Qimage - Learn by Example:

A general note on using these examples: Qimage always remembers all program selections (parameters) so that the next time you use the software, you will start with the same settings you used in your last session. For this reason, once you've performed steps such as selecting a placement method, fitting and image lock, you will not have to perform these same steps each time. For example, once you perform steps 1 through 3 in example 2, there is no need to repeat them again since these settings will be retained.

Table of Contents:

Section I: The Basics

Section II: Making Changes

Section III: Working with ICC Profiles

Section IV: Advanced Printing

Section IV: Advanced Profiling

Section I: The Basics

Example 1: Setting Qimage to Produce Maximum Quality Prints

  1. Click the "Printer Setup" tool button. Select your photo printer and click "Properties" for the printer, making sure that your printer driver settings are set to the highest quality photo settings and select the appropriate media type/size (photo glossy, etc).
  2. Click the "Job Properties" tab on the lower right of the main window and make sure that your "Interp." method is set to "Hybrid".  Also make sure that your first "Res" value (output resolution for prints) is set to "Max" and the second Res value (output resolution for posters) is set to "High". 
  3. Still on the "Job Properties" tab, leave "Prtr ICC" set to "OFF" if you do not have a custom printer ICC profile for the printer, paper, and ink you are using. If you have obtained or created an accurate ICC profile for your printer and the type of media you are using, activate that profile in "Prtr ICC". Before activating any profile, make sure you know the proper print driver settings to use with the profile because an ICC profile will only work properly with specific print driver settings. See the Color Management section for more details.
  4. Finally, on the "Job Properties" tab, make sure that all checkboxes are not checked. This will ensure that no borders or text information are printed with your prints, and will ensure that no global or print filter is active that may affect the appearance of prints.

Example 1a: Setting Qimage to Produce Borderless Prints

Background: Qimage gets page size information from your print driver so to print borderless prints, we must set the print driver properties for the paper size we are using and tell the driver to print borderless on that paper. Note that not all printers support borderless printing and some print drivers may only support borderless printing on certain types/sizes of paper. Assuming your printer and print driver support borderless printing, the following example will produce bordlerless prints from Qimage. Note that if borderless is not supported on your paper/media, no software will be able to overcome these printer/driver limitations.

  1. Navigate to a folder that contains images using the folder browser directly above the thumbnail grid on the main window. If the folder browsing panel above the thumbnails is not visible, you can show the panel by clicking on the bar labeled "Folders" above the thumbnail grid. When you have selected a folder that contains your images using the folder browser, the images/file names in that folder will display under the folder tree.
  2. Optional: You can hide the folder browser by clicking again on the bar labeled "Folders" if you like in order to have more room for viewing thumbnails.
  3. Select one or more thumbnails in the thumbnail grid using the standard Windows multi-select functions of Ctrl-mouse click or Shift-mouse click.
  4. Click "Custom" size in the Print Properties auto-popup panel.
  5. Click the "Borderless" radio button on the left side of the window.
  6. Click "OK" and the selected images will be added using borderless size. If your "OK" button is grayed out, your print driver is not currently set up to produce borderless prints. Because all print drivers implement borderless printing slightly differently, Qimage cannot set your print driver to borderless mode automatically. Like setting the paper size and type, borderless is a driver option that must be set via the print driver. Use the "click here" link in the right window panel to open your print driver properties and select borderless (sometimes called "no margins") mode in the driver. The "click here" link will only be visible if Qimage detected that your driver is not currently set for borderless printing.

Notes: Once you have set your print driver to produce borderless prints, Qimage will remember the print driver settings, so you will only need to set the borderless option in your print driver once and it will remain in effect until you go back to normal (non-borderless) printing.

Example 2: Printing Multiple Images at the Same Size (in this example, 4x6 images)

Background: Before beginning with examples, it is important to understand one important concept in printing, and that is how to handle print sizes that are different proportions (aspect ratios) that may/may not match the proportions of your images. In many of the following examples, we use the "Auto Cropping" button in the down position () to give Qimage permission to automatically crop some of the image to obtain the exact print size chosen. Qimage may need to crop some of the image, for example, if you are printing a 6x4 print from a typical consumer camera that has a 4:3 image which is more "square" than the print you are printing. If you would like Qimage to print the entire photo but would like to ensure that the photo would fit within a 6x4 frame (with some white space if needed), you may set the "Auto Cropping" button to the up position (). Here is an example of what you can expect when printing a 6x4 print from an image captured on a typical consumer camera with a 4:3 image:

"Fit in frame": With the "Auto Cropping" button in the up position, you are telling Qimage that you want to fit the entire image within the frame size (6x4 in this example) that you have chosen. In this case, Qimage modifies the print size and not the image, and you will get a 5.33 x 4 inch print which is the largest possible print that will fit within a 6x4 frame and still print the whole image.

"Crop to size": With the "Auto Cropping" button in the down position, you are giving Qimage permission to automatically crop out the center of the image to obtain a print that is the exact size chosen. In this case, Qimage modifies the image by cropping it and leaves the print size alone, and you will get a 6x4 print cut from the center of the photo. In this example, the print will cover the entire image left to right but will have a small portion of the top and bottom cut off to obtain the proper size.

Note that if the aspect ratio of your image matches that of the print size chosen, the "Auto Cropping" button will have no effect on the prints. For example, most professional cameras use a 3:2 aspect ratio instead of the 4:3 found in most consumer grade cameras so if you print a 6x4 print from a pro camera (which is a 3:2 aspect ratio), the "Auto Cropping" button will have no effect on the image and you will get a 6x4 print regardless of the position of the "Auto Cropping" button. This is due to the fact that the entire image will fit in a 6x4 print, so no cropping is necessary.

  1. Click the placement tool button below the preview page and select "Optimal" placement. This instructs Qimage to arrange images on the page to minimize paper usage.
  2. Make sure that the "Image Lock" button under the preview page is not depressed (unlocked). This tells Qimage that it is ok to automatically rotate your images to obtain the best fit inside the frame size.
  3. Click the "Auto Cropping" button on the "Print Properties" auto-popup panel below the preview page. Make sure that the button is depressed/on. This tells Qimage that it is ok to crop some of your images in order to obtain exact print sizes.
  4. Navigate to a folder that contains images using the folder browser directly above the thumbnail grid on the main window. If the folder browsing panel above the thumbnails is not visible, you can show the panel by clicking on the bar labeled "Folders" above the thumbnail grid. When you have selected a folder that contains your images using the folder browser, the images/file names in that folder will display under the folder tree.
  5. Optional: You can hide the folder browser by clicking again on the bar labeled "Folders" if you like in order to have more room for viewing thumbnails.
  6. Select one or more thumbnails in the thumbnail grid using the standard Windows multi-select functions of Ctrl-mouse click or Shift-mouse click.
  7. Go to the size dropdown in the "Print Properties" auto-popup panel and select 6x4 (may also be labeled 4x6).
  8. Click the "Print" tool button on the top/right of the main window.

Example 2a: Printing Multiple Images at the most "compatible" size

Background: Sometimes the actual size of the print is not important; we just want to pick a common size that best "fits" the images that we plan to print. We may be printing images from different sources/cameras that are of different proportions (aspect ratios) and we are not sure what "standard" print size best matches those images. If we can pick a print size that has proportions similar to our image proportions, we can reduce or eliminate the need to crop prints. Qimage offers a visual tool that allows you to determine the most appropriate print size(s) for images that you select before you even add them to the queue!

  1. Navigate to a folder that contains images using the folder browser directly above the thumbnail grid on the main window. If the folder browsing panel above the thumbnails is not visible, you can show the panel by clicking on the bar labeled "Folders" above the thumbnail grid. When you have selected a folder that contains your images using the folder browser, the images/file names in that folder will display under the folder tree.
  2. Optional: You can hide the folder browser by clicking again on the bar labeled "Folders" if you like in order to have more room for viewing thumbnails.
  3. Select one or more thumbnails in the thumbnail grid using the standard Windows multi-select functions of Ctrl-mouse click or Shift-mouse click.
  4. Go to the size dropdown on the "Print Properties" auto-popup panel.  The [text] color of the standard print sizes on the list will change to indicate which print sizes are the best match for the selected images. The following outlines the meaning of the colors of sizes in the list:

    Black: Black indicates that the print size is not the best match for the images you have selected (or you have not selected any thumbnails in the thumbnail grid).

    Blue: Blue indicates that the print size is an exact match to the proportions of the selected image(s). Using this size means that no cropping of the image will be necessary to obtain this size.

