Any image layout editor / tool for iPF 8xxx series printers

[msoomro]

I am looking for a tool that can help layout multiple images on a single print job / Sheet. (similar to what Imageprint by colorbyte offers for Epson printers). What methods are others using to put multiple images on single sheets

A colleague referred Qimage, however after reading about it and watching their videos I am not able to confirm if Qimage can do a pass thorugh, i.e. only handle the image layouts and not 'touch' the image in any other way.

Thanks

[Jeff Magidson]

I use lightroom, I can get it to do 90% of what I need for layouts. If I need to work with Type, I manually set things up in Photoshop.

[Scott Martin]

Lightroom and ImageNest are both excellent, depending on your needs.

[msoomro]

Thanks Jeff:  I use LR however only for cataloging. In the color management tab is there a way to control where color management happens.  I'd want to color manage by LR and explicitly disable printer driver handling color.

[msoomro]

Thanks Scott: ImageNest looks neat. Doesn't look like it supports Windows platform though

[Jeff Magidson]

In LR, color management for printing happens in the Print module, there you can select the printing profile you want to use and the rendering intent. You then disable the printers color management in the print driver. 

~ Jeff

http://artslidesboston.com

[Scott Martin]

I'd want to color manage by LR and explicitly disable printer driver handling color.

Right and that's common/no problem in LR….

[jrsforums]

I am looking for a tool that can help layout multiple images on a single print job / Sheet. (similar to what Imageprint by colorbyte offers for Epson printers). What methods are others using to put multiple images on single sheets

A colleague referred Qimage, however after reading about it and watching their videos I am not able to confirm if Qimage can do a pass thorugh, i.e. only handle the image layouts and not 'touch' the image in any other way.

Thanks

I am not sure what you mean by " not touch in any way"

It is easy to turn off smart sharpen....just set it to '0'.

Resizing will depend on how carefully you select the same size.  If you set up 2"x3" 300ppi image in PS...and sharpened as such, a couple things can happen.  First, you will need to select the same size.  If you select 4"x6", it will be resized on output....not the actual image, just the output to the printer.  The other thing is the native PPI requested by the printer.  If you are using Canon, it will be 300ppi...if you have it properly set.  If you are using Epson, it will be 360 or 720.  Qimage will resize the output for that using sophisticated interpolation algorithms.  If Qimage did not do that, the printer would do it anyway, with routines that are not particularly as good.

The way I, and many others, us Qimage is to not worry about print size or final sharpening.  Get the image, at its native size to look right on the screen....sharpened the way you want it to look.  The send the jpeg or TIFF to Qimage.  Whatever size you print at or whatever printer you use, Qimage will resize it...up or down...and will add the correct amount of smart sharpening and/or anti-aliasing that is need to make the print look the way you wanted it to look.  If different papers need more or less sharpening, you can experiment until you get it the waty you want for that paper.  Once you do, Qimage will remember that setting every time you use that paper.

John

[msoomro]

Thanks John, its quite helpful. I'll experiment a bit and see what settings work for me.

\msoomro

[Ernst Dinkla]

A colleague referred Qimage, however after reading about it and watching their videos I am not able to confirm if Qimage can do a pass thorugh, i.e. only handle the image layouts and not 'touch' the image in any other way.

Thanks

For Tiffs, Jpegs, it is an ideal pass through program for printing. Flexible and transparent in the printing phase and OFF is OFF in the settings. With CM off you can also print profile targets without any color management influence, unlike the Adobe programs.

For RAWs it is not a pass through program , like in any other program the RAWs get a treatment to make them usable for printing etc and that treatment is in Qimage style. Their integrity is not altered though. So nothing is lost but you can not use the piggy back file of another RAW developer as a base for printing that RAW through Qimage. Nor can you do that the other way around. With whatever two programs I guess. A 16 bit flattened Tiff is a good archive format for edited images and a good starting point for what you would like.

--
Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst

http://www.pigment-print.com/spectralplots/spectrumviz_1.htm
July 2013, 500+ inkjet media white spectral plots.

[jrsforums]

For Tiffs, Jpegs, it is an ideal pass through program for printing. Flexible and transparent in the printing phase and OFF is OFF in the settings. With CM off you can also print profile targets without any color management influence, unlike the Adobe programs.

