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Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Printing: Printers, Papers and Inks => Topic started by: Ulf on January 15, 2016, 07:20:49 am

Title: Epson P-800 partial prints (Somewhat solved, Lightroom still troublesome)
Post by: Ulf on January 15, 2016, 07:20:49 am
Hi, I just received my P-800 but so far it has been a rather frustrating experience. It prints fine on A4 (regular paper), 10x15cm (glossy) but on A3+ Velvet Smooth I get partial prints (see attached images). The position varies slightly from attempted fix to attempted fix. I'm on Mac using Photoshop, Lightroom or Preview to print.

I see quite a few posts across the web with somewhat similar problems on 3880 but I don't seem to have any luck fixing it. I uninstalled the driver, deleted all printers, reset printer settings in System Prefs. So far nothing changed much. The weird part is that I can print just fine from my Macbook with the exact same software stack.

Does anyone have any hints?

Both machines with: MacOS 10.11.2, EPSON_SC_P800_Series Driver 9.42, Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC (latest)
Title: Re: Epson P-800 partial prints
Post by: howardm on January 15, 2016, 07:39:21 am
I've only seen stuff like that (on my 38xx) when I screw up the custom paper setting, usually by spec'ing something too big or reversing W vs. H.  Not ever on a stock/standard size though.

When removing the driver, make sure to do it the 'hard way' (remove /Library/Printers/EPSON folder)
Title: Re: Epson P-800 partial prints
Post by: Ulf on January 15, 2016, 07:48:45 am
Well I looked at this, but I select the paper from the list of available options installed by the printer and the size reported is 13x19" (329x483mm) and the image is portrait as well as the paper setting. I did try to create a custom paper at 330x483mm but didn't change anything.

And yes I deleted everthing under /Library/Printers/..
Title: Re: Epson P-800 partial prints
Post by: howardm on January 15, 2016, 08:40:37 am
And you're sure you're not using the damaged 'Airprint' driver?  (if you do NOT see the usual selection of photo grade options and complement of paper choices (or under Type:), you may be using Airprint but I sort of doubt you are.
Title: Re: Epson P-800 partial prints
Post by: Ulf on January 15, 2016, 08:42:07 am
Yeah I started out with the AirPrint driver but quickly figured our something was amiss. Wonder if having installed first with the AirPrint driver is the cause of it all..
Title: Re: Epson P-800 partial prints
Post by: howardm on January 15, 2016, 09:38:01 am
no, I dont think there are any 'lingering' effects.  If you dumped the printer driver and reset etc etc, then you should not be affected by the earlier Airprint.

The printing system leaves a variety of logfiles (ala breadcrumbs).  You may want to launch Console and see if anything is obvious.  Also open a Terminal and cd to /var/log/cups
Title: Re: Epson P-800 partial prints
Post by: na goodman on January 15, 2016, 10:35:51 am
I know you said you deleted the driver, reset printing system but then did you do a restart before adding the printer back in the print window. You may want to try that. Also, once you get the print set up to print look and see what the layout window says in the print driver window for paper size.
Title: Re: Epson P-800 partial prints
Post by: Ulf on January 15, 2016, 01:14:15 pm
Yeah I did a restart after resetting. I also repaired permissions.
I tried changing default paper size to a3+, still not right..

I changed the cups log level to debug but I don't know what I'm looking for in a 1.5 mb text file. There are some drawSheet calls which seem to contain dimensions but I don't know which unit that would be and I've been unable to find documentation for it.

What I find really strange is that the size of the partial print always seem to match about an A4. No matter what I change, custom paper size or driver provided. Weird..
Title: Re: Epson P-800 partial prints
Post by: Wayne Fox on January 15, 2016, 01:17:44 pm
I would recommend the following steps to insure drivers are functioning as intended.

Download Epson's uninstaller program (http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/support/supAdvice.jsp?type=highlights&noteoid=187764) and remove all epson drivers from your mac.

Open Printer and Scanner preferences, and right click in the printer list area.  Select reset printing system.

Restart the mac.

Reinstall epson drivers, making sure you have downloaded them from the epson site.

Additionally, make sure your mac doesn’t have  auto updates turned on, and whenever being prompted to update system software always click the little more link so you can see of an Apple Epson printer update is included. If so, select all the other components to update individually, but do not install Apple epson drivers.