    Red: Red indicates that the print size is not an exact match to the proportions of the image(s), but is the closest match of the standard sizes. Using this size will help minimize cropping to obtain exact sizes but will not completely eliminate the need to crop some images.

  5. Click on one of the highlighted (either blue or red) sizes to add the selected images at that size.

Example 3: Printing Multiple Images at Different Sizes (in this example, one 7x5, one 5x3 and one 3x2)

  1. Click the placement tool button below the preview page and select "Optimal" placement. This instructs Qimage to arrange images on the page to minimize paper usage.
  2. Make sure that the "Image Lock" button under the preview page is not depressed (unlocked). This tells Qimage that it is ok to automatically rotate your images to obtain the best fit inside the frame size.
  3. Click the "Auto Cropping" button on the "Size" tab just below the preview page. Make sure that the button is depressed/on. This tells Qimage that it is ok to crop some of your images in order to obtain exact print sizes.
  4. Navigate to a folder that contains images using the folder browser directly above the thumbnail grid on the main window. If the folder browsing panel above the thumbnails is not visible, you can show the panel by clicking on the bar labeled "Folders" above the thumbnail grid. When you have selected a folder that contains your images using the folder browser, the images/file names in that folder will display under the folder tree.
  5. Optional: You can hide the folder browser by clicking again on the bar labeled "Folders" if you like in order to have more room for viewing thumbnails.
  6. Select a thumbnail that you wish to be printed at a size of 5x7 in the thumbnail grid.
  7. Go to the size dropdown in the "Print Properties" auto-popup panel and select 5x7 (may also be labeled 7x5).
  8. Select a thumbnail that you wish to be printed at a size of 3x5 in the thumbnail grid.
  9. Go to the size dropdown in the "Print Properties" auto-popup panel and select 3x5 (may also be labeled 5x3).
  10. Select a thumbnail that you wish to be printed at a size of 3x2 in the thumbnail grid.
  11. Go to the size dropdown in the "Print Properties" auto-popup panel and select 3x2 (may also be labeled 2x3).
  12. Click the "Print" tool button.

Qimage provides two workflows for adding images of different sizes:

Select thumbs, add size: In the above workflow, we select multiple thumbnails and then click a size to add the selected thumbs at the size chosen.

Select size, add thumbs: In some cases, it may be desirable to select a default size to work with first, add images to the queue using that size, switch to the next size, add the next batch of images at the new size, etc. Qimage allows this workflow as well. To select a size first (without adding thumbnails at that size), simply click on white space on the preview page or right click on the "+" on any thumbnail and then select a new "default" size.  You can then click the small "+" icon on thumbnails to add them to the page.  Alternatively, you can select multiple thumbs, drag them to the preview page, and drop them.

Example 3a: Moving the Crop Area when "Crop Image" is Turned On (instead of accepting the default "crop center of photo")

Background: Now that you have had the opportunity to create a document with various print sizes, you may have noticed that the automatic crop that is used when the "Auto Cropping" button is down () may not always be optimal due to the fact that the auto-crop always crops out the exact center of the image. You may have a photo where the top of your subject's head is at the very top edge of the photo for example. In this case, you would want to crop the image so that only the bottom part of the photo is cropped rather than a small portion of the top and bottom which would cut off the top of the subject's head. The following example illustrates how to adjust the auto-crop in order to crop an area other than the default (center of image).

  1. Add images to the queue with the "Auto Cropping" button set so that crop is on (button depressed).
  2. Using the preview page in the upper right of the main window, locate a page that contains the print that you would like to adjust.
  3. Click the "Edit Page" button under the preview page or simply double click just outside the page area next to the preview page to open the full page editor. This full page editor is the area where you make fine adjustments to your prints such as freehand movement, click/drag sizing, crop adjustment, and more.
  4. When the page editor opens, click on the "Cropping" tab on the right side of the window (if not already selected).
  5. Next, click the image on the page that you would like to adjust with respect to cropping.
  6. The crop is displayed on the "Cropping" tab on the right. Move your cursor over the image on the cropping tab and click/drag to move the image around within the crop window. When you have finished dragging the image so that the important parts of the image are visible in the crop window, simply release the mouse button and your new crop is instantly in place.
  7. When finished, close the page editor window.

Notes: The cropping tool on the page editor window is a powerful tool that has additional features other than the simple click/drag mentioned in the example above where we were just dragging the photo down in the crop window to include all of the subject's head in the photo. Here are some other helpful features you will find in the cropping tool:

Example 3b: Printing Images at their Original (Scanned) Size

Background: Rather than manually selecting print sizes on a per-image basis, it is sometimes desirable to be able to create duplicates of images by printing them at their original size. Such is the case when photos of different sizes are scanned in a flatbed scanner and duplicates of those photos (at the same size as scanned) are desired. The following procedure describes how to accomplish this task.

  1. Click the placement tool button below the preview page and select "Optimal" placement. This instructs Qimage to arrange images on the page to minimize paper usage.
  2. Make sure that the "Image Lock" button under the preview page is not depressed (unlocked). This tells Qimage that it is ok to automatically rotate your images to obtain the best fit inside the frame size.
  3. Click the "Auto Cropping" button on the "Size" tab just below the preview page. Make sure that the button is depressed/on. This tells Qimage that it is ok to crop some of your images in order to obtain exact print sizes.
  4. Navigate to a folder that contains images using the folder browser directly above the thumbnail grid on the main window. If the folder browsing panel above the thumbnails is not visible, you can show the panel by clicking on the bar labeled "Folders" above the thumbnail grid. When you have selected a folder that contains your images using the folder browser, the images/file names in that folder will display under the folder tree.
  5. Optional: You can hide the folder browser by clicking again on the bar labeled "Folders" if you like in order to have more room for viewing thumbnails.
  6. Select one or more thumbnails in the thumbnail grid using the standard Windows multi-select functions of Ctrl-mouse click or Shift-mouse click.
  7. Click the size dropdown in the "Print Properties" auto-popup panel and select "Original Size".
  8. Click the "Print" tool button.

Notes: Not all images/image types have a PPI listed in the file. When Qimage cannot find the PPI parameter in the image file, it will use the fallback PPI listed on the right window panel after completing step 8 above. Note that you can also check the "Override embedded size" checkbox to override the embedded PPI information in image files and force PPI to the value listed in the edit box.  The override checkbox can be accessed via selecting the "Custom" print size and then "Original Size".

Example 3c: Reviewing Images and Selecting Prints in an Integrated Workflow

  1. Click the placement tool button below the preview page and select "Optimal" placement. This instructs Qimage to arrange images on the page to minimize paper usage.
  2. Make sure that the "Image Lock" button under the preview page is not depressed (unlocked). This tells Qimage that it is ok to automatically rotate your images to obtain the best fit inside the frame size.
  3. Click the "Auto Cropping" button on the "Size" tab just below the preview page. Make sure that the button is depressed/on. This tells Qimage that it is ok to crop some of your images in order to obtain exact print sizes.
  4. Navigate to a folder that contains images using the folder browser directly above the thumbnail grid on the main window. If the folder browsing panel above the thumbnails is not visible, you can show the panel by clicking on the bar labeled "Folders" above the thumbnail grid. When you have selected a folder that contains your images using the folder browser, the images/file names in that folder will display under the folder tree.
  5. Optional: You can hide the folder browser by clicking again on the bar labeled "Folders" if you like in order to have more room for viewing thumbnails.
  6. Right click in the thumbnail grid and choose "Select All" to select all thumbnails in the current folder.
  7. Right click in the thumbnail grid and choose "Preview Selected". The preview window will open with the first selected thumbnail.
  8. You may scroll forward/back through the selected thumbnails using the "Prev" and "Next" buttons on the preview window. When you see an image that you would like to print, simply click the "Add" button. The print currently being reviewed in the preview window will be added to the queue. Repeat for as many images and sizes as you like.
  9. Close the preview window and your document will now contain the selected images. When moving forward through the selected thumbnails, you can tell when the end of the list is reached because the "Next" button will be grayed out and will not be operational.

Example 4: Printing Many Copies of One Image (in this example, 9 wallets at 3x2 size)

  1. Click the placement tool button below the preview page and select "Optimal" placement. This instructs Qimage to arrange images on the page to minimize paper usage.
  2. Make sure that the "Image Lock" button under the preview page is not depressed (unlocked). This tells Qimage that it is ok to automatically rotate your images to obtain the best fit inside the frame size.
  3. Click the "Auto Cropping" button on the "Size" tab just below the preview page. Make sure that the button is depressed/on. This tells Qimage that it is ok to crop some of your images in order to obtain exact print sizes.
  4. Navigate to a folder that contains images using the folder browser directly above the thumbnail grid on the main window. If the folder browsing panel above the thumbnails is not visible, you can show the panel by clicking on the bar labeled "Folders" above the thumbnail grid. When you have selected a folder that contains your images using the folder browser, the images/file names in that folder will display under the folder tree.
  5. Optional: You can hide the folder browser by clicking again on the bar labeled "Folders" if you like in order to have more room for viewing thumbnails.
  6. Select the thumbnail in question.
  7. In the "Copies to add" parameter above the thumbnails, enter "9" as the number of copies to be added to the queue.
  8. Go to the size dropdown in the "Print Properties" auto-popup panel and select 3x2 (may also be labeled 2x3).
  9. Click the "Print" tool button.

