Issues Printing Large Files from Photoshop CS3

[merlynmac]

First let me give you my whole setup:

iMac 24"
2 gigs of RAM
250 gig internal HD (Photoshop Installed on internal drive)
640 gig external firewire 800 raid (file to be printed on external drive &
photoshop scratch disk on external drive)
Epson Stylus Pro 9800 connected via USB

I have been playin the PS CS3 beta for some time now and loving it. For some
reason I can no longer print my large files. Specifically I am trying to print
2 different 34 x 64 images and 1 44 x 64 image. I used to be able to print
them just fine but now when I print I go through all of the printing options
and it appears to spool the print for a long long time as usual then the print
box goes away and the printer never starts to print nor is there any print
pending in it's queue.

The reason I'm so confused is I used to be able to print just fine (the same
exact files I'm trying to print now) and I'm still able to print the smaller
images (i.e. 12 x 12, 18 x 18, etc.). Why would I suddenly not be able to
print? Why at the very least would the print not show up in the print queue?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you

[merlynmac]

Update...I got it to print again.

I went into photoshop and tried a few different things to see what might be
the cause.

1) I moved the scratch disk from the external raid to the internal drive...no
luck so I put it back.

2) I reduced the amount of RAM assigned to photoshop from 70% to 35% thinking
that maybe (since I did upgrade from 1 gig of RAM to 2) that the memory
allocation might have an effect...it did. When I went to 35% I was able to
print. Just to double check I put it up to 65% and wasn't able to print again
but went back down to 35% and was able to print.

Now my question is....Is the problem with Photoshop or with the printer driver
or with Mac OS X?

Is Photoshop not addressing the memory properly and just dumping the print job?

Does the OS not have enough memory to spool or queue the job and so it just
goes nowhere?

Is the issue somehow related to the printer driver?

I'd like to allocate more memory to Photoshop since I use it all the time and
like having the system move faster than having to page to the scratch disk all
of the time but if I can't print then it's of no use to me.

To be honest I hope it's Photoshop and that the final release won't have this
issue.

Thank you

[Ramón G Castañeda]

Post by merlynmac
Now my question is....Is the problem with Photoshop or with the printer
driver or with Mac OS X?

I have no problem whatsoever printing files as large as 600MB with 2GB of
RAM and Photoshop's memory allowance at 70%.

[merlynmac]

I'm somewhat of a relsolution whore. The file I'm printing is a 44" x 64" 360dpi image. The file size is somewhere around 1.6 gigs.

[Ramón G Castañeda]

Post by merlynmac
I'm somewhat of a relsolution whore. The file I'm printing is a 44" x 64"
360dpi image. The file size is somewhere around 1.6 gigs.

A 44" x 64" image is not viewed at distance of 18 inches like am 8x10
would. 360ppi (not "dpi") is overkill. Make a test print of an image with
a resolution of 240ppi and view it at a normal distance for such a large
print, then judge for yourself.

[merlynmac]

Normally I'd agree with you but at the art show setting the customer will come
up to within a couple of inchest to inspect the image before they decide if
they want it or not. I try to make it the sharpest image I can from any
viewing distance.

[Ann Shelbourne]

Post by merlynmac
Does the OS not have enough memory to spool or queue the job and so it just

goes nowhere?>

Probably exactly that.

Installing more RAM would certainly be beneficial if you are going to work on
such big files.

[merlynmac]

I was going to get the 2 gig chip and max it out at 3 gigs but it seemed
overpriced when 1 gig chips are 1/3 to 1/4 the price of a single 2 gig chip.

I will max it out then the prices come down.

For now I'll run trial and error runs on how much memory to give Photoshop
until I find the point where it stops printing and I'll drop it by 5% to give
me a safety margin.

Thanks

[merlynmac]

If anyone's curious as to what I'm printing or have any suggestions for getting the best print quality for what I'm dong you can check out a few pics of my work at:

http://www.dragonhost.net/booth

[Ann Shelbourne]

Key Biscayne?

I was there for that event!!

[Christina Wiley]

If you start up Activity Monitor when you're printing, you should be able to
get some idea of what's going on. Click the System Memory at the bottom, and
watch what happens when you print that giant file. I bet you're paging out to
your scratch disk bigtime.