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Borderless printing makes print production efficient, clean, and profitable. The third and final part of this three-part series shows how to do borderless prints with the ImagePrint 7.0 RIP on either a PC or a Mac.
By Tom Hauenstein
As mentioned in the first installment of Prints without Borders, the successful studio looks to maximize efficiency in all of its processes. This is particularly true with in-house printing, which is why the ability to print borderless and eliminate a lot of needless trimming is so important.
Before printing borderless, examine the common output sizes and buy rolls that fit those sizes. For example, if the majority of your business is selling 8x10 units, then buy 10-inch rolls. If the majority of your sales are 24x20s and 24x30s, buy 24-inch rolls.
Once you have the proper roll sizes, you simply need to set up your workflow to execute the prints properly. Keep in mind that most printers cannot print borderless on sheets (the Epson 3800 and R2400 are the only two really designed for this). Also, keep in mind that most printers can’t print borderless on all roll sizes. Check your owner’s manual to see which roll sizes your printer can print to successfully in borderless mode.
Cropping
Cropping in ImagePrint 7.0 is extremely easy because of the newly added Smart Crop feature. Smart Crop allows the user to crop on-the-fly. With Smart Crop, you don’t have to save out three or four different versions of the same file for different aspect ratios.
For example, a photographer may have the following files on a hard drive: image_a(8x10).jpg, image_a(5x7).jpg and image_a(11x14).jpg. Using the Smart Crop feature, the photographer would only have to save the original image_a.jpg, and then crop it to the size needed in ImagePrint, thus saving time and valuable hard drive space.
To use the Smart Crop feature, simply double-click on an image that is open in ImagePrint 7.0. This will bring up a larger version of the image and allow you to crop it. You can select common photo sizes in the dropdown menu, or create a custom crop size and crop to that.
For borderless printing, you will want to create a custom crop. As I mentioned in the first two installments, both Canon and Epson printers prefer the image to be about a quarter-inch larger than the roll when printing borderless.
Borderless Printing: ImagePrint Instructions
Please check out the installment of Tips and Tricks from 2007, Managing Color, Part 6: The Final Countdown to get other step-step-step instructions on using ImagePrint 7.0.
The first step for borderless printing in ImagePrint is to create a page size that makes sense. In this example we will be printing 8x10s on a 10 inch roll, so a 10x8 page size makes sense (see Figure 1)
Figure 1: Click on the image for a larger version.
Next, rotate the image to landscape orientation by hitting one of the rotate buttons in the tool bar (see Figure 2).
Figure 2: Click on the image for a larger version.
Then, make sure that Borderless and Roll Paper are selected on the bottom right of the software (see Figure 3). You should see the symbol for roll paper and a paper with a red border around it. You can hover your mouse over these symbols and it will show you what you have selected on the bottom left of the screen.
You will then want to crop the image to a 10.25x8. Double-click on the image to bring up Smart Crop. Select 10.25 in the width and 8 as the height. Then move the crop window around to where you want it cropped to, and hit Enter or Return (see Figure 4). Close out of Smart Crop.
The next thing you want to do is center the newly cropped image in the workspace. You can do this by selecting the center button in the tool bar, which looks like a box within a box with green arrows pointing out. Also, if you’re on PC you can right-click on the image and select Center (see Figure 5).
Figure 5: Click on the image for a larger version.
Now you’re ready to Print. Hit Print in the File Menu. Make sure that you have Autocut checked if you want the printer to cut the image, and have Inked Area checked to avoid any whitespace on the top or bottom of the image (see Figure 6).
If you want to cut the top and bottom of the image to bleed so that you get a perfectly trimmed 8x10 in the basket, then hit the Options button in the printer dialog box. Choose Double Cut in the Cut Method (see Figure 7).
Then hit OK, and Print, and that’s it!
Borderless printing through ImagePrint is very easy because of the Smart Crop feature and the intuitive visual layout offered by the software. If you have any further questions about the proper execution of borderless prints, please feel free to contact your LexJet representative or myself at 800-453-9538 and we will be happy to answer any questions you may have.