Example 5: Printing a Specified Number of Prints to Each Page (in this example, dividing the page into 9 prints as large as possible on the page)

  1. Click the placement tool button below the preview page and select "Optimal" placement. This instructs Qimage to arrange images on the page to minimize paper usage.
  2. Make sure that the "Image Lock" button under the preview page is not depressed (unlocked). This tells Qimage that it is ok to automatically rotate your images to obtain the best fit inside the frame size.
  3. Click the "Auto Cropping" button on the "Size" tab just below the preview page. Make sure that the button is depressed/on. This tells Qimage that it is ok to crop some of your images in order to obtain exact print sizes.
  4. Navigate to a folder that contains images using the folder browser directly above the thumbnail grid on the main window. If the folder browsing panel above the thumbnails is not visible, you can show the panel by clicking on the bar labeled "Folders" above the thumbnail grid. When you have selected a folder that contains your images using the folder browser, the images/file names in that folder will display under the folder tree.
  5. Optional: You can hide the folder browser by clicking again on the bar labeled "Folders" if you like in order to have more room for viewing thumbnails.
  6. Select one or more thumbnails in the thumbnail grid using the standard Windows multi-select functions of Ctrl-mouse click or Shift-mouse click.
  7. Click the size dropdown in the "Print Properties" auto-popup panel and select "Custom".
  8. Click the "Enter number of prints per page" radio button on the left side of the window.
  9. In the right panel, enter "3" in both the "columns" and "rows" edit boxes.
  10. Click "OK" and images will be added so that 9 prints (3x3) will be on each page.
  11. Optional: note that since your "last used" size is remembered, you can click the small "+" icon on thumbnails to add more thumbnails at the same size without repeating the above until you have as many prints as you like.
  12. Click the "Print" tool button.

Example 6: Printing a Multi Page Poster of a Single Image (in this example, printing a 2 page by 2 page poster for a total of 4 pages)

  1. Click the "Auto Cropping" button on the "Size" tab just below the preview page. Make sure that the button is depressed/on. This tells Qimage that it is ok to crop some of your images in order to obtain exact print sizes. Optional: turn crop off to ensure that the entire image is printed instead.
  2. Make sure that the "Image Lock" button under the preview page is not depressed (unlocked). This tells Qimage that it is ok to automatically rotate your images to obtain the best fit inside the frame size.
  3. Click the "Landscape" tool button to orient the printed page in landscape format.
  4. Navigate to a folder that contains images using the folder browser directly above the thumbnail grid on the main window. If the folder browsing panel above the thumbnails is not visible, you can show the panel by clicking on the bar labeled "Folders" above the thumbnail grid. When you have selected a folder that contains your images using the folder browser, the images/file names in that folder will display under the folder tree.
  5. Optional: You can hide the folder browser by clicking again on the bar labeled "Folders" if you like in order to have more room for viewing thumbnails.
  6. Select one or more thumbnails in the thumbnail grid using the standard Windows multi-select functions of Ctrl-mouse click or Shift-mouse click.
  7. Click the size dropdown in the "Print Properties" auto-popup panel and select "Custom".
  8. Click the "Enter poster rows/columns" radio button on the left side of the window.
  9. In the right panel, enter "2" in both the "pages across" and "pages down" edit boxes.
  10. Click "OK" and image(s) will be added as 2x2 page posters.
  11. Click the "Print" tool button.

Example 6a: Using the poster feature to overcome your print driver's maximum page length limitation

Background: Qimage not only overcomes your printer's size limitations by being able to print a multi-page poster, but it can also override page length limitations on printers that support roll/banner paper. For example, your print driver may have a limit of 44 inches for the length of a "page" even when you are using roll/banner paper. If you want a print that is 50 inches in length, you can use this example to get a single print that is 50 inches in length even though your printer is limited to pages of 44 inches or less in length. Note that this example only applies to print drivers that have a "roll" or "banner" option for the paper feed. If your print driver does not have either of these options, it will not be possible to overcome your printer's page length limitation without cutting/pasting two pages together as would be done in example 6.

  1. Click the "Printer Setup" tool button and select "roll paper" and also select "banner" if that option is available for the paper source in your print driver. Set the page width to maximum (the width of the roll) unless you do not want to use the entire width, and set the page height to your driver's maximum allowable size.
  2. Make sure that the "Image Lock" button under the preview page is not depressed (unlocked). This tells Qimage that it is ok to automatically rotate your images to obtain the best fit inside the frame size.
  3. Click the "Portrait" tool button to orient the printed page in portrait format.
  4. Click the placement tool button below the preview page and select "Center" placement. It is best to use "Center" placement when printing posters.
  5. Navigate to a folder that contains images using the folder browser directly above the thumbnail grid on the main window. If the folder browsing panel above the thumbnails is not visible, you can show the panel by clicking on the bar labeled "Folders" above the thumbnail grid. When you have selected a folder that contains your images using the folder browser, the images/file names in that folder will display under the folder tree.
  6. Optional: You can hide the folder browser by clicking again on the bar labeled "Folders" if you like in order to have more room for viewing thumbnails.
  7. Select a thumbnail in the thumbnail grid.
  8. Click the size dropdown in the "Print Properties" auto-popup panel and select "Custom".
  9. Click the "Enter Specific Size" radio button on the left side of the window.
  10. Enter the desired print size (for example 13 x 50 inches) and click "OK" on the custom size window.
  11. Qimage will warn you that the size selected is larger than one page and will ask if you really want the print to span multiple pages. Answer "Yes".
  12. Click the "Print" tool button.

Qimage will print a "poster" that is 1x2 in size (one page wide and two pages tall). Since you selected "roll" or "banner" paper in the print driver, when Qimage gets to the bottom of the first page and starts printing the second page, there will be no break in the print because there is no "page eject" command when using roll paper. The result is one continuous print at the size selected. In the example where the print driver is limited to a 44 inch page length and you print a 13 x 50 print, Qimage will print the first 13x44 inch page followed by a 13x6 inch page. Since both of these "pages" are printed on a continuous roll, there is no break and the result is a continuous 13x50 inch print.

Example 7: Printing a Contact Sheet of Small Images that Includes the File Name Under Each Print

  1. Click the "Landscape" tool button at the top of the Qimage window to orient the printed page in landscape format.
  2. Navigate to a folder that contains images using the folder browser directly above the thumbnail grid on the main window. If the folder browsing panel above the thumbnails is not visible, you can show the panel by clicking on the bar labeled "Folders" above the thumbnail grid. When you have selected a folder that contains your images using the folder browser, the images/file names in that folder will display under the folder tree.
  3. Optional: You can hide the folder browser by clicking again on the bar labeled "Folders" if you like in order to have more room for viewing thumbnails.
  4. Select one or more thumbnails in the thumbnail grid using the standard Windows multi-select functions of Ctrl-mouse click or Shift-mouse click.
  5. Click the size dropdown in the "Print Properties" auto-popup panel and select "Custom".
  6. Click the "Contact sheet w/info" radio button on the left side of the window.
  7. In the right panel, enter "16" at the right in the "per page" entry. This will split the page into 4 rows and 4 columns.
  8. Click "OK" and image(s) will be added to the queue.
  9. Click the "Print" tool button.

Example 7a: Printing a Professional Contact Sheet of Small Images that Includes image and EXIF info

  1. Navigate to a folder that contains images using the folder browser directly above the thumbnail grid on the main window. If the folder browsing panel above the thumbnails is not visible, you can show the panel by clicking on the bar labeled "Folders" above the thumbnail grid. When you have selected a folder that contains your images using the folder browser, the images/file names in that folder will display under the folder tree.
  2. Optional: You can hide the folder browser by clicking again on the bar labeled "Folders" if you like in order to have more room for viewing thumbnails.
  3. Select one or more thumbnails in the thumbnail grid using the standard Windows multi-select functions of Ctrl-mouse click or Shift-mouse click.
  4. Click the size dropdown in the "Print Properties" auto-popup panel and select "Custom".
  5. Click the "Layout: predefined page set" radio button on the left side of the window.
  6. Click "OK" and on the subsequent file-open dialog, select and open the file: "contact-sheet-25-up". All selected thumbnails will be loaded onto the contact sheet. Note that remaining/unused positions on the page set will not be printed.
  7. Click the "Print" tool button.

