Photoshop CS Printing Problem

JD
Posted By
Jon_Davis
Nov 10, 2003
Views
804
Replies
7
Status
Closed
We recently upgraded to Photoshop CS because of its wonderful new image size limit, only to discover that we aren’t able to print a particular large image we had in mind. Said image is 21,000 x 42,000 pixels and around a 1GB in size. It opens beautifully in photoshop(it was split into two 21,000×21,000 pixel images before, we pasted them together upon getting PSCS) and can be saved as a .psb or .tif file. The problem is that whenever we open this file in either of the formats we have it in(psb and tif), all menu items related to printing are greyed. The only thing that is accessible is page setup. The image is in 8 bit RGB color. I’d really love to print this image at 600dpi on our HP DesignJet, but it just won’t work. This is the main reason we purchased CS in the first place, what gives?
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Stephanie_Schaefer
Nov 10, 2003
Jon,

This issue was addressed in the Photoshop CS readme file, information pasted below.

Large File Printing Limitations

Photoshop CS can now create and open documents as large as 300,000 x 300,000 pixels. Due to various OS and printer driver limitations, Photoshop can only print documents up to 30,000 x 30,000 pixels. When working with documents larger than 30,000 pixels in either direction, the Print menu item will be disabled. For more information on this issue, see the tech note "Print command is unavailable for documents larger than 30,000 pixels (Photoshop CS)". Visit <http://www.adobe.com/support/main.html> and select the Support Knowledge Base link to view the tech note in the top issue section for Photoshop CS.
JD
Jon_Davis
Nov 10, 2003
In the tech note, it mentions a product called Posterworks that apparently translates a raster image into a vector image. This would not work for my application because the image is not vector friendly. This whole issue of photoshop not printing over the 30k boundary seems crazy, how can there be printer driver limitations on my HP DesignJet, it is capable of printing 600 dpi on a 48 inch wide roll for as long as you want. It has a 20gb hard drive in it for the print queue! There must be some way to either send it in two jobs and tell it to print seamlessly or some other sort of printer mojo that I can work here. I tried putting it together and printing with InDesign, but got a program error. I think you guys and the printer guys and Microsoft should get your heads together and get past these boundaries, or else what is the point of having a large format, high resolution printer?
MH
Mark_Hiers
Nov 10, 2003
it mentions a product called Posterworks that apparently translates a raster image into a vector image

Where is this stated? I’m pretty sure it’s raster based.
L
LenHewitt
Nov 11, 2003
Jon,

Posterworks that apparently translates a raster image into a vector image.
<<

Where did you get that idea?

QUOTE:

"You can, however, use a third-party application such as a RIP (raster image processor)–PosterWorks , for example "

That does not suggest any raster to vector conversion at all….

A RIP takes PostScript language files and converts tham to the printer-specific instructions, that’s all.
RW
Russell_Williams
Nov 11, 2003
The 30,000 pixel limit is an OS and printer driver limit. The only way to print a larger image to a non-Postscript printer is to split it up into multiple smaller images and print them one after another with no borders. Of course that doesn’t help if it’s bigger than 30,000 pixels in both dimensions. We are working with the OS vendors to extend this limit.

The fact that your printer is 600 dpi is largely irrelevant. Several of those dots are required to print each image pixel. For photographs, you will see little or no improvement above 300 pixels per inch no matter what your printer’s resolution (the newest Epsons are over 5000 dpi now), and the improvement beyond 240 ppi input is subtle with most images. Certainly for extremely large prints, 240 is a reasonable number. That would give you 125 X 125 inches. Epson’s desktop print drivers have been limited to 44 inch long printouts for other reasons, but you can print successive jobs back to back without margins, so as far as I know, with an Epson you can print as wide as the printer for as many 44 inch segments as you want. Their large format printers have a bigger limit (but last time I tried it was well under 125 inches for a single print job).

Postscript doesn’t inherently have a 30,000 pixel limit, but each RIP (software for translating Postscript to printer instructions) has its own limits.

Finally, the OSes limit the size of any print job to 2GB, regardless of pixel count.
JD
Jon_Davis
Nov 12, 2003
Sorry, I assumed a RIP would convert to vector. My printer is a PostScript printer, does this open up some more options for me? It’s a HP DesignJet 5000ps. With an image like this, I can see a clear difference between 600dpi and 300dpi. I’ve printed small sections of the image in both, and 600 IS an improvement in clarity. I’m glad I didn’t get an Epson, because at lower resolutions, we’ve printed 180+ inch prints on this printer. I would guess that since my printer is postscript, I can skip the RIP software, and pass the postscript directly to the printer, not sure how I’d go about doing something like that though. I may be bumping into the 2gb limit, because I tried to print the thing in Indesign, and got a program error trying to print. I think Indesign was passing postscript directly to the printer, but not sure.

Anyways, here are the images I’m trying to print. They’re currently in 2 tif files on this server, which I’ve merged together in a psb file in PS CS.

ftp://visibleearth.nasa.gov/pub/EARTHVIZ/land_shallow_topo_e ast.tif ftp://visibleearth.nasa.gov/pub/EARTHVIZ/land_shallow_topo_w est.tif

These images do benefit from being printed at full resolution, If I could ever get the thing to print.

It isn’t bigger than 30,000 in both dimensions, just one, so maybe i can print them in 2 jobs without a border, I’ll have to figure out how that works as well. I’d hate to try it and then have it mess up between the two halves, wasting valuable ink and photo paper. At 600 dpi, this thing really puts out a lot of ink, and those images really put a hurting on the cyan. Anyway, any help would be appreciated in pointing me in the right direction to either: print it as 2 jobs without a border(what program to do this in), Send it as postscript directly to the printer, everyone so far has assumed my printer isn’t postscript(sorry for not mentioning that in the first place). You guys are really on the ball in this forum, thanks for the speedy and knowledgable responses.
RW
Russell_Williams
Nov 13, 2003
The "two jobs without a border" should work — and is cheap to test because you can do it with small images.

Note that I wasn’t claiming there’s little or no advantage to running the printer at 600 dpi vs. 300 dpi. Epsons look better at 2880 dpi than they do at 1440 dpi.

I’m saying that for most photographic images, you won’t see a significant difference with an original image of 600 pixels per inch vs. 300 pixels per inch (the resolution that Photoshop reports in the image size box).

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