Initial Page and Printer Setup
Before we begin processing images in Qimage, we need to use the printer driver for your specific printer to set up some basic preferences such as type of paper, paper size, and printer quality. You set or change these preferences not on the Qimage panel but by using the printer setup button (printer-with-screwdriver button highlighted above/top) to open your printer driver. Click the printer setup button. When the printer setup dialog appears, select your printer and then click "Properties". The specific selections and settings that appear on subsequent dialogs will be different for different printers/drivers. Using the print driver setup dialogs, be sure to select the type of paper you are using, the paper size, and set output quality to the highest (photo) quality settings. You may also make selections such as "borderless" from the driver setup. Click "OK" on the driver setup window(s) to accept the settings and close the printer setup dialog.
The selections made in the print driver will be reported back to Qimage and settings such as paper size, margins, and driver resolution will display above the preview page (highlighted text below the printer setup button). Note that the resolution (PPI) listed is the resolution of the driver, not the final resolution of your prints. It is therefore normal to see numbers like 720 x 720 for an Epson even if printing at 2880 x 1440 or higher resolutions: your final output will still be the resolution/quality selected in the driver. Unlike most other printing software, Qimage will remember your print driver settings for future sessions so that you do not have to repeat the printer setup routine each time you use Qimage. Note that you can click the highlighted "portrait" or "landscape" buttons under the preview page if you prefer to work with your page in a different orientation. Now that we have set your page and printing preferences, it is time to find some images to print.
Advanced: Qimage controlled printer settings
Note that if you have an ICC profile for the printer, paper, and ink you are using, the profile can by activated dropping down the "Prtr ICC" selection and selecting "Choose new profile". ICC profiles are the preferred method of color management as opposed to other, less specific methods such as PIM and EXIF Print, however, if you are not familiar with ICC profiles, it is best to leave "Prtr ICC" set to "Off" for now. If you do decide to use a printer profile, make sure you set your print driver settings (using the process described in the first paragraph on this page) so that they match the settings needed for the profile. To be effective, any printer profile must come with documentation regarding specific print driver settings because settings such as quality, resolution, enhancement features, etc. must be set to match the profile, as these settings describe a baseline for which the profile is applied. If you activate a printer profile in both the print driver settings "ICM" section and also in Qimage's "Prtr ICC" for example, you will be double profiling and get strange results.
The "Res" settings above control how "smooth" the final prints appear. The first "Res" setting refers to the output resolution to use for normal prints while the second "Res" setting refers to the output resolution to use for posters that cover more than one page. Note that Max is recommended for normal prints, High for posters, and the Interpolation method is best left on the "Hybrid" setting. Sharpening is normally best left on the "5 (default)" setting.