# Settings to print to roll paper on a PRO-4000 from Photoshop



## Kit Lens Jockey (Apr 28, 2019)

Hello, I'm trying to print to roll paper from Photoshop on a PRO-4000. What should my paper size settings be? I assume the width should be set to the width of the roll? The height? I guess however high I want the photo to be? Should my position on the paper be set to "center?" Should it be set to portrait or landscape orientation? The output of the printer does not seem to do what I want it to. I'm printing to a throwaway roll of paper just to figure it out, and I've had all manner of screwed up prints. I'm just trying to print a thin strip that says "testing the printer" over and over, but I've had it come out sideways, cut off, with huge wasted space around it, everything except how I want it. Is there a tutorial on this anywhere? Thanks.


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## LDS (Apr 29, 2019)

Using roll paper, in Photoshop you set the the size of the print you need (as long as it can fit the roll sizes). Then in the printer driver you set how to print it on the roll. When you select the same print size, the driver dialog box will show you how your print will be laid out on a roll - you may want to turn the image 90° degrees to better use the roll width when needed (the printer can add cut guidelines). Of course you can use print sizes that can use the full roll width.

In Photoshop "center" means to center the image within the print size, not the paper size.

In most printers you can have a print size which is different from the paper size used - the printer will manage it. In the 4000 driver "Layout" tab you can set how to place the print(s) within the paper - you can also print smaller images side-by-side to avoid wasting too much paper on larger rolls.

With the 4000, you can use also the free Professional Print & Layout software from Canon. It works as a Photoshop plugin as well.


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## Kit Lens Jockey (Apr 29, 2019)

Thanks. I'll look into that plugin as well as your other recommendations.


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## Kit Lens Jockey (Apr 29, 2019)

I'm having some luck with professional print and layout, but when I try to drag a large jpg image into it, about 16"x36", it just simply won't load it. What's the problem?


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## Kit Lens Jockey (Apr 29, 2019)

Ok, I downloaded Print Studio Pro and it launches from within Photoshop, and it seems to work much better. I get the sense that Professional Print and Layout is just an old version of Print Studio Pro. For what it's worth, it seems almost impossible to get Photoshop to print correctly to roll paper using the normal print dialog box. No amount of rotating, resizing, or changing print settings seemed to give me the output I wanted or expected straight from Photoshop.


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## LDS (Apr 30, 2019)

Kit Lens Jockey said:


> get the sense that Professional Print and Layout is just an old version of Print Studio Pro.



Actually it is a new software available only for the imagePROGRAF printers, and should offer more advanced functionalities. It's a version 1.0, it could still need some polishing.

But what are you exactly trying to achieve? Still trying to print the thin strip? It's difficult anyway to understand what is going wrong without knowing all the parameters involved.

Trying to guess, if you want to print a thing strip over and over without much space, i.e.

testing the printer 
testing the printer 
testing the printer 
testing the printer 

You will need to create a custom print size about the size of the text (with some space for the borders), select it in Photoshop, align your image as you need inside the print (in Photoshop), and then lay it out on the roll paper as needed (in the printer driver). There's also an option to minimize the space between prints, or the printer will add some to ease cutting.

If you select, say, Letter in Photoshop, center the thin strip inside it, and then print, the printer will lay out a full Letter print on the roll, and the next print will of course be printed after the "Letter" borders, even if it's just blank space. It won't act as a "line printer" where the next line is just below the previous.

Maybe it's easier to learn printing images than text.


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