Only Half a Print – Epson blames Photoshop. Help!

VP
Posted By
Vince_Patton
Apr 8, 2004
Views
1076
Replies
44
Status
Closed
It’s so frustrating being the bouncing ball between two who want no blame. Please, catch me and stop the banging in my head!

My Powerbook had 512mb Ram. Am using Photoshop CS. Epson Stylus 1280 would often, but not always, print only part of the photo and then spit the rest out blank. Epson blamed memory allocation.
But OS 10 does not allow changing memory.
So we tweaked it in Photshop/Preferences/Memory … and I gave photoshop 93% of my memory and close all other programs.
I have very large photo files. Typically 98 to 115MB each. Was printing 13×19 print last night.. voila, half a print and an expensive piece of paper was wasted again.

Today I doubled my ram to 1 GB. The problem still happens.

Epson tech support blames Photoshop. (But photoshop prints on my HP Deskjet never have this problem; then again, the HP cannot print photos this big.)

Adobe wants $39 before I can even ask my question; so I turn to you kind folks for advice.

Vince

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P
povimage
Apr 8, 2004
It’s usually a spooler issue relating to contiguous disk space available for spooling the file. It could also be the result of old files left in the spooler folder.

If the laptop has only ONE hd partition, what may well be happening is that while the PS scratch file is large, you don’t have enough contiguous free space left to spool the output completely. That could cause the problem you describe as well..

Keith

And don’t thank Adobe or the Forum moderators – I’m not associated with either of them.
VP
Vince_Patton
Apr 8, 2004
My hard drive does have only one HD partition.

I’m afraid I’m completely unfamiliar with spooling.

How do I check this and / or change it?

I appreciate your help!
T
Todie
Apr 8, 2004
If you print from Photoshop, try to resize the picture just for printing and don’t save it in the end.
13×19" at 260ppi should be about 50MB.
VP
Vince_Patton
Apr 8, 2004
I do print from Photoshop.. and my 13×19 had been at 356dpi. You’re right. 260 drops it to about 48mb.

So, how do I know what the maximum file size is I should be trying to print in order to prevent this?

I’m searching for a way to know BEFORE I waste another expensive sheet of special photo paper.
VP
Vince_Patton
Apr 8, 2004
PS:
When I search my HD for "spooler" I get only two hits. One is an an "Extensions" folder and runs only under OS 9, the other is in Virtual PC (a Windows emulation program I have not run in months.)
P
povimage
Apr 8, 2004
I generally use 360 dpi.. but keep in mind the driver resizes to 720 dpi anyway for EPSON desktop printers..

Keith

And don’t thank Adobe or the Forum moderators – I’m not associated with either of them.
VP
Vince_Patton
Apr 8, 2004
Yes, the 260 is really the resolution of the original image. I’m printing at 1440 DPI for highest quality on matte paper.

However, tell me more about clearing the spooler please. I don’t find an OS X spooler to fool with.
T
Todie
Apr 8, 2004
Vince, Ask the Epson people where the scratch files are. Pov, I don’t think the driver resizes the whole picture at once, just chunks of what it needs at the time (I may be wrong).
P
povimage
Apr 9, 2004
Photoshop sends the data to the print driver at the default resolution of the printer. For a desktop EPSON printer that is 720 dpi, for their larger format printers that is 360 dpi..

You should therefore never be upsizing to more than 720 dpi.

Keith

And don’t thank Adobe or the Forum moderators – I’m not associated with either of them.
P
povimage
Apr 9, 2004
As for the spooler files (scratch) it doesn’t much matter where they are going with only one partition.

Do this, open one of your 1440 dpi files and look at how much free space is left on your disk, and how big the Photoshop scratch file is.. I bet there isn’t a lot of free space left when compared to the size of the Photoshop scratch file.

If so, the easy solution is to print from an application like QImage, that takes less scratch space or virtual memory, instead of Pshop.

Two places I KNOW you can get your question answered for free:

The EPSON Printers list (4700+ members)
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EPSON_Printers/>

or the MacEPSON List (1300+ members)
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/macepsonlist>

Keith

And don’t thank Adobe or the Forum moderators – I’m not associated with either of them.
AS
Ann_Shelbourne
Apr 9, 2004
I think that people are confusing the dpi of the printer (either 720 or 1440 dpi in the case of the Epsons) with the image resolution in ppi needed to print with maximum quality.

