Thanks to those who have responded so far. Mike aka Wolfnowl seems to have hit the mark on what I’m trying to get at. Some people have raised questions and suggestions and I’ll attempt to address them here and provide more detail to show that I’m comparing apples to apples and that there really is a problem with the software or at least design limitation - I just wish these types of things would be documented by Adobe .
I don’t own a printer and I upload my files to be printed by online labs. I usually edit a camera raw file in LR and output a jpeg file that I upload to a lab. I would prefer to use the Print Module Print to File rather than File Export because (1) I sometimes I like to incorporate a border, (2) sometimes I like to overlay an ‘Identity Plate’ and (3) I can choose Relative or Perceptual color rendering in the Print Module, wherease the Export only provides one default . I’ve read in Adobe literature that it’s Perceptual but I don’t know for sure and I think I saw an older post somewhere by Jeff Schewe to the contrary but didn’t understand his post completely.
The LR Print Module Print to File only outputs a Jpeg file.
I’ve attached screen images to show what the export and print module settings are. They have no borders, no special gizmos, just the same resizing, no print sharpening, same color space, and same rendering intent (I did both from the Print Module so that no matter what export really uses it should be covered).
File A - File Export of an edited image, cropped down, and resized downwards slightly to 4800x3000 pixels, no print sharpening. JPG Quality=100. End result file on disk is 4800x3000 pixels and size is 13.4 MB (14,128,022 bytes). See screen image of export dialog box and cropped portion of file attachments. Note, I also did an export via specifying 16" long dimension and 300ppi, and the end result file had 6 less bytes but the same pixel dimensions and visually the same result. And, another example via specifying width and height as 16"x10" 300ppi, and the end result file had the same number of bytes the 1st file, 14,128,022) and the same visual result.
File B - Print Module Print to File, no borders etc, paper size 16x10”, ppi 300, rendering intent Perceptual. End result file is 4800x3000 pixels, file size 11.8 MB (12,472,019 bytes)
File C - Print Module PRint to File, no boders etc, paper size 16x10”, ppi 300, rendering intent Relative. End result fileis 4800x3000 pixels, file size 11.8 MB (12,472,019 bytes)
My conclusion is that the Print Module Print to File has different and slightly inferior processing as compared to the File Export. OTOH it would be great if I’m wrong and I’m not using the Print Module correctly and someone could tell me how to use it properly. It would also be great If someone from Abobe would chime in and and confirm one way or the other :-)