Print dialog "bug" in AFP 1.7.1

[Richard Liu]

Hi,

I'm running AFP 1.7.1 on a MacBook Pro 15" 2018 with macOS 10.13.6 High Sierra.  In the print dialog the "thumbnail" of the photo that AFP is supposed to print is displayed with a red overlay, like so:

This didn't seem to be specific to the printer.  I changed the printer to my HP OfficeJet X476dw MFP, but the thumbnail continued to be displayed with the red overlay; however, it was not present on the printout ... but neither was a good part of the photo.  That's when I noticed that Fit Type and Scale had been changed to "Scale" and "100."  Changing Scale to "Fit to Printable" caused the "100" in the Scale field to be greyed out, the whole photo was displayed in the thumbnail and the red overlay was gone approximately like so:

"Approximately" because, once I set Fit Type, I save all the settings as a new preset, and when I exit the print dialog and reenter it, Fit Type has  been changed to "Scale" (instead of remaining as I set it) but "100" is greyed out and the thumbnail displays properly.

I might have noticed the size mismatch in the thumbnail with the red overlay if I had not panicked and overreacted to what is perhaps intended -- by the printer driver? -- only as a helpful warning.  So I leave this "bug report" just in case somebody else encounters the problem.  I don't know how that setting in the original preset was lost.  When I select "Show presets..." from the Presets dropdown I see that the original preset, Plus Glossy II, A4, has indeed "Fit to Printable" for Scale, just as does the new preset, Plus Glossy II, A4, Fit to Printable.

[fde101]

That red appearance is a warning that your settings will result in content that does not fit on the physical page of the printer or which will otherwise not print correctly - for example, setting it to print a booklet when the number of pages is not a multiple of four.

It is quite intentional and is a feature of the Affinity programs.  It is done that way because there is not really any other mechanism they have to report these warnings back to the user, at least on the Mac where they are working within the limits of the standard print dialog box.

[Richard Liu]

@fde101,

Thanks for the explanation.  I wonder what made the first present "lose" the Fit Type setting in the first place and thereby cause the problem?  As I said, when I examine the preset, it's definitely still there, and the only indication other than the red overlay that something is wrong and what that might be is that the "100" in the Scale field is not greyed out.