Hi everyone! Here is another post that is a reminder for me, and may be helpful to someone else out there 😉
I am trying to switch from Photoshop to GIMP because it is a LOT cheaper!! GIMP is pretty cool, quite configurable, and has a lot of the same features as Photoshop. It might be a different command, and it might take you a few steps, but so far the only thing I haven’t been able to figure out is working the non-destructive way that you can accomplish in Photoshop. And printing. Gah-I hate printing sometimes!! From Photoshop I had trouble with colors. With GIMP and the correct set up for the Monitor ICC profile and printer profile that seems to work great! But I went through freaking 8 sheets of paper trying to figure out how to print the size I wanted without huge margins. GIMP kept shrinking my images, or adding margins or something, and I found nothing helpful doing a search online! So hopefully this helps if you land here with the same issue…
I am using GIMP 2.10.18, an AOC monitor which has an ICC profile that I downloaded for it, and an Epson 3880 with an ICC profile that I downloaded for the paper I am using.
So first things first- I created a template in GIMP for the 8.5×11 page size. I opened the dockable template dialog by Window->Dockable Dialogs->Templates. Then I used the buttons on the bottom to create and edit a Template I called 8.5×11 Epson Premium Matte. You can also use the File->Create Template but I have found that I couldn’t get the changes to the template to stick if I edited them when I created a new page. I still had to edit the settings through the dockable dialog to make them stick. I clicked the + to open the Advanced Section and filled in the size I wanted (8.5×11), changed the resolution to 360, and changed the color profile to my monitor ICC profile (2467). It looks like so:
After I click OK, from now on I can choose that template to create a new page via New-> Page with those settings.
Then I go about doing my thing :).
When it comes time to print, I choose the File-> Print command and here is the kicker- there are 2 tabs! Yes, I know- I should have noticed that 7 pages ago but what can I say? I’m old, haha!
So on the default Print tab I choose my Epson printer, and click Preferences. I set up a template there for printing from GIMP. The first time I just set my printing preferences by hand, and then I save them to a named Template that I can pick any time I go to print. You could also set these through the Printer preferences as a default, but I chose not to do that at this time.
You can see on the image below the Save/Del button on the Select Setting line. Choosing that button lets you save your settings for reusing them in the future. You can pick the settings again in the Select Settings pull down. Here is what my printer preferences for my saved printer settings template look like:
Again, if you set up a template you only need to do this once- I set the Mode to Custom and click the Advanced tab to set the ICC color profiles to use the Input Profile of my monitor, and the Printer Profile for my paper like so:
Again, if you set up a template you only need to do this once- I set the Page Layout tab settings to look like so:
I just need to set/change these settings once and then choose Save/Del to save it as a template that I can use again. You can choose a name that best describes your paper or program using it (or both). Any time you use print from Gimp and click the printer Preferences you can just choose your template from the Select Setting pull down. The Advanced Tab settings and Page Layout settings should be set to the same values you had set when you saved the template.
The important part for getting the page to print correctly without GIMP adding in crazy margins is to click on the second tab-Image Settings, when you are finished setting up or choosing the template for the printer settings. There you can set the size of the page and the resolution to match what you want to print. Also, click the Ignore Paper Margins. Mine looks like so:
Finally!! My image printed correctly both in terms of color (including teal/turquoise which I always had trouble with when printing from Photoshop!) and in terms of size/margins. I’m not sure why you have to go through this whole song and dance for a simple print, but it works for me! Hope it helps you if you need it!
