Is there a way for publisher to remember print settings (specifically page size and N-up settings) by document in Publisher 2?

[Tait]

Hi!  This is my first post.  

I searched the FAQ and previously published questions; I found a similar one for Publisher 1, but not for 2.

Is there a way for publisher to remember print settings (specifically page size and N-up settings) by document in Publisher 2 on OS X?  I have a printer for 8.5x11 pages and a separate printer for 4x6 index cards.  Apple, in it's infinite wisdom, seems to have set the default page size to be the same for all printers, so I cannot easily have one at 8.5x11 and one at 4x6.  (For additional depth, I used CUPS to set my 4x6 printer default page size to 4x6, but Affinity seems to be reading the global default?).

Is there some configuration option to allow page sizes and other print settings (like N-up) to be saved?  It seems like they reset every time I relaunch publisher.

 

Edited January 16, 2024 by Tait

[thomaso]

Hi @Tait, welcome to the Affinity forums!

It might vary with your printer driver but possibly there is a "Preset" option in the Affinity Print dialog, for instance:

[Tait]

Interesting!  

I tried that, and it was not working for me.  

I tried again, and it is allowing me to save and retrieve paper size, but not the n-up settings.

It looks like, from your named presets, that yours might.

It seems odd that it would vary by print driver.  

 

[Tait]

OK, wow. I figured it out!

The presets WORK, but they don't update the screen - so, if I use a present, it sets it to N-up with the margin, but doens't reflect the change on the settings screen.

So, good news: it is working.

Bad news: not updating seems like a bug.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!

[thomaso]

18 minutes ago, Tait said:

The presets WORK, but they don't update the screen

Not sure what "screen" you refer to. – I noticed a similar issue before: When I choose "Show Presets…" and then select my custom "n-up spreads +…" preset it does not list the according details on the right side of this sub-dialog (but does if I leave this), whereas after having my custom n-up preset selected than the "Current" list entry does show the according n-up settings:

I assume this is rather a macOS or printer driver issue than Affinity. If I check these presets in the TextEdit.app they appear different than in the Preview.app while both seem to be confused, which may be caused/influenced by the fact that both these Apple apps don't offer n-up options in their print dialog.

[Tait]

This is interesting.  I don't have a show presets at the bottom of the Presets pop-up menu:

 

When I pick a preset, it does not update the Print... dialog box to show what is being changed...

For example, when I select the preset "4x6 Index Cards 0.3", it does not update the N-up information; 0.3 here translates into 9.00000:

 

But Document Layout is not updating.

 I will explore reporting as a bug as it seems inconsistent.  I probably need to reboot to show reproducibility, etc.

 

Thank you for taking time to respond - it was very helpful!

Tait

 

[thomaso]

46 minutes ago, Tait said:

This is interesting.  I don't have a show presets at the bottom of the Presets pop-up menu:

Probably because of another macOS version, yours also shows extra subheads like "Standard" and "Printjob" presets. Nevertheless, I assume you'll see a similar content like in my last screenshot above if you choose your "Edit Preset List…".

Honestly I don't print in Affinity or other apps because of differing setups and consequences. For prints with certain conditions I prefer to export as PDF and print from Acrobat.

[Tait]

Edit preset list shows the preset titles and lets you delete them - that's it.  I checked!

I print multiple files daily.  The workflow of exporting and then printing is multiple extra manual steps, which slow my workflow significantly.

Thanks again for your help and patience!