Quirks/bugs in Photoshop CS3

[John.Murray]

Eric:  I'll stand partly corrected - here is what I just saw with CS3 on XP

Launch CS3 and open a doc.  File Menu | Print:



This, of course is my system default printer

Now, I change the desired printer:



After opening a 2nd document, the  selecting File | Print:



What I found was messing around with color mgmt, or page setup dialog resulted in the *application* default printer, along with settings being changed for all open documents:



Then switching via the Window Menu:



Pretty damn confusing . . . .

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Pretty damn confusing . . . .
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=143615\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I totally agree with you here.

My question is really this: Suppose for your second document you want to use "\\dc1\color", and this printer shows in the "printer" box. Then you click on "Page Setup" and a window pops up with settings for "\\dc1\admin" instead. (This is what happens to me.)

If you choose to "print" at that point, which printer will it use? If you want to change settings for "\\dc1\color" it seems you need to select a different printer and then reselect "\\dc1\color" again, or else "page setup" will go back to referring to "\\dc1\admin".

As for "application default printer", I wish there were one! When I'm printing from Excel or WordPerfect or a web browser, 99% of the time I want to print to my system default printer, which is my HP 1200. But when I'm printing from PS, 99% of the time I want to use my Epson 2200. As far as I can see, the only "default" choice I have is a system default printer, and if I change that for one app, the new default stays in effect for any other app.

At the very least, CS3 is giving me wrong information in one of the two places that specifies current printer.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Here is a screen shot from CS3, with two different printers (specified in two locations):
[attachment=3463:attachment]

Pretty confusing. Is this the way Macs have always behaved? Is this intended on the part of the engineers who designed it?

[Mark D Segal]

Pretty confusing. Is this the way Macs have always behaved? Is this intended on the part of the engineers who designed it?
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=143624\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Eric,

There was a whole other discussion of this issue in another thread in this Forum - I don't have the link on hand, but if you do a search you'll find it. There was much back and forth between Jeff Schewe, me and some others. The up-shot is that what's there is not a "bug" - it was all intentional, and some of the problem - the centering issue in particular, occurs because of design requirements for Windows Vista, different from XP.

While all that is no doubt valid, they didn't convince me it isn't a mess regardless. Nor did they convince "Jani" who observed very astutely that the print interface should have been designed to be configurable. The logic behind this suggestion is that the useability problems in CS3 differ depending on which version of the Epson driver you use and which OS you use. Therefore as long as many people are still using several Epson driver versions and either XP or Vista, it would help to have several configurations of the print interface. For my workflow, I aolved it all by keeping CS2 installed and I print from CS2 with Windows XP and Epson driver version 5.51. All works like a charm. But that's my solution for my set-up. It will differ for others with different combinations of hardware and software. Can drive one crazy.

Mark

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Eric,

There was a whole other discussion of this issue in another thread in this Forum - I don't have the link on hand, but if you do a search you'll find it. There was much back and forth between Jeff Schewe, me and some others. The up-shot is that what's there is not a "bug" - it was all intentional, and some of the problem - the centering issue in particular, occurs because of design requirements for Windows Vista, different from XP.

While all that is no doubt valid, they didn't convince me it isn't a mess regardless. Nor did they convince "Jani" who observed very astutely that the print interface should have been designed to be configurable. The logic behind this suggestion is that the useability problems in CS3 differ depending on which version of the Epson driver you use and which OS you use. Therefore as long as many people are still using several Epson driver versions and either XP or Vista, it would help to have several configurations of the print interface. For my workflow, I aolved it all by keeping CS2 installed and I print from CS2 with Windows XP and Epson driver version 5.51. All works like a charm. But that's my solution for my set-up. It will differ for others with different combinations of hardware and software. Can drive one crazy.

Mark
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=143628\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Mark,

I had read all of that other thread well before daring to upgrade to CS3. From the thread I was expecting to have to re-select my Epson for each new document I wanted to print, and I was willing to do so since that was the way God had designed Mac software.  

Inconvenient, I thought, but no big deal, just a nuisance having to select the right printer for each and every new document. And as for the margins, I do most of my PS printing from either ImagePrint or QTR, so I wasn't worried there either. Plus, I have Qimage for emergencies, and I have kept my CS2 just in case I needed it (I am always skeptical of any new version of any software).

But I don't think even Jeff would claim that it was Adobe's intention to display the incorrect printer in the printer box (look closely at my screen shot: the selected printer in the rear window is my Epson, but the actual printer chosen in the smaller window (upper left corner) is my default HP.) (This is a straight screen shot, not a couple of images combined in PS.)

Even this bug --- and it is a bug, and apparently Adobe's rather than Epson's, since it is in Adobe's printer selection box --- isn't a killer, since there is a work-around: Select any different printer, and then select the Epson (or whatever one you want), and then the chosen printer really is the one that CS3 is looking at.

So, in spite of all of Jeff's protestations, I still say that printing in CS3 doesn't work quite right, at least in Windows XP, but the flaw is pretty minor. I certainly agree that it would be nice if Epson and Micro$oft got their acts together and made it possible for Adobe to allow centered printing.

Eric

[Schewe]

So, in spite of all of Jeff's protestations, I still say that printing in CS3 doesn't work quite right, at least in Windows XP, but the flaw is pretty minor. I certainly agree that it would be nice if Epson and Micro$oft got their acts together and made it possible for Adobe to allow centered printing.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=143634\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

No, I never said there weren't bugs...I said the "concept" of defaulting to the system default printer is pretty much in line with Mac which also has defaut printers...and I said that Adobe's ability to slam margins to zero to force printers to their max margins (and thus make it easier to print centered) is also like the Mac (where you have to create a custm page size with equal margins to print centered). And the fact that Vista REQUIRED that change in behavior.

All said, there ARE things wrong (bugs) which will be addressed in a dot release in the near future. Partially because of the feedback of users.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

No, I never said there weren't bugs...I said the "concept" of defaulting to the system default printer is pretty much in line with Mac which also has defaut printers...and I said that Adobe's ability to slam margins to zero to force printers to their max margins (and thus make it easier to print centered) is also like the Mac (where you have to create a custm page size with equal margins to print centered). And the fact that Vista REQUIRED that change in behavior.

All said, there ARE things wrong (bugs) which will be addressed in a dot release in the near future. Partially because of the feedback of users.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=143675\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Quite right, Jeff.

I didn't mean to suggest that you said CS3 was totally bug-free. You were quite careful to address specifically the issues of the margins and of the default printer, and I understand Adobe's decisions even if I find them a bit inconvenient.

I was just surprised to encounter this little bug, but if it is the worst that CS3 throws at me, I'll be very happy indeed.

And let me again say what a treat the Camera-to-Print tutorial has been.

-Eric