Changing Border Sizes

[JohnKoerner]

Although I have purchased the "From Camera to Print" tutorial, these videos encompass CS2 and CS3, and I have CS4, so there are some differences I am having a bit of trouble with.

One of them is the fact I can't seem to change the border size for my prints on my Epson 3880. When I click File > PageSetup the default settings for the border are 0.116 (all the way around), so I see where they are, but for some reason they are locked and I cannot change them. I tried to follow the tutorial in this regard, but CS4 is totally different from CS2 & 3 in how to do so.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Jack

[Pete Berry]

It sounds as if you may not be sizing your prints for the borders you want in PS, and allowing the printer to maximize the print size using its minimum border widths. If this isn't the case, then is the "scale to fit media" - or equivalent box - checked?

If for some reason you do not want to set the borders in PS by print sizing, if you uncheck "center image" in the CS4 Print page the manual settings become active. But unless you have sized the print first, you will probably get unintended cropping. I use the manual border feature when I want to offset a sized print, eg in printing two images on different ends of the same sheet.

Pete

[Pete Berry]

Jack, I didn't read you post carefully enough. I find Page Setup totally useless in CS4, and go straight to Print, which brings up the page I referenced in the previous post. You will note, if you uncheck "center image" that the margins quoted don't match the final result on the print. Eg, printing a sized 16x20 image on 17x22 paper should give you .5" margins on one axis, and 1.0" on the other. But CS4 (and other PS programs in the past) gives me the margins as .388" and .888" - which is what you get if you subtract the mimimum printable margins for my iPF500 from the actual margin.

On the CS4 "Print" page, if you select "Pg Setup" you go directly to the driver to continue setup, but the PS print page remains active if you want manipulate borders and placement.

Pete

[Schewe]

Since you say "Page Setup" I'm presuming you are on a Mac (useful if you indicate your OS since the instructions are a bit different. Under Page Setup on Mac, at the very bottom should be a menu item called Manage Custom Sizes, see it? Click on it and you can create a new page size with whatever margin you want as long as it's at least as big as the printer's minimum margen as reported to the OS. I prefer 1" all around. From then on in Page Setup select your custom paper size with the custom margins...

[Pete Berry]

"Page Setup" is one of the choices under "File" in PC systems running CS4 (Vista 32 bit for me), but it's totally worthless as an entry if your intended printer is, as mine, not the default, which is my fax/printer, as there is no printer choice. The only choices you can make otherwise are paper size, orientation and feed path, with the margin fields grayed out, and no entry.

The other CS4 choice under "file" is the "Print" page, which brings up the image preview, printer choice, centering (unchecking activates the top and left border margins), scaling, color management, and "Page Setup" which thankfully is an entry into your printer driver than back to the useless PS screen above.

But no "Manage Custom Sizes" to be found outside of the driver.

Pete

[JohnKoerner]

Pete, thanks for the help, I really appreciate it.

And, Jeff, thank you too. As Pete said, "Page Setup" is a function of Windows also (BTW, I am running Windows 7 64-bit), under "File" in Photoshop. It is actually this function I was talking about, where there are numeric references to the border sizes, but which I cannot alter for some reason.

I have actually figured out my own way to handle it, and that is by creating (say) an 8.5 x 11 blank white .tff and setting a re-sized, smaller image on top of it with the exact borders I want. This also allows me to write a small label such as "Horseshoe Beach, FL" under it if I feel it's appropriate.

Once again, thank you both for taking the time,

Jack