Example 7b: Printing a Package of Predefined Sizes for all Selected Images (in this case three 4x6 and one 3x2 print)

  1. Click the size dropdown in the "Print Properties" auto-popup panel and select "Custom".
  2. Click the "Layout: predefined page set" radio button on the left side of the window.
  3. Click "OK" and on the subsequent file-open dialog, select and open the file: "4x6 (3), 3x2 (1)".
  4. Templates will appear; note that there are four templates on the preview page.
  5. Enter the number "4" in the "Copies" edit box above the thumbnails.
  6. Navigate to a folder that contains images using the folder browser directly above the thumbnail grid on the main window. If the folder browsing panel above the thumbnails is not visible, you can show the panel by clicking on the bar labeled "Folders" above the thumbnail grid. When you have selected a folder that contains your images using the folder browser, the images/file names in that folder will display under the folder tree.
  7. Optional: You can hide the folder browser by clicking again on the bar labeled "Folders" if you like in order to have more room for viewing thumbnails.
  8. Select one or more thumbnails in the thumbnail grid using the standard Windows multi-select functions of Ctrl-mouse click or Shift-mouse click.
  9. Right click in the thumbnail grid and select "Add to Queue". Each selected thumbnail will fill all four templates on each page, resulting in packages of three 4x6 and one 3x2 prints of each selected thumbnail.
  10. Click the "Print" tool button.

Example 7c: Printing Order Sheets and Fulfilling Customer Orders

It is important to start this example with your paper size (set via "File", "Printer Setup") set to 8.5 x 11.

  1. Navigate to a folder that contains images using the folder browser directly above the thumbnail grid on the main window. If the folder browsing panel above the thumbnails is not visible, you can show the panel by clicking on the bar labeled "Folders" above the thumbnail grid. When you have selected a folder that contains your images using the folder browser, the images/file names in that folder will display under the folder tree.
  2. Optional: You can hide the folder browser by clicking again on the bar labeled "Folders" if you like in order to have more room for viewing thumbnails.
  3. Select one or more thumbnails in the thumbnail grid using the standard Windows multi-select functions of Ctrl-mouse click or Shift-mouse click.
  4. Click the size dropdown in the "Print Properties" auto-popup panel and select "Custom".
  5. Click the "Layout: predefined page set" radio button on the left side of the window.
  6. Click "OK" and on the subsequent file-open dialog, select and open the file: "order-sheet-16-up". All selected thumbnails will be loaded onto the contact sheet. Note that remaining/unused positions on the page set will not be printed.
  7. Click the "Save" tool button from the top toolbar. On the save dialog, select "Job" at the bottom of the dialog and enter a file name like "john-doe-order-sheet" and click "Save" to save.
  8. Click the "Print" tool button.
  9. Give the order sheets to your customer and ask them to mark the prints/sizes that they want printed in final form.
  10. Click the "Recall" tool button, select "Job" as the file type at the bottom of the window, and select/open the file that you saved in step 7 above. When the job loads, your preview pages in Qimage will look just like the order sheet pages that were marked up by your customer.
  11. Matching the pages/page numbers in Qimage to the mark-ups of the printed order sheet pages, use the preview page on the Qimage main window to click and select all the prints that were marked by the customer. Use the standard Windows Ctrl-click as you go to mark/highlight multiple images on the pages. Note that if you have the "EXIF Hotbar" enabled, the status bar at the bottom of the main window will indicate the print number as you move the mouse across the preview page and "point at" different prints, so you can also match prints by print number.
  12. Once the desired prints have been selected, right click on the preview page and select "New Session w/Selected".

After performing the above steps, the queue will contain all the images marked on the order sheets. Since the images will still be 2.0 x 1.5 inches in size, you can change the size of images in the queue accordingly. For example, right click on the preview page and select "Select All" and then click the 4x6 size button to change the print size from 2.0 x 1.5 to 4x6. If the customer marked different sizes, simply highlight the prints one at a time (or multi-select) and click the size button corresponding to the ordered size. Also note that you can quickly and easily increase the number of copies for certain prints by highlighting the desired print on the preview page and then right clicking and selecting "Add Another Copy of this Image".

Example 8: Printing a Text Annotation Under Prints

  1. Create a document that contains prints using any of the methods described above. Using "Center Placement" is recommended.
  2. Using the arrows under the page preview on the main window, locate the page that contains the image(s) you want to annotate.
  3. Click the "Edit Page" tool button.
  4. When the page editor opens, right click on the image you would like to annotate.
  5. Select "Text Annotation" from the drop down menu.
  6. Enter your annotation in the text box provided and click "Ok".
  7. Repeat for other prints if you like.
  8. Close the page editor and return to the main window for printing.

Note: you are not limited to the above single line text annotation. When using the page editor, you may also right click on prints and add "Floating Text" using a number of text styles. The text may be placed anywhere on the page, including on top of existing prints. See Floating Text for more info.

Example 9: Creating a Layout that Specifies Custom Image Sizes/Locations (in this example, one 4x6 and four 3x2 prints)

  1. Click the placement tool button below the preview page and select "Center" placement.
  2. Click the "Auto Cropping" button on the "Size" tab just below the preview page. Make sure that the button is depressed/on. This tells Qimage that it is ok to crop some of your images in order to obtain exact print sizes.
  3. Make sure that the "Image Lock" button under the preview page is not depressed (unlocked). This tells Qimage that it is ok to automatically rotate your images to obtain the best fit inside the frame size.
  4. Click the "Portrait" tool button to orient the printed page in portrait format.
  5. Scroll to the bottom of the thumbnails displayed (if any) until you see the last (blank) entry that says "[Template]". Click once to select the [Template] thumbnail.
  6. Go to the size dropdown in the "Print Properties" auto-popup panel and select 4x6 (may also be labeled 6x4).
  7. In the "Copies to add" box above the thumbnails, enter "4".
  8. Go to the size dropdown in the "Print Properties" auto-popup panel and select 3x2 (may also be labeled 2x3).
  9. To customize the size and locations of your 5 templates, click the "Edit Page" tool button. When the page editor opens, simply click and drag the middle of prints to move them and the corners to resize in the usual Windows move/size fashion.
  10. Close the page editor and return to the main window.
  11. Make sure "Freehand" placement is selected using the tool button under the preview page. This disables the auto-arrange feature so that each page appears exactly as designed.
  12. Click the "Save" tool button from the top tool bar and then select "Layout" from the save dialog. Enter a file name and click "Save" to save the layout.
  13. You have now saved this custom 5 print template to a file that can be loaded/used later. See the next example to learn how to load/use the template that you created.

To load the custom template in the future: choose "Custom" as your size in the "Print Properties" auto-popup panel and then select "Layout: predefined page set", click "OK" and select the filename used in step 12 above.

Example 10: Printing Using Custom Templates Created in Example 9

  1. Click the size dropdown in the "Print Properties" auto-popup panel and select "Custom".
  2. Select "Layout: predefined page set" and then click "OK".
  3. Select the file name that you used in example 9 when you created/saved the custom template. Click "Open" or double click on the file name and the Custom Layout will appear as it did when you created it.
  4. Navigate to a folder that contains images using the folder browser directly above the thumbnail grid on the main window. If the folder browsing panel above the thumbnails is not visible, you can show the panel by clicking on the bar labeled "Folders" above the thumbnail grid. When you have selected a folder that contains your images using the folder browser, the images/file names in that folder will display under the folder tree.
  5. Optional: You can hide the folder browser by clicking again on the bar labeled "Folders" if you like in order to have more room for viewing thumbnails.
  6. Click the small "+" on thumbnails to fill the templates one at a time or multi-select thumbnails and click the add "+" button above the thumbnail grid.
  7. Click the "Print" tool button.

Note: you can set "Copies" above the thumbnail grid to the number of prints on the page if you want to fill each page with the same image. For example, set "Copies" to 5 and each time you double click on a thumbnail, the entire page of 5 templates will be filled with one image, creating a photo "package" for each thumbnail. Example 7b above gives more detail on how to use packages.

