I rarely mind having to print stuff out. However, that’s probably because I do the bulk of my printing at work, where a helpful IT staff is on hand for major paper jams, software driver issues, and USB snafus. Also, the bulk of my work-printing involves documents.
When it comes to home printers that print digital photos though…wow. I’ve had my own computer and printer since 2001-ish and generally, it’s been an easy ride. From Lexmark to Kodak, my own printers largely behaved (after much cursing during initial set-up). But setting up printers for family and friends? Insert weary sigh here.
In 2005, my parents purchased a new computer (iMac G5) and printer (Epson inkjet something-or-other). The computer is still chugging away but the printer died an early death earlier this year—as if it ever worked properly before then. So this past spring, they upgraded to an all-one-in system from Hewlett-Packard. It successfully printed photos and documents once or twice before inexplicably freaking out last week.
Switching from iPhoto to HP’s proprietary printer software package seems to have solved the problem, although now there’s the fun task of exporting 2500+ pictures from iPhoto and then importing them into the HP software (that’s the easiest method I can think of, at least).
I know that when buying a new printer and installing the software, you almost always have to also download updated drivers from the company website. I know that while the printer might have its own software for everything from basic maintenance to image editing, it might not be as powerful, user-friendly, or polished as standalone software like Photoshop or iPhoto. If it works for you, then great. But I think the user should have the final say in what kind of software they use to display, edit and print photos. If it’s not whatever HP or Epson bundled with that year’s hot product, then the software should shut up and get out of the way. Printing a picture from iPhoto shouldn’t require constantly tinkering with the “Page Setup” commands and then the Print dialog box to make sure you have just the right kind of settings to properly print a four-by-six picture.
After trying to troubleshoot my parents’ printer, I felt like casting runes might be a better solution. They called HP Support who, as expected, told them to just use the HP bundled software. So yeah, things seem to work now but what if you just really didn’t want to switch gears like that? What if you’ve gotten used to your image editor of choice and don’t feel like switching to a different application to print images? How hard can it be for a Kodak, Epson, HP, or Canon printer to say, “why sure, iPhoto, here’s your 4-by-6 picture of the Governor’s Palace?” How hard, indeed.
This gotta be a first. I had an HP photo-thing-a-majig printer that printed fine from iPhoto. It recently gave up the ghost (about a month ago). It was a sad affair, one with many great memories. Anyway, I bought a Canon printer as a replacement. A Canon pixma (insert random pointless digital numbers here). It works fine so far with both, iPhoto and Aperture. I hate loading any additional software (especially that crap they bundle with your printer), so I just get the drivers and I'm good to go.
I sympathize with your parents... they shouldn't give up good old iPhoto for some crappy HP image-hell software. I feel your pain.
This sounds like something deeper than the printer. I've had a Mini, 17" MBP (1st Gen), and now a homemade hackintosh. All of them print to my HP 3210 all-in-one with no problems. It might be time to do a backup and clean install of the OS. Something behind the scenes is going on here. Just a thought.
I'd say anyone who had *only* software issues with an HP is extremely lucky. Starting with my exile in the Windows world in Y2K, I used only Canon printers and had zero problems. When that finally bit the dust, I got an HP 1610 as a gift from my parents that never printed properly, had paper misfeeds much more often than not, and was unable to get the card reader to you know, read cards. Finally after three repair attempts Best Buy replaced it for me with another, different HP that could read cards, but still was unable to print or feed, in addition to guzzling ink when it did print.
I then bought a cheap Canon bubblejet printer and a dedicated dye-sub photo printer at $50 each, and have had flawless printing since.