Printing bigger than A3+

[Bilbo]

Hi, I have a Canon iX5000 and I want to print an image 720mm deep, I have spoken to canon and they say the driver is set to 584mm, can I get a custom driver so I can print to my larger size or has anyone got any ideas of how to get around this problem?

Many thanks

Bilbo

 

[Smile]

Hmm I'm no hacker but canon states what dll drives the printer in install .inf file. So you need to (find correct packer with special tools) unpack the file and use something like PE Explorer or Hexedit to edit the file. I doubt the value is stored as 584mm, i would be stored as pixels or something like that.

Try posting a request at "www.cracklab.ru"

 

[IGExpandingPanda]

Hi, I have a Canon iX5000 and I want to print an image 720mm deep, I have spoken to canon and they say the driver is set to 584mm, can I get a custom driver so I can print to my larger size or has anyone got any ideas of how to get around this problem?

Many thanks

Bilbo

I don't claim to have the answer, however these are likely possible solutions

1) Raster Image Processor software (RIP).
2) Linux (turboprint)
3) Linux gimp & gutenprint
4) Winows with cygwin and turboprint or gimp+gutenprint? http://www.cygwin.com/ or http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/

These are just wild ideas, but the fact of the matter is canon doesn't support banner printing. You could get away with it under their old win3.1 drivers, perhaps 9x drivers, but on current generation this is not something they even consider. I can somewhat understand on their a4 printers, but a3+ 584mm is well, lame.

 

[pharmacist]

Doe someone know a good and free or cheap RIP for my Epson Pro 3800 ? OS does not matter, Linux is fine. I want to print larger pictures as well.

 

[IGExpandingPanda]

Doe someone know a good and free or cheap RIP for my Epson Pro 3800 ? OS does not matter, Linux is fine. I want to print larger pictures as well.

http://www.ddisoftware.com/qimage/qimagehlp/lbe.htm#6a
http://www.ddisoftware.com

It's not free.

There is also turboprint for linux, which well isn't RIP, but it does support the 3800 to come degree. Also not free.

Qimage does bring up an interesting idea. Two pages printed without a page break on roll paper. If you are good in hex you might be able to do the same thing with canon, well, provided you know the commands.

 

[pharmacist]

I don't have a roll paper system on my Epson Pro 3800, can it still print larger than 1 metres in length ?

 

[IGExpandingPanda]

I don't have a roll paper system on my Epson Pro 3800, can it still print larger than 1 metres in length ?

I'm not an expert on the 3800. In fact the last wide model of epson I owned was a 1520, and that hardly qualifies.
http://people.csail.mit.edu/ericchan/dp/Epson3800/faq.html

Near as I'm aware the max paper limit on the 3800 is 37.4 inches, just shy of a meter. QIMAGE does a trick and prints two pages without a page break, and given the max page size is 37.4inches, you should be able to go beyond a meter.

According to the ericchan faq, quadtonerip will go 128 inches (3.25m). It's GNU software, though they do want a $50 fee but it's not mandatory. It's B&W though which might not fit your needs, but at the very least it's something to try that won't cost you anything to try. I've not used it, so I don't know if it depends on mediastreet ink to do B&W or if color images are rendered as color if you have color ink.

 

[pharmacist]

I found something interesting:

http://dahmerphotography.blogspot.com and click on user defined paper size utility (download). It works !!! You can expand the papersize up to 6.5 metres (should be enough ). The documentation proves you can actually tweak your printer to print very long panorama's without any expensive RIP and this utility can tweak your printer to do the job. Be careful: use full cartridges before starting your job......

It works on: Epson 1400, R800, R1800, R1900, R2400, Pro 3800 (up to driver version 5.5x) and the DX8400.

However this utility is still under testing to support more printers. I tested moments ago an dit works on my Epson Pro 3800 with a piece of wall paper cut in 42 x 168 cm with a black retangle (with thin line) to see if it does exceeds the 9500 mm boundary and it does without a hiccup.

 

[websnail]

@Pharmacist:

I doubt Robert (refillink) will know for sure as he tends to be more technical about cartridges than drivers but you might want to give him a call as he may have a client or someone who might know the answer for him to tap.

 

[pharmacist]

Websnail,

thanks for your input. However I'm very pleased with this so-called utility and it is free. It makes some essential changes in the Epson's UCF-file to overcome the lenght limit of the printer driver. You can take a look at the link I posted and especially at the documentation link. It shows the writer of this tool making a large panorama on his own Epson 1400 A3+ printer.