unwanted 4mm border on 4x6 prints

[mnsh_22812]

My Lightroom 3 suddenly started leaving a white 4mm border at the right-hand edge of 4x6mm landscape prints.  The printer is fine (Epson R2880) because it will print perfect 4x6s from Windows Print, and also from my wife's laptop running LR 3.  I haven't changed any settings, and reading this forum didn't find the answer.  Any advice please?  Thanks, Matthew

[mnsh_22812]

Dear Hal, can I just double-click on the LR 3.5 upgrade file, will it allow me to install 3.5 over 3.6 ?

Or must I uninstall LR and then set up 3.5?  Will it remember my serial numbers? (the boxes of prev LR are in a cupboard somewhere in my study)

Thanks, Matthew

[eos2k1]

You will need to uninstall 3.6 i believe to reinstall 3.5 I believe.

[eos2k1]

Solved... sort of.

So I think I may of found the issue and fix.

I loaded up Lightroom 4 on my Mac and went into preferences and reset everything under the presets tab. I then deleted my Lightroom 4 preferences file and started a new catalog. I imported one photo and printed a 4X6 print without borders on my Canon Pixma Pro 9000.

HOWEVER, If I load up my original Lightroom 4 Catalogue and try to print any 4X6 photos I still get a white border.

I'm not quite sure how this ties in though with Photoshop. Maybe its a combination of the preferences file and the catalog library.

This is not a great fix or real solution because it means I'm going to have to start a new catalogue. At least I believe I found the problem.

UPDATE: So imported my working lightroom 3.5 Catalogue directly into Lightroom 4.1 and printed borderless 4x6 prints without any issues.

My problem started when I upgraded to 3.6. Then the problem continued when I went to 4.1.

[mnsh_22812]

I unistalled 3.6 and put it back again - no help.

Then I uninstalled 3.6 and put back 3.5 - no help either.

Is there something in the Adobe printing system that doesn't get uninstalled?

I can still print 4x6 perfectly borderless from windows/print and also Nero - but not with Lightroom developments of course.

I created a new catalog and imported one picture into it - it still printed 4x6 with a white stripe at the RH border.

Next I'm going to try the trial version of LR4...

Matthew

[mnsh_22812]

Installing trial version of LR4.1 did not solve the problem - I created a new catalog with only one photo in it that had never been edited - it still printed with the same white stripe.

I renamed all the lightroom preferences files to force LR4.1 to create a new preference file - and I did not print using any of my User Presets but opened a LR print template and set it to be 4x6 borderless - but still got the same white stripe.  The same happened whether I let the printer or LR manage the print profile.

Meanwhile the printer produces perfect 4x6 prints when my wife's laptop also running lightroom sends it a print.

I think all I can do is print them and then use a guillotine to cut off the white stripe.

Buying LR4 won't help so I shall stick with LR3.  I guess something goes wrong at the Rendering stage of printing, because the print preview looks fine on screen.  I don't have any more ideas, so it any readers have been able to solve this I would be grateful.

Matthew

[Victoria Bampton LR Queen]

Are you on the same driver version as your wife?

[mnsh_22812]

no I am on Vista 32 bit and she has Windows 7 64 bit on her laptop, both have a USB cable to the Epson R2880

Matthew

[eos2k1]

Matthew do you have Photoshop installed on your computer? If so try uninstalling that, and doing what you did before by deleting your preferences file and uninstalling lightroom.

If you don't have Photoshop another thing you can try is download a demo of 'Clean My Mac' and uninstall lightroom from that. You will need to click on the uninstall tab with in 'Clean my Mac' and then DRAG the lightroom APP to that uninstall window. I'm not 100% sure if the demo will let you uninstall the whole thing or not.

I bought the full version and I love it. I had problems with another application and uninstalling manually didn't solve anything. Clean My Mac removes EVERYTHING associated with the program including all of its extensions. This is great because that does not happen when you simply delete the APP into the trash bucket like normal in OSX. Actually, I will show you where all Lightroom's junk is via screenshot below.

[mnsh_22812]

Yes I have Photoshop CS3 on my computer.  That prints 4x6 ok.  So I can go from LR and "Open With..." Photoshop CS3 and open a tiff file from my DNG, set the page size to 4x6 boderless and print it perfectly.  Whereas printing exactly the same picture from LR leaves a white stripe, and so does printing the -edit.TIF file that photoshop leaves behind in LR after closing.

Not sure about uninstalling photoshop at this stage, as CS3 seems to work ok.

I dont have a Mac, this is a Dell XPS running windows vista so can't do the cleaning programme.

[mnsh_22812]

I gave up and just printed loads of 4x6s that were a backlog.  After a time, the white border went away by itself for a few prints, then it came back.  All I had done was keep pressing 'print one'.  Strange....

[eos2k1]

That is so odd. There is Lightroom 4.2 out now. I doubt it will fix the problem. I can't remember but have you tried opening your library of photos on your wife's computer. I know she does not have any problems with her's on her own machine. I'm guessing it will most likely work but be interesting none the less.

