This guide will help you get started using Qimage One on the Windows operating system. A complete help reference for Qimage One will be available soon.
Installation
When you have downloaded the Qimage One installer, you should run the installer, which will install Qimage One and create a desktop icon.
Once the installation is complete, you should run Qimage One for the first time. This will allow Qimage One to initialize and copy the plugins for Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom. You will also be asked to enter the email address you used to purchase Qimage One, to complete product registration.
Printing from Adobe Photoshop
From Adobe Photoshop, simply open the images or photos you wish to print. The Qimage One plugin will export all the open image files, including any unsaved edits. When you are ready, click on the File | Automate | Qimage One menu. The Qimage One plugin will export your images, then launch. You will see the exported images in the Thumbs View on the left side of the Qimage One window.
Printing from Adobe Lightroom
From Adobe Lightroom, select the images or photos you want to print. The Qimage One plugin will export all of the selected image files. When you are ready, click on the File | Plug-in Extras | Qimage One menu. The Qimage One plugin will export your images, then launch. You will see the exported images in the Thumbs View on the left side of the Qimage One window.
Qimage One Application Window
The Qimage One application window is split into three key areas. On the left is the Thumbs View, which displays the images which were just imported or are in the currently selected folder.
In the center is theLive View, which displays the current page of the print layout along with icons to control the layout.
On the right are the Printer Settings and Prints tabs.
Setting up the Printer
One of the cornerstones of Qimage One is its ability to preserve the settings you make between print sessions. You probably only have a few, or perhaps even one, printer. The same thing is probably true of the types of paper or media you use.
One important part of producing high quality prints is to use the correct printer settings. These are the steps you should follow when first setting up your printer in Qimage One.
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Once you have made these settings, click on theProperties button. This will open the printer setup dialog and allow you to verify the settings. If everything looks okay, click OK. You should now see that the Properties button has changed to display a check icon. Qimage One will now remember these settings for this printer and media type. You can verify as many printer and media type combinations as you need and Qimage One will maintain separate settings for each of them. You can also save and load your own user printer settings for quick recall when switching between printers.
Bear in mind, whenever you make changes to verified settings, they will be automatically saved. For example, if you were to change the print resolution from maximum to high, that setting will be saved for the printer and media type.
The Live View
The Live View shows you an accurate representation of how your prints will look on the paper. The light gray area around the edge of the paper is the margins. Prints can not be placed within the margins. If your printer and media type supports it, you may select borderless printing.
The white area where prints can be placed is called the page. At the top of the live view is a description of the page size and the selected print resolution. If the paper has margins then the page size will be smaller than the selected paper size. This is expected.
At the bottom of the Live View are several icons which control the print layout. The first group of controls lets you move between the pages of the print job. Qimage One will add and remove pages from the print job as needed, as it calculates the optimal layout.
| | Toggle the current page to freehand. In freehand mode, you can move and arrange the prints on a page at will. Qimage One will not automatically layout the prints on these pages. You can have a mixture of freehand and managed pages as needed. |
| Set the paper orientation to portrait or landscape. | |
| | Set the layout mode toIntellispace, orIntellicut. Intellispace mode will attempt to leave a quarter inch gap between prints on the same page. Intellicut will not leave any space between prints. This option maximizes how many prints can fit on one sheet of paper. |
| | Toggle auto sorting of prints, from largest size, to smallest. Qimage One will keep prints in the order you add them if auto sort is off. However, this may not always lead to the optimal placement. With auto sort on, prints will be grouped by size, which tends to leave fewer gaps on the paper. |
| | Print your completed layout. This icon opens the print dialog, where you can see a preview of the print job, set number of copies, and print. |
Adding Prints
Qimage One offers several ways for you to add prints to the Live View. First, you will need some images to print. If you have not imported images from Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom or another application, the Thumbs View on the left may be empty. You can select a folder, or several files to open, from the File menu.
You can also select and manage image folders directly within Qimage One. Click theFolders (click to open/close) button to browse the folders on your computer. When you click on a folder, Qimage One will generate thumbnails from your images and display them in the Thumbs View. If you have a folder with many images then this may take some time. This only happens the first time you access a folder from Qimage One. The next time the folder is selected, Qimage One will scan the folder and only generate thumbnails for new or modified files.
| The Thumbs View presents every available image file in the selected folder. Each thumb has the file name underneath. Thumbs can be selected by clicking on them. Use the ctrl and shift keys to select multiple thumbs. There are two ways to add prints from the Thumbs View.
You can change between image folders and add thumbs from different locations. You are not restricted to only adding prints to the Live View from one folder. When you add prints from the Thumbs View, the print size is whatever is selected in thePrints Tab. By default, this is a 4×6 inch print. Note that the default print size can be set for every verified printer and media type (see Setting up the Printer above). |
The Prints Tab
The Prints tab is where you control print sizes and print copies to add. The main part of the Prints tab lists all of the available print sizes. These are standard print sizes used in the printing industry along with some special sizes. The print sizes list can be fully customized. You can right click on the list of sizes to display customization options.
