Vista and Photo Printing: Things Have Improved

[Jason Dunn]

I've never liked the printing wizard in Windows XP much, so I didn't have a lot of experience in using it - I've always used <a href="http://www.acdsee.com">ACDSee</a> for printing. In my continuing tests with Vista I thought I'd see if they had improved the printing tool - I wasn't holding out much hope, because Microsoft's attitude has traditionally been "If you want anything really nice, get it from a third party developer". Much to my surprise, the experience of connecting a printer, and making your first prints from it, has been radically enhanced under Vista. For Christmas my wife Ashley gave me a small HP Photosmart 325 printer - the kind that prints 4x6 photos from a PC or directly from a memory card. So now I have <a href="http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/consumer/consDetail.jsp?oid=53540919">one really big printer</a>, and one really little printer. Actually, since I have a Canon MP780 for copying/faxing/scanning, and an <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1830627,00.asp">HP 2600n</a> for day to day printing (man that's one impressive piece of hardware for the money), I guess I run the gamut in terms of printer size. I like being able to create the things I need in my office, rather than having to rely on outside services.<br /><br />Under Vista, connecting the Photosmart printer was amazingly simple: I plugged in the USB cable, Vista recognized the device, and about 30 seconds later it had completely installed the drivers and was ready to print. Quite honestly, I was stunned: I thought for sure there would be some sort of dialogue box I'd have to click past, or some wizard I'd have to go through, even if Vista had the drivers - which I was convinced it would not. The entire experience was flawless and I was deeply impressed.<br /><!><br />Compare that to installing the same printer under XP: I connected it, and it recognized the name of the printer. I was then presented with the typical <i>Install New Hardware</i> wizard, and asked for permission to search Windows Update for drivers. I said yes, even though I've never seen Windows Update assist in finding drivers for anything. The next screen asked for an install CD, which is confusing given that the first step said it would try to go and find drivers. I left it on automatic, clicked next, and over the next four minutes it tried to install the printer. Much to my surprise, it said it was successful - but after clicking Next I was presented with a new pop-up window for the <i>Found New Hardware Wizard</i>. I clicked through the steps again, and this time it finished out with the Cannot Install This Hardware error. But in typical XP fashion, as long as the hardware is connected, the operating system will continue to try and install it.<br /><br />So that was installing the printer. How different is Vista from XP when it comes to printing? Quite different as it turns out.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/vista-printing-jan12th.jpg" /><br /><i>Figure 1: The new Vista Printing window.</i><br /><br />With Vista, I right-clicked on the photo I wanted to print, and selected Print from the menu. Alternatively, you can use the new Gallery program to find the images you want and click print. A very simple printing window came up. Rather than having a multi-step wizard, all of the important choices have been condensed down into a single window that allows you to select the printer you want to use, the size and type of print, the resolution, the paper type, the number of prints, and does a zoom and crop to fit the photo to the page. What impressed me most was that every single option was set correctly the first time this window popped up - I literally only had to click print and I was finished. Since this printer only prints one size of picture, it was easy for Vista to get the defaults right, but I experimented with other printers and it was just as easy. Microsoft really did a great job with this tool. By comparison, the process under Windows XP is a five-screen wizard that doesn't feel nearly as fast or easy.<br /><br />Vista also supports something that XP did not: offline print queuing. I had the HP Photosmart printer disconnected from my Vista machine, and I tried the printing wizard again. When I saw that it offered me the ability to print to the now-disconnected printer, I assumed it was a bug in the software. I clicked print anyway, and it completed and shut down the print window like it normally would. Playing a hunch, I re-connected the HP Photosmart printer - and within 5 seconds it started to print, without prompting me at all. Now that's impressive software design - a laptop owner could queue up prints on the go, then connect when he returns to the office and get all his prints.<br /><br /><i>Jason Dunn owns and operates <a href="http://www.thoughtsmedia.com">Thoughts Media Inc.</a>, a company dedicated to creating the best in online communities. He enjoys mobile devices, digital media content creation/editing, and pretty much all technology. He lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with his lovely wife, and his sometimes obedient dog. He likes buying printers.</i>

[Macguy59]

Deeply impressed because printing worked like it was supposed to? Guess it doesn't take much to impress us these days. :D

[Jason Dunn]

Deeply impressed because printing worked like it was supposed to?

My, my - you're being quite cheeky lately. 8O Let me guess, a Mac user right?

How things are "supposed" to work is always a matter of opinion. In XP obviously someone thought that's how printing was "supposed" to work, and in Vista they re-thought it all. I like the new was it's "supposed" to work, and that's all this article was about.

