Peculiar and infuriating printing problem

[JaLimppu]

I have tried to solve this problem by myself without any success. My printer is an Epson 3880 connected to my Mac Pro via ethernet. It's rated as a A2 printer (17" for you folks on the other side of the little pond). Everything should be running latest or next to latest driver/software: OSX 10.8.2, Lightroom 4.3, Epson drivers 9.04.

However, no matter what I do the printer seems unwilling to print anything larger than A4 when I use Lightroom. It prints on larger papers, but it only seems to print an image that's about the size of an A4 minus the margins. And it's not the complete picture, just a part of it. Small 102x152mm (4x6 in) papers are filled correctly with ink as they should be. Everything seems fine on Lightroom when I press the Print button. The Lightroom preview shows as it should be, picture covering the whole page, but fails to deliver. PDF's work just fine when saved from the print window.

Photshop CS 5.1 seems to be able to print normally. The same goes to OSX's own Preview program. Neither, however, have the same printing controls for sharpening and brightness/contrast as Lightroom 4.

My problem solving so far has gone as follows:

1) Reset mac printing system, delete all epson drivers from /Library/ and /Library/PPDs/, reinstall drivers and printer. I've tried using other paper sizes and going back to the desired size.

2) Reinstalled 10.8 on a totally clean system, loaded the lightroom library file and tried to print just as normal, no joy.

3) Restored the old system, loaded Lightroom with a totally new catalog, imported a few pictures for a test, no joy.

4) Printed from Lightroom 4 in my old PC on the same network. Worked like a charm. So much for the much advertised ease of using a Mac, eh?

My brain has now exhausted the normal mehtods for figuring this out, so I'm reaching out to the experts out there who might help me with this.

[web-weaver]

I would think that this is most probably due to a paper size mismatch between the settings in Lr (Page Setup) and your printer dialog (driver).

Or, maybe you have selected one of the templates that "dictate" the size?

[JaLimppu]

I don't use the templates at all for my printing. At least I haven't found and use for them, for me at least. And I've been extra careful of checking every possible nook and cranny in the driver, in the lightroom so that the paper size match. I even tried setting the desired paper size as default for the whole operating system.

One peculiar aspect in the problem appears when I try to print to so called Super B/A3 paper size: 329 x 483mm. Then Lightroom decides to position the print to one of the corners. I also just tried to print to A3 paper. Picture was vertical. I selected vertical paper from the driver, didn't select "Rotate to Fit" and tried to print that: Lightroom printed the picture vertically on a horizontal paper.

[web-weaver]

From your description  "And it's not the complete picture, just a part of it." I would draw the conclusion that Lr sends the image in the right size  but that your printer cuts it off around the margins.

Is there a separate setting for margins in your printer dialog?

In case you don't have it, here is the Epson Manual for the Epson 3880:  http://files.support.epson.com/pdf/pro3880/pro3880ug.pdf

[JaLimppu]

Thank you for your efforts web-weaver. Alas, the problem persists. The problem is either so obvious that I just can't see it, or it's something ugly hidden deep within osx-lightroom workings.

There is an option to set margins for the paper when making a custom paper size. You have an option to use user defined or printer defined margins and I have tried both. Also, when I make a custom sized paper with the same dimensions as the Super B/A3, I get an A4 sized, cropped image that's centered on the page instead in the corner like happens with Super B/A3 selected from the list.

Desperately seeking answers...

[web-weaver]

I am not familiar with Macs but from what I read on this forum I get the impression that Macs and Epson printers are somewhat "unfriendly" companions that don't want to speak to each other nicely.

I'm sorry I can't help you with this, except for my general remarks.

It would be good if a Mac person could chime in.

I suggest this; start a new thread on this forum. And in the heading for your post don't give a general description such as "Peculiar and infuriating problem" that doesn't trigger answers.

Say something like: "Problem printing to Epson 3880 with Lr 4.3 and Mac OSX".

Don't express your frustration in the heading, give a concise description of the problem.

[Samuli Pulkkinen]

I second Web-weavers suggestion about informative headlines, but luckily Google directed me here anyway…

I have had similar problem as you. First Photoshop stopped printing anything correctly at A3. At best I got A3-sized portion of image at A4. Even selecting fit to paper resulted only part of the image getting printed. Then I was able to overcome the issue by opening the picture in InDesign and printing from there, but lately same thing started with InDesign also. I tried everything last summer, when problem first came out, but nothing seemed to help. Neither did I find any answers with Google.

