I hate printing
I know enough about it to try and make printers keep their evil colour management out of your images (dreaded magenta or green tints ruining everything!). But there
has to be a better to print than what LR/Windows 10 offers...
Let's just skip the monitor calibration stuff (take it as granted that its all fine and hunky dory), we have a few annoyances that are really
consistent 'bugs' that have nothing to do with monitor calibration;
1) If I was using my printer for A4 work last time it was used (even just printing word documents or something), then even despite telling LR and Windows that the
paper is now A3 and all that other stuff (select correct photo-paper etc), hit Apply/OK, verify etc...
it will still do one print run of the previous paper size despite given new parameters!
Every. Single. Time. And it can be vice versa, if last time the printer was doing A3 work and now you have changed things to being A4, it will be a stuff up first go
On the second run, despite not touching a single setting it will print properly based on what you previously originally selected... :/
So the first image on any run is
ruined,
always, it's simply stuck in whatever mode it used previously and wants one more go on that despite what you tell it (windows) and LR... Waste of ink and photo-paper. A3+ is $
6AUD a go...
Totally unacceptable bug, and if it's not a bug then someone PLEASE enlighten me. It gets worse.
2) In LR, bottom right of Print Module, you will find two tabs, 'Print' and 'Printer...'. If you click the 'Printer...' button it will launch the Windows Explorer printer window, you can then click 'Properties' and gain access to the following tabs;
-Quick Setup
-Main
-Page Setup
-Maintenance
All valid places to go to ensure the print is as you want it.
But have you ever noticed that upon changing the settings and then clicking 'OK' it doesn't just apply those changes and take you back to LR... No no no no
nooooo.... applying those changes and hitting OK actually activates a print!!
I'm not blooming ready to print you $$*@!$!&!! I still have other LR settings I want to tweak or check!
I seriously don't even understand the point of the 'Print' button in LR's Print Module, must be a Mac thing because Windows decides to do Print stuff anyway without you actually clicking anything that says 'Print'...
3) Soft Proofing is a joke, Simulating Ink and Paper looks nothing like what it will actually be. I really see no point to soft proof mode at all.
4) Print Adjustment (bottom of LR Print Module) (often necessary) has only Brightness and Contrast sliders, both of which when adjusted give
no feedback at all! There is no
reference at all! Example;
First run of the print with both Brightness and Contrast set to 0, "hmm... prints a little dark, could use some brightening."
Yes but how much? +5? 10? 20? 40? 80?
With no reference it's a complete lottery!
More $$ down the drain because it's always the 2nd or 3rd try till you get a print that matches more closely your LR image under a favourable ambient light...
5) And lastly... I've noticed that I cannot use 'Print Preview' at all, it seems when ticking that box and using that feature causes any changes I made previously to print management (such as telling the Printer Colour Management to being 'None') causes it to be overridden, and now the 'lovely' magenta and green tints return to the image, completely ruining the print...
So we have
x1 dud copy from the start which seems unavoidable, a
x2 dud copy because the image will be too dark or too bright (no wait to tell), maybe the next print you get lucky, or maybe it will be print
x4 till you get something that matches what you see on your monitor with a monitor calibrated for the environment you are working in...
Niiice... great waste of money. By the time you hand the print to the client you'll be lucky to see any decent profit margin.
There
HAS to be a better way to print than through LR... Does Photoshop do it better?
Thanks for listening, rant over.
BB
Last edited by BruceBanner; 05-26-2020 at 12:36 AM.