Print Log for LR?

[Richh]

Printing is LR seems to work great, but I'm often wishing there was an elegant (and automatic) way to save the printing instructions each time I print a file--and not just see the last printing setup. That way, I wouldn't loose all the settings (both Develop Mode and Print Mode settings) for Print #1 when I go in and tweak an image and print it as #2. I suppose I could make a virtual copy of the image but it would be nice to have LR 'remember' each print in much the same way as the History Panel in the Develop Module tracks each change in the development process. It would be nice to see a Print History box with the time and date. Then, by clicking on that print job, you could see all of the settings used to make that print. Maybe even job notes--who knows.

Is there a print history panel I've hidden somewhere? (Something like Spoolface in the Image Print RIP software.) Any suggested workflows to track the history of printing a particular image? If you save each print setup using virtual copies, is there a good file naming convention you can share? I haven't looked in LR3. Please tell me its there!

Thanks. Any ideas will be appreciated.

Rich H.

[wolfnowl]

Rich:  I'm not sure what all you're looking for, but if you create a user template in Lightroom's Print module it will remember the paper size, margins, profile, rendering intent, dpi, etc.  Beyond that, not that I'm aware of. For example, it won't remember which image(s) you printed with that template. (LR3 Beta 2)

Mike.

[JRSmit]

Printing is LR seems to work great, but I'm often wishing there was an elegant (and automatic) way to save the printing instructions each time I print a file--and not just see the last printing setup. That way, I wouldn't loose all the settings (both Develop Mode and Print Mode settings) for Print #1 when I go in and tweak an image and print it as #2. I suppose I could make a virtual copy of the image but it would be nice to have LR 'remember' each print in much the same way as the History Panel in the Develop Module tracks each change in the development process. It would be nice to see a Print History box with the time and date. Then, by clicking on that print job, you could see all of the settings used to make that print. Maybe even job notes--who knows.

Is there a print history panel I've hidden somewhere? (Something like Spoolface in the Image Print RIP software.) Any suggested workflows to track the history of printing a particular image? If you save each print setup using virtual copies, is there a good file naming convention you can share? I haven't looked in LR3. Please tell me its there!

Thanks. Any ideas will be appreciated.

Rich H.

Rich,

You can save a print "job" as a collection. This stores all the settings used at the time of creation of this collection, including a link to the images used in that print session. Assume you developed an image, then go to the print module, do all the print set up you want and when done create a collection, a print collection. Afterwards, if you then modifiy the image in the develop module and go back to the print module and recall the created colection, it will give you the complete set up including the mdoified image(if that remained the same image).
Alternatively, what wolfowl already said, you can save a print setup as a user defined template, and recall it when needed.

Regarding the use of virtual copies, i use this function extensively, i published  a paper on my website covering a controlled workflow using virtual copies, including naming conventions: http://www.fromklicktokick.com/Solutions-LR.html. Klick on the text element starting with Paper, will give you a pdf article i wrote, and should give you some food for thought.

[Richh]

Rich,

You can save a print "job" as a collection. This stores all the settings used at the time of creation of this collection, including a link to the images used in that print session.

Saving templates is great for saving layouts and I've saved and re-used a bunch. I like the functionality a lot. I use collections, too, but I fear my collection folder would runneth over if I tried to save all the iterations of each image I've printed.

What I'm hoping to find is a way to ID an image that may have been printed in a variety of ways. My goal is to open an image in the Print window and see the history of prints for that image. For example, by time and date I'd like to name images and possibly assign a description like, printed 17 X 22 on EFP. By clicking on that image, all of the Develop settings would be preserved. That way, I could go back and re-print the same image with exactly the same instructions for everything from color balance to cropping and print size. Changes made in either the Develop or Print module would be available, even if I had modified the image for other purposes later.

Maybe Create Virtual Copy is the only option. Perhaps assigning a color to copies I've printed will enable me to catalog my work as I print. The end game here, is to be able to lay 3 or 4 prints on the table and then evaluate their attributes. If #2 is the best, I'd like to be able to look up the specifics for #2 without having to reverse-engineer #4 backwards.

I appreciate the suggestions. Any other ideas?

[Schewe]

What I'm hoping to find is a way to ID an image that may have been printed in a variety of ways. My goal is to open an image in the Print window and see the history of prints for that image.

Not for nothing, but have you looked at the History of images you've printed? The printing of an image is indeed a history step that gets stored in the develop history...not that it records the exact parameters you printed with but it does indicate the exact state of the file when printed...

[wolfnowl]

Not for nothing, but have you looked at the History of images you've printed? The printing of an image is indeed a history step that gets stored in the develop history...not that it records the exact parameters you printed with but it does indicate the exact state of the file when printed...

Thanks!  I hadn't noticed that.

Mike.

[JRSmit]

Saving templates is great for saving layouts and I've saved and re-used a bunch. I like the functionality a lot. I use collections, too, but I fear my collection folder would runneth over if I tried to save all the iterations of each image I've printed.

