Please Help! Crazy printing issues

[Jimmy D Uptain]

Ok, when I print from LR at 24x36, the printer just spits out 36" of paper, cuts it, all without printing anything.
If I take the same file into CS6, it prints just fine. If I open the image in preview, hit "command P", it prints just fine.
I have (to the best of my knowledge) duplicated the settings from CS6 to light room's printing dialogue, but it didn't make a difference.
The good thing is that I'm wasting plotter paper at the moment, but am about to switch over to Ilford GFS for tomorrow's printing session.
This only happens in Lightroom, so I thought this may be a good place to start.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hardware/Software Specifics:
Mac Pro 2012
Epson 7900
LR 5.3
Mavericks 10.9.1

Thanks, Jimmy

[Tony Jay]

My guess is that the problem is something very simple in the setup so it is likely a very simple solution.

I have never had quite the experience that you describe.
My suggestion is to do a screen grab of the print module exactly as you would like to have it set up for your print.
Also do another screen grab of the paper setup and the printer setup (from Lightroom) so we can see the exact details.

I am reasonably sure that the problem will then be self-evident.

Tony Jay

[Jimmy D Uptain]

Thanks Tony.
This was happening a coupe of days ago and I have since calmed down enough to be more patient.
 
I decided to start from scratch and deleted my user template(s).
A new template was created and now it works just fine. The settings all seem to be the same, just rebuilt

I believe LR just went haywire.

Sorry for the trouble, but at least this may help someone in the future.

Thanks again!

[John Caldwell]

This symptom is consistent with trying to spool more data than "allowed." Be sure to investigate your Epson driver settings You may, possibly inadvertently, checked 16 bit and Fine Details "On".

1) Disallow 16 bit
2) Uncheck Fine Details

John Caldwell

[Jimmy D Uptain]

This symptom is consistent with trying to spool more data than "allowed." Be sure to investigate your Epson driver settings You may, possibly inadvertently, checked 16 bit and Fine Details "On".

1) Disallow 16 bit
2) Uncheck Fine Details

John Caldwell

Well on the my revamp of the preset (the one that works), 16 bit was turned off but finest detail was on.

I am the type that has to know why something works/doesn't work.
Are you saying that its on the 7900 end?

[John Caldwell]

The 16 bit setting apparently doubles the size of the data bolus being spooled by the driver. The Finest Detail increases the spool size, but to a lesser degree - one that I've never been able to quantify. It's really the 16 bit vs. 8 bit selection that made the difference in your case, I will bet.

The need for Finest Detail selection is controversial, but some opine that its selection is most valuable in reproducing text details, particular those texts with fine serifs. I can't voice for or against this, but will voice my inability to detect any difference in my own prints with FD unchecked - even those with text. Same is true for 16 vs 8 bit printing, but I offer the disclaimer that I have done no analytical double-blind testing re: 8 vs. 16. Google 8 vs 16 in the printing arena and you'll get an earful, of course. When two parties are shouting opposite claims, one claim in each of my ears, my life experience is that neither is correct, but you may have a different experience.

John-

[Jimmy D Uptain]

The 16 bit setting apparently doubles the size of the data bolus being spooled by the driver. The Finest Detail increases the spool size, but to a lesser degree - one that I've never been able to quantify. It's really the 16 bit vs. 8 bit selection that made the difference in your case, I will bet.

The need for Finest Detail selection is controversial, but some opine that its selection is most valuable in reproducing text details, particular those texts with fine serifs. I can't voice for or against this, but will voice my inability to detect any difference in my own prints with FD unchecked - even those with text. Same is true for 16 vs 8 bit printing, but I offer the disclaimer that I have done no analytical double-blind testing re: 8 vs. 16. Google 8 vs 16 in the printing arena and you'll get an earful, of course. When two parties are shouting opposite claims, one claim in each of my ears, my life experience is that neither is correct, but you may have a different experience.

John-

Not to bust your chops, but does the "data overload" happen at the computer side or the printer side?
I'm just curious.

[John Caldwell]

No idea exactly where the chain falls over Jimmy.

[Jimmy D Uptain]

Okie dokie.

Thanks all for the responses. Have a wonderful day.

[Jimmy D Uptain]

Well I thought my problems were over. I created a custom size of 24x11.5 inches. It prints the photos, then immediately spits out an additional 36"
of Gold Fibre Silk before cutting. My printer is in another room so I couldn't stop it.

So back to the web I go. I change my search query a bit and stubbled across a few threads about fairly recent driver issues that only affected the large format printers.

So the printer was deleted, righ clicked in the printer pane and deleted all printer (just to be sure), deleted the printer files in the library, used Epson's uninstaller, installed Epson's divers and finally reinstalled the printer.
Now things seem to be behaving better. My prints turned out darker than normal, but I can work with that.

I'm posting because I have a pet peeve about threads without resolutions. That is if there is a resolution.

[Wayne Fox]

Issues like this can also happen if you transpose your width and height in the size setup box.   I would be very surprised if a 24x36 at 16 bit would cause this, even if at 720dpi and Finest Detail is enabled.  Maybe it’s a ram thing though, I have quite a bit.

 I print 24x30” prints all the time using 720dpi, finest detail and 16bit without issues.  I have printed much larger files, and the only time I’ve run into problems is printing very large files (40x60, 30x80) and am working at 720dpi.  Changing that to 360dpi has always solved the problem, I don’t believe I’ve bothered turning off finest detail in the driver which is on by default for my presets.  However for me the symptom is the printer just sits there and nothing ever happens.

Regarding Finest detail, this was discussed at length and several tested it, confirming that if your file can print at the size you want with greater than 360dpi resolution, up sampling to 720 dpi and setting the Finest Detail option does offer some improved sharpness in fine details.  The Finest Detail setting forces the printer to operate at 720dpi, otherwise it defaults to 360.

[Schewe]

The need for Finest Detail selection is controversial, but some opine that its selection is most valuable in reproducing text details, particular those texts with fine serifs. I can't voice for or against this, but will voice my inability to detect any difference in my own prints with FD unchecked - even those with text.

Well, I can't let this pass uncommented on...

Yes, there is a difference when printing with Finest Detail on/off IF (and only if) the native resolution of the file is above 360 PPI at the final output size...see this article for more info: The Right Resolution

If your image is low noise, high textural frequency and high resolution, you can get a visibly better result on glossy type papers by upsampling to 720 PPI and printing with Finest Details selected in the Epson driver of pro printers (same deal with Canon/HP but the numbers are 300/600 with the correct driver settings).

High frequency edge detail and strong contrast diagonal lines will greatly benefit by Finest Detail–not unlike vector art. But...if the native resolution of your image at the output size is less than 360/300 (300 for HP/Canon) or you are printing on most matte papers you won't see a benefit for Finest Detail (ant matte paper that is really super smooth might see a benefit).

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

Regarding Finest detail, this was discussed at length and several tested it, confirming that if your file can print at the size you want with greater than 360dpi resolution, up sampling to 720 dpi and setting the Finest Detail option does offer some improved sharpness in fine details.  The Finest Detail setting forces the printer to operate at 720dpi, otherwise it defaults to 360.

Hi Wayne,

It was indeed discussed before, but apparently some missed all the fun. There can also be a resolution benefit (with crops available) to printing at 720 PPI 'finest detail' print driver setting if images are natively below 360 PPI, but to benefit the most it requires the use of special up-sampling software such as Photozoom Pro.

The use of dedicated plugins, such as Topaz Labs Detail, not only for creative sharpening but also with great features for output sharpening (including deconvolution sharpening) can make a lot of difference as well.

Cheers,
Bart