[smiley guy]

I did a wee search for something related but couldn't find anything.

This is not a major issue at all but I thought somebody might know something on this forum. I just had a bunch of restorations printed out at costco.ca and I went to pick them up and they look great. The tiny little problem is that I was careful how I cropped e.g., 4x6 @ 300dpi yet their machine still clipped a bit off the top and bottom of the print. It's negligible and it's nothing that you would look at and say, "That's wrong" but I look at it and say, "I didn't crop it that way!"

I did ask the woman at the costco counter if she knew the settings I should use in order to avoid that and she said that one of the other women who works there knows but she's not back till Tuesday. They're fine as they are but my client wanted three and four copies of some of the prints and I just ran one set through as a test. I would love to run the others through and get these to my client this weekend (and likely still will...) but would love to have it "exact" according to how I cropped.

Does anybody know what I should be changing in order to have my crop/resolution on my computer match what gets printed out at the costco end of things? They are using the Noritsu QSS 3111-1.

[mistermonday]

Hi Smile Guy,
That was my first and last experience with Costco. The clipping was more than noticeable - its several % of the dimension and in many images it maks a major difference if you have image data out to the edge (like landscapes).
It may have to do with metric measurement or it may have to do with ink spill-over on borderless prints. In any event you should never have to fiddle with your image sizing to accommodate them. My 1st recommendation would be to try Loblaws. They produce better quality prints, better color balanced than those Noritsu printers at Costco and the price is the same, cycle time is reliably 1 hr AND the images come out the exact size - no clipping.
If you do tyry them, make sure your workspace is sRGB because like every other machine in that business, they do not respect embedded ICC profiles and everything is assumed to be sRGB (or equivalent).
Regards, Murray

[Old Canoeist]

Try Dry Creek Photo (www.drycreekphoto.com/icc/) who supply the profiles for Costco printers. Their site includes a list of all the Costco outlets in the U.S. and Canada with information about each location's printer.

E.g.
Kanata:

* Costco #541: 770 Silver Seven Rd., Kanata, ON K2V 1A5 Phone: 613-270-5558
o Store info: Noritsu model 3111, Fuji Crystal Archive paper.
o Glossy paper profile, August 29, 2006
o Matte paper profile, August 29, 2006
o Mac OS 9 format version (both profiles) See usage note.
o Note: This printer uses our enhanced accuracy custom profiles.

They also include very detailed instructions on how to set up the files for printing (including cropping).

[smiley guy]

Thanks to both of you for the information.

Old Canoeist, you said:

"They also include very detailed instructions on how to set up the files for printing (including cropping)."

I visited there initially and did dl the profiles which will be helpful for future use but couldn't see anything about crop information even when I visited the information about my particular costco outlet in Kitchener. I'll have another look but if you know anything more specific about where to look on that website I would be very appreciative.

Mister Monday, you mentioned that you had a first and last similar experience to mine at costco so it sounded like you didn't even go back. Yet, later in your post you say:

"My 1st recommendation would be to try Costco."

Could you clarify please? Perhaps you meant somewhere else?

Thanks for your time.

[Old Canoeist]

Look at the bottom of http://www.drycreekphoto.com/icc/usi...r_profiles.htm for information on cropping.

[smiley guy]

Beautiful! Thank you, Old Canoeist!

[mistermonday]

Sorry, my brain went temporarily dead. What I meant to type was "try Loblaws". They use a Kodak system. I made the correction to my original thread.
Regards, Murray

[mistermonday]

Old Canoeist,
I checked the fine print and as I suspected, the printer crops off .1 iches per side. On a 4x6 this means you lose 8.3% of the total area of the image you submitted. This was very noticeable and unacceptable for the images I submitted. The only solutions you have are:
1. Downsize the image and place a 0.1 inch border around it.
2. Ask the cust service person if they will turn off resize option on the printer control system (good luck).
So now in order to print your images the way you want them you need to create an entire folder of custom images which you must custom resize/ reborder and/or have custom Noritsu embedded profiles. Chances are you already have 2 sets of the images (original camera raw or other orig format), a set which you have edited for viewing or archiving. Now you will need a 3rd custom set for printing.

There are other systems / print labs, big box or otherwise, that will take standard output and give you great prints without the hassle and extra time.
Regards, Murray