Adding Prints from the Prints Tab
Whenever you have thumbs selected (but no prints selected), clicking on a print size in the Prints tab will add a print of the selected size to the Live View. This is another way of adding prints, which is useful if you need to add several copies of an image at different print sizes.
There are three special print sizes that can be selected:
- Original Size will add a print the same size as the original image. This only works if image size information is correctly embedded in the image files.
- Fit to Page adds a print which fills the page area as much as possible, but not in the margins.
- Fit to Paper adds a print which fills the page area but at a scale as if it covered the whole paper. This print size is only really useful for printing copies of scanned images onto borderless paper.
If a print size is selected which is larger than can fit on the selected paper size, the print is automatically sized to Fit to Page.
There is one more key setting when adding prints, and that is theAuto Crop option, which is represented by a scissors icon. The need for auto cropping arises because images come in many different sizes and do not usually match the standard print sizes. Auto cropping can be shown in the image below.
The full image (lower left) was added as a 4×6 inch print. Since the image has a different aspect ratio to this print size, the actual print on the live view ends up as 3.67×6 inches. If you need a full 4×6 inch print, even if it means cropping the image, turn auto crop on. The cropped image (upper left) is exactly 4×6 inches, but you can see that the sides of the image have been cropped.
Likewise, the images on the right show the same image with a print size of 4×4 inches with auto crop off (upper right) and on (lower right).
The decision to crop really depends on whether you need to print the full image, or an exact print size. Auto crop can be controlled per print. When you select a print on the live view, by clicking on it, you can toggle auto crop on or off.
Selecting and Changing Prints
When a print is added to the Live View, you still have a lot of control over it. Prints can be selected by clicking on them and using the ctrl and shift keys to make a multi-print selection. You can even do this across multiple pages. Here are some operations you can perform with prints selected:
- Change Print Size by clicking on the print sizes list, or dragging the print over a print size.
- Rotate a Print by clicking on the rotation icons on the Prints tab. Setting a specific print rotation will tell Qimage One that print can not be rotated when it calculates the print layout.
- Resize a Print by dragging the print corners on the Live View.
- Remove a Print from the Live View by dragging it off the Live View.
- Move a Printby dragging it inside the Live View. Note that this will activate freehand mode for the current page. You can toggle freehand mode on and off using the hand icon under the Live View.
Selected prints can also be changed by using the Live View context menu. Just right-click on the Live View to display the context menu.
The Live View context menu lets you make further print selections and also adjust the order of prints on a freehand page, if they overlap. The other important feature on the menu is theCrop Prints… item.
Cropping Prints
Sometimes, auto cropping may not crop the image the way you want, or you may just want to crop part of an image to a specific print size. Qimage One has a powerful, user-friendly cropping tool which will help you crop your images exactly the way you want.
To access the cropping tool, do one of the following:
- SelectCrop Prints…from the Live View context menu (right click on a print on the live view).
- SelectEdit | Crop Print(s)… from the main Qimage One menu.
- Pressshift-C.
Qimage One will enter full screen mode to make it easier to crop the print. The current crop, if any, will be indicated by the part of the image which is grayed out.
You can drag the crop window around inside the image, resize it by dragging the crop corners, or start a new crop by clicking and dragging. Notice that as you drag or resize, the crop will match the aspect ratio of the print. If you need a different sized print, you should select it before running the cropping tool.
Once you are happy with the crop, click Done to return to Qimage One. You will see that the print now shows the image cropped the way you want it.
If you check the button labeledSave crop for this image/size, all prints of this image with the same aspect ratio will use this crop. This crop is also saved for this image and will be used in the future. If you need to make several different crops of the same image in the same print layout, you should uncheck this button.
Printing
You have placed, sized and cropped all of your prints. Qimage One has calculated the optimal layout to save printer paper. You are ready to print. Simply click on the Print icon at the top right of the main window, or from the File menu.
You should already have verified printer settings. Any changes made in the print dialog at this point might conflict with how Qimage One renders the prints and are not recommended.
When you click Print, Qimage One will directly render your image data at the resolution, positions and crops you have defined on the Live View.
Your final output should be the best it can be for your printer and media!
Color Management for Advanced Users
Qimage One supports software control of color management when printing. On the Printer Settings tab, you can control color management using thePrtr Profile drop down. The options are:
- Color management OFF sends image RGB data directly to the printer.
- Let printer/driver manage color lets the printer perform color management by converting from the image profile to the appropriate printer profile depending on the media selected.
- User-defined profilewhich can be selected by selectingChoose a profile… from the drop down.
In addition to selecting a user-defined color profile from those available on your computer, you can also define the rendering intent and black point compensation.
Whenever an ICC Color Profile option is selected, the setting is remembered in the verified printer and media type (see Setting up the Printer above).
Important Note: When using a printer profile, color management should be disabled in the driver. Windows drivers differ by manufacturer/model so please follow the help text provided in the helper dialog that appears when you click the “Properties” button on the Printers and Settings tab.