Example 11: Creating a Single Multi-Purpose Crop that Works for Multiple Print Sizes (in this example, a 5x7, 4x6, and 3.5x5 print)

Notes: In example 3a above, we show how to adjust the crop on each print separately. Qimage also offers the ability to crop the image itself in such a way that cropping individual prints is not necessary. Understand that creating a crop on the image itself places a crop filter on the image so that parts of the image are discarded for all operations including printing, slide shows, etc. until the crop filter is removed. We may want to crop portions of the image to exclude unwanted details or in order to print many copies of the same image at different sizes (and aspect ratios) when we do not want to "decide" on the cropping of each individual print as we did in example 3a above. The following example explains how to create an image crop that can be carried over to multiple print sizes.

  1. First, add the image to the page by clicking the small "+" on the thumbnail or highlighting the thumbnail and clicking a print size.
  2. Next, double click on the image on the preview page to open that image in the image editor.
  3. Next, click the "Crop Wizard" button on the right side of the window.
  4. Check the print sizes that you plan to use when you print this image in the future. In this case, we select the 5x7, 4x6, and 3.5x5 boxes because we know that these are the print sizes we are interested in.
  5. Next, tell the wizard whether a portrait (taller than wide) or landscape (wider than tall) crop is more appropriate for the photo. This decision can be made by looking at the image in the background. Looking at the image displayed behind the Crop Wizard window, does a wide crop include more of your subject(s) or does a tall crop best fit the subject(s)? If a wide crop would better suit the photo (which would be the case with a group photo for example), select landscape. If a portait crop best fits the subject in the frame (which would be the case with a single subject standing upright in the photo), select portrait.
  6. Finally, tell the wizard what edges of the photo are more important (to preserve). For example, looking at the photo in the background, if your subject is right-side-up with his/her head toward the top of the photo, the top/bottom edges are the most important because you don't want the subject's head to be "chopped off" in the photo. In that photo, what appears to the left/right is probably less important. In this case, you would choose top/bottom since that is the part of the photo that must not be cropped off.
  7. Now click the "Use the recommended crop ratio" button.
  8. When you are returned to the image editor the largest possible crop that suits the conditions defined in the wizard will already be in place. You may move this crop window by sliding the window, resize the crop area to crop a smaller portion of the image by dragging its corners, etc. Qimage will keep the cropped area locked at the appropriate proportions. Make sure that your final crop selection includes all of your subject(s).
  9. After the crop has been placed, click the "Done" button on the lower right side of the window. This will close the image editor window and return you to the main window of Qimage.

Notes: After performing the above steps, your image is now ready to be printed at the sizes you selected in the Crop Wizard. From this point forward, you need not worry about what size prints you are creating and how those sizes will affect your print cropping (as long as you only create prints at the sizes you selected in the wizard). Simply add the image at various sizes (with a process similar to example 3) and Qimage will always ensure that the important parts of your image are not cropped off, while giving you the exact sizes chosen.

Example 12: Downsizing Images for Web/E-mail

Option 1: use option 1 when you simply want to send a few images from the current folder via e-mail

  1. Select one or more thumbnails in the thumbnail grid by clicking on the image(s) with your left mouse button (use the Ctrl and Shift keys to multi-select in the standard Windows fashion).
  2. Right click in the thumbnail grid and select "Send via Email".
  3. Click one of the size (resolution) buttons.
  4. New (e-mail ready) images will be saved in a folder named {Q}e-mail under the current folder, and your e-mail client will open with the images attached to a new message.  Simply type your message in the message body and click "Send".  If your e-mail client is not MAPI compliant or will not accept attachments due to an e-mail client error, an e-mail message will be opened along with an explorer window showing the files ready to dragged/dropped into the message manually.

Option 2: use option 2 for more advanced creation of downsampled JPEG images

  1. Navigate to a folder that contains images using the folder browser directly above the thumbnail grid on the main window. If the folder browsing panel above the thumbnails is not visible, you can show the panel by clicking on the bar labeled "Folders" above the thumbnail grid. When you have selected a folder that contains your images using the folder browser, the images/file names in that folder will display under the folder tree.
  2. Optional: You can hide the folder browser by clicking again on the bar labeled "Folders" if you like in order to have more room for viewing thumbnails.
  3. Use the "+" on each thumbnail to add thumbnails one at a time to add to the queue, or multi-select thumbnails and then right click in the thumbnail grid and select "Add to Queue".
  4. Right click on the preview page and select "Create e-mail/web size copies" from the menu.
  5. The default resize it a 640x480 resize. If you would like a different resolution, simply enter the resolution or click the appropriate resolution button.
  6. Click the "Go!" button. Progress will be displayed at the bottom of the window. Click "Cancel" once to stop processing if you need to abort the procedure.
  7. When processing is complete, you will be returned to the main window. The downsized versions of your images will be in a new folder named {Q}e-mail below the current folder.  Note that this {Q}e-mail folder should be considered a "temporary" folder so if you would like to keep the created files (as opposed to a one-time e-mailing), you should copy/move the created files from the {Q}e-mail folder to another folder.
  8. If you have the "Send via mail client when done" box checked, a new mail message will appear with the images already attached. Simply fill in the "To" field to specify the recipient of the e-mail and click "Send" to send the pictures via e-mail. See the help on "Create e-mail/web copies" for more info on invoking your mail client.

Note: E-mail/web copies are always saved in JPEG format. If the aspect ratio of the images does not match that of the selected size, the image will be fitted into the given size such that the entire image is visible. When making e-mail/web copies of images that are different aspect ratios or are in a different orientation, Qimage will match one side and calculate the other. Note that all e-mail/web copies are saved with the proper ICC profile embedded so that the images can be viewed accurately should anyone wish to view the image outside the realm of e-mail/web using ICC aware software.

Example 12a: Upsampling Images to Increase Resolution

Notes: This example shows how to resample images to achieve higher resolution images. If you want to resample images for the purpose of preparing prints for another printing service (such as an online printing service), use example 25a instead since that example is geared toward preparing pages to print. This example simply illustrates how to increase image resolution without making other changes to the image(s).

  1. Navigate to a folder that contains images using the folder browser directly above the thumbnail grid on the main window. If the folder browsing panel above the thumbnails is not visible, you can show the panel by clicking on the bar labeled "Folders" above the thumbnail grid. When you have selected a folder that contains your images using the folder browser, the images/file names in that folder will display under the folder tree.
  2. Optional: You can hide the folder browser by clicking again on the bar labeled "Folders" if you like in order to have more room for viewing thumbnails.
  3. Use the "+" button on each thumbnail to add to the queue, or multi-select thumbnails and then right click in the thumbnail grid and select "Add to Queue". Note that if you plan to resample multiple images in batch, it is best to try to select images that are the same size (resolution). For example, select several 2048 x 1536 images that you would like to resample to 3000 x 2250.
  4. Double click on an image on the preview page in the upper/right of the main window to bring that particular image into the image editor.
  5. Note that the resolution of the image currently being displayed is listed on the lower/right of the image editor window under "Resolution".
  6. Simply enter the new/desired resolution in the "Resolution" entry. For example, if your original image is 2048 x 1536 and you overwrite the 2048 with "3000", the resolution will automatically update to 3000 x 2250 (this is based on the dimensions of the original image).
  7. You may click the "I" button next to the resolution values to change the interpolation method used for the resampling.
  8. At this point, you have two choices for saving the upsampled/interpolated image(s). You can click "File", "Save As" from the menu if you would like to save the current image with a different name. When the image is saved, it will be interpolated to the resolution entered above. You can also click the "Done" button and when the filter application window appears, click "Create New Images" and select the file format for the new/interpolated images (JPG, TIF, etc). Click "Apply the filter to all images in the queue" at the top of the window if you would like upsampled copies of every image currently in the view/print queue, otherwise only the current image is processed. If you choose this second method of applying the interpolation to images in the queue, the interpolated copies of the images will appear in the same folder as your originals with a {Q} prefix on the file name unless you specify otherwise on the filter application window prior to clicking OK to process the images.

Example 13: Converting Images (in this example, Nikon D1 NEF Images to TIF) - not available in Lite edition

  1. Navigate to a folder that contains images using the folder browser directly above the thumbnail grid on the main window. If the folder browsing panel above the thumbnails is not visible, you can show the panel by clicking on the bar labeled "Folders" above the thumbnail grid. When you have selected a folder that contains your images using the folder browser, the images/file names in that folder will display under the folder tree.
  2. Optional: You can hide the folder browser by clicking again on the bar labeled "Folders" if you like in order to have more room for viewing thumbnails.
  3. Use the "+" button on each thumbnail to add to the queue, or multi-select thumbnails and then right click in the thumbnail grid and select "Add to Queue".
  4. Right click on the preview page and select "Convert Images".
  5. Click the radio button next to "TIF (lossless)".
  6. Click "Ok" and Qimage will convert all the images in the queue. The converted images will be in the same folder(s) as the original NEF's, but will have a {Q} prefix on the file names. For example, if pic0001.nef, pic0002.nef and pic0003.nef are in the queue and you told Qimage to convert all images in the queue, you will now have images named {Q}pic0001.tif, {Q}pic0002.tif, and {Q}pic0003.tif.