I think a lot of people think Vista is XP + Aero, and that's it. My point in writing this article was to point out that Vista is an improvement over XP in many ways, not all of them easily fitting on a bullet point.

[Macguy59]

Having used beta 2 of Vista I agree that the photo app (and how it works with printers) is a needed step in the right direction. Yes I have been a Mac user for the last 2+ years and have gotten used to things working as they should out of the box. Now I don't have an army of printers the likes of yours but of the 2 I've had (and still use) during that time, all worked well with iPhoto from day one. I guess my comment was more about poking fun at your hyperbole. No harm intended.

[Jason Dunn]

...but of the 2 I've had (and still use) during that time, all worked well with iPhoto from day one.

Walk me through printing on OS X from the shell then. How does it work? How many screens/clicks are there? Teach me. :D

[Macguy59]

...but of the 2 I've had (and still use) during that time, all worked well with iPhoto from day one.

Walk me through printing on OS X from the shell then. How does it work? How many screens/clicks are there? Teach me. :D

Honestly there were zero clicks involved in terms of OS X seeing (and making available) the printer. If I wanted to change the default printer I would have to run the "Printer setup utility". The base level support provided strictly by OS X for the printer has always been sufficient for my printing requirements. Now if I were to get a multifunction scan/print/copy printer I could see the need to install the provided software to get a more advanced feature set. That's been my experience to date. Maybe another Mac user could chime in with theirs. BTW Off topic but I am really enjoying having a DSLR.

[Jason Dunn]

Honestly there were zero clicks involved in terms of OS X seeing (and making available) the printer. If I wanted to change the default printer I would have to run the "Printer setup utility".

No, I'm not talking about that, I'm talking about printing an image like I did in my example. Let's say you have a JPEG on your desktop in OS X and you want to print it. How do you do that in the least number of steps, what's the process like? How many screens, clicks, etc?

[Macguy59]

Honestly there were zero clicks involved in terms of OS X seeing (and making available) the printer. If I wanted to change the default printer I would have to run the "Printer setup utility".

No, I'm not talking about that, I'm talking about printing an image like I did in my example. Let's say you have a JPEG on your desktop in OS X and you want to print it. How do you do that in the least number of steps, what's the process like? How many screens, clicks, etc?

Gotcha. Let me do that and get back to you.

[Macguy59]

I prefer iPhoto so the steps are done with that in mind. However, you could also print using the standard Preview app which would eliminate 2 steps.

Right-click on picture choose send to iPhoto

Left-click on the picture in iPhoto (which opened with the above action)to select it

From the Finder bar choose File -> Print

In the resulting Print window you can either use a customized photo print preset value (which I do) or manually select values like photo paper type/size, etc.

Click Print and your done

[Jason Dunn]

Ok, so from the shell it sounds similar to Vista - basically two steps. What does it look like? This?

http://computing.fandm.edu/training/osx/images/print1_2.gif

[Macguy59]

Ok, so from the shell it sounds similar to Vista - basically two steps. What does it look like? This?

Close

http://home.insightbb.com/~macguy/Picture%201.png

[changed to link due to size - JD]

[Jason Dunn]

Close

Interesting - thanks for posting that. So, honest question: what do you think about the OS X screenshot versus the Vista screenshot that I posted? I don't want to turn this into a Mac vs. PC thing, although you kind of already did by saying that OS X "just works" and making fun of me for getting excited about Vista. ;-) To me, the OS X screen looks better than what XP offers (it's all on one screen), but less elegant than Vista. What's your opinion?

[Macguy59]

What's your opinion?

Like the OS itself, they both get the job done. Having used Vista a good bit on my Intel iMac I think some things were made better while others were made more complicated. I saw a remark on a Windows site that Vista is "Windows for dummies". While I don't think that's true I do think the Vista team made a determined effort to make this OS more media centric with added eye candy. (but don't get me started on Vista's ugly icons). I don't see UAC being the headache that most everyone else does as I'm used to something very similar in OS X.

**long quote trimmed by mod JD***

[Kris Kumar]

If only Vista would see my printer; my HP printer does not have a Vista compatible driver. :-( Printing is what is holding up my switch to Vista.

[Jason Dunn]

If only Vista would see my printer; my HP printer does not have a Vista compatible driver. :-( Printing is what is holding up my switch to Vista.

Hopefully come the Vista launch date (later this month) HP will release a whack of drivers. There's not much you can do until then except stay in a holding pattern...I'm not switching my machines to Vista until I have the right drivers as well.

