Bitmap printing problems in Windows 98

[Sfor]

No, I have not. I have no license for it.

[Sfor]

I made another interesting observation. Some 24 bit images are printing fine, others do not. It could be related to the bitmap size. At first look, problems with printing are related to bigger 24bit bitmaps. The small ones are printing fine.

So, the problem could be the overall size of the bitmap, not the color depth itself.

[Mijzelf]

What size are we talking about? I remember there is some limitation on a HBITMAP size in 9x (16MB? Alas MS stripped all 9x information from the online msdn documentation, and at the moment I've no access to my offline files)

[Sfor]

I think this is it. I've tried 14MB and 19MB uncompressed bitmaps. The smaller does print, the larger does not.

[Sfor]

I started to look for a suitable application for picture printing, again. This time, I'm searching for something able to print large bitmaps, or having a simple and easy to use resize or color depth change function (preferably with polish language interface option). In the process I've found two free applications able to print large bitmaps, but without polish language support.

Preclick Gold Photo Organizer - it was included in HP Photo Essentials package. Now it is available as freeware. The user interface is somewhat strange, yet effective.

Picasa 2 - from Google. (Picasa 3.6 seems to be working with KernelEX to some point, but I've just checked if I can run this version.)

[dencorso]

What about IrfanView? Does it really work with 9x/ME (it does claim to)? It's free and has a good language support.

[Sfor]

IrfanView is "FREEWARE (for non-commercial use)". Unfortunatelly, this kind of a license will not do in this particular case.

[Sfor]

Google Picasa 3.6 does support Polish language. It is possible to run it with KernelEX and it prints correctly.

However, the language settings in Options - General tab are not visible. So, it is not possible to switch the language. The default language is English.

The situation changes when switched KernelEX compatibility mode from default to Windows 2000 (or newer). By just accessing the General tab, and saving the settings language changes to Polish. However, Picasa does not seem to remember initial settings in this kind of KernelEX compatibility mode, and file browsing does not seem to work, as well.

[Mijzelf]

I remember there is some limitation on a HBITMAP size in 9x (16MB? Alas MS stripped all 9x information from the online msdn documentation, and at the moment I've no access to my offline files)

My MSDN Library April 2001 says:

Windows 95/98/Me: The created bitmap cannot exceed 16MB in size.

[Sfor]

Ok. I have yet another update on the topic.

Apparently, there are two versions of Google Picasa 2 available for download. The older one is Windows 98 compatible, but has less languages available. The newer one is for Windows 2000, supports Polish language and seems to be working fine with KernelEX. So, there is no need to use Picasa 3 in my particular case.

The only bad side is, the Picasa is centered around album creation. So, it is not a perfect choice for someone who wants just to print a bitmap.

[hottext]

Try http://www.irfanview.net/

by convert BMP image/file to JPG and then test the printer!

[hottext]

IrfanView is "FREEWARE (for non-commercial use)". Unfortunatelly, this kind of a license will not do in this particular case.

i running it on my win98, xp and win7

And it work good on win98 always

[Steven W]

I know it's kind of a long shot, but check to see if the file Bmpimp32.flt is in the Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\GrphFlt\ folder.

If it's there and your comfortable using Regedit open it and check

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Graphics Filters\

Look under Import and Export and see if there are entries for BMP are there.

Let us know what version of Bmpimp32.flt you have.

[Sfor]

In my case it's Bmpimp32.flt 4.0.

BMP is only in the Import registry section.

Anyways, the problems with printing are not related to the bitmap format. The problem remains the same, as long as the uncompressed bitmap exceeds 16MB. So, converting a file from BMP to JPG changes nothing, if the same resolution and color depth are used.