Note: Images of any type can be converted to JPG, TIF, BMP, or GIF files with the above procedure. Simply add images of any supported file type to the queue (you can mix types) and use the above procedure, telling Qimage whether you would like to save the converted images in JPG, TIF, BMP, or GIF format in step 5 above. All images in the queue will be converted to the file format specified in step 5.

Example 14: Viewing and Printing Raw Images

Qimage treats raw images like any other format.  There is no need to develop, convert, or create new images from your raw files.  Use, view, and print your raw photos as you would a JPEG or TIFF.

Section II: Making Changes

Example 15: Changing the Size of Existing Prints (in this example, changing a 6x4 print to a 3x2 print)

  1. Let's assume that you have followed Example 2 and have a number of 4x6 prints appearing on the preview page in the upper right of the main window.
  2. First, select the print that you would like to resize by left clicking on a print on the preview page (upper right of main window).
  3. Go to the size dropdown in the "Print Properties" auto-popup panel and select 3x2 (may also be labeled 2x3). The size of the print will change to 3x2.

Example 16: Changing the "Auto Cropping" setting of Existing Prints (in this example, turning off "Auto Cropping" on a 6x4 print)

  1. Let's assume that you have followed Example 2 and have a number of 4x6 prints appearing on the preview page in the upper right of the main window. If you followed the example, you should have 4x6 prints on the page. Unless you selected images that are a 6:4 aspect ratio, part of the images will be cropped to achieve the 4x6 size. In this example, we will remove the cropping and force Qimage to print the entire image instead.
  2. Select the print that you would like to "uncrop" by left clicking on a print on the preview page (upper right of main window).
  3. The Auto Cropping button under the preview page on the "Print Properties" auto-popup panel should be in the down position indicating that the selected print has auto-crop turned on.
  4. Click the Auto Cropping button and the auto-crop will be released on the selected print.
  5. IMPORTANT: If the above steps succeed in removing the crop and refitting the image, STOP now. If you performed the above steps and Qimage still shows a cropped image or you notice that the size did not change by the refitting, you may have placed an associative crop on the image as outlined in example 11. If so, there is still a crop "filter" on the image itself that needs to be removed. If this is the case, proceed to the next step.
  6. To remove a crop that has been placed on the image via an associative image edit, start by right clicking on the print on the preview page again to bring up the drop down list of functions.
  7. Select "Delete Filter(s)".
  8. Check the "Crop" checkbox, indicating your desire to delete the crop from the image.
  9. Click the "Remove Selected" button. The associative crop will be removed and the entire image restored.

Example 17: Rotating Existing Prints on the Page

  1. To rotate a print on the printed page, first select the print by left clicking on a print on the preview page.
  2. Click the "Rotate Left (CCW)" or "Rotate Right (CW)" button on the "Print Properties" auto-popup panel to rotate the print 90 degrees counter-clockwise or clockwise respectively.

Example 17a: Rotating Images so that the Thumbnails/Images Always Appear Upright When Displayed on Screen

  1. Select one or more thumbnails in the thumbnail grid using the standard Windows multi-select functions of Ctrl-mouse click or Shift-mouse click. Multi-select all the thumbnails that need to be rotated in the same direction.
  2. Right click in the thumbnail grid and select "Predefined Filter".
  3. Select and open "Rotate 90 Clockwise", "Rotate 90 Counter-clockwise" or "Rotate 180" as appropriate. The images will be rotated by the specified amount.

Note: applying a filter using "Predefined Filter" always adds to whatever filters already exist. For this reason, if you perform the above steps and select the "Rotate 90 Clockwise" filter and then repeat the steps, selecting the "Black and White" filter, you will have thumbnails that are both rotated 90 degrees clockwise and are now black and white. Also note, however, that since different "types" of filters can be added, using the same filter more than once will have no effect because it will overwrite any existing value for that filter. For example, "Black and White" and "Brighten" can be used in combination but selecting "Brighten" twice will not result in twice the brightening because you are using the same filter twice.

Section III: Working with ICC Profiles

Example 18: Using ICC Profiles with Original Images from a Digital Camera (in this example, a Nikon CP990)

Note: this is a "legacy" example that is typically no longer necessary.

  1. Let's assume that you have acquired an ICC profile for your particular camera model and want to "connect" that ICC profile in Qimage so that you get the most accurate color to view/print.
  2. First, select "Edit", "Preferences", "Color Management" from the top menu of the main window. The color management window will open.
  3. Initially, the table of input devices at the top only lists an entry/row for <unknown device>. This is a "fallback" line that must always exist in the table. Since we want to add a new row to the table, click the "Insert" button first.
  4. Left click anywhere in the new/blank row that was inserted into the table to activate that row.
  5. Click "Select ICM Profile" and browse to and select the profile for your camera. If you purchased the CP990 profile from the Qimage ICC Profile page and followed the instructions for saving the profile for example, you would select the file \windows\system\color\cp990.icm. Once selected, you will notice that the path and filename were filled in under "ICM Profile" in the table.
  6. Next, click "Extract EXIF Model Name" and browse to and select an *original* image from your camera (in our example, the CP990). Since this function extracts the camera name from an image file, the image file you choose *must* be an unmodified original JPG or TIF downloaded from the camera's memory card. If you select a modified image, the EXIF information may have been stripped from the modified image and may no longer exist. Once you select an original image, Qimage will extract the EXIF model name for the camera and will place that name in the column labeled "EXIF Model" in the table (in this case, the value will be "E990").
  7. Make sure that there is a "Y" in the right column of the table indicating that the new row is enabled, and then click "Ok" to save the information in the table and close the window.
  8. You have now successfully associated your camera profile with original images from your camera. From this point forward, whenever Qimage opens an *original* image from the CP990 camera, it will know which ICC profile to use. Note that if the EXIF information is not present, Qimage will fall back to the profile selected under <unknown device>. For a method of identifying which profile to use when your images do not contain the original EXIF tags, see example 19 below.
  9. Repeating the above process for different camera models allows Qimage to "auto assign" the correct profiles to different camera models automatically so that you do not have to worry about selecting which profile goes with which camera.

Example 19: Using ICC Profiles with Modified Images from a Digital Camera (in this example, a Nikon CP990)

Note: this is a "legacy" example that is typically no longer necessary.

  1. In this case, since we are dealing with modified images, the EXIF information that contains the camera model may no longer be present. If the EXIF model name is not embedded in your image files, the method used to assign a camera profile in example 18 will not work. Qimage does, however, provide another method of assigning profiles to images. We can associate a profile to an image based on image resolution.
  2. First, select "Edit", "Preferences", "Color Management" from the top menu of the main window. The color management window will open.
  3. Initially, the list of input devices at the top only lists an entry for <unknown device>. This is a "fallback" line that must always exist on the list. Since we want to add a new row to the table, click the "Insert" button first. If you performed example 18 above, there will be two lines in the table: one for <unknown device> and one for "E990". You should leave the "E990" line in the table. Don't delete or disable it because you still want Qimage to recognize your camera's originals.
  4. Left click anywhere in the new/blank row that was inserted into the table to activate that row.
  5. Click "Select ICM Profile" and browse to and select the profile for your camera. If you purchased the CP990 profile from the Qimage ICC Profile page and followed the instructions for saving the profile for example, you would select the file \windows\system\color\cp990.icm. Once selected, you will notice that the path and filename were filled in under "ICM Profile" in the table.
  6. Click in the "X Res." column and enter 2048.
  7. Click in the "Y Res." column and enter 1536.
  8. Note: leave the "EXIF Model" column blank.
  9. Make sure that there is a "Y" in the right column of the table indicating that the new row is enabled, and then click "Ok" to save the information in the table and close the window.
  10. The above steps will cause Qimage to use the "cp990.icm" profile on every image that is 2048 x 1536 resolution. Obviously, this method will only work on uncropped images since it is based on the resolution of a full size Nikon CP990 image. Also, if you have another camera (or other images from another digital camera) that are exactly the same resolution (for example, the Olympus C3030Z), Qimage will place the Nikon 990 profile on those images as well because they are the same resolution.
  11. What if you don't know the resolution of images from your camera? Simply go back to the main window and hold the mouse pointer over an image from that camera and watch the status bar at the very bottom of the window. The resolution will be displayed there.