You shouldn’t need to use image resolution of more than 270 ppi on these machines.
P
povimage
Apr 9, 2004
I don’t know what other people are confusing, but I know I’m not… Depending on how the image is upsized to the driver, values of less than the native driver resolution CAN (but won’t automatically) cause a loss of quality. Tests were run on this LONG AGO on both my EPSON list and on the predecessor Leben list. Upsizing an image beyond 720 ppi before printing showed NO increase in quality. There’s no way, therefore, that I would upsize to 1440 ppi to print.

That said, very negligible (if any) additional print quality was seen in desktop printers when increasing files to 720 ppi from 360 ppi inside Photoshop. You needed some very specific conditions for it to be advantageous Decreases, however, to ppi figures less than 360 ppi did show decreased quality. On the other hand, moires could be created in synthesized testpattern images when using resolutions for the final image that were not an even integral of the driver’s native resolution.

See EPSON’s publication at:
<http://files.support.epson.com/pdf/pro10a/pro10aps.pdf>

Go to page 24 of the pdf, which is page 3 of document 2002.01.001A

Read "Note 2"

You can also find supporting info at:
<http://www.ddisoftware.com/qimage/quality/>

Keith

And don’t thank Adobe or the Forum moderators – I’m not associated with either of them.
VP
Vince_Patton
Apr 10, 2004
Keith,
Sorry to be so dense. I thought I knew my computer better than this. I have 15.64 Gigabytes free on my hard disk. I have 152Gigabytes free on an external hard drive.

But I do not know how to check to see how large a scratch file my image is occupying when it is open. I’ve searched help files and remain baffled.

I do know that my hard drive is the primary scratch file and the external is the secondary location for a scratch file, but I don’t see how to observe its size at any one time.
Photshop Help says it uses the primary hard drive as a scratch file. I clearly have loads of room. As for using Qimage, are you able to assign a custom printer profile to that?

The reason I print from Photoshop is so I can have absolute control over color management with a profile that’s been custom done for my printer, my ink and my particular paper.
JV
John_Vitollo
Apr 10, 2004
Run this shareware app – Printer Setup Repair – if in 10.3.x:

<http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/14641>

Run Print Center Repair if in 10.2 to 10.2.8:

<http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/21738>

You should be in 10.3.3 as printing reliability improved a lot.
VP
Vince_Patton
Apr 10, 2004
I have been in 10.3.3 for months now.

Problem just happened again to me on an 8×10 print, image 30MB in size. Crapped out after half a page printed. No other programs running.

Boy this is frustrating.

I’ll check out your link. Thanks.
R
Ram
Apr 10, 2004
Vince,

… … I have 15.64 Gigabytes free on my hard disk. I have 152Gigabytes free on an external hard drive. … … …I do know that my hard drive is the primary scratch file and the external is the secondary location for a scratch file …

That is fundamentally backwards. Go to your preferences file and set your Primary scratch disk to your external hard drive and the secondary to your boot drive. It’s unlikely that in that scenario your secondary disk will ever be used, given that you have plenty of available space on the external drive (which will be the primary scratch disk now).

The reason for having the scratch disk on a separate drive is so it won’t slow you down by competing for the single set of read/write heads on your boot drive.

Your files ("Typically 98 to 115MB each") are not really that large. I have come close to reaching the 2GB in a couple of files.

However, if you only have 512MB of RAM, you should not be allocating 93% (!!!) to Photoshop. That’s way too much. You’re starving the System and the printer monitor of RAM and they’re choking.
R
Ram
Apr 10, 2004
Follow up:

if you only have 512MB of RAM, you should not be allocating 93% (!!!) to Photoshop. That’s way too much.

Try going down to 65% or less.
R
Ram
Apr 10, 2004
Ooops! I just read you doubled the RAM to 1GB.

My advice still holds: 93% is way too much RAM to allocate to Photoshop.

Try going down to 65% or less.

(I wouldn’t go anywhere near 90% unless I had 4GB of RAM.)
JV
John_Vitollo
Apr 10, 2004
Ramon is correct…heck with 512K of Ram I wouldn’t give more than 40% to Photoshop.
VP
Vince_Patton
Apr 10, 2004
Thank you all.
I swtiched the primary scratch disk to my large external drive. I brrought memory for Photshop down to 63%.

And voila! I got two, large 13 x 19 prints COMPLETE! Plus one 8 x10

Thank you!

BUT BUT BUT
On my second 8×10, an image only 9 MB in size w /a resolution of 250, and printing on matte paper at 1440 dpi, boom, the problem happened again.

