Linux Format forums

Harley883 · Joined: Mon Dec 29, 2008 12:50 pm Posts: 4

I've just set a friend up with the latest Mint 13 Cinnamon on his laptop after a virus all but wiped out his Windoze Vista. He is quite happy with Linux in everything but printing. His Canon IP4600 photo printer prints documents okay but there does not appear to be any way to get borderless photo prints. Any help to get his Canon working would be appreciated but failing that he is willing to buy a new printer and while I know HP has the best support I really need to know what models to suggest to him to give him good quality 4x6in borderless photo prints.

johnhudson · LXF regular Joined: Wed Aug 03, 2005 2:37 pm Posts: 767

I'm not quite clear what the problem is. On HP printers with which I am familiar, there is a separate tray for this size of photo.

So is the software failing to use such a tray on the Canon or does the Canon do it a different way?

It may be worth being more clear about the exact nature of the problem.

ferrari · Joined: Tue May 03, 2005 12:09 pm Posts: 97

I managed to dig up one thread in which a user purports to have borderless printing working. (Refer post #5)

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=975747

The printing options available are usually determined by the ppd associated with the Canon drivers.

The alternative commercial drivers from TurboPrint are also discussed.

Good luck with this.

Harley883 · Joined: Mon Dec 29, 2008 12:50 pm Posts: 4

Thanks for replying.

johnhudson

There is no problem with the Canon printer itself, from Vista it works fine printing 6x4 borderless photos. The problem is there is no BORDERLESS option anywhere in the Linux driver. You can set the paper to 4x6 and photo quality okay and it will print but with a white border all the way around. My friend wants to be able to continue printing without the border as he's always done up until now from Vista.

ferrari

I did find this thread myself but it seems rather old and I found several others that suggest the problems with the Canon printer driver started in Mint 12 when several of the dependancies for the old driver were no longer met. Canon has not updated the driver since 2008.

I will have to arrange for my friend to leave his printer with me so I can have a bit more 'in depth' fiddle with it myself. At the moment I'm just impressed that I've managed to convert my friend and his wife to using Linux.

johnhudson · LXF regular Joined: Wed Aug 03, 2005 2:37 pm Posts: 767

It is just possible that this is a software problem then; the KDE print options purport to allow you to print to an exact size but I don't have a 6 x 4 tray to test this.

When I am printing a photo it is always flush with the top edge of the page.

Harley883 · Joined: Mon Dec 29, 2008 12:50 pm Posts: 4

Thanks for the reply again John.

The problem is definitely with the driver but not specifically with 6x4 page size, there is no borderless option for any paper size.

To be honest I do not really expect to get borderless printing to work with his canon ip4600 (It'd be nice if I could!) but I was rather more hoping that someone might post a reply saying something like 'I do 6x4 borderless prints on my HP xxxx printer all the time, it works perfectly' and then I could point my friend towards buying a printer that would definitely do what he requires.

Ram · Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2012 10:43 pm Post subject:

Ok, I don't do it all the time, just the once but it worked.

Printer: HP Photosmart Prem C310 using HP Linux Imaging and Printing (HPLIP)
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Ubuntu LXDE 12.04 running on AMD Phenom II*4; ASUS Crosshair III Formula MB; 4 GB Ram.....

ferrari · Joined: Tue May 03, 2005 12:09 pm Posts: 97

@Ram: When you managed to print borderless, I assume you could set the paper size with 'bordeless' as an explicit option?

I think we may need to see a working ppd file, with the required options present. Then it might be possible to edit the OP's ppd file to include any required entries to support borderless printing.