For RAWs it is not a pass through program , like in any other program the RAWs get a treatment to make them usable for printing etc and that treatment is in Qimage style. Their integrity is not altered though. So nothing is lost but you can not use the piggy back file of another RAW developer as a base for printing that RAW through Qimage. Nor can you do that the other way around. With whatever two programs I guess. A 16 bit flattened Tiff is a good archive format for edited images and a good starting point for what you would like.

--
Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst

http://www.pigment-print.com/spectralplots/spectrumviz_1.htm
July 2013, 500+ inkjet media white spectral plots.

Sh......shucks......forgot about 'off'. :-)

[msoomro]

H Ernst/John: Where  do i set CM to OFF within Qimage. I have set it off in the printer properties dialog for IPF i.e. Color Mode = No Color Correction. Is that what you are referring to when you mention -

   Flexible and transparent in the printing phase and OFF is OFF in the settings.

thx

[Ernst Dinkla]

H Ernst/John: Where  do i set CM to OFF within Qimage. I have set it off in the printer properties dialog for IPF i.e. Color Mode = No Color Correction. Is that what you are referring to when you mention -

   Flexible and transparent in the printing phase and OFF is OFF in the settings.

thx

Down left click on the Printer ICC profile entry and select OFF, a pop up menu explains that the setting is used for profile target printing. Keep your printer driver CM choice on "Let application manage color" or similar phrased setting. Qimage will not do that with CM OFF and the driver will not do it as it expects Qimage to do it. Windows as the OS will not interfere either. It can be different on OS-X, which doesn't run Qimage anyway.

There are more choices on color management in Qimage, from the Wide Inkjet Printers forum:

> 1/ CM-Off = Qimage doesn't convert the file, sends the plain RGB data to
> the driver so with the color space profile stripped from the file.
>
> In that mode it will also not assign a colorspace to an untagged file,
> for example a target file for profile creation. And Windows will not
> assign a profile either, it leaves that task to applications.
>
> 2/ Let printer manage color = Qimage does the above but the color space
> profile isn't stripped from the file so the printer driver CM can do
> something sensible with the file.
>
> 3/ Qimage CM on, Qimage does the conversion and sends the converted data
> to the printer driver, expecting that the last's CM is set to Let
> application do CM, so in fact with the driver's CM off..
>
> In both 2 and 3 Qimage could assign a colorspace to an untagged file
> based on EXIF data, camera model as an educated guess or without any
> hint available it will assign a color space, the default sRGB or a
> preferred choice of the user, say AdobeRGB or nothing if the user
> doesn't like guesswork.
>
> The printer driver has usually two choices: let driver do CM and the
> other one let application do CM. With appication CM set the driver will
> do no conversion at all and expects that the application does the work.
> That is also the setting you will use to transfer targets through with
> Qimage on CM off. When the driver does CM it will expect files with
> certain colorspaces, my Z3200 can be set on AdobeRGB or sRGB, the PS
> driver has more spaces. The conversion happens to LUTs in the driver so
> not with ICC profiles.

End of quote.

And even that does not cover all Qimage color management choices. When more images are nested on the print page you can alter the profile or rendering choice per image in that page. The first is a nice way to check different profiles for the same paper but hardly used in practice, the last is one that allows you to give one image perceptual rendering while the other images stay on relative colormetric, as an example.

--
Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst

http://www.pigment-print.com/spectralplots/spectrumviz_1.htm
July 2013, 500+ inkjet media white spectral plots.

[Ernst Dinkla]

Sh......shucks......forgot about 'off'. :-)

Well we know of situations where CM OFF was not exactly CM OFF and delivered endless threads in forums :-)
 
--
Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst

http://www.pigment-print.com/spectralplots/spectrumviz_1.htm
July 2013, 500+ inkjet media white spectral plots.

[msoomro]

Wow. This is SO helpful Thanks Ernst. So much to learn ... :-)

I didn't realize I can alter profile / rendering intent per image on same page when printing nested. This is quite interesting specially for experiment with render intents

thanks
msoomro

[msoomro]

Just a quick update:  I did few test prints and I like what i am getting from QU. Exactly what i was looking for from nesting perspective.  Thanks again for all the help/advices

I also played a bit with the sharpening features and compared with my current sharpening tools/workflow. Results are encouraging although I need to do more tests.

thx
msoomro