Canon Pro 100 Border/Margin Printing Issue (via Lightroom)

[mdrx2011]

See attached pics...Can someone help idenfity this as either Canon Pro 100 printer problem or a Lightroom problem? Or another problem I'm not seeing? 

In LR, I'm trying to print with the margins set and they look fine, but the Canon IJ XPS Print Preview shifts the image and throws off the margins/border, mainly on the RIGHT SIDE, and on printing, the top margin is also off (thinner). Don't mind the white lines across the print preview, they didn't print like that. 

Alignment and test prints are all good with the printer.

Let me know what other relevant information you may need...thanks!

[mdrx2011]

Here's the end printed product, you can see the top and right margin issue...(oh and don't worry, I've calibrated my monitor and the printer prints accurately, it's just the lighting I'm using!)

[jrhoffman75]

Hi mdrx2011. Welcome to the forum.

A few questions.

1. what happens if you just print from Lightroom and don't call up the printer preview?

2. the screenshots are too small for me to see the actual paper size and setting information 

[mdrx2011]

Hello and thanks, jrhoffman75. Based on your questions, I did some further testing...but to no avail.

1) Tested without printer preview, got the same result...doesn't LR link directly to those printer preferences from the XPS driver I set as default? Can I bypass those Canon printer drivers in LR and get LR to manage all those printing preferences?

2) Sorry, was unaware you can't click on the image to load larger. I'm using a 8.5"x11" letter sized Canon Photo Paper Pro Luster LU-101. I set the printing preference as borderless initially so I can tweak the margins in LR to my liking. However, I've tested the margins on the print even when borderless is unchecked and have the same issue...the image printed is shifted to the top and right (compressing those margins)...

[][][] It seems the printer driver is setting different print dimensions/margins than LR. 

Also attaching settings pics from the orignal prints, and note I set the cell size for that on purpose to create the margins I want:

Borderless printing (with no cell size adjustments to create a border, all other settings equal):

On these borderless prints, the top and right are compressed in the preview, and also slightly more on the print itself...

[jrhoffman75 · Accepted solution]

The printer has certain maximum printable areas for different papers, as shown in this screenshot:

If you select Borderless the printer driver will expand the dimensions of the print to try and fill the paper; you can't get a defined border using Borderless.

You should be able to increase the extension of the bolrderless setting to fill more of the paper.

But what are you trying to achieve - a borderless print or a print with borders of a size you want? If you want borders, and even borders, you need to select 0.25 as the margin on all four sides since on two of tghe sides 0.25 is the default margin.

I noticed you selected matte in the sharpening section. Luster paper is considered glossy as far as the sharpening algoritm is concerned. If you like the results then that is fine, but the default algoritm assumes any paper not designated as matte is glossy.

[mdrx2011]

Thanks for the quick reply! That pretty much did the trick as far as I can tell. I was misinterpreting the communication between all that apparently. You clarified a lot.

My main goal was to print directly as I see it in LR, hence trying to adjust margins, etc. through there and to understand the conflict here to avoid it in the future if something changes. As for the borderless, will have to look into the extension aspect as you mentioned when I print that next time.

As for the matte selection, thanks for noticing that and giving your input. During setup, some people (I thought) mentioned using matte for Pro Luster, so I trusted it...I'm currently happy with the prints, but what you say makes sense and will try it out, can't deny a higher quality print if that works better!

Side question: my monitor is calibrated, should I let the printer or the calibrated profile manage the color in LR? If this isn't that straightforward to answer, don't trouble yourself. 

[jrhoffman75]

There are no fast rules, so if you like what you are getting with the matte setting that is fine. Matte papers tend to spread the ink more (called dot gain), so the matte setting would be applying more sharpening than the glossy setting. But glossy papers have less dot gain. Use what you like best.

Monitor calibration and the monitor profile are different than the printer profile.

The monitor profile, within the accuracy of the profile and the capability of the monitor, will present on screen the data in the digital image file.

The printer ICC profile, within thwe accuracy of the profile and the capability of the printer, will present on paper what you see on the screen.

If you are letting the printer manage color the printer driver will select the correct Canon paper profile for the media type you selected.