If this still doesn’t work, I would screen capture all of the relevant dialog boxes and post them.
Title: Re: Epson P-800 partial prints
Post by: Ulf on January 15, 2016, 01:21:04 pm
Thanks, I did all those steps already x 2. And still no luck. Only thing I haven't tried is to disable paper size check in printer. But I'm skeptical of doing this hearing how in can cover the printer in ink. And given that it works on my other mac I'm inclined to think it won't make a difference.
Title: Re: Epson P-800 partial prints
Post by: Ulf on January 15, 2016, 01:28:26 pm
Here are the screenshots of the relevant dialogs. Printing a landscape format A3+. I have tried the "scale to fit paper size" checked as well, but no difference.
Title: Re: Epson P-800 partial prints
Post by: Ulf on January 15, 2016, 01:35:09 pm
And the output of cups is below. I have yet to really figure out what it means except I suspect this section is somehow relevant to my woes.

D [15/Jan/2016:16:39:19 +0100] [Job 11] cgpdftoraster: opened PPD file "/private/etc/cups/ppd/EPSON_SC_P800_Series.ppd"...
D [15/Jan/2016:16:39:19 +0100] [Job 11] cgpdftoraster: PreferredRotation = -90
D [15/Jan/2016:16:39:19 +0100] [Job 11] cupsPageSize=[595.2 841.8], cupsImagingBBox=[8.4 8.4 586.8 833.4]
D [15/Jan/2016:16:39:19 +0100] [Job 11] cgpdftoraster: width=595.2, length=841.8, top=8.39996, bottom=8.4, left=8.4, right=8.40002
D [15/Jan/2016:16:39:19 +0100] [Job 11] cupsWidth=5784, cupsHeight=8250
D [15/Jan/2016:16:39:19 +0100] [Job 11] cgpdftoraster: languageLevel = 3, mediaBox.size.width = 595.2, mediaBox.size.height = 841.8
D [15/Jan/2016:16:39:19 +0100] [Job 11] cgpdftoraster: colorspace = 1, bitsPerColor = 16
D [15/Jan/2016:16:39:19 +0100] [Job 11] cgpdftoraster: Vendor matching mode is ON and the handoff color space requested is sRGB.
D [15/Jan/2016:16:39:19 +0100] [Job 11] cgpdftoraster: band width = 5784, bytesPerRow = 46272, band height = 226, height = 8250
D [15/Jan/2016:16:39:19 +0100] [Job 11] cgpdftoraster: context width = 5784, height = 226, bitsPerComponent = 16, bitsPerPixel = 64, bytesPerRow = 46272, bitmapInfo = 4101, resolution = (720.000000, 720.000000)
D [15/Jan/2016:16:39:19 +0100] [Job 11] HWResolution = [ 720 720 ]
D [15/Jan/2016:16:39:19 +0100] [Job 11] ImagingBoundingBox = [ 8 8 586 833 ]
D [15/Jan/2016:16:39:19 +0100] [Job 11] Margins = [ 8 8 ]
D [15/Jan/2016:16:39:19 +0100] [Job 11] PageSize = [ 595 841 ]
D [15/Jan/2016:16:39:19 +0100] [Job 11] cupsWidth = 5784
D [15/Jan/2016:16:39:19 +0100] [Job 11] cupsHeight = 8250
D [15/Jan/2016:16:39:19 +0100] [Job 11] cupsBitsPerColor = 16
D [15/Jan/2016:16:39:19 +0100] [Job 11] cupsBitsPerPixel = 48
D [15/Jan/2016:16:39:19 +0100] [Job 11] cupsBytesPerLine = 34704
D [15/Jan/2016:16:39:19 +0100] [Job 11] band = {0, 802.4; 595.2, 22.6}
D [15/Jan/2016:16:39:19 +0100] [Job 11] Erasing band to white...
D [15/Jan/2016:16:39:19 +0100] [Job 11] EraseContext [0 0 5784 16500]
D [15/Jan/2016:16:39:19 +0100] [Job 11] displayList=0x0
D [15/Jan/2016:16:39:19 +0100] [Job 11] drawSheet(c=0x7fed33211370, document=0x7fed33000be0, pageNum=1, mediaBox=[0 0 595.2 841.8], band=[0 802.4 595.2 22.6], nup=0x0, pageMap=0x0, fitToPage=0, preTransformP=0x0, rotation=0)
D [15/Jan/2016:16:39:19 +0100] [Job 11] Drawing unscaled page.
D [15/Jan/2016:16:39:19 +0100] [Job 11] docMediaBox=[0 0 1369.13 935.433]
D [15/Jan/2016:16:39:19 +0100] [Job 11] scaled rect=[0 0 1369.13 935.433]
Title: Re: Epson P-800 partial prints
Post by: Ulf on January 15, 2016, 03:02:05 pm
It seems to me after digging in the cups log files that the the dimensions of the cupsPageSize is exactly those of A4 (595.2, 841.8) and that fits with the size of the output I see on my page. But the docMediaBox is the size of A3+ (1369,932.60). So it would seem that cups get a wrong pageSize. Still trying to figure out the how and why..
Title: Re: Epson P-800 partial prints
Post by: howardm on January 15, 2016, 03:38:45 pm
Wayne,