I'm working at Windows 7 environment and we have two office printers capable to print A3, Xerox and HP both having the same problem.

I haven’t been needing bigger prints so much, so I just lived with the problem and printed through Acrobat if really needed an A3, but yesterday this problem was driving me nuts again. Reading this thread without getting any real help, I just thought to go through every setting dialogue over once more, at InDesign and printers owns, changed everything I saw which mentioned paper size to A3 (instead of like “let printer define paper size”), checked margins and page settings, and voila, A3’s again!

I really do not know, which particular setting it was, but something helped anyway. So if someone ends here like I did, just keep trying and do not give up hope as I did almost a year ago…

[johnhartsfield]

Hello JaLimppu

Hopefully you will see this as I saw your post was from a couple of months ago. I had the same problem and went through everything you have.

It's the printer and it's an easy fix.

Press the MENU button (right arrow) ON THE PRINTER

you will see PRINTER SETUP

Press it again and you will see the second selection down is PAPER SIZE CHECK

Select this and then select OFF

Press the center round button

Press the left arrow 3 times and print. You will see all of your glorious print spit out of the machine.

This rattled my brain for quite some time, hope it helps you.

[bluishbird]

I am having an identical problem on my 3800, with the same paper size, 11 x 17. John, is this a one time fix with the printer menu button or do you have to go through the exercise every time? With the cost of paper, troubleshooting this nightmare is getting very expensive...Prints are coming out partial and not justified on the page. What is the optimal paper size setting for 11" x 17"?

thanks,

Robert Sommers

[mudpuppy2]

I've been having an identical problem with my 3880 ever since upgrading to Yosemite. The printer just printed the top left quadrant of a 16x20" print. Turning OFF the paper size check also worked for me. Another solution which worked for me, with the inconvenience of a very long USB cable, was to use the USB port to connect directly to the 3880. And then everything is wonderful. The root seems to be some miscommunication via the network port.

[Rob_Cullen]

No mention in this thread of Lightroom's Print Layout settings-

After setting paper size in "Page Setup"-

Margins: all at the minimum (sliders extreme left)

Cell Size: both at maximum (sliders extreme right)

[DanFisherPhotography]

I am also having the identical problem with my WF-7515 printer, it's driving me mad, come on Adobe please help us out!

[Bermannyc]

This is genius!

I have trying to solve this problem for about 4 hours. Basically I have a roll of paper but I had been cutting it down to feed into to my printer one sheet at a time. Some prints came out as nothing some were just slivers. I realize, after I TURNED OFF THE PAPER SIZE DETECT option, that the printer was confused as to what size paper was in the printer due to my sloppy cutting. It detected the WRONG size paper so the the printer was cropping the image or printing nothing at all.

[billpiekney]

Thanks for input on this problem. If you have seenn the full thread of the

discussion you'll see that proper large prints can be made if printing

through some other app than LR, but not usingthe LR program. I still

haven't found a solution to that, and I have tried turning off the paper

size detection feature on an Epson 4800.

Bill

[tpqu]

I have this problem as well using an Epson Wf-7510 and trying to print on 11 x 17 paper.  Only part of the image prints and of what does print much of the image is misplaced on the sheet, as though the layers were mismatched.  I'm creating a Vision drawing using Parallels and Windows 7 and Visio, printing to a PDF on the Mac desktop.  The Vision drawing is all on one layer.  It doesn't work when trying to print directly from Parallels to the Epson either.

I've tried all the variations in the page setups I can find in Visio.

Oddly, when opening the PDF with Preview on the Mac side there is no choice for 11 x 17 paper. 

[Guest]

I am also having this problem with an Epson Stylus Pro 3880.

I have tried printing from both CS6 and Lightroom and have the same problem in that the image will not print larger than 7 X 10.5 " even on a 13 X 19 paper.

Two solutions so far I have found:

Print the image to jpg from the Adobe program then print the jpg from "Preview".

Alternatively, I processed the raw image in Adobe CS6 or Lightroom then opened the processed image in Perfect Photo Suite 9 from On One Software and the image prints fine (with a better result than from Preview).

To me this indicates that the problem is indeed coming from the Adobe Software, as the printer behaves fine with other software.

By the way if as is mentioned above the Printer Setting for Paper Size Check is turned off, the printer will no longer support borderless printing.

[White_Owl]

I have been using Photo Shop Elements 12 on an HP 2110 printer.   Been having similar problems.   I can get all OTHER software to print perfectly, but I have  frequent problems with PSE 12.    (Only the center of page would print).

