06-25-2022, 03:58 PM
This has been a problem with GIMP for many years now (as long as I've been using it) but it seems like it might be a very minor problem. If so I'd love to be able to print my edited photos using GIMP.
In my case the target printer is Canon Pixma Pro 100. The interface works very much as expected. In that the print dialogue has a Button labeled Preferences. When this is selected the Canon driver setup dialogue is invoked. On this photo printer there are lots of options that can be selected to prepare for printing. This includes many options NOT commonly available on a typical office printer. However, one of the options, which is very standard, is the need to specify the size of paper on which the image is to be printed. As it turns out no matter what size paper is selected GIMP seems to insist on setting it to Letter (8.5x11) inch. Fortunately, this Canon driver has a preview option, that still works, which displays what the driver intends to do. This allows the printing operation to be canceled if something is amiss, which when using GIMP is always very conspicuous.
This raises the question, "might GIMP work correctly when printing on Letter size paper?". While it is technically possible, GIMP still does something to mess up the options selected by the driver. One of those has to do with the border. The Pixma Pro printers are capable of "Borderless" printing. In that, printing all the way to the edge of the paper. Unfortunately, it seems that GIMP does something to negate this capability. Interestingly GIMP does provide a "Page Setup" dialogue which is used to specify both paper and border size separately from the Canon driver. When using the "Page Setup" dialogue it appears as though GIMP does NOT allow the border values to be set to zero.
Since GIMP does invoke the Canon provided printer driver software one might expect that it shouldn't be too hard to stay out of the way and let it operate as it should. Instead GIMP is doing something, presumably unintentional, that essentially prevents me from using it to print photos.
In my case the target printer is Canon Pixma Pro 100. The interface works very much as expected. In that the print dialogue has a Button labeled Preferences. When this is selected the Canon driver setup dialogue is invoked. On this photo printer there are lots of options that can be selected to prepare for printing. This includes many options NOT commonly available on a typical office printer. However, one of the options, which is very standard, is the need to specify the size of paper on which the image is to be printed. As it turns out no matter what size paper is selected GIMP seems to insist on setting it to Letter (8.5x11) inch. Fortunately, this Canon driver has a preview option, that still works, which displays what the driver intends to do. This allows the printing operation to be canceled if something is amiss, which when using GIMP is always very conspicuous.
This raises the question, "might GIMP work correctly when printing on Letter size paper?". While it is technically possible, GIMP still does something to mess up the options selected by the driver. One of those has to do with the border. The Pixma Pro printers are capable of "Borderless" printing. In that, printing all the way to the edge of the paper. Unfortunately, it seems that GIMP does something to negate this capability. Interestingly GIMP does provide a "Page Setup" dialogue which is used to specify both paper and border size separately from the Canon driver. When using the "Page Setup" dialogue it appears as though GIMP does NOT allow the border values to be set to zero.
Since GIMP does invoke the Canon provided printer driver software one might expect that it shouldn't be too hard to stay out of the way and let it operate as it should. Instead GIMP is doing something, presumably unintentional, that essentially prevents me from using it to print photos.