Did you, oh, maybe 2 years ago do a writeup on resetting the printer subsystem?  As I recall, there was some additional cache removal that was done manually.  Perhaps the OP is getting screwed by the cache?
Title: Re: Epson P-800 partial prints
Post by: rdonson on January 15, 2016, 04:35:44 pm
The only time I've seen results like those originally shown was when I screwed up in Lightroom's dialogs with the Epson drivers with regards to orientation. 
Title: Re: Epson P-800 partial prints
Post by: howardm on January 15, 2016, 04:51:03 pm
found it.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9ykkq6h0n1pyxfl/Epson%20printers%20and%20Lion%20%28and%20Leopard%20and%20Snow%20Leopard%29.%20%E2%80%93%20musings%20of%20wayne%20fox.pdf?dl=0
Title: Re: Epson P-800 partial prints
Post by: Rand47 on January 15, 2016, 04:58:19 pm
You need to turn off the paper size detector (Paper Setup Display) in the printer's menu so that the driver only is dictating paper size and image placement.

Touch the little wrench in the lower right of the touch screen on the printer, then choose "System Administration," then "Printer Settings," then "Paper Source Settings," then "Paper Setup Display," then "OFF."

Problem solved.  Drove me stark raving nuts at first.  If you don't do this, then you'll have to manually select each and every paper size/type from the front panel when printing.  Since my printer doesn't sit right next to my monitor, I was always forgetting to do this.  Turn off the Paper Settings Display and the printer driver and layout in your software will put the right size image on the paper you tell it you are using.

Rand
Title: Re: Epson P-800 partial prints
Post by: howardm on January 15, 2016, 05:13:47 pm
what a ridiculous default setting.
Title: Re: Epson P-800 partial prints
Post by: Ulf on January 15, 2016, 06:11:23 pm
Thanks for the replies guys. Much appreciated. I'll try out disabling the paper size check tomorrow (it's getting a tad late here).

What I did find out is that the IPP Job files on /var/spool/cups/c00*** are significantly different between my Macbook (works) and iMac (doesn't work).

In the case of the partial print I have a "PageSize A4" in there along with a lot of "com.hp.print.PrintSettingsST". When the printing works neither the PageSize A4 or the "com.hp.print.*" settings are there.

So where does the HP settings come from? Well once upon a time I did have a HP B9180 printer but that's years ago and I the iMac is a fresh install from after that. I haven't been able to find those settings anywhere, but it is rather tricky searching binary plist so who knows where they might be holed up.

I still haven't figured out where PageSize A4 comes from..   

Writing this I'm not sure the paper size check option will change much as during much of this testing and the print queue stopped for inspection. So no communication happened between the printer and the driver... but well I'll give it a shot tomorrow.
Title: Re: Epson P-800 partial prints
Post by: howardm on January 15, 2016, 07:09:36 pm
take a look in /Library/Caches for that file
Title: Re: Epson P-800 partial prints
Post by: Wayne Fox on January 15, 2016, 11:14:41 pm
You need to turn off the paper size detector (Paper Setup Display) in the printer's menu so that the driver only is dictating paper size and image placement.

Touch the little wrench in the lower right of the touch screen on the printer, then choose "System Administration," then "Printer Settings," then "Paper Source Settings," then "Paper Setup Display," then "OFF."

Problem solved.  Drove me stark raving nuts at first.  If you don't do this, then you'll have to manually select each and every paper size/type from the front panel when printing.  Since my printer doesn't sit right next to my monitor, I was always forgetting to do this.  Turn off the Paper Settings Display and the printer driver and layout in your software will put the right size image on the paper you tell it you are using.

Rand
are you putting a different size of paper into the printer than you are entering in the Epson driver on the computer?  This should be the only time you need to disable paper size detector.  I've been printing  on Epson printers for 10 years and worked with many who are using Epson printers, and I've never had to disable the paper size detector unless I am trying to use a paper that is smaller than the smallest size supported by the printer (such as 7x10 cards). As long as the paper you are putting in the printer matches the size of paper you enter in the driver, it will work (that's what paper size detect does, it makes sure the paper size you enter in the printer matches the paper size you have entered in the driver).
Title: Re: Epson P-800 partial prints
Post by: Wayne Fox on January 15, 2016, 11:39:59 pm

So where does the HP settings come from? Well once upon a time I did have a HP B9180 printer but that's years ago and I the iMac is a fresh install from after that. I
certainly puzzling.  Not sure why there's HP stuff.  Regarding the fresh install, did you use the migration utility after wiping the drive and reinstalling the OS, or did you manually move everything to the clean startup drive?

