The new Lightroom beta 2 has lots of useful new features. Here is one I am excited about.

The ability to print to a JPEG file directly from the Print Module.

This new feature allows you to add identity plates, star ratings and other text decorations. It is then possible to save your print session as a composite JPEG file which includes all of the additions you have made to the image.

This is cool but what is really powerful is that you can also select Photo Info from the Overlays panel and print out a version which includes details of your print settings - Including sharpening.

The above shows how the saved jpeg image has been stamped with the print session details.

Nice one ...

Technorati Tags: adobe, photography, lightroom beta 2, lightroom tipslightroom, workflow,

Tags: Print Module

Update (18th Nov 2007)

Lightroom 1.3 combined with the Apple Leopard 10.5.1 now fix the printing problems below.

Update (8th Nov 2007)

This Tip definitely works, and not just for me. See the post in the forum from member 'SHos'.
Note 'SHos' also recommends that you clear out your /Library/printers/ folder first prior to reseting print settings and applying the new Leopard printer driver.
Also the Lightroom file in \Library\Receipts and once I got rid of it, the install worked fine. The file was "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.pkg".

Original Post

I have at last managed to get Lightrooms Print Module to again work under Leopard. Like many other Mac Leopard (the new MacOSX 10.5) users, I upgraded my system to Leopard and found that I could not select the Print Module. I received the error message below:

Lightroom Print Module Error

Here are the steps I took to get things working again. Note it requires that you have the latest Leopard version of your printer driver.

• 
  
• Uninstall Lightroom - make sure you uninstall everything, including preferences, user templates etc. Backup first so you can restore later.
• 
  
• Delete your print drivers and reset the printing system. This is done by opening the System preferences, selecting 'Print and Fax', delete the drivers then right click on the left hand Printers pane. This should bring up a menu where you can select Reset the Printing system
• 
  
• Download the latest Leopard drivers. In my case I have an Epson R1800. Link to the Epson site
• 
  
• Re Install Lightroom v1 from the Installation disk
• 
  
• Apply the the update 1.2 from the Adobe site
• 
  
• Re-install your Leopard Printer driver
• 
  
• Fire up Lightroom and check if it works
• 
  

It worked for me and I am now printing again.

I hope it works for you ... let me know in the Image-Space Lightroom forum

More Image-Space Lightroom tips.

Technorati Tags: adobe, photography, lightroom tips, lightroom, workflow

Tags: Printing, Print Module

If you use Lightrooms 'Print Presets' feature you will have seen that you can add your own presets using the 'Add' button under the template bowser; in the example below I have added a preset for the UK A3+ paper size.

You need to be aware that if you make further changes to any of the print options associated with your new user preset they will not be automatically saved.

In order to keep your user preset in synch with any changes you make to the print settings you have to 'right-click' on the preset name and select "Update With Current Settings". Note this only works with user presets and not the built in Lightroom presets.

Hope this helps. I spent a lot of wasted effort - and paper and inks - until I worked this one out!

More Image-Space Lightroom tips.

Technorati Tags: adobe, photography, lightroom tips, lightroom, workflow

Tags: Print Module

Once you have set up your print settings in Lightroom you can save yourself opening the final print dialog box, as well as a few clicks, as follows.

All you have to do is hold down the 'Alt' key as you click the Print button. The button will change to look like the one below and a single click will start the job.

If you have a lot of images to print using the same settings this can be a real timesaver.
Let me know if this tip helps you.

More Image-Space Lightroom tips.

Technorati Tags: adobe, photography, lightroom tips, lightroom, workflow

Tags: Print Module

If you are having problems printing from Lightroom make sure you connect your printer directly to your PC or Mac.

I had all but given up with Lightroom printing and had reverted to using Photoshop CS3.

Whenever I used lightroom with Epson profiles - or any other custom profile - I always obtained bad results; the images were almost black in places.
The only way I could get an acceptable print was to let Lightroom use the Epson built in printer driver rather than a profile.

The problem turned out to be that my printer was connected to a network server rather than directly to my Mac i.e. the custom profiles are not on the network server so it defaults to the standard Epson driver or something else on the server.

I have now have my printer connected directly to my Mac and guess what - great prints from custom profiles.

Technorati Tags: adobe, photography, lightroom tips, lightroom, workflow

Tags: Print Module