Synth-DIY Yahoo! Groups Archives

Thread

Error Message concerning TIFF Bitmap Buffer

2014-09-09 by docsock41@...

After death of a computer and crashing of a hard drive on my latest computer, I thought I had QTR working successfully until ...... In attempting to print a digital negative from a TIFF file, I received the message from QTRgui:

"Unable to Create TIFF Bitmap Buffer."

Yes, I was able to convert the TIFFs into JPEGs and print them with QTR, which is fine for tryout runs, but I'd rather keep the information available in TIFF files.

Anyone familiar with this error message? Or, does anyone have any ideas on what to change or how to get around whatever problem the message refers to?

Thanks,

Alan

Re: Error Message concerning TIFF Bitmap Buffer

2014-09-09 by docsock41@...

After re-downloading and re-installing QTR, the program was able to handle TIFF files without the threatening message. Apparently, stuff happens, and nothing is immune to it. Sorry for the false alarm.

Re: Error Message concerning TIFF Bitmap Buffer

2018-08-24 by brian_downunda@...

All of a sudden after many years of printing with QTR(Gui), I'm getting the same message. The odd thing is that it's not with all TIFF files. It's not dependent on the file size in Mb, as some 400Mb files are ok but 100Mb files are not. I can't see any difference in the structure of those files that generate the error and those that don't - no channels or paths in the TIFF, and some files with layers are ok, whereas even if I flatten the problem files they still generate the error message. Pixel Order is interleaved, byte order is IBM PC, no compression or image pyramid. A fresh install of QTR didn't help, unlike docsocks41, nor a reboot.

What I did discover via trial and error is if sample down to reduce the pixels, the problem eventually goes away. The image is to be printed on a 13"x19" page with a 1" margin at 720ppi, and that's about 84,000,000 pixels. If I sample down to 640ppi it's ok but not at 650. Is there a pixel limit in QTRGui? It doesn't seem to matter whether they're 8 or 16 bit pixels.

What is worrying is that one file that I'm certain printed alright this evening now generates the error. This makes me worry that it's a growing limitation of my system, rather than QTRGui.

Any insights?

Re: [QuadtoneRIP] Re: Error Message concerning TIFF Bitmap Buffer

2018-08-24 by John Isner

The same thing has happened to me a few times. Downsampling from 720 to 360 fixed the problem.

Show quoted textHide quoted text

On Fri, Aug 24, 2018 at 8:12 AM brian_downunda@... [QuadtoneRIP] <QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

All of a sudden after many years of printing with QTR(Gui), I'm getting the same message. The odd thing is that it's not with all TIFF files. It's not dependent on the file size in Mb, as some 400Mb files are ok but 100Mb files are not. I can't see any difference in the structure of those files that generate the error and those that don't - no channels or paths in the TIFF, and some files with layers are ok, whereas even if I flatten the problem files they still generate the error message. Pixel Order is interleaved, byte order is IBM PC, no compression or image pyramid. A fresh install of QTR didn't help, unlike docsocks41, nor a reboot.

What I did discover via trial and error is if sample down to reduce the pixels, the problem eventually goes away. The image is to be printed on a 13"x19" page with a 1" margin at 720ppi, and that's about 84,000,000 pixels. If I sample down to 640ppi it's ok but not at 650. Is there a pixel limit in QTRGui? It doesn't seem to matter whether they're 8 or 16 bit pixels.

What is worrying is that one file that I'm certain printed alright this evening now generates the error. This makes me worry that it's a growing limitation of my system, rather than QTRGui.

Any insights?

Re: Error Message concerning TIFF Bitmap Buffer

2018-08-24 by dtrout@...

I would investigate the overall system to see what has changed or is problematic, especially available free disk space. Variable behavior like this almost always (at least in my experience) is from the system environment, not necessarily a fault of the program. Check for available disk space and also that the disk is not overly fragmented. Wouldn't hurt to examine your System Log files and filter for any disk-related error messages.

Dave

---In QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com, <brian_downunda@...> wrote :

.....

What is worrying is that one file that I'm certain printed alright this evening now generates the error. This makes me worry that it's a growing limitation of my system, rather than QTRGui.

Any insights?

Re: Error Message concerning TIFF Bitmap Buffer

2018-08-25 by brian_downunda@...

Thanks for those suggestions. The thing I find puzzling about sampling down to 360ppi to solve the problem is that QTR has a native resolution of 720. So when I send it the 360ppi file QTR will resample back to 720ppi before starting the printing process. (Roy has stated this in the past and I can dig out his reference if anyone is interested. Thus anyone who says "just give QTR whatever PPI you have and it will use it" is not strictly correct. Yes it will print, but only after resampling.)

The resolution to this paradox is that on Windows it's the QTR back-end that does this resampling. I assume it's the QTRGui front end that is complaining that it can't process the TIFF to display a thumbnail to display in the GUI interface. If you could get past that then it would print.