The other thing would be to reinstall your operating system as a very last resort...

[mnsh_22812]

I went to LR 4.2 on the trial version and it was the same when printing!  Still the unwanted right side border...  But using the guillotine will be quicker than a computer re-install...

[shamus1585]

I have a similar issue with LR 4.2 and an HP printer.  Will not go to 0 border, even when borderless selected.  However, prints borderless just fine with same printer settings using ACDSee Pro 6, so the issue is within Lightroom, not with the printer.  My solution is not to use LR for borderless..

[mnsh_22812]

My computer was over 4 years old and slow, so I replaced it.  At the same time, I bought the offer of upgrade to CS6 and LR4, and installed them on the new computer, with the same printer, now on Windows8.  Surely, I thought, this will solve the unwanted white stipe on the right... but it didn't!  As before, it happens, but not all the time, and I can't tell whether it makes a difference if I print one picture at a time after developing it, or if I develop 3-4 in a row and then print them. The sequence was as follows:

2 with stripe,

2 normal,

3 with stripe,

1 normal,

2 with stripe,

1 normal,

4 with stripe,

1 normal,

3 with stripe,

1 normal,

3 with stripe,

1 normal,

1 with stripe,

1 normal (total 26, of which 8 normal)

At least now having bought LR4 I qualify for some Adobe Support but so far they couldn't solve it and have 'escalated it to Level 2' but so far I haven't heard back.

[effeegee]

So you drove me to it!

I tried 4x6"paper (100x150mm using a ruler) on my R2880 feeding 4" edge leading. This resulted in a trailing edge white margin of about 4.3mm despite various setting changes. It looks very much like an edge detection problem - the printer stopping before the end of the sheet - which I had read about elsewhere recommending feeding a longer sheet under the 4x6" sheet - how I don't know.

As part of testing I named and saved a preset in the Epson driver for 4x6 borderless for portrait orientation.  Having 'fussed about' with 'retain size' versus 'expansion' I opted for retain size and enlarged the cell in LR - which surprisingly became possible - currently it is set at 104.3x154.6mm and printed a landscape shot without trailing edge white margin followed by a portrait shot again without margin. Puzzled but happy I went to save the settings for 4x6 borderless in the Epson driver.  Saving under the same name offers a comparison between saved and 'registered' settings (what the printer is working to) which showed a saved size with a length of 5.81" - 4.3mm short of the 'registered' length for the successful prints!

I have no idea why the saved version would have been saved as a shorter length but it corresponded to the white margin and it has disappeared when the printer has somehow registered the required size.  My revised saved preset is now 4x6" (101.6x152.4mm) - mm are not an option. I am hoping this is a permanent fix but think it would be prudent to save a portrait and a landscape version of the preset. 

Where the problem arises I do not know but suspect that Epson paper sizes do not correct themselves from erroneous starting points until something is changed - perhaps as little as landscape to portrait . btw  I am using LR4.3RC, LR3.6 Win7 pro 64bit.

Let us know if you find a similar discrepancy in saved settings.

Your tally of prints suggests that something changes between and within batches as if the paper size is correctly registered for some of the prints only.  Is there any difference between or within the batches for example landscape versus portrait?  Clutching at straws but I can't see why LR should make changes - but it definitely interacts with the Epson driver and its settings.    

Message was edited by: effeegee Typo correction and addendum re LR size changes

Message was edited by: effeegee correction LR version

[mnsh_22812]

Thanks, a helpful answer... have not heard from Adobe support yet... here we go on a wet Saturday afternoon.  I think there is something in what you say about the problem following a change in paper size.  It all began after I had printed lots of A3 prints from Lightroom and initially I suspected I'd broken something in the printer feed-in, but then found my wife's laptop could print faultlessly to the printer.  But then having had a new computer with Win8 and bought LR4, it was disappointing that the problem persisted, making me think it must have come from something getting into my LR catalogue.  But I printed a 4x6 from my 2003 Catalogue and it came out with a stripe the same.  We have albums and boxes full of perfect 4x6 prints done before this started last summer!

I already had an Epson preset for landscape borderless 4x6 and I did as you did and edited to a portrait 4x6 with output 'same as paper size' and then keeping borderless ticked 'retain size', instead of 'auto-expand' after which LR did allow me to increase the cell size up to 156.3 x 106.5 mm but on printing I still got the white stripe.  I tried also with a landscape 4x6 Epson preset again removing auto-expand - this changed the size from Registered A6 105 x 148mm to Saved 100 x 150mm (a slight shape change) so I was able to increase the cell size in the same way and on screen the LR print preview looked perfect as it always does - but it still came out with the white stripe at the right, and on the left hand edge of the photo the first few mm are missing, it's as if the first few mm of the picture are being 'lost in the computer somewhere' and then the printer leaves a white stripe at the right because it thinks it has 'finished' although the last 4-5mm on the right are missing from the print as well.  Turning off 'zoom to fill' made no difference and did not print thin white stripes at the top & bottom as the preview showed.

Other experiments on cropping the picture to exactly 4x6 in Develop do not help, or even cropping it to exactly 1563x1065 (the same size as the print preview cell) do not work either.

