HP z3100 Printing Problem

[ocm3]

Greetings

I am struggling with a print issue with my new Z3100.  

It appears that when an image is printed that contains both raster and vector data with the layout set to landscape, and using a paper width that causes the print to be rotated (printing a 36x24 image on a 24 inch roll), the first inch or so of raster data is omitted from the print.  This only manifests itself if the raster data extends all the way to the leading (right) edge of the print.

This problem appears to be with the printer driver as it occurs with more than one application, currently I have tried both ESRI ArcGIS and Adobe Acrobat Pro.  The problem also shows in the print preview that can be enabled in the driver dialogue box.  It does not appear in the print preview of either application.

The problem also does not occur when all the data is either vector or raster, nor does it occur when the paper is wide enough that the leading edge of the print is the top of the image.

I have tried various combinations of settings with the driver to no avail.  I can get Acrobat to print the whole image if I set the Acrobat's page setup to automatically rotate and center the print.  My guess is that this works because Acrobat is rotating the print before it is sent to the driver.

Has anyone else encountered, or solved, this problem?  I am still waiting to hear back from HP.

Thanks,

Chuck

[Panascape]

Chuck, I have found that edge to edge printing does not work on all media, as the printer seems to have a margin on the paper edge.

[ocm3]

I guess I should have been more clear.

I am not trying to do full bleed prints, the graphic is completely inside the printer margins for the paper selected.  The problem is that the all of the vector data prints while a portion of the leading edge of the raster data is omitted.

I have attached some screen shots of the print previews that illustrate the problem.  If you look at the leading edge of the 24 inch print you will notice that about 1.5 inches of the blue fill has been omitted.  The HP previews are consistent with what actually gets printed.

Chuck

[Panascape]

I must admint that I have not seen this on my side. Are you printing from a Mac or Pc?

[ocm3]

I am working on a pc platform, Windows XP sp2
My main applications are ESRI ArcGis ArcMap 9.2 and Adobe Acrobat Acrobat Pro 7
My Printer is a 44" Z3100 with firmware v. TR12-RO_4.1.0.2
Printer Driver is v. 60.63.42.0 20 Dec 2006
The printer is connected via a network

I expect to have the HP-GL-2/RTL upgrade soon and will report if that makes a difference.

Thanks

Chuck

[Panascape]

Sorry I can't be of more assitance but all my printing is from corel or indesign.

[Tom.D.Arch]

I realize that your real problem is that you want to generate these mixed raster/vector documents from your ESRI app, but I am curious about something, if you are interested in a little experiment.  Would you be able to create a similar document another apps such as Illustrator (or even Word !?!?) I'm wondering wether the problem is always present with the driver or if the problem is rooted in how ARC is creating the files.  If it is showing up in the preview, you might not even need to print anything to see if the problem occurs with these other files.

(I should explain that as an architect who is looking at the Z3100 (to be paid for by printing line drawings and presentation boards), I am quite interested in this problem.  It's nice to hear some feedback from someone who is printing graphics on these printers - even if it isn't such good feedback...)

[ocm3]

Tom (and others interested in this problem)

The problem defiantly appears to be with the pcl driver.  First of all I should note that all the files that I have tried print correctly on my DesignJet 800 using it's standard windows driver.

As Tom suggested I created a test image as an emf file, I don't have Illustrator and emf files easily import into other windows programs and preserve vector data.  The problem persists when trying to print the emf file also.

The solution seems to be the HP-GL/2 upgrade.  I installed it yesterday and it seems to have solved the  problem.  As a test I tried an aerial image with parcel data overlaid with some additional parcels having a translucent fill (raster on top of vector on top of raster) and it prints correctly.

My reason for getting the Z3100 was image permanence, the 800 is a good printer but, like Tom, I have clients that want to display their maps.  I have only had the Z3100 for a week, and other than the raster/vector issue I have been happy with it.  Print processing times, even using HP-GL/2, are significantly shorter than with the 800.

I hope this helps anyone in the AEC or GIS community who are considering this printer.

Chuck

[Tom.D.Arch]

Chuck,  thanks for the feedback!  I'm a little confused on two points though!

First, what application did you use to create the .emf file?

Second, with the HP/GL2 upgrade, what format file were you plotting from (.pdf? HP/GL2?) and were you specifically selecting the HP/GL2 driver (or did the mere presence of the HP/GL2 upgrade do the trick?)

OH! one more thing!  For pure vector drawings (aka 'line drawings') what sort of print times are you seeing?  (90% of our plots are Arch D 24"x36") If you have tried draft/fastest mode, how do the drawings look and how long were they taking?  Thanks!

[Lije]

Chuck,  thanks for the feedback!  I'm a little confused on two points though!

First, what application did you use to create the .emf file?

Second, with the HP/GL2 upgrade, what format file were you plotting from (.pdf? HP/GL2?) and were you specifically selecting the HP/GL2 driver (or did the mere presence of the HP/GL2 upgrade do the trick?)

OH! one more thing!  For pure vector drawings (aka 'line drawings') what sort of print times are you seeing?  (90% of our plots are Arch D 24"x36") If you have tried draft/fastest mode, how do the drawings look and how long were they taking?  Thanks!
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Hi
Try flattening the whole image first in photoshop.