What I'm hoping to find is a way to ID an image that may have been printed in a variety of ways. My goal is to open an image in the Print window and see the history of prints for that image. For example, by time and date I'd like to name images and possibly assign a description like, printed 17 X 22 on EFP. By clicking on that image, all of the Develop settings would be preserved. That way, I could go back and re-print the same image with exactly the same instructions for everything from color balance to cropping and print size. Changes made in either the Develop or Print module would be available, even if I had modified the image for other purposes later.

Maybe Create Virtual Copy is the only option. Perhaps assigning a color to copies I've printed will enable me to catalog my work as I print. The end game here, is to be able to lay 3 or 4 prints on the table and then evaluate their attributes. If #2 is the best, I'd like to be able to look up the specifics for #2 without having to reverse-engineer #4 backwards.

I appreciate the suggestions. Any other ideas?

The vc option will work for sure. Alternative is: the develop-history of an image keeps a record of a print action as a date-time stamp, however not the print settings used. In your case this provides a way to go back to a print time-stamp in the image history and it will give you the develop results at that point in history of that image. The only thing not covered is the print size(or any other print setting done in the print mode. But the latter can be solved with some discipline: use predefined print template for proofing and always use that one.
Hope this helps out.

[JRSmit]

The vc option will work for sure. Alternative is: the develop-history of an image keeps a record of a print action as a date-time stamp, however not the print settings used. In your case this provides a way to go back to a print time-stamp in the image history and it will give you the develop results at that point in history of that image. The only thing not covered is the print size(or any other print setting done in the print mode. But the latter can be solved with some discipline: use predefined print template for proofing and always use that one.
Hope this helps out.

Oops, in the mean time Jeff pointed to the same option, anyhow it works as well.

[Richh]

Using the history screen in the Develop Module to capture the state of an image when printed at a particular point in time is really great and something I will use. Thanks!

At present, I don't believe there is a way to view the ICC profile or layout settings from the Develop Module history pane. It would be nice to be able to right-click on the Print history step you are interested in and have the contextual option of viewing the Print Module settings in use for that particular print.

Another way to do this would be to allow one to click on a specific print history step (in the Develop Module) and then switch to the Print Module to see the print settings in place at that point in history. At present, this doesn't work.

What is confusing to me is, when I select images I know I last printed using particular papers and ICC profiles, the Print Module sometimes--but not always--displays those settings the next time I open the image in the Print Module. Unfortunately, sometimes LR seems to revert to the settings from the last image printed. If I simply want to knock out another print using the same settings as the last time I printed it, I may (or may not) need to adjust the color management settings in the Print Module. At a minimum, it would be nice for LR to default to the last settings used for the selected image, ignoring the settings for the previous image printed.

But which way is 'right'? Some of us may prefer setting color management for the paper we have in the printer and not have it jumping around every time we select a different image. Others may want to view image-specific settings as they were last used. And, of course, all of us wish LR wasn't so complicated!

Thanks again for the input. Good stuff.

Rich
 

[wolfnowl]

Using the history screen in the Develop Module to capture the state of an image when printed at a particular point in time is really great and something I will use. Thanks!

At present, I don't believe there is a way to view the ICC profile or layout settings from the Develop Module history pane. It would be nice to be able to right-click on the Print history step you are interested in and have the contextual option of viewing the Print Module settings in use for that particular print.

Another way to do this would be to allow one to click on a specific print history step (in the Develop Module) and then switch to the Print Module to see the print settings in place at that point in history. At present, this doesn't work.

What is confusing to me is, when I select images I know I last printed using particular papers and ICC profiles, the Print Module sometimes--but not always--displays those settings the next time I open the image in the Print Module. Unfortunately, sometimes LR seems to revert to the settings from the last image printed. If I simply want to knock out another print using the same settings as the last time I printed it, I may (or may not) need to adjust the color management settings in the Print Module. At a minimum, it would be nice for LR to default to the last settings used for the selected image, ignoring the settings for the previous image printed.

But which way is 'right'? Some of us may prefer setting color management for the paper we have in the printer and not have it jumping around every time we select a different image. Others may want to view image-specific settings as they were last used. And, of course, all of us wish LR wasn't so complicated!

Thanks again for the input. Good stuff.

Rich

Well, to my way of thinking, you pick a printer, size, paper, profile, rendering intent, etc. you want, and save that as a print template, then you simply insert the image('s) you want into that template.  If you have specific settings for only one photo on one paper at one size... then you can make a very specifically named template.  Alternately, as Jeff suggested you can go to your history panel in Develop for a specific image, then jump over to the Print module and things should be set up for you. YMMV!

Mike.

[BFoto]

...not that it records the exact parameters you printed with but it does indicate the exact state of the file when printed...

Would be nice to have this function, and for ALL export parameters as an "Export Snapshot" saved to the metadata.

[JRSmit]

Would be nice to have this function, and for ALL export parameters as an "Export Snapshot" saved to the metadata.

For printing i second this, something like the option to save the printsettings as a preset or template, linked to the print recording in the history of the image.