Maximum document lenght with Epson Stylus 9600 Pro?

Question

Hi!
I'm trying to print a long picture on Epson Stylus 9600 Pro printer from Adobe Photoshop CS 2. The maximum allowed length is 2.5 meters. The printer is capable to print longer documents, since I am using a roll paper.
Is this a limitation of Photoshop CS 2, Epson driver or the operating system? Is there a way to get around of this limitation?

Answer 1

Hi tomis,
Generally, the application is the most likely reason for the length limit. Epson's site simply states the length possibility as "Maximum printable length Up to 100' (limited by roll length and software application)". You notice that it also puts the onus on the application for length limit. If you call Epson, the driver itself usually has a limit. Don't know what it is for the 9600, but the 4000 we use has one that is less than the length of a roll.
The only way I know around it is a two step solution. First, you need an application to print from that will allow just about any length document you want to create. Second you need output software that will allow the same.
The first is your application. InDesign CS supports a maximum document length of 216 inches, or 5.4864 meters. Still well short of the length of a roll. I don't know if CS2 offers a larger document size. There's an old trick to get around that, though. We had to use it often in a shop I once worked at to get around Quark's 40 inch limit. What you do is create your raster image at a higher resolution to account for an increase in output size. If your normal file resolution is 300 dpi, than you would create it at 600 dpi to get an effective output resolution of 300 dpi when printed at 200%. 900 dpi for 300% and so on. So for triple size, you can cheat the maximum InDesign length to 16.46 meters (54 feet) by printing it out of the application at 300%.
For the second part, you need a RIP. We use ColorBurst on our 4000. RIPs don't care about the paper size other than exceeding the maximum printing width of the printer. They will let you print a file 10 miles in length if it were possible to get paper that long. RIPs just don't have the length limit that the typical supplied print drivers do.
Hope this helps.