Getting Familiar with Qimage

Major areas of the main window:

First a note about skins: Note that the appearance of the above window and other windows is controlled by "skins" that can tailor the appearance for different tastes and workflows.  Click "View", "Skins" from the top menu to change the appearance of windows displayed in Qimage.

  1. The file tools: This group of three tool buttons handles opening and saving of sessions, printer settings, etc. and loading images from flash memory cards.
  2. Action tools: The "Thumbnail actions" and "Page/queue actions" buttons allow you to perform common actions on the thumbnails or preview/queue panel respectively.
  3. Printing tools: Area 3 contains buttons related to printing functions. The first button is the printer setup button and is used to select and control the printer you are using, and can be used to change the paper size and print quality options. The second button is the print button that sends the current document to the printer. The third button is the "cancel printing" button and remains grayed out unless printing is in progress.
  4. Current folder: Area 4 above is used to navigate/explore folders for the purpose of finding your images. You can use the dropdown to view the last folders used, or you can type the folder name directly into the prompt there. Right clicking on the arrow at the right of the dropdown allows you to manage the list of folders in the dropdown by adding/removing items from the list.
  5. The blue bar labeled "Folders" is the folder browser.  Simply click on the blue bar to open/close the folder browser.
  6. Thumbnail/Files area: Area 6 shows the available images in the folder that you navigated to in area 5. Click on any thumbnail here and then right click to see what options are available to you. Right clicking in this area brings up a menu that shows the actions that apply to selected thumbnails. Selected thumbnails may also be dragged to the preview page (area 7) or to the queue (area 10). Note that you can change area 6 to show file names only (no images) by clicking "View", "Thumbnail/file browser" from the main menu.
  7. Preview page: The preview page shows how each printed page will look when printed. You can select prints on the page and use the functions in area 8 to modify those prints, or right click on the preview page for other options (such as "delete page"). Images can be moved/sized manually by dragging the center/corners of the print, however, if prints are moved manually on the page, the current page will switch to "Freehand" placement mode automatically. Click the page editor tool button ("magnify page" tool button below the preview page) for higher precision and more advanced visual sizing/moving/annotation functions.  Two quick access methods are provided from the preview page for the purpose of editing the image itself or editing the page layout. Double click on an image on the preview page to open that image in the batch filter for editing (contrast, sharpening, etc.). Double click just outside the page boundaries rather than on an image, and Qimage will open the page editor so that you may edit page layout. The small "F" button at the upper right corner of the previewed page indicates whether the current page is in "Freehand" placement mode (button down) or automatic placement where Qimage auto-arranges prints on the page (button up).
  8. Area 8 is where you change the size, rotation, cropping, and borders for your prints.  Simply select a print on the preview page and then change the values in area 8 to apply to the selected print(s).  Note that when selecting a size, clicking on the small arrow on the right side of the size dropdown is not necessary.  For quicker sizing, simply click on the left side of the dropdown where the text appears, hold your mouse button down, move to the size you want, and release the mouse.
  9. Area 9 is the job properties panel where you can control different aspects of the printed output.  Changing the values in area 9 will change the appearance of all prints that are printed in the job.  To change how prints are arranged on the page(s), use the tool buttons under the preview page.
  10. Area 10 is the queue. It shows all the images that have been selected for processing when you used the functions in area 8 to add images to the queue. Valuable information such as the selected print size, amount of spool space required to spool the prints, and whether filters have been applied will show in this area. Again, you may right click in this area to see the functions that apply to the queue area.

A note about the top menu bar (with File, Edit, View, etc).

Although the toolbar areas (1 through 3 above) serve as quick access to the most common features in Qimage, the top menu bar (main menu) offers additional functionality such as the ability to sort thumbnails by date, type, or name, ability to view large or small thumbnails, etc.

