Qimage and unequal margins on z3100

[EduardV]

Hello Everybody:

I'm printing with Qimage, on A4 paper and my Z3100, and I set equal margins (8 mm up, 8 mm down, plus 18 mm left and 5 mm right in Landscape
orientation), but I always get unequal up/down margins, with a difference of 1 mm or slightly bigger. I know this is a very small amount, but I need this precision since I'm printing on both sides and I intend to crop the paper margins.

Any ideas?

Thank you so much
Eduard

[Paul Sumi]

If you don't get an answer here, the best place to ask is on the QImage Yahoo group:

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/qimage/

Mike Chaney, the program's author, and many very knowledgeable users are on that group.

Paul

[Ernst Dinkla]

Hello Everybody:

I'm printing with Qimage, on A4 paper and my Z3100, and I set equal margins (8 mm up, 8 mm down, plus 18 mm left and 5 mm right in Landscape
orientation), but I always get unequal up/down margins, with a difference of 1 mm or slightly bigger. I know this is a very small amount, but I need this precision since I'm printing on both sides and I intend to crop the paper margins.

Any ideas?

Thank you so much
Eduard

Do you use any register tabs at the front where the blue line is ?  If you set sheet loading with skew check off, you get the chance to align the sheet against custom made tabs which assure more precision. The paper sensor on the head still measures the position of the sheet in loading but at least the sheet starts at a fixed position in that process.

In its feedback to the user Qimage doesn't always tell the right position of the image within the sheet. At least not in all menu windows if metric units is selected. For an obscure reason it rounds the position off to 1 mm steps where it can be 0.25, 0,5 mm off. For example in the page edit window. When imperial units is chosen the feedback is 4 times more  precise. I have complained about that often enough but Mike doesn't see the urgency for a solution. When printing dual sided this issue is even more annoying. If Mike would make the feedback precision 0.1 mm it becomes easier to adjust the position of the image in the driver and on the printer. Metric would then be 2.5x more precise than imperial which is at that tolerance level negligable. But 1 mm is just too much.


met vriendelijke groeten, Ernst Dinkla

Try: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/

[Ray]

I've always had a problem with Qimage sizes with respect to my Epson 7600. After setting the page size for the printer, the print height (or length) is always registered as less than the dimensions I specified. I therefore have to guess a compensation. If the print is 16", I should specify, say, 17" in order to be sure that the image size fits the paper size.

It's not too difficult to work around, so I haven't bothered questioning Qimage support about the problem. I mean, there are so many problems, aren't there.

[Ernst Dinkla]

I've always had a problem with Qimage sizes with respect to my Epson 7600. After setting the page size for the printer, the print height (or length) is always registered as less than the dimensions I specified. I therefore have to guess a compensation. If the print is 16", I should specify, say, 17" in order to be sure that the image size fits the paper size.

It's not too difficult to work around, so I haven't bothered questioning Qimage support about the problem. I mean, there are so many problems, aren't there.

Interesting. You discovered that Qimage deducts the printer margins from the print page size. It is called a feature, you can even increase on the fixed printer margins in the page formatting choices at the top of main menu (and in fractions of a mm in metric mode) to center prints on sheets etc. There's even a "center on  physical page" button to do that automatically. If the image size can fit hardware wise on the sheet to print Qimage can represent that size in the preview window. That has been my experience. No questions necessary then. You could check the settings in that menu and maybe the inch lost is available there.


met vriendelijke groeten, Ernst Dinkla

Try: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/

[EduardV]

Do you use any register tabs at the front where the blue line is ?  If you set sheet loading with skew check off, you get the chance to align the sheet against custom made tabs which assure more precision. The paper sensor on the head still measures the position of the sheet in loading but at least the sheet starts at a fixed position in that process.

In its feedback to the user Qimage doesn't always tell the right position of the image within the sheet. At least not in all menu windows if metric units is selected. For an obscure reason it rounds the position off to 1 mm steps where it can be 0.25, 0,5 mm off. For example in the page edit window. When imperial units is chosen the feedback is 4 times more  precise. I have complained about that often enough but Mike doesn't see the urgency for a solution. When printing dual sided this issue is even more annoying. If Mike would make the feedback precision 0.1 mm it becomes easier to adjust the position of the image in the driver and on the printer. Metric would then be 2.5x more precise than imperial which is at that tolerance level negligable. But 1 mm is just too much.


met vriendelijke groeten, Ernst Dinkla

Try: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/

Hi Ernst.
I tried your suggestions, to no avail. With imperial units it should give more precision, up to 1/100 inch, but I keep getting this 1 mm+
unaccuracy. As to register tabs, haven't tried yet, though it sounds like it is not going to work either. It rather seems a printer/driver issue,
because I get exactly the same problem when printing from other applications. On the other hand, it seems quite ridiculous if we think
that the printhead assembly is working with higher precision than that. Anyway, I'll try it. Thanks so much for your interest.
Eduard

[Ray]

Interesting. You discovered that Qimage deducts the printer margins from the print page size. It is called a feature, you can even increase on the fixed printer margins in the page formatting choices at the top of main menu (and in fractions of a mm in metric mode) to center prints on sheets etc. There's even a "center on  physical page" button to do that automatically. If the image size can fit hardware wise on the sheet to print Qimage can represent that size in the preview window. That has been my experience. No questions necessary then. You could check the settings in that menu and maybe the inch lost is available there.


met vriendelijke groeten, Ernst Dinkla

Try: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/

Hi,
Thanks for your post. I've just revisited this issue and have now fixed the problem. The problem was never with Qimage, but was due to inappropriate settings in my printers 'page layout' box.  As is sometimes the case, the cause of the problem was something really basic that I had overlooked. The printer's page-layout box showed no adjustments because I had none of the options ticked. I had assumed that Qimage was supposed take care of such adjustments.

[Ernst Dinkla]

Hi Ernst.
I tried your suggestions, to no avail. With imperial units it should give more precision, up to 1/100 inch, but I keep getting this 1 mm+
unaccuracy. As to register tabs, haven't tried yet, though it sounds like it is not going to work either. It rather seems a printer/driver issue,
because I get exactly the same problem when printing from other applications. On the other hand, it seems quite ridiculous if we think
that the printhead assembly is working with higher precision than that. Anyway, I'll try it. Thanks so much for your interest.
Eduard

On my site there's a page now on dual sided printing and what makes some methods better than other methods, specifically for the Z3100:

http://www.pigment-print.com/review/Z3200FirstPage_5.htm



met vriendelijke groeten, Ernst Dinkla

Try: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/

[EduardV]

On my site there's a page now on dual sided printing and what makes some methods better than other methods, specifically for the Z3100:

http://www.pigment-print.com/review/Z3200FirstPage_5.htm



met vriendelijke groeten, Ernst Dinkla

Try: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/

Hello Ernst,

Thank you so much for you replies and interest. I'm making progess with dual-sided registered printing with your advise.

Eduard