PC Tech: Printing Large Image Files

Factual Questions
1
      • Assuming one has Photoshop or some other suitable image software, -what detirmines the image file size a printer can handle? I have PSP but that is limited to your RAM size so I can’t find out with that; however I will be buying Photoshop soon. Let’s say I want to print an entire (ordinary) page at 1200x1200 DPI, 32-bit color (because I do); by my estimate that image file should end up somewhere north of 100 megs. Will my ordinary $100 cheapo 1200-DPI inkjet printer be able to do this? It seems like I’ve seen “printer memory” cards for sale, but I don’t remember hearing of anyone ever adding memory to their regular home-grade printer… Does the printer have RAM to store it all in, or does the PC feed the image to the printer in small pieces at a time?
2

In Photoshop, file size is limited only to the amount of RAM and virtual RAM (hard disk space) you have assigned to it. Photoshop likes lots of RAM. Luckily, it’s cheap these days. Go get yourself a couple of 256 MB DIMMS for about $90 each.

Your PC feeds your printer a mouthful at a time, whatever the printer’s RAM will handle. A cheap printer means little or no RAM. In any case, no matter how much RAM your printer has, it’s only used as a buffer. All crunching to turn the image into a print file is done on the PC side. If the printer has no memory of its own, the data is buffered in the PC’s memory.

For the record, before giving your computer and yourself fits on this experiment, check the bit depth your printer will support. Chances are it will only print at 24 bits (8 per color channel), anyway, so there’s no point sending more than that. Photoshop, although it will accept higher bit-depth images, edits and prints at 24 bit, I think.

3

My (very) old inkjet has absolutely no problem printing the largest graphic file. It just prints as it receives the data, like an old fax machine. However, my new Canon S450 seems to have a problem sometimes with huge graphic files. The printer itself has an option to print either in portrait or landscape plus other graphic manipulations, so I am guessing it has the receive the entire page before it can do anything. It seems if the entire page is more than it can handle it just freezes. Maybe there is a setting to make it dumb but I have not found it.