[Janak Parekh]

Deeply impressed because printing worked like it was supposed to? Guess it doesn't take much to impress us these days. :D
No, that's not accurate. ;) XP's printing was just fine. In fact, I didn't mind XP's photo wizard. I've shown family how to use it, and they found it pretty painless, driver installation inside. If Vista's is an improvement, great.

And, as a Mac user for almost two years now, I disagree with your implied assertion; the Mac experience when it comes to photo printing definitely has its ups and downs. You've got two choices:

1. For effective thumbnail browsing before you print, you must import into iPhoto, and then it's on your hard drive. What if you want to borrow a friend's CF card just to quickly scan it and print a pic? XP's print wizard actually has a thumbnail browser without copying the files off the card.

2. Using the Finder + Preview? That's a bigger pain. If you have 100 pictures on the card and don't know which one it is, you'll go insane. You need to get a third-party app to make that feasible.

Then there's the fact that the third-party driver install experience on Macs tends to be somewhat inconsistent and annoying. Don't get me started on network printing with custom drivers. For the most part, Mac is really plug-and-play, but the printing subsystem still needs work.

--janak

[Macguy59]

Well Jason did ask about a single picture on the desktop. iPhoto automatically imports any pictures off the card. As for thumbnails . . . not sure I get what you're saying. If I use a card reader via USB a finder window will show thumbnails of all the images on the card. What is ineffective about that?

[Jason Dunn]

If I use a card reader via USB a finder window will show thumbnails of all the images on the card. What is ineffective about that?

Did I mention that Vista shows thumbnails of both video and photo files on the desktop, without having to go into a special thumbnail view mode like on XP? It's incredibly useful to me. The ability to see thumbnails of documents inside a folder from outside the folder is also very cool.

[Janak Parekh]

Well Jason did ask about a single picture on the desktop.
Ah, good point. Still, XP's experience is far slicker for navigating batches of pictures not in iPhoto. If you right-click an item on the desktop and hit Print, you're stepped through a wizard that gives you several options. One of those options shows every picture in that folder, and lets you individually check or uncheck the pictures you want to print. Then, it'll apply the settings to the pictures as a batch, and fire them off to the printer. Still much better than Preview'ing and printing. I guess you could command-select the pics, double-click to open them all in Preview, and then print as a batch from there. This is, again, rather cumbersome. And, Preview is slow at processing a large batch of pictures off of a card or network share. I know, I've waited for it to wake up when using it to view family's pics on cards that I didn't want to import.

iPhoto automatically imports any pictures off the card.
Right, I find that hugely irritating. What if I plug in a card of a friend, or one that has 1,000 images? I just want to print, and then I'll have to sit and wait. So I shut it down without importing, and go to Finder and...

As for thumbnails . . . not sure I get what you're saying. If I use a card reader via USB a finder window will show thumbnails of all the images on the card. What is ineffective about that?
8O You know, I just got icon previews in Finder to work for the first time on my MBP. It never seemed to work on my 1.67GHz PB. Maybe I didn't tick the option in the Finder? I could have sworn I did.

However, this process is still hugely cumbersome. First, I navigate to the folder in question. By default, Finder icons are 48x48, and the preview is off. So I have to go to View Options, turn Preview on, and scale up to 128x128 (which is still too small for some pics). And, by default, it sets all windows, including other filesystems (including the hard drive), to this new behavior, so I have to make sure I set it back. Or I can set it only for this folder, which means you have to set it for other cards.

In XP, I put in the card or navigate to the folder. It automatically switches into filmstrip view, which gives you thumbnails along the bottom and a nice blown up view above it of the individually-highlighted picture. And then launching the print option is trivial -- either you right-click/Print, or when you put the card in it's one of the options that pops up immediately.

In my opinion, there's really no contest for this particular simple scenario. Which is kind of ironic, because Apple advertises its photographic superiority. It may be true if you use iPhoto for managing larger batches of pictures, but the integrated Finder/Preview combination is poorer than XP's experience for the one-shot print, and if Vista is better, well, that's one thing OS X could improve in catching up. ;)

And as for iPhoto... well, I prefer Picasa. But that's another discussion for another day, after I've played more with iPhoto '06 (having only used iPhoto '05 extensively and refusing to pay for the '06 upgrade, as I was going to get an MBP anyway...)

--janak

[Janak Parekh]

Did I mention that Vista shows thumbnails of both video and photo files on the desktop, without having to go into a special thumbnail view mode like on XP? It's incredibly useful to me. The ability to see thumbnails of documents inside a folder from outside the folder is also very cool.
Is this the stacked-ish view? Is it really that useful? If you have more than a few pictures, for instance?

