Troubleshooting and Support > Frequently Asked Questions

Q. How should I know which options to use to configure my printer?

Please consult the DICOM conformance statement of ClearCanvas Workstation and your printer.

Q. Why is the printer is not printing?

Please check the following things:

1.	Is the printer online and ready to receive connections? For specific details on this, please consult your printer's manual.

2.	Is the printer configured properly in the DICOM Printers configuration page? Make sure the there is a local AE Title for ClearCanvas Workstation and make sure the AE Title, host and port of the printer are correct. Click on the Verify tool to see if the Workstation can connect to the printer.

3.	Some options may not be supported by the printer, causing errors on the printer side. Verify the Printer options are set properly and check the printer log and ClearCanvas Workstation log for more details.

Q. Why is the quality on the printed film poor?

ClearCanvas Workstation uses a few different Printer Options to determine the proper size of the image when printed on a film. It then resizes each image before sending it to the printer. Incorrect configuration of print options can contribute to this problem. For example, if the actual film size is 14 in x 14 in, but the Film Size option is configured to 8 in x 10 in, or if the actual printer resolution is 600 but the resolution option is configured to 300, then the printer may be forced to enlarge the image to fit the print area. Consult the DICOM conformance statement of your printer to make sure all options are configured properly.

When configuring the resolution (DPI), err on the side of a higher DPI value than what is supported by the printer. This will force Workstation to send a slightly larger image. The printer will then shrink the image to fit the printed area. This will typically introduce less artifacts than if the printer were to enlarge the image.

Q. I used Automatic film size. Why are the printed images still being cropped?

Most printers do not support all the film sizes defined by DICOM. It is likely that ClearCanvas Workstation has computed a film size that the printer does not support, and the printer has defaulted to using a smaller film size. Alternatively, the printer may have some unprintable margins on the film. Please consult the DICOM conformance statement of your printer in order to determine the supported film sizes and margins, and set the proper values in the Advanced Printer Options dialog.

Q. I got a message saying "True size printing is not possible". What should I do?

If you get the "True size printing is not possible" validation warning, it is because the image does not contain pixel spacing information and it is not possible to determine the actual physical width of the image being printed. Please follow the Measurement Calibration section of the guide and calibrate all the printed images.

Q. I calibrated my images. Why are the printed images not true size?

For true size printing to work, ClearCanvas Workstation assigns the actual physical width of the printed image to the "Requested Image Size" attribute and assigns the "Crop" behavior to the "Requested Decimate Crop Behavior" attribute for the "Basic Grayscale/Color Image Box Sop Class". The printer must support both attributes and must not override them with any other values.

The printer must also support the film orientation, film size, film format and film destination you specified. Please consult the DICOM conformance statement of your printer to see if these are supported.

Q. Why are all color images being printed as grayscale?

Please make sure the Color Mode is selected when Printing Images. Please also make sure color printing is supported and enabled on the printer.

Q. Why do I get an out-of-memory error?

The DICOM print feature in ClearCanvas Workstation is not very memory intensive. Instead of allocating memory for all the images being printed, it sends one image to the printer at a time and only allocates enough memory to hold the pixel data of the image currently being sent. That being said, if your system is already running low on resources, you may still encounter out-of-memory errors. There are a few things you can try:

1.	Close all open study workspaces.

2.	Close as many applications as possible.

3.	Upgrade available memory on the machine.

4.	Use a 64-bit machine that has more memory.