Printing to printable CDs: Bottom section won't print
 

Hi again.

I'm using an HP Photosmart D5160, and the PPD provided by linuxprinting.org's PPD-O-Matic (or was it openprinting.org, or hplip.sf.net, or...?).

I'm printing onto a printable CD, a Memorex with printable hub.

There's this white bar at the bottom of the printed image. The rest of the CD will print, all the way to the edge (and then some if I tell it to), and even though the displayed image has data there, the printed image does not.

Once upon a moon, I was able to print using glabels, and now I can't, so I'm trying to print from GIMP directly. In the past, and even now, using the provided PPD, it prints everything offcenter by about a centimeter or so, shifting the entire image down by about a centimeter and left by about a half centimeter. Also, GIMP won't use the image's true DPI of 300, opting instead for 311 or more, making the overall image smaller than desired when printed.

I've taken to editing the PPD file by hand to make the print area large enough that I can print (1) with the correct DPI in GIMP and (2) make it just a hair shy of being perfectly centered. I still need to play with it to make it "just right", but I can do that in the GIMP by trial and error and eventually get it sized and positioned the way I want it.

However, I just can't get this white bar at the bottom of the image to make go away.

Any advice?

Thanks in advance,

CJ

Found the answer!
 

Through much experimentation, I finally found some settings in the PPD that I could work with. I had to have a regular PPD from openprinting.org for the CUPS queue setup, and a different, hacked PPD for The GIMP's printing setup. Any time I used the same for both, it would print offcenter with a blank section at the bottom.

For my hacked PPD file, I found the following keywords and used the corresponding qualifiers with them. I removed all entries for non-CDDVD120 paper sizes, too, though that appears completely optional.



HWMargins had to be set to zeroes.

DEVICEHEIGHTPOINTS and DEVICEWIDTHPOINTS both were set to 375 IIRC.

ImageableArea is 3 11 345 353

PaperDimension is 400 400


The rest I left alone.

Of course, these numbers (mainly the ImageableArea one) will have to be adjusted for your printer's unique "center" location, but as long as the region is 342 points (where 1 point = 1/72 inch) on each side, square, you should be able to play with it until you get it centered. 342/72 of an inch equals 4 and three quarter inches -- the size of a CD/DVD. Your image should also, therefore, be 342 points (4.75 inches) square, with a concentric circle of the same diameter masking the image in white so as to prevent printing off-disc. A similar concentric white dot equal to the size of the disc's unlabeled hub (dorry didn't measure it recently) should also be used to prevent hub printing.

When edited correctly and using the correct image, GIMP will not allow you to move the image around in the preview window.

I made a brief HOWTO as well, and posted it in the HCL under my original Photosmart D5160 post (mainly because I forgot I had made this one).


Cheers