In the cool light of morning I tried my images on my laptop running 2.7.6 and lo and behold it worked! It still worked after an update to 2.7.8. I think Dave is right about fragmentation. But which drive - the OS drive or the images drive? Both are filling up, and while there's still plenty of space, I suspect that the code in QTRGui wants contiguous space.

Re: Error Message concerning TIFF Bitmap Buffer

2018-08-25 by brian_downunda@...

And in the cool light of afternoon it's working on the desktop again. Desktop has been on and unused since the last attempt. What on earth happened last night? What changed? JOTT?

Both OS and data drives have large, contiguous blocks of free space despite being fairly full, so I can't see that fragmentation was the problem.

Stumped but relieved.

Re: Error Message concerning TIFF Bitmap Buffer

2018-08-25 by brian_downunda@...

A further update. The problem returned briefly tonight. On this occasion it seemed that the error might have been caused by the file being locked by being open in Photoshop. But that doesn't really explain last night's symptoms, where downsampling seemed to eliminate the error. Perhaps there's more than one cause.

---In QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com, <brian_downunda@...> wrote :

And in the cool light of afternoon it's working on the desktop again. Desktop has been on and unused since the last attempt. What on earth happened last night? What changed? JOTT?

Both OS and data drives have large, contiguous blocks of free space despite being fairly full, so I can't see that fragmentation was the problem.

Stumped but relieved.

Re: [QuadtoneRIP] Re: Error Message concerning TIFF Bitmap Buffer

2018-08-25 by Mick Sang

Unfortunately, I have no suggestions for you. But, I have been following this thread and I find it fascinating when you said “QTR has a native resolution of 720.” You also said “Roy has stated this in the past and I can dig out his reference if anyone is interested.” I am interested, if you would be kind enough to dig that out.

 

I hope you find a resolution to your issue, soon.

 

Thanks,

Mick

Show quoted textHide quoted text

From: <QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com> on behalf of "brian_downunda@... [QuadtoneRIP]" <QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com>
Reply-To: <QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Friday, August 24, 2018 at 9:09 PM
To: <QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [QuadtoneRIP] Re: Error Message concerning TIFF Bitmap Buffer

Thanks for those suggestions.  The thing I find puzzling about sampling down to 360ppi to solve the problem is that QTR has a native resolution of 720.  So when I send it the 360ppi file QTR will resample back to 720ppi before starting the printing process.  (Roy has stated this in the past and I can dig out his reference if anyone is interested.  Thus anyone who says "just give QTR whatever PPI you have and it will use it" is not strictly correct.  Yes it will print, but only after resampling.)

The resolution to this paradox is that on Windows it's the QTR back-end that does this resampling.  I assume it's the QTRGui front end that is complaining that it can't process the TIFF to display a thumbnail to display in the GUI interface.  If you could get past that then it would print.

In the cool light of morning I tried my images on my laptop running 2.7.6 and lo and behold it worked!  It still worked after an update to 2.7.8.  I think Dave is right about fragmentation.  But which drive - the OS drive or the images drive?  Both are filling up, and while there's still plenty of space, I suspect that the code in QTRGui wants contiguous space.

Re: [QuadtoneRIP] Re: Error Message concerning TIFF Bitmap Buffer

2018-08-25 by roy@...

I've been wondering what the issue could be here. I've looked for an error message that is

similar to the subject line and can't find any. If you have the exact message I'd like to see it.

If the error comes before you hit Print its probably in the QTRgui frontend, but if after Print

then it would likely be in print engine. Anyway exactly when the message comes up would be useful too.

I can't think of any particular reason why re-sampling would make a difference except you just

have a different file so something unknown is making the difference. It seems like it happens

more will big files but if anyone gets a small enough file to fail consistently I'd like to try it here.

As long as I have some Windows users here, I have some new windows software that I'd like

to beta test with QTR users that use it regularly. Let me know by direct email if you are interested.

Roy

Re: [QuadtoneRIP] Re: Error Message concerning TIFF Bitmap Buffer

2018-08-25 by John Isner

I reviewed my notes. I did NOT get an error message, but the preview thumbnail was blank. When I downsampled the image from 720 to 360, I got the preview. FYI the original tif (before sampling) was 12240 x 7920 (170 MB). It did not contain alpha channels or layers.

Show quoted textHide quoted text

On Sat, Aug 25, 2018 at 4:37 PM roy@... [QuadtoneRIP] <QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

I've been wondering what the issue could be here. I've looked for an error message that is
similar to the subject line and can't find any. If you have the exact message I';d like to see it.
If the error comes before you hit Print its probably in the QTRgui frontend, but if after Print
then it would likely be in print engine. Anyway exactly when the message comes up would be useful too.