Final note: As an alternative to using Qimage's input table to associate ICC profiles with image types/resolutions, you can also embed the proper profile into JPEG/TIFF images saved by Qimage up front. By embedding the ICC profile into the JPEG/TIFF itself, you can specify exactly what profile is to be used with that image in the future, thus eliminating the need for Qimage to look in it's input table. See Example 26 for more details.

Example 20: Identifying Which Monitor and Printer Profile to Use

  1. Although typically Qimage will know which color space (profile) belongs to your images, if it does not know what profiles to use for your monitor and printer, there is no way to "convert" the color space from one device to another. A simple analogy would be telling someone, "Go north on Route 95 until you get there" without telling the person where "there" is. Knowing that we cannot profile from a known space to "nothing", we need to take the following steps to identify what color space our devices use.
  2. First, select "Edit", "Preferences", "Color Management" from the top menu of the main window. The color management window will open.
  3. Check the box that says "Enabled" under the "Monitor" tab.
  4. Click the selection button in the "Monitor" group. If you have a specific profile that describes your specific brand/model monitor, browse to and select that profile (ICM file). On most systems, these profiles are stored in the \windows\system\color folder. If you do not have a specific profile, browse to the folder where Qimage is installed (normally \program files\qimage) and select "sRGB.icm". sRGB should be good enough for most generic monitors.
  5. Next, check the box that says "Enabled" under the "Printer" tab.
  6. Click the selection button in the "Printer" group. If you have a specific profile that describes your specific brand/model printer and the paper/media you are using (perhaps you created one yourself with a profiling tool), browse to and select that profile (ICM file). If you do not have a specific profile, browse to the folder where Qimage is installed (normally \program files\qimage) and select "sRGB.icm". IMPORTANT: the sRGB profile was NOT designed for printers and results of using sRGB color space on a printer may vary depending on whether or not the printer is designed to accept sRGB data by default, etc. For this reason, selecting sRGB as the color space used for your printer is not "industry" practice nor is it recommended. It may, however, be better than not using a printer profile at all, in which case the raw data from your camera will simply be "dumped" to the printer. For truly accurate color, we recommend obtaining a specific profile for your printer/media/ink combination or developing a profile yourself using a custom profiling tool.
  7. Click "Ok" to close the color management window and return to the main window.
  8. If you followed this example and have selected appropriate monitor and printer profiles, you have now activated color management in Qimage and your images will automatically be profiled for view/print.

Example 21: Verifying that the Proper ICC Profile is Being Used for your Camera

Note: this is a "legacy" example that is typically no longer necessary.

  1. In examples 18 through 20, we have given Qimage a method of specifying how color data is described in images saved by your camera, and how to "translate" that data to the specifications of your monitor and printer. To run a simple test to verify that the correct profile(s) are getting selected for the correct camera(s), perform the following steps.
  2. First, visually inspect the lower right panel on the main window (Print Processing) and make sure that there is a "Printer ICC" identified. A profile name should appear and NOT the word "OFF".
  3. Navigate to a folder that contains images using the folder browser directly above the thumbnail grid on the main window. If the folder browsing panel above the thumbnails is not visible, you can show the panel by clicking on the bar labeled "Folders" above the thumbnail grid. When you have selected a folder that contains your images using the folder browser, the images/file names in that folder will display under the folder tree.
  4. Optional: You can hide the folder browser by clicking again on the bar labeled "Folders" if you like in order to have more room for viewing thumbnails.
  5. Double click on a thumbnail. The image will be added to the queue and one line will appear in the queue.
  6. If your association in example 18 and/or 19 is functioning properly, the profile for that camera should appear at the end (right side) of the line in the queue. To continue with example 18 and the Nikon CP990 camera, you should see "cp990.icm" listed on the very right of the line in the queue.

Example 22: Using a Camera Profile to Profile Images for the Web

Note: this is a "legacy" example that is typically no longer necessary.

  1. In examples 18 through 21, we have been concerned with how produce accurate color within the Qimage application. Although the above will ensure that Qimage always produces accurate displays/prints, we may need to profile originals from our camera so that other programs display them properly or so that they appear on the web with accurate color using generic browsers/monitors. If you make changes to, or filter images in Qimage, resaving the filtered images as new images using a process similar to example 12, the newly created/filtered images are not automatically profiled. That is, your camera profile is not used. This is because by simply creating modified images, we have not yet identified what medium they will be viewed or printed on. To use a camera profile to profile your images for web display, follow these steps.
  2. Navigate to a folder that contains images using the folder browser directly above the thumbnail grid on the main window. If the folder browsing panel above the thumbnails is not visible, you can show the panel by clicking on the bar labeled "Folders" above the thumbnail grid. When you have selected a folder that contains your images using the folder browser, the images/file names in that folder will display under the folder tree.
  3. Optional: You can hide the folder browser by clicking again on the bar labeled "Folders" if you like in order to have more room for viewing thumbnails.
  4. Use the "+" button on each thumbnail to add to the queue, or multi-select thumbnails and then right click in the thumbnail grid and select "Add to Queue".
  5. Right click on the preview page and select "Convert Images".
  6. Leave the "JPG" radio button selected.
  7. Check the box that says "Perform a Profile to Profile (ICM) Conversion".
  8. Click the selection button next to the "From" profile and select the profile for your camera. In the CP990 example from above, that would be "cp990.icm".
  9. Click the selection button next to the "To" profile and select sRGB.icm. The sRGB space is located in the folder where you have Qimage installed (normally \program files\qimage).
  10. Click "Ok" and Qimage will convert all the images in the queue. The converted images will be in the same folder(s) as the originals, but will have a {Q} prefix on the file names. For example, if pic0001.jpg, pic0002.jpg and pic0003.jpg are in the queue and you told Qimage to convert all images in the queue, you will now have images named {Q}pic0001.jpg, {Q}pic0002.jpg, and {Q}pic0003.jpg.
  11. Note that you can downsize images for the web (example 12), and profile them at the same time! To do this, simply follow the above example and between steps 6 and 7, check the radio button for "Add to/replace existing filters". When the filter dialog appears, enter "640" in the width under "Resolution" at the bottom of the filter window and click "Done". This operation will insert a 640 resize filter into the above process so that resulting images are downsized and profiled accordingly. Note that if you are working with images with different resolutions, Qimage performs a relative downsizing (downsizing all images by the same percentage), unlike the absolute resizing in example 12. As a result, the final resolution using this resizing method may vary depending on the resolution of the originals.

Example 23: How to Avoid "Double Profiling"

The latest versions of Qimage have made double profiling a thing of the past in most cases.  The only way to get into trouble with double profiling is to activate a printer profile in Qimage's color management settings while also activating the "ICM" mode in the print driver.  Having ICC profiles turned on in both the print driver and Qimage can, in some cases, cause double profiling that can result in oversaturated colors.  To avoid double profiling, simply ensure that ICC profiles (or the "ICM" option) is only activated in Qimage or the driver, not both.

Example 24: Creating a Scrapbook Page

  1. After deciding on which images to print and their approximate sizes, follow an example such as Example 3 to add the images to the document with one IMPORTANT exception: when following example 3, you should make sure that the "Auto Cropping" button in step 2 is off instead of on (button up/not depressed). Auto cropping of prints can interfere with the print rotation in step 6 below. When finished, each page should contain the images that you would like to be printed on that page.
  2. Using the preview page on the main window, go to a page that you would like to arrange and double click on one of the prints to bring that print into the image editor. Let's assume you clicked on a print that you would like on the upper left corner of the page.
  3. Click the "Cutout" button located under "Image Effects" in the filter parameters on the right.
  4. Click the small picture icon at the top of the cutout preview window. This will refresh all the cutout thumbnails.
  5. Double click on a cutout icon such as "Ripples". You will be returned to the image editor with the cutout previewed on screen.
  6. In the "Rotate" parameter just above the "Cutout" button, enter a rotation of -45. This will rotate the print 45 degrees counter-clockwise on the page (the rotation cannot be previewed in the image editor).
  7. Click the "Done" button on the far right side of the window. This tells Qimage that you are done editing the filter and you would like to save it and close the filter window. Note that you have placed an associative filter on the original image. As a result, any time this image is viewed, printed, or added to a page, it will have the same appearance (rotated counter-clockwise with the "Ripples" cutout to produce rippled edges). Removing the filter and reverting to the original is simple, however: select the print on the page or the thumbnail in the thumbnails window and right click, selecting "Delete Associative Filter(s)".
  8. Click "Ok" to associate the filter with the original image.
  9. You will now be returned to the main window and the preview page will update. You can repeat steps 2 through 8 until all your prints have the desired cutouts and rotation applied. To customize your page by relocating or moving/resizing prints on the page, see example 25 below.

