How to Print a 4x6 sheet of prints with the Canon Print Plug-In (UPDATED: 1/1/2012)

How to Print a 4x6 sheet of prints with the Canon Print Plug-In
Start by Exporting an Image Strip from Lightroom (or QImage)

WARNING: In this example I’m using a 24” wide roll of paper, but if you are using a different size (i.e., 17” or 44”) then you should replace every occurrence of 24 with the width your paper roll.

1. In Lightroom (I’m using 3.6), you need to create a new Single Image/Contact Sheet layout style with rotate to fit. For the layout section all the margins and cell spacing must be zero, the rows should be 1 (but it can be more if you want) and the columns should be 6. The cell size should be 6.00 in height by 4.00 in width. See the photo above for my settings.
2. In Lightroom you won’t print to the printer but instead you’ll choose Print To: JPEG File and set the file resolution to 300, the JPEG quality to 100 and the custom file dimension to 24.00 in x 6.00 in. Since I’m printing to JPEG I just choose sRGB for the profile and Relative for the rendering intent. Some will argue with my settings, but honestly for 4x6 prints this is fine as I don’t consider 4x6 to be fine art. :)
3. You can now open this JPEG up in Photoshop (required – both CS4 and CS5 work for me). DPP should work but doesn’t because it has a 6000x6000 pixel size minimum requirement for some stupid reason.
4. In Photoshop you have to choose File | Export and in my case I’ll choose iPF6300 Print Plug-In…
5. Go to the Page Setup tab and choose Borderless Printing (Input Image Size should say Width 24.00in x Height 6.00in – if it doesn’t, go create your JPEG again in Lightroom). Orientation must say Portrait and Paper Source must be Roll Paper. The Roll Paper Options must say Automatic Cutting Available and the checkbox for No Spaces at Top or Bottom (Conserve Paper) MUST BE CHECKED!
   

   

6. For the Main tab choose your settings as usual. Again, for something like this I’d usually use the Canon Premium RC Photo Luster paper with the Print Mode set to Highest and Output Profile to Auto (Color) (because it’s a Canon Paper) and Matching Method set to Perceptual (People, Dark Areas) (only available with the Auto (Color) option). You can set this page to anything you like as only the Page Setup is important here.

Here’s how I configure my Main tab

Here’s how I configure my Page Setup tab

Conclusion

I hope this helps people. Use the comments below if you have any questions. I’ve only tried it out on a iPF6300, but it should work on anything that uses this plug-in. The key thing to remember is that I’m using a 24” wide roll of paper. If you are using a different size (i.e., 17” or 44”) then you should replace every occurrence of 24 with the width your paper roll.

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