Epson R2400 Custom Roll Paper Sizes -Macintosh
I’ve owned my Epson R2400 printer for a while. For art prints, it is a big improvement over my Epson 1270. Velvet Fine Art paper and Watercolor Paper Radiant White look very good and have longevity to boot. I wanted to try canvas printing for the experience and opted for roll canvas rather than sheets.
There are some issues with the R2400. The printer driver is not very flexible. I use Corel Photo Paint 11 for Macintosh, and many driver options are simply not available since Photo Paint doesn’t recognize Epson’s sub-menu system. I do my editing in Photo Paint and then print using Elements.
The driver allows some of the papers to be printed only at fixed sizes. I could not do a custom paper size for Watercolor Radiant paper; for example. If I want to print an 8 x 10 on that paper, I” have to use a full 13×19 inch sheet or do a layout with two pictures.
The documentation is horrible. People have printed incorrectly because of confusion. There is a slot on the rear of this printer that is a mystery. Above the slot is a roll paper icon, but the roll paper feeds further below, into the slot with white rollers.
I wanted to define different paper sizes for the roll printing, not wanting to use a nineteen-inch length to print a twelve-inch square. Or, I wanted the ability to print a photograph on something longer than nineteen inches without doing a banner print.
I was able to get custom sizes that worked. But, then when adjusting the width slightly, the roll type changed in the print dialog. I didn’t associate the change with the width setting for a while. Then the aha experience set in. I found a way to set custom lengths for roll printing, roll printing – borderless, and roll printing – borderless banner.
This is how to define new custom page for roll paper type (Driver version 2.53)
In the page setup, under settings – define Custom Paper Size
Give the new size a name
Set all margins to 0
Set height to your desired print length
Set width to one of the following:
13.14 for roll borderless banner
13.00 for roll
12.95 for roll borderless
Save the result.
Go to Attributes and select your new size. Set orientation to landscape for printing.
Now, in the print dialog under “Print Settings,” you will see the corresponding roll setup after “Page Setup.”
I tested custom sizes for thirteen-inch square and twenty-four-inch long using roll. The driver added one and one-half inches to the leading edge and one-half inch to the trailing edge. A light cut line was printed. I use scissors to cut the print from the roll.
I also cut a thirteen-inch square and a thirteen by nineteen-inch sheet from the roll to check out individual feeds. I could feed the canvas through the same rear feed as the roll. But, I found it was more difficult keeping the sheet straight. Also, be aware that the canvas will be fed backwards before the printing starts. The canvas at the rear of the printer needs to have free movement or the feed will misalign.
Even printing from the roll, there is practice involved. I’ll be getting the practice since I plan on printing on a lot more canvas from rolls.
by Brian McCorkle
in category Technical Stuff
