Digital Prints

Printing Big!
With super-sized prints all the rage in the fine-art world, especially photography, there are
many ways to break out of the confines of a small page. For wide-format digital photo printing,
each brand has its own maximum size. The Océ LightJet 430 can output a single image
up to 50.5 × 120.5 inches, and the newer 500XL model can do 76 × 120.5 inches; the Durst
Lambda 130 can make one seamless print the entire length of a paper roll, or 164 feet.
With inkjets, and this applies especially to imagemakers printing digital panoramas on roll
paper or long cut sheets, the maximum printable area is dependent on three factors: the
printer driver, the operating system, and the software application.
Driver/OS Limits: The printer driver and the operating system both interact to form the
printer’s maximum custom page size (this does not include margin area, which could make
the maximum image size slightly smaller). For example, with the Epson Stylus Photo 2200,
the maximum page length (Epson calls it the “maximum printable area”) using the normal
driver is 44 inches (129 inches with Windows 2000, Me, or XP). Using the CUPS
Gimp-Print drivers as described earlier, the maximum is 1,200 inches! However, that’s
only in theory, because you may also run into the limits of the application you’re using
(see “Application Software Limits”).
One way to exceed driver/OS limits is by using a PostScript RIP or application-direct
export module. Once you’ve handed off the file to the RIP or export module, it takes over
by rendering the page to a potentially wider range of maximum sizes, primarily through
the action of tiling. Tiling means breaking up the image into smaller panels that overlap
seamlessly, if desired.
An HP Designjet 5500ps (PostScript model) can print an image with a maximum length
of 200 inches. Take that same printer and replace the on-board driver with something like
the PosterJet RIP, and the maximum size increases to 50 meters!
Application Software Limits: If you’re using the standard printer driver, you may reach
the limits of the software application before you reach the driver’s maximum printable
area. (This doesn’t apply to RIPs, which trump the application software limits.) Photoshop,
for example, used to have a limit of 30,000 pixels in any one dimension. Because of the
way Epson drivers interface with Photoshop, the maximum page length for an Epson 2200
(to continue with the earlier example) was 41.67 inches, which was determined by taking
the 30,000 pixel limit and dividing that by Epson’s desktop “input resolution” of 720 ppi.
Now that Photoshop CS has increased its maximum to 300,000 pixels, the theoretical
length limit of that Epson 2200 is 417 inches. However, that’s still just theory since you
may run into the driver limit before you reached that length.
One way around these application limits is either to use a PostScript RIP or to save the
file to a page-layout or drawing program that does not have the pixel limit (but which may
lead to other problems with color management; you just can’t have it all sometimes!).
QuarkXPress 4.x only goes up to a maximum page size of 48 inches. Illustrator 8.x/9.x
goes up to 227 inches, and CorelDRAW 8.x/9.x can hit a whopping 1,800 inches. You
are, however, still restricted by the printer’s maximum custom page size—unless you do
what I call application tiling.
Chapter 11 ■ Special Printing Techniques 343