Luminous Landscape Forum
Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Printing: Printers, Papers and Inks => Topic started by: JohnHeerema on February 22, 2021, 11:41:27 am
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In the past, the maximum size of a print job on a Mac has been 2 Gb, because CUPS (the Common Unix Print System) used by MacOS uses 32 bit pointers.
Attempting to print a larger print (not the physical dimensions of the print, but the spooled print queue size) on my Epson 9900 would result in a blank page being printed (and, inconveniently, also being cut off).
So, when I print something large (say, 44" x 96"), I reduce the print resolution to 180 dpi, and use 8 bit print output.
MacOS Catalina uses CUPS 2.3.0, but I haven't been able to determine whether the 64-bit executable still uses 32 bit pointers (it does on some Linux systems), or whether it finally supports 64-bit pointers.
Does anyone know?
Has anyone been able to output at a higher resolution at this print size?
My images are very high resolution, so I'd love to be able to print 360 dpi, 16-bit at this size.
Thanks!
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First thing to reduce the size is send 8-bits per color data;the extra bits buy nothing.
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Thanks, yes I already do that.
As you say, reducing the bit depth to 8 bits is not noticeable in most cases.
I would like to increase the spatial resolution though, as there would be a clear visual improvement.
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Perhaps the print application mirage from the german company Dinax does not have this limitation. Must say i have no experience with Marcos.
On windows10 i can go well beyond 2GB spoolsize.
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On the Mac, all printing goes through the Common Unix Printing System (CUPS), unless a particular application controls a printer directly.
Historically, CUPS has used offsets in the print spool file that are 32 bits in length, which is the reason for the spool file size limitation.