I can't think of any particular reason why re-sampling would make a difference except you just
have a different file so something unknown is making the difference. It seems like it happens
more will big files but if anyone gets a small enough file to fail consistently I'd like to try it here.

As long as I have some Windows users here, I have some new windows software that I'd like
to beta test with QTR users that use it regularly. Let me know by direct email if you are interested.

Roy

Re: Error Message concerning TIFF Bitmap Buffer

2018-08-26 by brian_downunda@...

Thanks Mick. In the cool light of another morning the problem has partially returned. Last night I managed to knock out a couple of prints for an order while it was absent, without having to resort to workarounds. For one of those images the problem has returned this morning. Again, the PC was left on overnight with very little running. This really is weird.

Re the 720ppi issue, see this 2015 post from Roy:

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/QuadtoneRIP/conversations/messages/12631

This was in the context of whether or not you should resample for QTR, which depends in part on what QTR expects and what the OS delivers to it. Because I was intrigued at the time I wrote one of my long-winded blog posts about it. http://www.cyberhalides.com/piezography-printing/resizing-and-resampling-for-printing/

My use of the term "native resolution" may have been imprecise, and there are differences between OS X and Win printing pipelines discussed in Roy's post, but the point remains that one way or another QTR ends up with 720ppi. So down-sampling from 720ppi in order to avoid the error indicates that the error is somewhere in Stephen Billard's QTRGui front end rather than Roy's QTR back end.

---In QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com, <mick.sang@...> wrote :

Unfortunately, I have no suggestions for you. But, I have been following this thread and I find it fascinating when you said “QTR has a native resolution of 720.” You also said “Roy has stated this in the past and I can dig out his reference if anyone is interested.” I am interested, if you would be kind enough to dig that out.

I hope you find a resolution to your issue, soon.

Thanks,

Mick

Re: [QuadtoneRIP] Re: Error Message concerning TIFF Bitmap Buffer

2018-08-26 by Mick Sang

Thanks very much for this, Brian. This is fascinating and I was not aware of it. I knew that Epson printers could expect 720ppi under certain circumstances. But, I did not know that was the same for QTR. Anyway, I appreciate your taking the time to dig this up for me, especially in view of the highly frustrating situation that you’ve been facing. I dug into that a bit this aft. But, it’s beyond me, I’m afraid. So, I hope Roy or someone is able to help you. You are quite right, though. It is indeed really weird. I’m sure you’ll get to the bottom of it soon enough. The best of luck to you.

 

Mick

Show quoted textHide quoted text

From: <QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com> on behalf of "brian_downunda@... [QuadtoneRIP]" <QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com>
Reply-To: <QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Saturday, August 25, 2018 at 11:08 PM
To: <QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [QuadtoneRIP] Re: Error Message concerning TIFF Bitmap Buffer

Thanks Mick.  In the cool light of another morning the problem has partially returned.  Last night I managed to knock out a couple of prints for an order while it was absent, without having to resort to workarounds.  For one of those images the problem has returned this morning.  Again, the PC was left on overnight with very little running.  This really is weird.

Re the 720ppi issue, see this 2015 post from Roy:

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/QuadtoneRIP/conversations/messages/12631

This was in the context of whether or not you should resample for QTR, which depends in part on what QTR expects and what the OS delivers to it.  Because I was intrigued at the time I wrote one of my long-winded blog posts about it.  http://www.cyberhalides.com/piezography-printing/resizing-and-resampling-for-printing/

My use of the term "native resolution" may have been imprecise, and there are differences between OS X and Win printing pipelines discussed in Roy's post, but the point remains that one way or another QTR ends up with 720ppi.  So down-sampling from 720ppi in order to avoid the error indicates that the error is somewhere in Stephen Billard's QTRGui front end rather than Roy's QTR back end.

---In QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com, <mick.sang@...> wrote :

Unfortunately, I have no suggestions for you. But, I have been following this thread and I find it fascinating when you said “QTR has a native resolution of 720.” You also said “Roy has stated this in the past and I can dig out his reference if anyone is interested.” I am interested, if you would be kind enough to dig that out.

I hope you find a resolution to your issue, soon.

Thanks,

Mick

Re: Error Message concerning TIFF Bitmap Buffer

2018-08-26 by brian_downunda@...

It's definitely in the QTRGui front end. Sometimes the message appears quickly, but for large files not cached by the OS it's slower to appear. It's fairly clear from its behaviour when it works correctly that it's trying to process the image in order to display the thumbnail in the upper right and it can't. As I said in an earlier post, when it happens I seem to be able to "solve" it by reducing the number of pixels. The Mb size seems not to have any direct impact, i.e. the TIFF can be full of layers and masks, so long as the pixel count isn't too high.

The fact that it comes and goes on an otherwise unattended PC is the really weird thing. So I can't send you a file that does it consistently. I'll email you a screen grab. I'm definitely up for new Windows s/w.

---In QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com, <roy@...> wrote :