders are totally in the print. Rock on! I'll get qimage next payday :)

Cheers!

Alvin

You've just been paid, it's the only Sept 2nd  ;D
I would recommend you get the Studio Edition, not only does it have several extra features over the Pro edition, it does a great job with raw files. If you're not into raw yet, Qimage SE will make it easy for you. If you are using raw, the same applies and it will simplify your work flow, print direct from raw  8)
I noticed you used a fancy border on your samples with what looked like image data printed too. You can do all that in Qimage, the fancy border with a Cutout and Floating Text for the image data etc. Make a Template for easy repeated use. This really is the top printing program with the very best support. Surely you can't resist to buy it now  :D
Terry.
PS. and I don't get commission either :'(

Hiya!
Just blew a good bit of my pay on some photo trips for october so... 4 weeks time please :):) I checked the Studio edition, I think the only thing that interests me there is the Hybrid SE sharpening? I have one print of an ocelot portrait that has some odd artifacts on the whiskers. Haven't had time to troubleshoot that yet. Raw's not too important for me as I run bibble pro in linux - I actually  reboot my system to vista in order to run Qimage ;-) Pro edition seems to be good - I'm a low volume printer anyways.
The cutout and floating text sounds very interesting, if it can get exposure data onto the prints that would be so kickass awesome :)

Thanks Terry!

Regards,
Alvin