Affinity Photo 2 - Printer settings not standard - Epson Printer

[hmshms]

Hi there,

I am hoping this belongs here and I have not found this reported through a first search on this forum (and I am new here):

Printing from Affinity Photo 2.1.1 on macOS Ventura 13.4.1 (c) to an Epson Printer (Epson Stylus Pro 4900), I am getting an 'overcomplicated' dialogue window for printer settings (in the print dialogue). See the attached file in black. Some of the settings appear twice and some that I need, don't appear at all.

When printing from Preview, I am getting the expected printer settings dialogue (attachment 2).

I have updated the Epson driver to the newest version and experimented with setting it to generic in the print queue. I have also removed and re-added the printer. I cannot find anything in Affinity Photo that would allow me to configure the print dialogue.

Anyone seen this, too? Your help with this would be fantastic.

Thanks.

[GaryLearnTech]

Hi @hmshms and welcome to the forums.

I can't account for the duplicate settings, but may I point out that your first screenshot shows a scrollbar on the right that suggests there's quite a few settings not shown.  (I'm afraid I don't have a printer at home, so can't double-check before making this suggestion.)  It wouldn't be the first time that I've seen an Affinity dialog box that "masked" some settings until you either scrolled or even resized the dialog box to make it a little taller from the default size.

[hmshms]

Hi @GaryLearnTech and thanks for your reply. This particular window cannot be resized unfortunately. It is is sub-dialogue that comes up when selecting Printer Options - Printer Features. In APhoto it lists all possible options in an unstructured way and I am attaching a set of overlapping screenshots of everything there is. There is no option to switch the view back to 'normal'.

 

[hmshms]

Hello again,

I have done some more digging: When I select 'Use Generic Printer Features' in the settings menu of the Epson print queue, other apps display the extra long printer options menu, too (Preview, Safari). When I de-select it again the other apps return to the structured menu, but Affinity Photo does not.

I have also re-installed Affinity Photo now with the printer already there and that did not help either.

Thanks for your thoughts ... Anyone?

[thomaso]

18 hours ago, hmshms said:

Anyone seen this, too?

Yes, in this recent thread for a Canon printer (see second screenshot):

– "Grayscale Printing" (2x),
– "Quality" (2x) + "Print Quality" (1x)

[hmshms]

Hi Thomaso, thanks for making that connection. I don't think that the other thread addresses what I am looking for, though. They seem to be concerned with achieving a specific print size / resolution. I would like to know how to enable to correct printer settings dialogue (the one that other apps on the same Mac also use).

I am not too keen to have to export and then print (for example via Preview). It would make Affinity Photo much less useable for me and I had just bought it.

[v_kyr]

14 minutes ago, hmshms said:

I would like to know how to enable to correct printer settings dialogue (the one that other apps on the same Mac also use).

AFAI recall the Affinity apps do reuse the standard printer driver and it's settings, though placing those in a slightly different looking panel structure then. - The problems you see there could be related due to macOS Ventura and the latest/newest Epson driver, as I think not everything in the actual Affinity app releases has been so far adapted that well to the latest macOS versions (...macOS changes).

Did you also already have tried with an older Epson driver version?

[thomaso]

2 minutes ago, hmshms said:

I don't think that the other thread addresses what I am looking for, though.

My post was just answering your question "Anyone seen this, too?" after your description of duplicated interface entries:

20 hours ago, hmshms said:

I am getting an 'overcomplicated' dialogue window for printer settings (in the print dialogue). See the attached file in black. Some of the settings appear twice

From this perspective the OP's resolution issue in the other thread appears irrelevant for an investigation of possible reasons for duplicated entries in the print dialog window. The question remains for both threads: What is causing the interface confusion? – Which quite likely can be answered by the developers only.

FWIW: I experience different print dialogs in Affinity for 1 same printer hardware, varying with the way I have setup the virtual printer in macOS: Bonjour/Airprint or TCP-IP or Postscript.

[hmshms]

Thanks Thomaso. You are right ... that question is relevant to both threads. I can only report that I 'can enable' the unstructured and duplicated view by selecting 'Use Generic Printer Features' in the print queue for other apps, too. Turning this around, it looks like Affinity cannot switch to the non-generic version, which seems to be what v_kyr is suggesting.

I tried he latest drivers only after coming across this problem with the older drivers. I am not sure whether it would be wise to go older than the ones I had or how to even get those.

My problem is not just that the unstructured, generic view is complicated/difficult to use. I don't think it is useable at all, because it is not clear where to choose what.

[Lee D]

@hmshms Our apps don't have an option to modify the Print dialog and on macOS they use the Print API provided by the OS. None of the printers we have for testing show any duplicated options. I'll continue to do some testing and log it with our developers, but there is a chance it's OS/print driver specific in someway.

[hmshms]

Hello Lee D and Thanks for the message and for passing it on to developers. I believe that athe key might lie in the 'Use Generic Printer Features' option that Affinity Photo seems to 'enable' always (even when I do not select this). Have you tried the option with the Printers you have available? Then you might see the unstructured printer settings view that I am getting.

[thomaso]

On 8/27/2023 at 2:58 PM, hmshms said:

When I select 'Use Generic Printer Features' in the settings menu of the Epson print queue, other apps display the extra long printer options menu, too (Preview, Safari). When I de-select it again the other apps return to the structured menu, but Affinity Photo does not.

Where exactly do you get the option 'Use Generic Printer Features' / the Epson print queue? In the macOS dialog for the virtual printer?

How / for what protocol is your printer setup in macOS (e.g. Airprint/Bonjour | IP | …?)

I ask because I get different dialogs depending on the way the printer is setup. To me the sub-menus "Printer Features" & "Colour" don't appear for instance for the Airprint setup but for IP only (and aren't duplicated in Affinity).

 

[hmshms]

Hi Thomaso, for some reason I missed this and did not reply. Sorry for the delay.

I am getting this when looking at the print queue and then settings (see screenshots).

The 4900 is connected via USB and I am selecting the suggested printer driver, which I recently downloaded.

Airprint/Bonjour are not on offer, when setting it up. I could try set it up via Ethernet.