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Author Topic: Prints 148" long, possible without rip?  (Read 5689 times)

uaiomex

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Prints 148" long, possible without rip?
« on: December 11, 2008, 01:41:18 pm »

I need to print a few 148"X24" in my Epson 7600. I'm using CS3 in a latest MBP. Is this possible to do without a rip? If not, What would be the cheapest way to do it?
Thanks in advance
Eduardo
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Schewe

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Prints 148" long, possible without rip?
« Reply #1 on: December 11, 2008, 01:51:17 pm »

No, you will not be able to print that big from Photoshop...the driver limit for Mac is 93.75 inches. You will need a rip.
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uaiomex

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Prints 148" long, possible without rip?
« Reply #2 on: December 11, 2008, 01:54:19 pm »

Thanks for your quick response, Jeff.
Is QImage a good inexpensive alternative?
Thanks you much
Eduardo


Quote from: Schewe
No, you will not be able to print that big from Photoshop...the driver limit for Mac is 93.75 inches. You will need a rip.
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uaiomex

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Prints 148" long, possible without rip?
« Reply #3 on: December 11, 2008, 02:15:09 pm »

Oops! - I just learned Qimage is Windows only. No problem I can print from my PC, but I can find in their website anything about size limits
Eduardo


Quote from: uaiomex
Thanks for your quick response, Jeff.
Is QImage a good inexpensive alternative?
Thanks you much
Eduardo
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Doombrain

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Prints 148" long, possible without rip?
« Reply #4 on: December 11, 2008, 03:00:06 pm »

do you have illustrator? it's possible with that.

you can setup tiling to trick the driver. all you need to do in the Epson driver is divide the job up in to equal page lengths none going over 90" (to save media)
make sure you check on 'save roll media' and use the 'roll - banner' option.
res the job to 180ppi

I've run 13 meters before on a 7600 through the driver. be warned, the file sizes will be massive.
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Jeff-Grant

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Prints 148" long, possible without rip?
« Reply #5 on: December 11, 2008, 03:07:46 pm »

I run Qimage with Parallels on a Mac. That's the good news. The bad news is that Qimage uses the standard Windows Epson driver so any limits apply.
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Cheers,
 Jeff  www.jeff-grant.com

uaiomex

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Prints 148" long, possible without rip?
« Reply #6 on: December 11, 2008, 03:08:25 pm »

Worth a try. I'm not very computer literate though. I just got answered by Qimage site. They say I can print to that lenght size (Win XP) as long as I have the resources.
Thanks Doombrain

Eduardo


Quote from: Doombrain
do you have illustrator? it's possible with that.

you can setup tiling to trick the driver. all you need to do in the Epson driver is divide the job up in to equal page lengths none going over 90" (to save media)
make sure you check on 'save roll media' and use the 'roll - banner' option.
res the job to 180ppi

I've run 13 meters before on a 7600 through the driver. be warned, the file sizes will be massive.
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Scott Martin

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Prints 148" long, possible without rip?
« Reply #7 on: December 11, 2008, 03:16:11 pm »

Quote from: uaiomex
I need to print a few 148"X24" in my Epson 7600. Is this possible to do without a rip?
You bet - there is a way! I have a client (www.ansenseale.com) that's been installing ~100 foot long prints in galleries made from 24" Epson printers without a RIP for many years now. Epson's driver limitation is a *per page* limitation, so, if you chop an image up and put the pieces onto several pages in a multi-page application like Adobe InDesign you can print the the whole thing seamlessly. In fact, this process can produce prints longer than most RIPs are capable of. Here's how:

1. Start with an image in Photoshop. Cut it into smaller "panels" of, say, 40 inch widths; they just have to be smaller than your printer's largest page size. Save each panel as it's own file with an approbate name.

2. Mac users with Ultrachrome printers should add a new printer using the "Roll Paper - Banner No Margins" Page Setup option. When added correctly, your printer will be listed as something like "Stylus Photo 9600 - Roll Paper - Banner No Margins." Users of newer K3 and up printers can skip this step, but will need to select the "Roll Paper - Banner No Margins" options under Page Setup prior to printing. Unfortunately, Epson is not consistent in how this banner option is selected across their different printers. Experiment as needed to find this feature for your printer.

3. Make an InDesign document with page HEIGHT EXACTLY as big as your photoshop panels are WIDE, or 40 inches to continue with our example from #1 above. Make the page width the size of your paper, like 24 inches for an Epson 7600. Create as many pages as you need to print your panorama. Place one image or "panel" per page, and turn each -90 degrees (clockwise). Use the numbers to align each panel, with their edges touching the top and bottom edges of each page. Start with the LEFT EDGE of your panorama on Page 1, and work your way to the end.