I don't have a p800 but I think we're setting one up next week for a customer.  What puzzles me is the dimmed out suggested paper size A3+ in the one dialog box.  If I get a chance I'll check it out when we setup this printer.
Title: Re: Epson P-800 partial prints
Post by: Ulf on January 16, 2016, 02:57:57 am
I moved my account using the migration tool, which is probably the source of my troubles. I just created a new user account and from there Lightroom prints just fine (from what I can see in the spool files). So if all else fails I suppose I would just create a new account and move stuff over. I'll have another crack at solving it first though.. it just can't be necessary to create a new account... it can't!

I did check /Library/Caches but nothing there..

Re the dimmed out paper option it becomes enabled when you click the checkbox.
Title: Re: Epson P-800 partial prints
Post by: Ulf on January 16, 2016, 09:48:34 am
Alright some progress has been made.. It seems I can now print properly from Photoshop. On my tour of things to try I pressed the spacebar when clicking file -> print in Photoshop to reset the print settings. And lo and behold it worked!

Unfortunately Lightroom still exhibits the problem and resetting or deleting all settings did not change anything :(
Title: Re: Epson P-800 partial prints
Post by: na goodman on January 16, 2016, 10:02:56 am
Well, I think you can tell it is now system related to that machine. If you can print from your laptop, you can print from a new account then it is something that was brought over in the migration. That's making progress.
Title: Re: Epson P-800 partial prints
Post by: Rand47 on January 16, 2016, 11:05:21 am
are you putting a different size of paper into the printer than you are entering in the Epson driver on the computer?  This should be the only time you need to disable paper size detector.  I've been printing  on Epson printers for 10 years and worked with many who are using Epson printers, and I've never had to disable the paper size detector unless I am trying to use a paper that is smaller than the smallest size supported by the printer (such as 7x10 cards). As long as the paper you are putting in the printer matches the size of paper you enter in the driver, it will work (that's what paper size detect does, it makes sure the paper size you enter in the printer matches the paper size you have entered in the driver).

Hi Wayne,

My P800 is different from all the Epson printers I've owned (1280, 2200, 4880, 3000).  The paper size display is sticky, and not only has size, but "kind" in the display.  What's worse is that the printer driver (Windows) didn't override what was on the display.  Ergo, if the display panel showed "Letter size" and say, "Premium Semigloss" and I put 13x19 paper in the printer driver (and in the printer) I could lay it out any way I wanted in the LR print module and it would still mash it down to letter size and put it in an odd place on the paper.   After turning off the "Paper Setup Display," the printer now acts like and works like all the other Epson printers I've owned and used.  It also worked fine if I remembered to scroll through all the paper sizes and types on the printer touch panel, but as I said, the printer isn't right next to my workstation and it was a pain in the butt to try to remember to change the touch panel when I change paper size (since I never had to do that before "on the printer" as opposed to "in the driver settings").

Rand
Title: Re: Epson P-800 partial prints (Somewhat solved, Lightroom still troublesome)
Post by: Nora_nor on January 18, 2016, 03:59:51 pm
Interesting.
I still wonder if it  would be useful to collect all the P800 info in one place and call it P800 Wiki.

--I found out that when downloading the correct driver, still the Airprint driver installs. Both install but the Airprint driver is the one that automatically pops up. I suggest just renaming it so it is obvious which one is in use. <(mac )
Maybe someone can beg Epson to re-name it in the next update, so that thousands of people do not think they downloaded the wrong one?
Title: Re: Epson P-800 partial prints (Somewhat solved, Lightroom still troublesome)
Post by: rdonson on January 18, 2016, 05:16:24 pm
A P800 wiki is a great idea.  The issue is effort and cost.  Who is going to do the work organizing and maintaining the wiki.  Then there's the issue of paying for a decent wiki.  Everyone is all for free stuff but few want to pony up $upport. 

Example:  http://www.wikispaces.com/content/wiki

Title: Re: Epson P-800 partial prints (Somewhat solved, Lightroom still troublesome)
Post by: Ulf on February 12, 2016, 04:55:10 pm
So I persevered and finally was able to solve it for good (I think). So here's the tip for anyone else finding themselves in a similar situation..

I opened the catalog file *.lrcat with sqlite3 and deleted the following:

delete from AgFolderContent where owningModule = 'com.adobe.ag.print';
delete from AgSpecialSourceContent where owningModule = 'com.adobe.ag.print';
delete from AgLibraryCollectionContent where owningModule = 'com.adobe.ag.print';

Not sure if all are needed but it did the trick. If you want to try it out prob. take a backup first.

Thanks for all the help guys..