A cry for help!

[malcom]

Why am I up this late. I am going mad. Try as I might I just cannot print from elements 4.

Thus far I have got great prints from Epsons own print sofware. However just because I don't like to be beaten I would like to know how to print from Elements. Trying is a nightmare is a nightmare.

I cannot get the print size I want neither can i get the print quality i want even if i accept its determination to print everything in A4 size...It seems that my chosen colour space is also being ignored as well as the print size settings I want..

I have tried printing from organiser and editor and all I get is rubbish...

Can someone give me a step by step guide as to how on earth they can select and get the required size print.....I have tried everything I can think of and nothing works except A4 size output with apparently no colour space information either as the wrong size printing is also a load of rubbish colour wise..Help help help its driving me up the wall.......


All i want to do is have the option of choosing 6 by 4 or 7 by 5 instead of A4. When i apply such setting elements just ignores them and does its own thing...Which I think is A4 and no colour space settings judging by the lousy quality of what does come out.....

[Diana]

I use version 3 and I have a different printer than yours, but here are some ideas, if you haven't already tried them.

When you go to File > Print Multiple Photos (with an image in editor) do you see this screen?

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1FmsPimGrEDPFlePETy9NHSrPHgkb50_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1FmsPimGrEDPFlePETy9NHSrPHgkb50)

Under Page Setup > Printer, do you have the correct printer selected? Click on the Properties button to see if there are any settings you need to change.

Diana

[malcom]

Hi Diana.. Thats the screen from organiser yes!!!. I do select my printer driver and make all the required settings but they are ignored when printing is done from organiser.

I have after messy adustments got a correct size print from "editor". But what a mess every time you make a print the settings revert back to a size that does not match any print size I know of. (12.667 by 8.558 inches). No luck at all with organiser it always prints what I think is A4 size so all I get on a 6 by 4 paper is a about a quarter of the image and the colours are distorted also....

[malcom]

In organiser the pull down menu that says "select print size and options" is set on "actual size". Should I select "fit on page" instead???

I select 4 by 6 on the organiser options menu and the "page set up menu and the print driver but it still won't print 6 by 4.....Or any other size for that matter...


PS. Just tried "fit on page" setting and it made no difference....

[malcom]

:eek: Must get some sleep now before I go insane....... :confused: :(

[malcom]

Had a few hours sleep and returned to the problem. Still no closer to solving it. I just cannot get any worth while print from elements organiser let alone the desired size.


When printing takes place the paper is galloping through the printer and looking at them now in daylight they are colour distorted and grainy. Seems like like they are printing at screen resolution. On a 6 by 4 paper I get about a quarter of the image. The colour distortion is serious. Normal skin tones come out with a purple cast and are extremely coarse and grainy.....

If I wanted to print A4 which elements seems to be locked into the colour quality is still absoloute rubbish........

I have just printed the same file again using epson quick print software and there is no problem getting quality and desired size from the preset sizes the Epson software offers.

I can of course continue using software that works. But i don't want to be beaten by elements. I must be doing something wrong as others don't complain of such a problem. What i am doing wrong is a complete mystery to me.

I am at a complete loss to understand why I cannot print from elements 4 organizer....I have run out of options I can think of now....Help.....

[mom to 4]

I know I am not going to be able to solve your problem, but just a question....have you been able to do this before or is this a the first time you are trying to print from elements?????? And, since you went to bed, I am assuming that you have shut down your computer and rebooted, right???

Sorry if these are stupid questions.....

I hope you get it straightened out soon, there are lots of knowledgeable people on the forum (right now for example) and I am sure one will come to your rescue! Good luck!

[malcom]

Having just found the below statement from elements help file on printing from organiser I have to now ask why would anyone print from organiser with such a low resolution capability.

I just tried organizer again selecting "custom size" in the print size options and just finish up with a smaller but still only a quarter of the original image and still with serious colour distortion....What is the point of organiser for printing.....220 ppi max that is unacceptable by any standards.......Why supply such a sub standard quality of multiple printing from a sofisticated piece of photo editing software like elements......The mind boggles....... In my case though I cant even get decent colour quality from organizer even at 220 ppi..........if thats what it is doing who knows it has a mind all of its own. I am now really feeling let down and frustrated.....I think i need to sleep on it again to calm down.......:mad:


Extract from elements help file.....

Note: When printing photos in the Organizer, the image resolution is limited to a maximum of 220 ppi to speed up printing and reduce memory requirements. However, 220 ppi may not be a high enough resolution for crisp prints. If you want to print a high resolution photo, print it in Standard Edit.


I can get the correct size and quality from "standard edit" but is so messy having to reset the setting every time you have completed a print process. Why oh why cannot the setting be locked in (software memorized) so to avoid all the messing about.......:mad:

[malcom]

I know I am not going to be able to solve your problem, but just a question....have you been able to do this before or is this a the first time you are trying to print from elements?????? And, since you went to bed, I am assuming that you have shut down your computer and rebooted, right???

Sorry if these are stupid questions.....

I hope you get it straightened out soon, there are lots of knowledgeable people on the forum (right now for example) and I am sure one will come to your rescue! Good luck!


Thanks but yes I have tried before a week or two back when I was experimenting with "creations" which it seems have to be printed from organizer. I had the same problem then with print size...I posted a question on the general elements forum but few seemed to understand what "creations wrere let alone understand my printing problem with elements.

Please read my post "above" as this to me is an eye opener that is not pleasant reading from elements help file...