4. When setting up to print, choose your "Roll Paper - Banner No Margins" Ultrachrome printer or your "Roll Paper - Banner No Margins" Page Setup for newer printers. Configure the print dialog the way you normally would, but under the Roll Paper option, deselect "Auto Cut" and check "Save Paper" instead. This leaves absolutely no paper between one page and the next without cutting them. The printer hardware can still be set on Auto Cut, as it will be overridden by your software selection.

5. Be sure to deselect the "Collate" or "Reverse order" options, to ensure that the pages emerge in regular numerical order.

6. Make sure that you have PLENTY of ink and paper loaded!

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Scott Martin
www.on-sight.com

uaiomex

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Prints 148" long, possible without rip?
« Reply #8 on: December 11, 2008, 03:18:53 pm »

Jeff, I just got an answer from Qimage. My question was: Can I print 24"X148" with an Epson 7600 from Win XP Home? Their answer was "Yes you can as long as you have the resources"
So, I don't quite understand if your post contradicts this info or not. I was under the impression that Qimage was an application with its own drivers. Can you please get more in depth on your last post?
Thanks
Eduardo

Quote from: Jeff-Grant
I run Qimage with Parallels on a Mac. That's the good news. The bad news is that Qimage uses the standard Windows Epson driver so any limits apply.
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Tim Gray

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Prints 148" long, possible without rip?
« Reply #9 on: December 11, 2008, 03:41:27 pm »

Qimage doesn't have it's own drivers, but has the ability to very easily do what the previous poster (Onsight) laid out in detail.  Basically you specify the total size and then Qimage prints it in chunks consistent with the epson driver, borderless so they are seamless.  I"ve printed up to 7 feet with no issue.
« Last Edit: December 11, 2008, 03:43:14 pm by Tim Gray »
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Ernst Dinkla

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Prints 148" long, possible without rip?
« Reply #10 on: December 11, 2008, 03:55:09 pm »

Quote from: uaiomex
Jeff, I just got an answer from Qimage. My question was: Can I print 24"X148" with an Epson 7600 from Win XP Home? Their answer was "Yes you can as long as you have the resources"
So, I don't quite understand if your post contradicts this info or not. I was under the impression that Qimage was an application with its own drivers. Can you please get more in depth on your last post?
Thanks
Eduardo

The way to do it is with the Poster/Tiles method of Qimage. That's a similar route as described by Onsight for InDesign and there are more analogue methods for Illustrator and Coreldraw. Qimage makes it easier though as it will automatically chop up the image to manageable sizes and stitch them again at the output phase. That's the way to go beyond length, pixel and memory limits of the driver, the application you print from and possibly the OS. If the image is huge you may still hit a limit of memory though, Qimage can handle something like a 600-800 Mb file if I recall it correctly. Use an unlayered TIFF at 8 bits and if that's to big then lower resolution, As Qimage upsamples well it may not be such a loss. What they mean by resources is the memory available to Qimage. Qimage uses the printer's driver in a smart way.

The Poster/Tiles method is described in the manual, 6a of the Learn by example section.


Ernst Dinkla

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

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Schewe

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Prints 148" long, possible without rip?
« Reply #11 on: December 11, 2008, 04:12:38 pm »

Quote from: uaiomex
So, I don't quite understand if your post contradicts this info or not.
You said you were on a MacBook Pro, right? You didn't say you had access to a Windows box. My answer refers to the fact that from Photoshop using the Epson driver, you are limited to 93.75 inches on the Mac...the driver limit for Windows is much longer (don't know how much longer) but that's not what I was answering.
« Last Edit: December 11, 2008, 04:13:03 pm by Schewe »
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namartinnz

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Prints 148" long, possible without rip?
« Reply #12 on: December 11, 2008, 05:26:43 pm »

I've printed up to 6m long x 1m wide using Qimage with no problems. Saying that the resolution was around 125 dpi. Also the image was a Tiff with no LZW compression.

Neal

uaiomex

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Prints 148" long, possible without rip?
« Reply #13 on: December 11, 2008, 08:07:40 pm »

Super duper information from all your answers!
Thanks all.
Since I have some days to decide, I'll give them a thought.
Best  
Eduardo
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ssgphoto

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Prints 148" long, possible without rip?
« Reply #14 on: December 16, 2008, 10:05:16 am »

One more option is to use the colorburst RIP. They offer a free, fully operational demo for 15 days.

http://www.colorburstrip.com/demo.html

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