# Printer setup



## aicul (May 15, 2008)

I am writing because I believe the present approach to printing is just not user friendly.

Most often than not any image printing results in multiple prints because something goes wrong.

And honestly the "preiunter setup" and then "print" options should be only one (this is the case in some applications).

In my sense, the computer is trying too often to understand what paper (legal, A4, A5, etc.) is in th eprinter so as to help the user.

This does not always work.

I would like to be able to say to "print" : I know I have A5 paper (because I just inserted it), so just print making the picture fit nicely and don't hassle me with other questions. 

A preview window providing final ok to the user that the printing will be successful.

Just an idea...


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## Natobasso (May 19, 2008)

You need to provide more specific information such as:

1. Your computer and its specs
2. Your printer and its specs
3. The program, its specs, that you're printing from

Without those things, no one can really help you.


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## aicul (May 19, 2008)

I'm not asking for help... this is an opinion forum.

My opinion is that the print functionality does not have that "its easy" touch to it.


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## Viro (May 19, 2008)

How is the computer going to know what kind of paper you've just inserted into the printer? Most (all?) consumer grade printers rely on the computer to specify what kind of paper is being fed in. 

The current method works. You only need to specify the type of paper _once_ and it will stay that way until you decide to change it.


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## ElDiabloConCaca (May 19, 2008)

Very true, and in addition, most desktop USB printers (like sub-$200 printers from hp, LexMark, etc.) are pretty much plug-and-play, with no settings to configure at all.

My last 3 hp printers were exactly that: plug them in, turn them on, Mac OS X recognizes them right off-the-bat, and my first print job is strictly a "press print and watch it come out" experience.

Of course, with printers that have more advanced features, one would expect to have to adjust more settings... remember when TVs only had vertical- and horizontal-adjustment features?  Now we control the aspect ratio, color balance, brightness, contrast, black level, mode, size, zoom, etc... all because we have more fully-featured TVs.  In my opinion, it's the same with printers -- the more features it has, the more time it takes to configure a print job if it's a print job that uses those advanced features.


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## Satcomer (May 19, 2008)

Why didn't you say anything about the ink? Ink is one of the expensive liquids on Earth! Don't believe me, do the math yourself.


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## aicul (May 20, 2008)

Viro, Eldiabloconcaca all I can say is that selecting the paper size is not ALWAYS sufficient. Fact is, as Eldiabloconcaca indicated, most printers will defensively prohibit printing if it thinks the wrong paper size is inserted.

Call me excessive, but when you print, you just want it to print. Try printing a small 3*3 figure on legal paper and get a 3*3 result. The printer/driver/whatever will go to extremes in trying to resize/crop/etc. the figure. Resulting in a printout which is not 3*3.

There is a general confusion on printers that selecting the paper implies you want to fill that page especially when dealing with photos.

etc. etc.

So I d'ont think selecting the paper is the golden bullet!


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## Satcomer (Jul 22, 2008)

aicul said:


> My opinion is that the print functionality does not have that "its easy" touch to it.



Well my opinion is NO ONE ever uses the built in CUPS printing system! It is at http://127.0.0.1:631/. I bet you didn't even know it was there.


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## ElDiabloConCaca (Jul 22, 2008)

CUPS ain't any easier to use than Mac OS X's printer setup dialogues -- in fact, it would be even MORE confusing to a novice.

If the original poster is looking for that "it's easy touch," then manually configuring the CUPS printing sub-system or using the CUPS web-based administration page is definitely not the way to go.


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## aicul (Jul 23, 2008)

Being the original poster. 

First thing first, no I do not know about cups, nor that they existed in Mac. I use cups for tea. ;-)

Second, I think present printing setups are there to try to do too much. Which leads to confusion. Look at picture printing, who has control? The printer (which often has settings - preset - to improve image quality), the print driver of Mac (that tries to determine page %, orientation, etc.) or the program (such as elements..).

So trying to print the most simple photograph is often a repetitve task - not eco/green-friendly on the ink/paper front.

But, next time I have tea, I'll look at the mac cups just out of curiosity.


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