1/4 of an image printed and then spit out the rest blank. Arrrrrrrrgggghhh.
R
Ram
Apr 10, 2004
Vince,

• Here are more things to try: Clear (purge) the Photoshop cache before and after every print job;

• Run Disk Warrior;

• suspect bad RAM, drive or connections.
JV
John_Vitollo
Apr 10, 2004
Vince try printing from Apple’s Preview app and see how it goes. A client of mine is having printing problems that only show up when printing through Photoshop but not Apple’s Preview.
JV
John_Vitollo
Apr 10, 2004
Did you run Printer Repair?
VP
Vince_Patton
Apr 10, 2004
Ok. Now I must show my ignorance again.

How do I clear or purge Photoshop’s cache between print jobs? I don’t know how to find that.

My problem has occurred again; this time with a twist. For the first time, the paper is being fed in several inches too far before printing begins. Then only a partial image comes out to boot. I swear I have double and triple checked my image size and print position in Print Preview mode of Photoshop and all looked fine. (Despite a page setup for landscape, it was printing it in profile)

I’ll try Print Preview next; but does it allow me to control color management and image position as Photoshop does?

I did run Disk Repair from that link provided earlier. Most diagnostic tests came back with no errors; except one, which came back with dozens.

Here are a few of the 2 pages of lines I got:

The file /usr/bin/cups-calibrate is missing!
The file /usr/bin/gimpprint-config is missing!
The file /private/etc/cups/command.types is missing!
The file /usr/share/cups/calibrate.ppm is missing!
The file /usr/share/cups/model/C/bjc-1000.ppd.gz is missing!

and:

The file /usr/share/cups/model/C/escp2-1270.ppd.gz is missing! The file /usr/share/cups/model/C/escp2-1280.ppd.gz is missing! The file /usr/share/cups/model/C/escp2-1290.ppd.gz is missing! The file /usr/share/cups/model/C/escp2-1500.ppd.gz is missing!

And

The file /usr/share/cups/model/C/pcl-desnj-488.ppd.gz is missing! The file /usr/share/cups/model/C/pcl-desnj-700.ppd.gz is missing! The file /usr/libexec/cups/filter/commandtocanon is missing! The file /usr/libexec/cups/filter/commandtoepson is missing! The file /usr/libexec/cups/filter/rastertoprinter is missing!

Verification complete.
204 missing files/directories found during the verification process. They may be responsible for certain printing problems. Printer Setup Repair cannot replace these items. Please refer to the log file for a list of the missing files/directories. You may need to reinstall OS X to resolve your printing issues. Certain files are deleted when using the Reset Printer Setup Utility option. These files will be recreated when printers are added with the Printer Setup Utility.
B
Buko
Apr 10, 2004
Do you have InDesign?

I print all of my Photoshop pictures from InDesign.

things just seem to work smoother.
R
Ram
Apr 10, 2004
Vince,

The last paragraph in your post says it all. You have software corruption. At this point re-installing OS X and Photoshop, then adding the printer again is the only sensible route to take.
VP
Vince_Patton
Apr 10, 2004
I do have InDesign, but have not used it.
I tried just now, and am unable to open psd photoshop files. Am curious how you get InDesign to read photoshop files.

The CUPS errors had me worrying about a re-install. To re-do all of OS X is onerous and will require massive backups before I begin. Darn. I was afraid you’d say that.

Vince
P
povimage
Apr 10, 2004
One other thought is a USB issue…

USB connectivity issues can cause the type of problem you are seeing too..

Keith
VP
Vince_Patton
Apr 10, 2004
Would you care to elaborate on what "USB Connectivity issues" mean?

I have the printer plugged directly into the computer via USB, not via a USB port. However, I do have a USB port plugged into the other USB socket.
VP
Vince_Patton
Apr 10, 2004
Begging your pardon.
I just double checked and I’m wrong.
It was plugged in via a USB port.

Think a direct connection might be the solution?
JV
John_Vitollo
Apr 10, 2004
It couldn’t hurt!
B
Buko
Apr 11, 2004
I tried just now, and am unable to open psd photoshop files. Am curious how you get InDesign to read photoshop files.

"Place" the file in InDesign. its a page layout application.

also make sure the colormanagement settings are the same as photoshop.
P
povimage
Apr 18, 2004
Sorry for the slow replies. The Adobe Forum server seems not to like telling me about new posts to this thread..

About the USB connectivity issues, ssome USB host controller chipsets (particularly those by VIA) have connectivity timeout issues. These can cause problems like the one you are seeing, as well as things like a printer not showing up proprly "on line" etc..

