Custom paper sizes Mac

[AffinityQ]

With MacOS High Sierra, the print dialog item for "Manage custom sizes..." when selecting paper size for printing (and defining a new size) is dimmed so I am unable to "tell" the printer to print on anything but the pre-defined sizes.

Is this an Affinity issue or has Apple once again removed functionality?

In particular, this time, I a interested in printing "Post Cards" on 4" x 6" paper.

If I have managed to define the paper size using a different application (erratic) the selection appears in the print dialog but that size is also dimmed and cannot be selected.

Any help?

Thanks...

[AffinityQ]

P. S. For what it is worth, I managed to "Fake Out" the printer by rotating the image and expanding the canvas thus feeding a 4" x 6" piece of paper end-wise so that the printer "thought" it was printing the image on the upper-left of a letter-size sheet.

While this is a viable "workaround," it is disappointing that so much creative control in software ends up having to be run through a Rube Goldberg output schema.

Other ideas?

Thanks again.

[Callum]

Hi AffinityQ

Welcome to the forums

This menu is controlled by Mac OS it is likely that your printer drivers don't allow you to create new page size presets. I imagine if you try and print an image from Preview you would get the same issue.

Thanks

C

[AffinityQ]

Thanks, it is as I suspected.

Leaves me wondering how A4 and various envelope sizes made the output list...

(I know, "Hard coding" but the "Manage custom size" code could have been included. It does exist.)

"Someone" decided we should not have access to it?

Still, thanks again.

[AffinityQ]

I deleted my own comment.

[R C-R]

20 hours ago, AffinityQ said:

Leaves me wondering how A4 and various envelope sizes made the output list...

(I know, "Hard coding" but the "Manage custom size" code could have been included. It does exist.)

"Someone" decided we should not have access to it?

The printing options that are available are determined by the printer software installed on your Mac. Most likely, all of the relevant software is in the Library/Printers folder (in the root level Library folder). If you open that folder you will probably find folders in it named for one or more printer brands (like Cannon, Epson, Samsung, etc.) plus a few others, one of which is named "PPDs," (for PostScript Printer Description files). In that folder there should be a number of PPD files in the gzip compressed archive file format (extension .gz). In these files each printer's capabilities are stored in a standardized format.

Because every printer maker does this differently, there may be several 'generic' PPD files, each one describing the capabilities of some group of similar printer models, individual files for specific printer models, or a mix of the two. If you want to see what any of the files look like do not open them from this folder; instead drag a copy out onto the desktop & double click on that to unzip the file. Open the unzipped file & you will get something like the example shown in the Wikipedia article, but it will probably be much longer & more complicated. You will probably find dozens of references to page dimensions, maybe a section on custom paper support, & a bunch of other stuff.

It is these files, together with some of the other files in the Library/Printers folder, that determine what the Mac OS printing system displays in the Print window. Because they describe what each printer is actually capable of supporting, there is no point in trying to edit them -- that won't do anything other than almost certainly causing the printing system to crash, or at least to display a message saying that printing could not be completed because of some error.

IOW, the printing options are determined by a combination of what the printer hardware & its software can support. If "Manage custom size" is greyed out, there is nothing you can do to change that, other than trying to find updated printer software & install it, but that won't enable anything the printer can't support.

[duh-G]

Well I thought I would add to this topic. After googling solutions I came across a solution on the Adobe forums. Just giving credit. I'm running OS X 10.12(Sierra), what seemed to work was connecting the printer(HP) via USB cable rather than using a wireless path. After doing so the custom size option was not greyed and now available. It worked! I also checked my system preferences afterwards. There were two icons of the same printer in system preferences under Printers & Scanners. I kept the "last used" one, and deleted the other. I had been trying many solutions none of which worked. Hope this helps you.