(There are third-party apps for the Mac I've used that have a similar effect, and after a while, I decided that, while cool, it wasn't all that critical for me...)

--janak

[Macguy59]

Right, I find that hugely irritating. What if I plug in a card of a friend, or one that has 1,000 images? I just want to print, and then I'll have to sit and wait. So I shut it down without importing, and go to Finder and...


I dunno Janak. Seems like you're making things more difficult than they need to be. My comment about iPhoto automatically loading the photos is only when I connect my camera(s). If I'm just using a USB card reader it shows as a removable drive on the desktop. As for thumbnail sizes . . . you can make the size apply to all Finder windows or just the one you are currently in. Personally I use 68x68 for all my Finder windows. At that setting I have zero trouble finding/selecting what photos I want. The above works the same way on my 17" MBP and 24" iMac.

[Janak Parekh]

I dunno Janak. Seems like you're making things more difficult than they need to be.
No, OS X is perfectly "okay". All I'm saying is that XP is still significantly better in this regard; I was replying to your first comment in the thread, and giving you some detailed scenarios as to how XP is quite a bit better. ;)

My comment about iPhoto automatically loading the photos is only when I connect my camera(s). If I'm just using a USB card reader it shows as a removable drive on the desktop.
Not on my MBP. I just tested it by plugging in my SD card. Immediately launched iPhoto (and mounted the card). I think it looks for the DCIM folder and decides based on that. I now Command-Q without thinking, I've done this so often. ;)

At that setting I have zero trouble finding/selecting what photos I want. The above works the same way on my 17" MBP and 24" iMac.
Okay. I guess I have different requirements; in particular, I want to quickly browse pics on the card at high resolutions without importing them and without going through the cumbersome experience of Preview. 68x68 doesn't cut it for me. I'll keep on hunting for 3rd-party Mac software that'll do that.

--janak

[Jason Dunn]

Is this the stacked-ish view? Is it really that useful? If you have more than a few pictures, for instance?

No, thumbnails are rendered directly on the desktop as individual files. On the folder level, it's sort of top-down quarter view...you can see bits and pieces of the images/files. Since I'm a highly visual person, I personally find it quite useful because if I see even a part of a photo, I can recall the whole thing and know that's the right folders. It's hard to describe, but I like it. ;-)

[Macguy59]

Okay. I guess I have different requirements; in particular, I want to quickly browse pics on the card at high resolutions without importing them and without going through the cumbersome experience of Preview. 68x68 doesn't cut it for me. I'll keep on hunting for 3rd-party Mac software that'll do that.

--janak

As you know you can increase the thumbnail size to 128x128 and why would you need Preview.app to scan through the thumbnails on a card? A normal Finder window show icons previews (which includes pictures). There is no need to import anything. BTW if you want to stop iPhoto from auto launching see THIS PAGE (http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:Jq_CI2heLIcJ:paininthetech.com/mac_os_x_image_capture+stop%2Biphoto%2Bfrom%2Bimporting%2Bphotos&amp;hl=en&amp;gl=us&amp;ct=clnk&amp;cd=6)

[Janak Parekh]

As you know you can increase the thumbnail size to 128x128 and why would you need Preview.app to scan through the thumbnails on a card? A normal Finder window show icons previews (which includes pictures).
I was trying to make a couple points here:

1. For the average user's perspective, this is less "simple" than the XP experience when loading a media card for the purpose of printing or quickly browsing pictures. (For more sophisticated photo management, photo book creation, etc., then iPhoto is certainly better out-of-the-box.)

2. 128x128, to me, is just barely enough to browse photos. I still much prefer the built-in Filmstrip UI control in Windows Explorer. Of course, YMMV.

There is no need to import anything. BTW if you want to stop iPhoto from auto launching see THIS PAGE (http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:Jq_CI2heLIcJ:paininthetech.com/mac_os_x_image_capture+stop%2Biphoto%2Bfrom%2Bimporting%2Bphotos&amp;hl=en&amp;gl=us&amp;ct=clnk&amp;cd=6)
Thanks, I guessed that there would be a prefs change to fix it, just didn't know where. I completely forgot about Image Capture, too. ;)

--janak

[kiwi]

Deeply impressed because printing worked like it was supposed to?


Thats how it works on my Mac :wink:

[Jason Dunn]

Thats how it works on my Mac :wink:

If you keep reading in the thread, you'll find we discuss this issue - and I think the Vista UI is more elegant than what the Mac offers...so don't get too excited. ;-)