Note: See the help on Floating Text to learn how to add text anywhere on the page.

Example 25: Visual/Manual Placement and Sizing of Images

  1. Using the preview page on the main window, locate a page that you would like to rearrange.
  2. Click the "Edit Page" tool button to open the full page editor.
  3. Simply click in the center of any print and drag that print to the new location on the page.
  4. Repeat step 3 until all the images are in the desired locations.
  5. To change the size of prints visually, simply click in any corner and drag that corner to resize in the typical Windows sizing fashion.

Note: you may also click/drag prints on the small preview page on the main window but the full page editor as used in example 25 offers higher precision.

Example 25a: Preparing Pages of Prints to be Sent to an [Online] Printing Service

Notes: in addition to using Qimage to create professional quality prints directly to your local or network printer(s), Qimage can also be used to prepare print "jobs" for external printing services. You can easily prepare multiple pages of prints for a printing service using the same built in professional quality print algorithms. The job is prepared via saving pages as image files. The workflow for accomplishing this task is outlined in the steps below.

  1. From the main Qimage window, click "File", "Print To" and select "File". This tells Qimage that you intend to prepare a job for printing by another service.
  2. The "Print to File: Page Definition" dialog will appear, which will allow you to specify the size and resolution of each printed page. Enter the appropriate values and click "OK" to accept. You may update this page definition at any time by clicking "File", "Printer Setup". The values that you should use here depend on the type of equipment being used by the printing service. A quick call or e-mail to the printing service where you intend to send your images should be all that is needed here. For example, many online printing services request that image files be 8x10 at 300 PPI resolution (this equates to image files that have a resolution of 3000 x 2400).
  3. Use Qimage as you normally would, adding and arranging prints.
  4. When you are ready to print, simply click the print button on the top/right of the main window.
  5. The "Print to File" dialog will appear. Here, you can specify the range of pages to print and the JPEG quality to use (if you save your files as JPEG files). When you have specified the range of pages to print, click OK.
  6. The save dialog appears, asking for a file name to use when saving each page. Select the folder and file name for the output and click OK. If multiple pages are being printed, multiple files will be created with a numeric suffix such as MyPageName(0001), MyPageName(0002), etc.

Final note: Note that printing to file(s) is no different than printing to a printer. The only difference is that when you print to a file, you are "rerouting" the output to be stored in files instead of sending the images to the printer. As such, all printing options are still valid and may still be used when printing to files: print interpolation levels and interpolation type, smart sharpening, and "Printer ICC" profile. If you have a "Printer ICC" active on the bottom right of the main window, be aware that all images (of your pages) will be saved in that color space and that color space will be embedded in each page file. Some online printing services specify the color space they would like to be used for your images (sRGB, Adobe, etc.). When in doubt, ask your printing service what color space they "assume" for images so that you can match that in your "Printer ICC" for the most accurate color. Since Qimage automatically embeds your "Prtr ICC" profile into each printed image (page), the print service where you send your images will easily be able to identify and use the proper color space when processing your images/pages.

Example 26: How to Create TIFF images with your Camera's ICC Profile Embedded

Notes: Since ICC profiles are available for some cameras and in general, cameras do not embed profiles in original images, it can be beneficial to create copies of images that have the proper ICC profile embedded. If we take an original JPEG from a camera for example, and create a TIFF copy of that with the proper ICC profile embedded in the TIFF, other photo editors and ICC aware applications can open this TIFF with accurate color rendition. In addition, Qimage will recognize this embedded profile when the TIFF image is opened in the future. To do this, we take original JPEG/TIFF images from the camera and use Qimage to create TIFF images that have the proper ICC profile embedded in them. Note that this does not change the image data itself! We are just tagging the created TIFF images with the ICC profile, which is a description of how to interpret the RGB data in the TIFF file.

  1. Navigate to a folder that contains images using the folder browser directly above the thumbnail grid on the main window. If the folder browsing panel above the thumbnails is not visible, you can show the panel by clicking on the bar labeled "Folders" above the thumbnail grid. When you have selected a folder that contains your images using the folder browser, the images/file names in that folder will display under the folder tree.
  2. Optional: You can hide the folder browser by clicking again on the bar labeled "Folders" if you like in order to have more room for viewing thumbnails.
  3. Use the "+" button on each thumbnail to add to the queue, or multi-select thumbnails and then right click in the thumbnail grid and select "Add to Queue".
  4. Right click on the preview page and select "Convert Images".
  5. Check the "TIF" radio button so that new images will be created in TIF format.
  6. Click "Ok" and Qimage will convert all the images in the queue. The converted images will be in the same folder(s) as the originals, but will have a {Q} prefix on the file names. For example, if pic0001.jpg, pic0002.jpg and pic0003.jpg are in the queue and you told Qimage to convert all images in the queue, you will now have images named {Q}pic0001.tif, {Q}pic0002.tif, and {Q}pic0003.tif.

Final note: Qimage can also embed ICC profiles into JPEG images as well. You can use the above example to create a JPEG with embedded profile by following the above steps and simply checking "JPG" in step 5 instead of "TIF".

Example 27: How to Associate ICC Profiles with Individual Images Using the image editor

Notes: There may be times when you would like to simply "tag" particular images with an ICC profile without embedding the actual profile into the images. You can associate an ICC profile with image(s) by setting the "ICC" parameter in the image editor. Associating an ICC profile with an image using the image editor will override all other methods of identifying an ICC profile for that image (including the embedded profile if the image has one). Note that since this method simply associates an ICC profile to images via an associative filter, it will also allow you to associate ICC profiles with file types that do not allow embedded profiles (such as BMP, TGA, and even GIF). The following example shows how to use Qimage's image editor to associate an ICC profile with image(s).

  1. Navigate to a folder that contains images using the folder browser directly above the thumbnail grid on the main window. If the folder browsing panel above the thumbnails is not visible, you can show the panel by clicking on the bar labeled "Folders" above the thumbnail grid. When you have selected a folder that contains your images using the folder browser, the images/file names in that folder will display under the folder tree.
  2. Optional: You can hide the folder browser by clicking again on the bar labeled "Folders" if you like in order to have more room for viewing thumbnails.
  3. Use the "+" button on each thumbnail to add to the queue, or multi-select thumbnails and then right click in the thumbnail grid and select "Add to Queue".
  4. Now that you have added the images to the queue that you want to associate with a particular ICC profile, double click on a print on the preview page to open the image editor.
  5. Locate the "ICC" association in the "Auto Correct" group on the right side of the window and click the "Open" button to the right of this entry to locate/open a profile.
  6. Browse through the folders on your system that contain ICC profiles and select a profile by double clicking on the profile name.
  7. Close the image editor window.
  8. Answer "Yes" to indicate that you would like to apply the filter on your way out.
  9. At the top of the next dialog, under "Scope", tell Qimage whether you want to associate this ICC profile with the image you were just editing, or ALL images that you placed in the queue.
  10. Click "Ok" and Qimage will associate the ICC profile with the image(s).

Final note: Please note that the profile selected in step 5 above must be available to Qimage whenever viewing/printing/converting images. If the selected ICC profile is later deleted or the filter is used on another system that does not have the same profile located in the same folder, Qimage will not be able to perform the association because the ICC profile specified in the filter is missing. If this happens, the association is ignored. Also note that once the above association is made, all ICC profiling operations/rules in Qimage still apply. Associating a profile with an image only specifies how color for that image should be interpreted. If you have your monitor ICC turned off, do not expect to be able to evaluate the association on screen because no monitor profile has been specified and therefore no "to" profile exists (only the "from" profile). Similarly, if your printer ICC is turned off, the image ICC profile association will make no difference in prints since you must specify a printer profile to be able to profile "from" the image profile "to" the printer profile. Finally, when saving/converting images that have associated profiles, you must specify a "to" profile on the filter application menu and check "Perform Profile to Profile Conversion". For example, if you have 10 images in the queue, each with a [potentially] different ICC profile associated, and you would like to convert all of these images from their associated profiles to sRGB for display on the web, perform the following steps:

  1. Since you've already added the filtered (ICC profile associated) images to the queue, simply right click on the preview page and select "Convert Images".
  2. Check "Perform Profile to Profile Conversion".
  3. On the top "From" profile line, delete any text in that field. The word <input> will appear. Leave this text intact. This tells Qimage to "look up" and use whatever profile is associated with each individual image.
  4. Click the selection button next to the "To" profile and select the sRGB.icm profile from your Qimage installation folder (normally \program files\qimage).
  5. Click "Ok" and Qimage will create sRGB profiled copies of all images in the queue.