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[Matt]

Just wanted to start a thread about the Photo Printing Wizard included in MC 10.0.30 and later.

How does it work?  Anything else it needs to do?

Thanks for any help.

My list:

• Remove print setup dialog (go straight to "Propeties" dialog)
• Add Full Page (cropped) mode so a page can be totally filled with any aspect ratio picture
• Center when maintaining the aspect ratio instead of using top-left
• Save printer settings between sessions (if driver allows)

[Doof]

• Remove print setup dialog (go straight to "Propeties" dialog)

If you do that, then you'll lose any way of selecting which printer you want to print to...

[Doof]

Was just playing around a little bit. This is pretty sweet. Easy to use and it really makes it easy to see what's going to happen before you actually hit Print.

The only suggestion I'd have is to be able to include a caption of some sort for each image. Allowing us to create our own caption templates based on database fields would be really sweet.

[Mike Noe]

Good stuff here.  

-You'll definitely need a way to modify printer settings, like paper source or paper type

-Be nice to be able to pick effects for individual pics enqueued.

-What about roll paper?  Will the size option handle that?

I'm borrowing an Epson Photo Stylus of some kind tomorrow, will have a chance to play with it some more in the coming days.

[sraymond]

-You'll definitely need a way to modify printer settings, like paper source or paper type

That's already there, right?  The "Setup" button on the first dialog box.

Scott-

[Doof]

Yeah, but Matt mentioned getting rid of that and jumping straight to the printer properties. So you'll be able to modify the default printer's settings, but you wouldn't be able to select which printer you wanted to use.

[Matt]

I guess the first page would need a drop list of printers.  Then "Setup" could go right to the second page for that printer.  All the printers I've seen let you pick the other stuff like Landscape vs. Portrait in that second setup dialog, so the first setup dialog probably isn't needed.

[Griff]

How does it work?

Greatttttttttttttttttt

Anything else it needs to do

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[Ingo]

Hi Matt,

looks great.... things we need:

- add (and remember ;-) ) user defined sizes
- add metrical sizes (don't forget us 'old europeans')
- maybe allow different sizes for different pictures
- better usage of paper space (rotating (some) images)

Ingo

[skeeterfood]

I guess the first page would need a drop list of printers.  Then "Setup" could go right to the second page for that printer.

I think this is a good idea.  Just change the current Printer: non-editable field to a drop-down list of available printers...  Also, a picture display of portrait/landscape is always better than just text.  I know what it means, but a picture means just as much to me and a lot more to others.

Questions:
What happens if I select 1 picture and a "two per page" layout?  Do I get two of the same picture on one page, or only one like the preview shows me.

What happens if I select 2 pictures and the same "two per page" layout?  Do I get one of each picture on the same page, or two pages each with two copies of the same picture?  The preview shows me only one of the first picture and "1 of 1" pages...

I think the best option is to have a setting to choose if each page is all a single image, or if it should fill in one of each of the selected images until it runs out and make sure the previews/page count updates accordingly.

Do you scale the picture data to the requested size at a specific DPI, say 300, before sending it, or do you let the printer driver handle it?

-John

[Matt]

What happens if I select 2 pictures and the same "two per page" layout?  Do I get one of each picture on the same page, or two pages each with two copies of the same picture?  The preview shows me only one of the first picture and "1 of 1" pages...

You'll get exactly what the preview shows.  You can flip through the pages using that spin control.  Is there some reason you wondered if the preview would be different from the output?

Do you scale the picture data to the requested size at a specific DPI, say 300, before sending it, or do you let the printer driver handle it?

The image is always delivered in its full detail to the printer.  It is never reduced.

The actual scaling is done by the printer driver.  Otherwise we'd always be sending a 4 GB print job for an 8.5x11 on a good 4800x2400 printer! (8.5x11 = 93.5 sq. in * (4800 * 2400) * 4 bytes per pixel = 4 GB)

[Ingo]

a few more things:

- print at 'original size' (according to picture's header data, like in tiff)
- print at user defined dpi (calculating the printout's size from it)
- a spin button for each picture to set the number of times it's printed....

Ingo

p.s.: just ideas.....
p.p.s.: once you implemented all these, call it 'print manager' or 'print center' to show it's powers... ;-)

[lee269]

This was big on my v10 wish list - thanks.

It is working great for me. How about an option to set the number of copies to be printed, other than through printer settings?

Just realised I should have read Ingos post more closely. Never mind. Consider it seconded.

[skeeterfood]

Is there some reason you wondered if the preview would be different from the output?

Yes there is, I selected 4 pictures then started the print wizard and chose "Two per page print" layout, but the preview only showed first picture taking up half the page.  I've now determined that the reason the preview only showed 1 picture is because only that 1 picture was imported into MC.  It seems the print wizard doesn't like printing non-imported images...

Also, when I selected just 1 picture and chose the same "Two per page print", I expected the preview to show me 2 of that picture on one page, not just one...

-John

[Matt]

Just wanted to bump this because 10.0.31 features several enhancements over the original release.

Thanks.

[lee269]

Thanks Matt - its looking good. The number of pages dropdown is an improvement, but I think it would be even better with a 'collate' option.

 
(pics from Excel print dialog)

I think how you might want the output depends on the page style of the output. For instance, if Im printing an index print with number pages = 2, Id probably want two sheets with each image shown once, rather than the single print with each image duplicated on the same page which I get now. If it was a 2 per page print, I guess you might want either.