Question Printer doesn't have any photo adjustments in the printer software ?

[hmunster123]

Hi All,

I'm running an old Dell 3130CN Printer at my job. It does print but there is no "Quality" tab to adjust the brightness and darkness of the picture I'm printing. I didn't see any software downloads on Dell's site, just the driver I installed. Once again it does print but there is no tab for adjustments. Any advice? Thanks.

 

[Ralston18]

What software is being used to view, edit, and print the pictures?

There may be some brightness/darkness/contrast options within that software.

Likely will require some editing of the picture you wish to print. So be sure to have proven backups and only edit copies of the original picture.

 

[Paperdoc]

Ralston18 is right. In general, one should never be trying to customize a printed page with settings on the printer. Whatever you do on the printer will affect every document thereafter. IF a printer has some adjustments for colour shade, print brightness and opacity, etc. those should ONLY be used if a knowledgeable person is ensuring that the printer DOES produce a proper print of a standard image. Most printers does not provide much this way, and doing that job may require special tools for comparison to a known-good print.

ALL manipulation of images to get a pleasing print result should be done in the software app you use to edit the image. As Ralson18 says, make any custom changes to a COPY of the original document and do NOT save the altered image in place of the original.

IF it is generally agreed in your workplace that all images have the same problem (too light, or poor contrast, or odd colours, etc.) then maybe you should be making an adjustment at the printer. I found the User's Guide here

https://dl.dell.com/manuals/all-pro...t_printers/dell-3130cn_user's guide_en-us.pdf

See p. 109 to 113 regarding using the printer Operator Panel to make changes via its menu system. The manual does NOT specify what adjustments are available to you, but you can find out by looking. Note also the section on Resetting Defaults (p. 112) if you suspect you made a mistake in a setting.

 

[hmunster123]

Thanks but I have decades of experience using adobe photoshop and other graphics software. I want to know why the printer isn't allowing me to change the brightness and contrast. Thanks again.

 

[USAFRet]

I used to have a 3100cn, and I don't remember a 'Quality' setting. Loking through the user manual, it seems there is none.
https://dl.dell.com/manuals/all-pro...printers/dell-3100cn_owner's manual_en-us.pdf


For your 3130cn, the only thing I see is Draft or Regular.
https://dl.dell.com/manuals/all-pro...t_printers/dell-3130cn_user's guide_en-us.pdf

No brightness or anything like that.

 

[USAFRet]

Looking further in the user manual, there DOES seem to be a Brightness adjustment.
But only commandline with PostScript.

Not a clicky thing anywhere in the general Settings.



-y br=mode
Specifies brightness adjustment.
Available brightness adjustment option values are as follows

 

[hmunster123]

The printer is from 2010 so find it hard to believe there is nothing but I guess you are right. Also maybe there is a separate software that Dell no longer offers on it's drivers page.? Very strange. Thanks.

 

[hmunster123]

Looking further in the user manual, there DOES seem to be a Brightness adjustment.
But only commandline with PostScript.

How do I do that, any advice on how to get started. I've used command line before.



-y br=mode
Specifies brightness adjustment.
Available brightness adjustment option values are as follows

 

[USAFRet]

How do I do that, any advice on how to get started. I've used command line before.

I should have been more specific. That appears to be from a Unix/Solaris OS and commandline.

Open that user manual, and search for 'brightness' or 'txt2ps2'.

 

[hmunster123]

I should have been more specific. That appears to be from a Unix/Solaris OS and commandline.

Open that user manual, and search for 'brightness' or 'txt2ps2'.

Thanks, I will try it!

 

[Steve Nord_]

Thanks but I have decades of experience using adobe photoshop and other graphics software. I want to know why the printer isn't allowing me to change the brightness and contrast. Thanks again.

I'd side with Dell and tell you to look in 'paper' and 'copy' settings if you want to wreckerate an image for dye sub, but are there truly no 'density' settings? That one's in the Canon.

 

[Corwin65]

The printer is from 2010 so find it hard to believe there is nothing but I guess you are right. Also maybe there is a separate software that Dell no longer offers on it's drivers page.? Very strange. Thanks.

14 years is a good run.

 

[Paperdoc]

USAF pointed to a set of settings that, as he clarified, is available under a UNIX OS, but not in the Windows environment easily. I noted those items, too, in the manual I linked to. But the fact that the printer CAN accept and use such adjustments suggests there MAY be a way to do this other than by UNIX command lines.

That manual notes there is a software utility called the Tool Box one can use from the desktop to work with that printer. See p. 109 of the manual. So the adjustment you seek MIGHT be available there. Now, you may have that Tool Box and not ever have come across it. OR if your desktop office machine was set up and maintained by a corporate IT department, they may have deliberately NOT provided that tool to avoid having every user in the company making customized printer changes.

My further thought, though, is that IF such changes can be made, they MAY be available though the on-printer menu system. The manual speaks of that system but gives no details of what options are available. So you just have to look though those at the printer.

Further thought. It is common with many printers today that the printer driver installed on your machine may let you make custom settings for each print job as you set it up. For example, for years using a couple of colour laser printers on our home network I have been in the habit of using the printer settings options in the driver, rather than just what Windows offers, to specify whether or not to print in all colours or only in Black/ White for plain documents. In most of my Windows apps the standard Print dialog has a place to find and use such custom printer settings. Settings for things like which paper tray to use, what type of paper is to be used, whether or not to print 2-sided, etc. are found there. On my current Brother HL-L3290CDW printer the driver even has a way to create and store many different document profiles, each containing a whole set of custom adjustments, that I can call up as each document is sent out.

 

[hmunster123]

Yes there is a toolbox but it didn't load when I loaded the driver. I think Dell removed it from the "drivers page". I'm running Windows 10 on a 64 bit computer and tried it also on an old IBM Thinkpad 32 bit but it didn't work either. I guess I will just stick with making adjustments in Photoshop.

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

I guess I will just stick with making adjustments in Photoshop.

That is my preferred method of working. Gives you much more control than the rough and ready adjustments in the printer driver.

 

[hmunster123]

That is my preferred method of working. Gives you much more control than the rough and ready adjustments in the printer driver.

I noticed now that there is a toolbox but it won't work with the driver I'm using. Once again it prints but toolbox is useless.