I think the answer may lie in the intermittency of the error.  Most of my prints are Landscape.  I cannot find any correlation yet why when doing a large number at once, not changing any print settings, occasional ones will print perfectly, but I wonder if it is happening when I click print before the previous print rendering bar has disappeared.  I will keep a note of this next time.  I have other jobs to get on with now so will leave it for there.  I'm very grateful for your interest.

[effeegee]

Yesterday I tried to use the pre-set for 4x6 borderless in the Epson R2880 driver which I saved earlier.  On investigation as to why I was now getting a 4.3mm trailing edge border I discovered that the saved settings had the paper size as A6 (105x148mm)! - just as described in my previous post. Saved settings appears to not record 4x6" borderless defaulting to A6 instead. Are there alternative unit mm v. in settings or versions.  However the printer will (eventually) accept the size when set up manually i.e. as current settings. So there seems to me to be a bug in the Epson R2880 driver.  I established that the warnings about user defined paper size are confusing as well as inconsistent.  Enter 4x6" borderless under user defined and it will not accept it but the blurb says that it is possible implying at least 4x6" and 6x4" (portrait and landscape) are possible, but then i tdid not accept A4 borderless at the first pass.  

Tentative hypothesis for your batches 'something' triggers a paper size/settting change resulting in either a default to A6 or to a corrected current settings.  Either way there are some curious interactions between LR and the driver.   

I had run out of 4x6" paper and used some part sheets to print the complete cell a little larger than 4x6". This printed a feint line for the cell size which might prove informative i.e. where the printer thinks the edge is as opposed to the cell end.  Investigations continue  ... after Christmas.

Hoping for a Happy New Year      

Message was edited by: effeegee - edited text for sense

[effeegee]

A new variation - borderless printing on 10cm roll paper. Result is rubbish - it always has a 3mm border top and bottom (parallel to the long edge) leadding and trailing edges are borderless. It's not officially supposed to feed anything other than 8" or 13" rolls but has the slots to mount 4". Somewhere between a very wide top margin to make the printer think it's using 8" paper it adds and extra 3mm margin. On the bottom edge it appears to be a physical limit the printing edge is feathered.

[eos2k1]

You can go back to 3.5 from 3.6 with your files. However if you go to 4.0 with your catalogue you won't be able to go back.

What you can do though is make a duplicate of your catalogue and download the trial version of lightroom 4.0 and import your copied catalogue library... See if it fixes your issue.

I'm not sure why I am having the issue because there was someone else on these forums with a similar setup as my self and the same printer and they could print 4x6 prints with no borders just fine.

Knowing you're running Windows Vista and having that problem confirms it is just with the lightroom software though in my opinion. Heck I did a complete reinstall of my operating system, installed lightroom 4.0 and imported a new file into a new library and still got the problem. Very strange.

[Photo North]

I have a R2880 and have had the same problem for months with both printing through CS5 or even Epson Easy Photo Print. One day everything is fine, then the next I have that dreaded border on the right hand side and waste loads of paper trying to correct it. Am i right in thinking it must be a bug within the printer?

[mnsh_22812]

Since I posted in January I still have had no white stripe on my 4x6 from the R2880.  I have caught up from being a year behind with printing to just six months, so today I am printing snow photos in a heatwave!  We've just returned from holiday in Scotland and I'm going to skip ahead a bit.  Have also printed A4 and A3 with no problem.  An earlier problem with the print head (causing banding) in this same printer (which a repair shop declared uneconomically repairable) was found to be cured when I brought it home again, so I surmised that the bumpy car journey had unjammed something.  In fact I was getting ready to take the printer for a car ride again when it cured itself.  I use Permajet ink which is brilliant and much cheaper but it meant Epson could not assist with problem as it involves a minor modification to the printer.  I hope your printer gets better by itself, as mine did.

[Rikk Flohr: Inactive]

It is really nice to hear a follow up with success after so long. Keep up the printing~

[mnsh_22812]

RECURRENCE!!

I posted too soon - this evening the white stripe on the right is back, after a long period away.  Nothing had changed but we are in a heatwave and there have been thunderstorms and power cuts but not when anything was being done on the printer, which is on a surge-protector, and started up fine and produced a normal nozzle pattern when run as a check as it hadn't printed for over a week.  I guess some roller or lever has jammed in the heat so will leave it alone for the moment until cooler weather.... and get back to you later

[Photo North]

I still have border too 😞  Every time i print I'm hoping it has disappeared again!!   Surely someone from Epson must have an idea. I'm now seriously considering changing to a Canon printer because I do need 6 x 4 borderless prints for greetings cards. It's definately not an Adobe issue because I have the problem with Epson Easy Print too.

[effeegee]

I've been following this thread. http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1259421 this involves idiosyncratic behaviour of an Epson driver for an R3800.  The test on a new catalogue and reinstall printer approach may have some merit in this case. I've no thad reason to print 6x4 for some time but would adopt this 'flush out the legacy defaults' approach if I encountered such problems.