Today I actually got a couple of pages to print properly, perhaps for the first time in 4 months.    Perhaps the PRINT page interface is too complicated (a problem with much of PSE12). Be sure all the settings on the PRINT interface page is what you really want, i.e. Items #1-5 on right side of PRINT dialogue page.    (Paper Size, Paper Type, etc).   I notice that Paper Size 3x5 often pops up, although I usually print on LETTER size.

[Origin Studios]

Just spent a frustrating afternoon with the same problem with my 3880, like you I found it prints fine from preview but not from lightroom despite showing the correct preview on screen. Just wondered if you got any further solution for printing from lightroom?

[GarethR]

I have been having a similar issue to everyone else. I was using the default setting in Lightroom for the 13x19 paper size with my epson R3000 and pictures were not being printed on the page properly. I was creating a custom print package so as to print several images on one large paper. Sadly only parts of the images were printing as though the paper / print settings were not placing the pictures properly.

So far I have been able to fix this by creating a custom page size and not relying on the default settings in Lightroom. My first few prints have come out perfectly.

[mudpuppy2]

Originally I solved this problem by turning the paper size check off in my R3880. Since the Yosemite latest upgrade this solution no longer works. More wasted fine art paper. I understand why people are upset.

[billpiekney]

Count me in on the growing size of this much afflicted community.  I'm on a Mac running Yosemite and printing (or trying to) to an Epson 4800 (which, BTW. has no "Print Size Check" feature that I can find).  I am having the exact same problem originally described by you in the first posting.  The issue only just crept ip on me about a week ago, but it had surfaced about a year ago and then mysteriously went away, only to reappear as I described.  At first, I was able to print the whole photo through Preview and Nikon's ViewNX2 software, but now they do not work either and I am still getting the same reduced-size, heavily cropped image, usually centered on one of the corners.  I have called Epson and Apple.  Both worked me through the usual steps in the Print Module having to do with the margin sliders, and both concluded that it is a singularly LR issue.  The secondary problem here, of course, is Adobe is seemingly deliberately ducking the issue by not answering any of these or other complains in similar fora.  Go to Adobe and you'll get no telephone support but will be redirected to a forum or, if you are very lucky, sometimes the chat window will open.  I have gotten zero from Adobe on this.  It is astonishing to me that Adobe has not fessed up its responsibility for shedding some light on this.  As matters now stand, I can only print to an 8.5x11 letter size glossy sheet in the 4800, and that's it.  I have a nagging sense that the problem may lie somewhere in the print module presets, which I have not been able to much with.  Another source of help I consulted in an expert on LR and pot-processing on the site UglyHedghog who worked tireless with me over a couple of hours the other day, only to throw his hands up in temporary defeat, promising to get back to me in the event of an epiphany.

[billpiekney]

I'm replying to myself as I did find the "Print Size" feature and disabled it.  Results were no different, however.  I'm still unable to print a large paper in LR, Preview or NXView2.

[billpiekney]

I decided to go back to Epson for a solution, as I was unable to print large papers in any of the usual applications.  After an hour and one-half (on a non-800 line) I was able to recapture the ability to print via Preview and VieNX2, apparently by deleting all the Epson presets and re-setting the initial settings on the 4800 itself from the Menu.  That may work for the others in this chain, too.  Although I still cannot print large from LR5, at least I got some relief.  Good luck...

[Jerry de Boer]

I'll join the club (don't know if I need to laugh or cry). I use 3880 and a 2880 (swapping the first for a 4900 tomorrow, so will test with that one as well). As soon as I use A3 both LR and Photoshop start meshing with my print. It constantly starts with the bottom left corner of my images and only prints (like other mentioned) about A4 size cutout of my print.

When using Preview on my Mac to print it's fine, with "check paper width" unchecked (it's default in the driver settings). I'm wondering when Adobe starts listening?!

[billpiekney]

I received some help from Epson, even though it doesn't seem to be their

problem. First, eliminate all the print presets that show up for the

printer in LR's Print Module. The go to the menu on the Epson, Setup, Init

Settings and click the menu button on Execute. That worked for me, or at

least made it possible to print large through Preview or Nikon's ViewNX2.

I still can't print large from LR. Hope this helps.

Bill

On Fri, Aug 28, 2015 at 2:12 PM, Jerry de Boer <forums_noreply@adobe.com>