[msbrad]

Hi Malcom,
Sorry to hear about the printing troubles you are having.
I have PSE4 and have not had any print troubles afterI made sure the photo was the correct size before going to file>print.
I made sure in image>resize that all proportions were correct.
I am at work now so not at my home computer where the program is.
If you trouble does not resolve, shall be happy to take you though each step I do, with mine open. Let me know if I can be of futher assistance.
m

[malcom]

Hi msbrad. Thanks I would out of interest and not liking to be beaten try and get results others are getting even though i find 220ppi max from organizer unacceptable

By the way I have tried setting the correct print size and proportions and resolution settings. makes no difference the results are as described in my now many updates.....I don't know what time of the day you can help I will look for your each time i boot up.....Regards. malcom.........

I can after messing with a very messy settings system get the the results I want from "Editor". But that is just to long winded to use on a regular mass print basis....."Organizer as I have said is a total failure for me.....

[Cmcburnett]

Malcolm, sorry you had such an aggrevating time trying to print from the browser. However, thanks for posting your question, I know now to avoid printing from the organizer.:mad:

[Diana]

I have totally disabled Organizer as it was a pain and I never used it to organize my photos since I have my own folder system for that. Every time I saved an image in Editor I had to uncheck the box or it wanted to add it to organizer.

With Organizer disabled Print Multiple Images isn't available, but I can easily get around that by creating a new 8.5 x 11 (300 resolution) document and dragging my images to it and positioning them the way I want, then printing. You might try that Malcolm and see what you get.

Diana

[Cmcburnett]

Diana, I never liked the organizer much, I thought it was just me not understanding it completley. I spent more time organizing the organizer than I did actualy working on my photos. Your way seems to be much better.

[msbrad]

I've never cared much for the organizer either and do have my own system for keeping up with the photos. I do like your suggetion of disabling it, and then placing your own pictures on a page. BUT, how does one un-do that part?
Thanks
m

[malcom]

msbrad.Diana I don't use organiser to organise either. Have my own folder system like others.I didn't know it could be disabled as unticking the boxes is a pain like you say. Diana I don't understand the part about creating a new document!!!

currently I am only printing single images (Busy renewing old prints a journey I had not planned for until I saw the good results I am able to get from old negs/slides with the help of elements and printing via epson software.. That job is close to completion and now I try to find time to start playing with elements simply to learn it. Thats how after all this time I found this messy problem with printing from organiser. I simply wanted to familiarise myself with that aspect of the elements program and was not expecting the trouble I found...So I have not yet got round to using elements for creative purposes just yet..

I don't need elements for printing but it is driving me wild that I can't find out how to use it should I wish.

Further explanation of how to disable organizer and print by other means would be welcome..

[emkayess65]

Hi malcom,
this article is pretty good.
It's from "The Missing Manual" by Barbara Brundage.
It's PSE 3. Don't know which Version you have.
Tip 7: Kill the Organizer
http://oreillynet.com/lpt/a/5751
Check it out.

MarieS

[msbrad]

Marie
Get tip. I enjoyed reading thru this information.
m

[Cmcburnett]

Looks like a lot of people don't like the organzier. Maybe they will make working with the organzier simpler on newer versions of PSE. Thanks for the info on disabling organizer.

[Diana]

Diana I don't understand the part about creating a new document!!! ..

I see Marie already gave a link to instructions for disabling Organizer. Here's also some instructions Wendy posted some time ago for doing it:
http://www.photoshopelementsuser.com/forum/showpost.php?p=44960&postcount=8

Okay, for creating a full-page document to print photos:
From Menu: File > New > Blank File (or shortcut Ctrl-N)
Width 8 Length 10 (could us 8.5 x 11 if your printer prints to the edges) Resolution 300 White background - OK

Tip: I don't know about other versions, but in my PSE3, in the New dialog box under Preset, there is a setting for 8x10 so I use that.

Now open the photos you want to arrange on the blank document page. I'll give a couple of methods for getting the photos on the blank page.

Method 1: Click the Tile icon in the upper right corner of the screen (looks like four little squares). This puts all of your open images in the workspace. Click on one of your photos to make it active. From the Layer Palette, drag the photo onto the blank document in the work space. Do this with each photo that will fit on the blank document.

Now make your main document (was blank) active and maximize it. If it doesn't fill the screen, double click the Hand tool to make it fill the work area.

Click on the Move tool (the first one in the pile of tools). In the Options bar at the top of the work area, make sure both boxes are checked.

Click on one of your photos to make it active. Put the cursor (should be a black arrow) in the middle of the image and drag it to the position you want.

If you need to rotate any images to fit them on the page, from Menu: Image > Rotate and choose a method (use the middle section of commands so it only rotates the layer your one photo is on, not the whole image). Do this for each photo you need to rotate.

Once you get all your images arranged on that one document, you can send it to the printer. Menu > File > Print (or shortcut Ctrl-P).

Method 2: Make one of your photos active by clicking on it. Ctrl-A to select all - Ctrl-C to copy - Make your blank document active - Ctrl-V to paste. Copy and paste each photo to your blank document and then Rotate any images needed as above.

Hope this helps. If you have any further questions, don't hesitate to ask.

Diana

[malcom]

Thank's folk and Thank's Diana for the detailed instructions for me to play with :) .

I have browsed through the link about disabling organiser. Interesting but makes me nervouse to go around messing with folder contents so I think I will disable it by ignoring it as much as possible.:) One thing for sure I will be ignoring its so called printing ability as for me I am unable to select a paper size that works and unable to get flesh tones that don't look like the person photographed has been starved of air and turned purple along with a print resolution that looks like a newspaper photo with all its dots happily showing. printing from my version it seems is completely impossible.

Thus far i have wasted about 20 sheets of 6 by 4 trying different settings and none of the tests would actually print 6 by 4 and none would print a resolution that looked any better than about screen resolution (80 dots or so) and as said before flesh tones turned purple.....I used one of my best files that I have made an A4 print from using epson quick photo print software that came with the printer with excellent results so I know the file is not to blame. Regards to everyone...Malcom