Step 1.  Set your layout preferences:

1. •Image Selection Option: The Image Selection options allow users two very different ways of moving images.  The “Arrow” option allows for images to be moved in the layout.   The “hand” option is only used when “Fit to Fill” was selected to size a file.  It will allow users to move an image within its bounding box
   

1. • Page Size:  Select the page size that you wish to use.   Any default page sizes that where installed by your printer will be available as well as any custom sizes you may have created.  If using Roll paper make sure you have roll selected and read the instructions below on Paper Style.  
   

1. • Color Handling: ImageNest can color manager your layouts or color handling can be set to “Printer Manages Colors”  ImageNest manages colors requires that you turn off color management in your print driver. 
   

1. • Printer Profile: On OSX 10.5 a printer profile can be chosen in order to apply color management prior to printing.
   

1. • Nesting Method:  Better Fit is generally the best selection.  It will fit images in the layout as efficiently as possible and will save the most paper but options for manual layout, fewest cuts, and single image per page are also available
   

1. •Nest Spacing: This control allows a user to space in between image in the layout.
   

1. •Image Alignment: The image alignment dialog controls how images are aligned when manually moved. 
   

1. •Images Can Overlap: Checking this box will allow an image to be manually placed on top of another image.  The “Image Overlap” icon on the toolbar controls which image is on top.  Images can be moved from the top to the bottom and vice versa by using the ‘Image Overlap” icon.
   

1. •Grid Spacing: The layout Grid lines are drawn according to the grid spacing.
   

1. •Cut Marks:  Cut marks can be applied to your images to help line them up with your cutter and to add whitespace as a border to your images.  You can choose three styles of cut marks and the horizontal and vertical offset the cut marks will have from your images.   The spacing dialog allows a user to specify how far cut marks are offset from images.  - (negative) numbers will place the cut marks inside an image. + (positive) numbers will place them outside an image.
   

1. •Border Size: The border size dialog allows a user to specify how far cut marks are offset from images.  - (negative) numbers will place the cut marks inside an image. + (positive) numbers will place them outside an image.  The fill color dialog will fill in the blank area with a color of your choosing.
   

1. •Annotations: The annotations feature allows users to print job data and meta data with an image. 

Step 3.  Print Driver Configuration

Setting up and Epson Print Driver

Setting up an HP Print Driver

Setting up a Canon Print Driver

The below setting can be set in ImageNest/Preferences

1. • Sharpening Intensity:  This preference controls the amount of sharpening applied to an image when sharpening (low for example) is selected in the ImageNest layout/page setup controls.  Increasing or decreasing the intensity for Low, Medium, or High will effect the level of sharpening applied when Low, Medium, or High is selected in the lmageNest layout/page setup controls.  Keep in mind,  ImageNest performs sharpening on the actual print pixels.  PhotoShop and other programs perform sharping in an Image that is not at print resolution.
   

1. • Uprezzing Resolution: This preference selects the resolution that files will be set to prior to printing.  By performing interpolation prior to printing there is a significant quality improvement.  ImageNest uses a very high quality vector based interpolation algorithm that is superior to the interpolation used in all print drivers (print drivers generally use nearest neighbor or bi-linear interpolation).  A setting   300 or 360 (depending on the printer) is recommended.  Higher settings produce a slightly higher quality print but can take significant time to process.

1. • Uprezzing:  The Uprezzing dialog has 4 choices.  None, Epson, Canon, and HP.  The uprezzing setting that you choose (Epson for example) will automatically interpolate all files in the ImageNest layout to the DPI selected in the corresponding “uprezzing resolution” preference dialog (preferences are in the screen shot below)  For a more complete explanation click here.   Uprezzing can significantly increase processing time when printing files over 16 x 20 inches.
   

1. • Sharpening : The sharpening dialog has 4 choices.  None, Low, Medium, and High.  The Sharpening intensity setting you choose (low for example) will automatically sharpen all files in the ImageNest layout with she sharpening setting selected in the corresponding “sharpening intensity” preference dialog (preferences are in the screenshot below).  Sharpening only works in conjunction with interpolation as ImageNest, to ensure the best quality, performs sharpening after interpolation/uprezzing is completed so that sharpening is being performed on the final print pixels.  

1. • Black Point Compensation:  ImageNest 3.5 can perform Black Point Compensation on all images in a layout automatically.  Black point compensation can dramatically improve shadow detail and color density.  The effect of Black Point Compensation is most dramatic on cotton rag fine art papers but improvement can be seen on most paper types.  For black point compensation to work your rendering intent must be set to “Relative ColorMetric” in the ImageNest preferences dialog.

Step 2.  Print Quality Settings