Cropping and printing

[frostbytes]

Hi everyone,

This weekend I used Lightroom's print module for the first time. It sure is handy to do everything within a single app (as opposed to my previous workflow which involved several apps.)

I ran into a problem when cropping images for specific print sizes. For example, when I crop an image to 5x7 in the develop module, select a 5x7 print in the print module and use it to make a 5x7 borderless print onto an Epson R8'', the results don't match.

What am I overlooking?

[L]

 

[Brad Snyder]

frostbytes, How bad is the mismatch? Is it just a few pixels, where the paper handling margins may be finicky, or much worse?

 

[Kiwigeoff]

What settings do you have in page setup?
To help us help you could you please take a moment to fill in your signature in the "userCP' that is found in the nav-bar at the top left of the page - thanks.

 

[frostbytes]

Hi Brad,

It was definitely off by more than a few pixels. In the develop module I had the cropping just right on a batch of images. It took trial and error on a few prints to get a feel for the different cropping between the develop and print modules. In the end, I had to go back and leave 1'-15% more margin area in the cropping to ensure that the subjects didn't have their heads or limbs cut off.

Ideas?

[L]

 

[Brad Snyder]

Not really. I'm guessing that that's a printer driver issue, but just a guess. And no real suggestion for fixing it, other than verifying latest version, etc.

How do your prints turn out from a lab? (assuming you've used one)

 

[Kiwigeoff]

What printer and LR settings are you using?

 

[Denis Pagé]

Hi Brad,

It was definitely off by more than a few pixels. In the develop module I had the cropping just right on a batch of images. It took trial and error on a few prints to get a feel for the different cropping between the develop and print modules. In the end, I had to go back and leave 1'-15% more margin area in the cropping to ensure that the subjects didn't have their heads or limbs cut off.

Ideas?

[L]

Borderless printing generally works by putting up to 1/8" of the image out of the paper to garantee that you will see no white space around. Some printer drivers allow you to adjust this amount but not all of them. You will have to get used to crop a little larger area than wanted.

You may also want to look at one of my latest tips on How to crop for equal borders using mogrify and the print shop borderless mode. In this case, you are the printshop...

 

[frostbytes]

Hi Brad,

Not really. I'm guessing that that's a printer driver issue, but just a guess. And no real suggestion for fixing it, other than verifying latest version, etc.

Yep, I am up to date on drivers, etc.

How do your prints turn out from a lab? (assuming you've used one)

The last time I used a lab was... hmmm... I can't remember.

If you can think of any other ideas, I'd love to hear them.

[L]

 

[frostbytes]

Hi Geoff,

What settings do you have in page setup?

Do you mean page setup in LR or in the printer driver? I'll look once I'm at my print-making station later.

To help us help you could you please take a moment to fill in your signature in the "userCP' that is found in the nav-bar at the top left of the page - thanks.

Sorry, I've done so now.

[L]

 

[frostbytes]

Hi Denis,

Borderless printing generally works by putting up to 1/8" of the image out of the paper to garantee that you will see no white space around. Some printer drivers allow you to adjust this amount but not all of them. You will have to get used to crop a little larger area than wanted.

That makes sense. I'll look at enlarging the crop area in LR to compensate for the printing doing this.

You may also want to look at one of my latest tips on How to crop for equal borders using mogrify and the print shop borderless mode. In this case, you are the printshop...

I'll have a look. Thank you.

[L]

 

[frostbytes]

I finally had a chance to look at my printer driver settings and found that the R8'' has a slider that lets me adjust "borderless expansion" from minimum to maximum values. The maximum value is the default. The "min" value is closer, but I still lose some of the image. I've run out of time so, I'll have to try Denis' suggestion later.

[L]