On a Mac though, I haven’t really seen the USB connectivity issue before though… Are you using a built-in USB port or an add-on card? Also, if you are using a hub, plugging directly into the machine’s port instead, and/or making sure the hub is set to "self-powered" status may help.

Keith
P
povimage
Apr 18, 2004
..
VP
Vince_Patton
Apr 18, 2004
Plugging my printer directly into my computer appears to have solved all my problems.

Many thanks to all who pitched in with suggestions.
D
davidcrooke
Apr 22, 2004
read this post with interest . as I have been experiencing exactly the same problems with my epson photo 1200 . I have been trying to print some panorama’s using the 329mm by 10 meter paper rolls . despite appearing correct in previewed the image when printed gets rotated from landscaper to portrait with only a section of the image printed .
I have been trying to trouble shoot this problem now for over a month . I am prepared to by another printer. I like epson but I now have seen quite a few posts here and at apple panther discussions where people are having similar problems to this with various epson printers .

have reproduced this problem on two computers using panther and the epson phot0 1200 . exactly the same thing happens with both . and i had the printer plugged directly into the computer via usb .

I received exactly the same message as Vince using the printer repair utility . I don’t believe it is a corrupt system . I strongly suspect lies in the interaction between the epson drivers and panther . something has been broken… have no idea what .

unfortunately I didn’t print any large images using jaguar . so i can’t make a comparison .

today i contacted epson support Australia and they said my image was to big to be printed via photoshop and suggested i use software such as illustrator or quark . I just loooked up the help files and my image is way under photoshops help reads "Photoshop supports a maximum pixel dimensions of 300,000 by 300,000 pixels per image. This restriction places limits on the print size and resolution available to an image."
my image is 10500 X 2826
TM
Tom_McGlauchlin
Jun 7, 2004
David Crooke-
Just read your forum message of Last April concerning Epson 1200 and Mac 10.3. I can’t control the placement of an image on the paper with Epson 1280. Epson says it’s Photoshop’s fault, Adobe says the printer driver is sending false info to the computer. I am sure that Mac 10.3 is causing the problem, but I have yet to find a work around.
Tom McGlauchlin
L
Larryr544
Jun 7, 2004
I had this problem with my 1280 after installing 10.3.4 or maybe before with 13 X 19 prints. I noticed that the paper menu selction was mostly gone. I deleted and reinstalled the 1280, the paper sizes came back and I was able to print just fine. I haven’t done any extensive testing as yet. I’m hoping that Epson and Adobe will invest in the ink needed for testing.
CC
Chris_Cox
Jun 7, 2004
Adobe has nothing to do with your print driver – that comes from Epson or Apple (in the case of the GIMP Print drivers).
VP
Vince_Patton
Jun 8, 2004
Vince here.. the guy who originated this thread.

As for paper size problems. I had that for a while. Deleting and reinstalling the driver fixed it for me.

David, I’m sorry to say I can’t be of much help. When I plugged the printer directly into the computer instead of passing it through a USB hub, I stopped having the partial print problems. The largest prints I’ve done since then are 13 x 19 inches. I have not attempted any panoramas.

VP
L
Larryr544
Jun 8, 2004
Chris – I feel that it’s just plain bad PR to put it that way and it’s not necessarily true. I realize that PS talks to the OS and the OS talks to printer dirver, however, PS does hand off a bunch of parameters to the OS. The case that is being sited here is somewhat unique and I agree probably not Adobe’s problem, but it would be easy to check. This is what great companies do!
CC
Chris_Cox
Jun 9, 2004
Nothing we’ve tried has reproduced the described problem.

There really is no way that this would be Photoshop and have it not break for other users and other models.

This _is_ something that breaks (frequently) in the printer driver.
D
davidcrooke
Jun 9, 2004
with the problems i had (printing panoramas as large custom size) epson Australia advised me that it was a problem with their drivers . I was also told it was not an easy problem to fix . future product drivers should not have it , current release epson products may have new drivers written for them correcting the problem , and out of date release products would probably not .
I was also told that using an application that enabled tiling of images, such as quark or illustrator would be a possible workaround. I tried with a friends copy of illustrator but could not get it to work . I am not sure wether the software or my unfamiliarity with it was letting me down . I will attempt again sometime and post my results if I am successful .
L
Larryr544
Jun 9, 2004
Thanks Chris I appreciate that Adobe has checked into it!

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