A brief overview of main menu selections:

Printing Multiple Images: The Simplest Workflow

Due to the very high level of functionality available in Qimage, typical workflows can vary widely depending on whether or not you need/want to filter your images, you need to review them first using the slide show, etc. The following, however, is a good baseline of how to quickly print images assuming you know which images you would like to print:

  1. Check area 7 above to make sure that you have the page orientation and image placement settings set to produce the desired print appearance. After becoming familiar with the program a bit, a quick glance at area 7 will give you this information immediately and depending on your printing needs, you may not need to change these settings often.
  2. Set the image fitting method to use by clicking the small scissors icon in the lower left of area 8. When the button is depressed (down), images will be cropped if needed to ensure that prints are the exact size indicated. In contrast, a button status of up indicates that you want the entire image printed within the frame size selected, shrinking the image to a smaller size if needed so that the entire image fits within the frame. Using the latter, although it ensures that the entire image is printed, may result in the final print size being smaller than the size selected on one edge.
  3. Use area 5 to navigate to a folder that contains images that you want to print.
  4. Select one or more thumbnails from area 6 and then click the desired size in area 8. The images will be added to the queue (printed document) at the size selected.
  5. If you don't care about the order/placement of your images and simply want to ensure that the minimum amount of paper is used, click the placement button under the preview page and select "Optimal/spaced" image placement and then right click on the preview page and select "Sort Prints" to sort your images from largest to smallest and make cutting the photos from the page easier.
  6. Review area 9 to confirm the settings you will use to print and then click the print tool button in area 3.

Note: the above identifies a method of printing multiple images at the same print size. A vast array of functions exists which allow you to change the appearance of your printout even after you have added images, but the above identifies the minimum recommended steps to simple multiple image printing. If you routinely print multiple images at different sizes within the same printout, simply select thumbnails one at a time and click the desired size in area 8.

Printing Multiple Images: Previewing each image prior to adding to the queue

The following outlines the simple steps required to preview images prior to printing.

  1. Check areas 7 above to make sure that you have the page orientation and image placement settings set to produce the desired print appearance. After becoming familiar with the program a bit, a quick glance at area 7 will give you this information immediately and depending on your printing needs, you may not need to change these settings often.
  2. Set the image fitting method to use by clicking the small scissors icon in the lower left of area 8. When the button is depressed (down), images will be cropped if needed to ensure that prints are the exact size indicated. In contrast, a button status of up indicates that you want the entire image printed within the frame size selected, shrinking the image to a smaller size if needed so that the entire image fits within the frame. Using the latter, although it ensures that the entire image is printed, may result in the final print size being smaller than the size selected on one edge.
  3. Use area 5 to navigate to a folder that contains images that you want to print.
  4. In area 6, select all thumbnails that you believe to be candidates for printing. You can multi-select using the standard Windows Ctrl-click or Shift-click methods. If you would like to preview all thumbnails in the current folder, simply right click in the thumbnail area and click "Select All". All thumbnails will be selected.
  5. Right click in the thumbnail area (area 6) and choose "Preview/Add".
  6. Images will be displayed in a separate window and in a larger format. You may use that window to scroll forward/back through the selected thumbs using the left and right arrow buttons.
  7. As each image is displayed in the large preview window, you may use the size dropdown in area 8 to add the currently displayed image to the queue at the size selected. Once you have added as many copies of the current image as you like, simply click the left or right arrow buttons to proceed to the next image.
  8. Once you have reviewed all selected thumbs and added the prints you desire, close the preview window. Note that you can determine when you have reached the end of the list by looking at the right arrow button. The right (next) button grays out and is disabled when the end of the list is reached.
  9. If you don't care about the order/placement of your images and simply want to ensure that the minimum amount of paper is used, click the placement tool button under the preview page and select "Optimal/spaced" placement.  Then right click on the preview page and choose "Sort Prints" to collate your images from largest to smallest and make cutting the photos from the page easier.
  10. Review area 9 to confirm the settings you will use to print and then click the print tool button in area 3.

Changing/Modifying Settings After Adding Images to the Queue

There are a host of options available for changing the appearance of your pages/prints even after you have created a document. Many commonly used features such as ability to change the size or fit of prints on the page, etc. can be accessed simply by selecting one or more prints on the preview page(s) and then using the controls in area 8.Visual/manual sizing and placement and more complex functions can be performed by opening the full page editor using a right click on the preview page and selecting "Edit Page".