Photo printers parameter specifications
From Printing
About The Photo Printer Parameters
This represents a group of printers on the market and is representative of numerous similar printers currently in the marketplace. The prototype dialogue design will act as a methodological and practical specification, on which an interaction designer appointed by a printer's manufacturer, can base final dialogue designs.
What is particular to photo-printers
Photo printers here means ink jet photo printers intended for personal or home office use, for more details see the Photo printers page.
Color Management and the CPD
The CPD shall support colour management workflows. As far as is possible, the preview shall show an accurate colour representation of the print. This means also showing paper colour. However it must be recognized that the vast majority of CPD users will not know what colour management or an ICC profile is. To further understand what this means we looked at the constellation of our users in conjunction with a high level look at colour workflow. If a very high level view of colour workflow can be summed up as:
- source -to- imaging software -to- output
and furthermore, for our purposes we have to consider not just a typical color workflow but many variations on a print workflow which includes color management. thus saying:
- source -to- any software -to- output
where: source is a file, scanner, camera, and output is the monitor or printer
The application can be ICC aware or ICC unaware. Thus for our purposes we have two main high-level categories of workflow:
- ICC unaware software - output
- ICC aware software - output
User expectations
We have divided users into three categories; users with low , mid and high expectations of colour management/ colour options:
- Low - I want it to just work. I may choose presets but I'm staying in the level 2 .
- Mid - I want to get to to work better, using presets and pre-made profiles
- High - I want to be in control, I may make my own color profiles
When we combine our user expectations with the two types of colour workflow identified we find the following:
This analysis has the following implications for the CPD UI:
- High end users and want to be able to quickly turn off color management and quickly check that it is turned off. The information that it is truned off should therefore be shown in the summary of information- however stating that it is on(the usual state) is both unnecessary and undesirable.
- Low end users do not want to engage in colour management, for them it doesn't exist- however, they may want to use colour effects, which should therefore be a parameter within themselves.
- Mid end users want to be able to use pre-made colour profiles - this should be easy to do. They shall always optimize colour management via and in conjunction with media type. This should be a system which does not alienate low end users who have no knowledge or interest. It does not have to engage in the detailed making or amending of colour profiles. They may not be using applications with color management capabilities, they will be using the CPD preview to soft proof. Therefore the preview should be as accurate as possible.
Mid-end users may also want to use colour effects and this must be combinable with the media-type/ colour management options via the tags system.
Which Parameters?
The parameters included are considered to be the ones typically required, based upon a survey of printers within this cluster.
What Order?
This order shall be to be logical, intuitively right, and driven by the user's ultimate goal; to get their print out, and in the way they envisaged it. Parameters shall always be seen in order, and any combination of controls could theoretically be displayed together, as this would depend on the tag selected. We have looked at these sections loosely as a print narrative, which means in groups of parameters pertaining to the following themes.
- information (data),
- transformation-transforming the information into the image to be printed,
- the paper- about the physical print to come out of the printer.
However, additional sections are inserted, and in in the various instances where a parameter can be said to belong within more than one of these areas it's position in the list has been selected intuitively, and by using the criteria described above.
Using the Preview
The controls seen here cannot be seen independently of the preview. This is an essential part of describing and showing exactly what a user is getting or changing when they use the controls.
Information to be included in the Summary
Based on the projected parameters to be included in this printer cluster, the information to be included in the summary shall be the current setting of the following parameters:
(above the preview)
- Print on: size and type
- Source
- Quality
- When color management is disabled this shall be stated (Color Management by Application) If colour management is enabled, this shall NOT be stated.
The information shall be listed in the order in which they occur in the parameters list ( this in turn is the order of the parameters in the PPD file).
About the Sections
The following information is presented in a strict order, this is the running order of the printing parameters, or level 3 controls. The controls are divided into sections, delineated by the dotted divided lines.
Details about laying out the controls are to be found in the dialogue layout section
Universal controls
Copies
This is fully documented in the Universal Control Zone of the Level 2 dialog page.
Controls for Photo Printers
page orientation
Print On - Media Type and Size
The former categories of media type and media size have been integrated into a new "print on" set of controls. The approach includes contingencies for situations where the types of print media available are known, or are totally unknown. The known situations can include various scenarios:
- when a printer can detect available media types
- when the printer is configured to include certain media types
- when the printer administration has designated certain media types to the printer via a user interface.
The list can therefore include media types which are definitely available- or theoretically available -depending on the capabilities of the printer and/or the administration of printers.
Users will then have the option of whether to use these available media types, or use their own selection. This will not be selected from media types available, rather from a matrix of supported media types. These can be selected via further options of type and size.
Included within media type is assigning of color profiles. The colour profile information is integrated into "print on" and as such, becomes a subordinate control to print-on (media-type) selection.
Print On: When media types are known:
Control
- When media types are known, and an available media-type is selected:
- and colour profiling is set to auto assign, colour profile and colour rendering control is displayed
- and colour profiling is set to set by application (shown): colour rendering control is not displayed
- colour profiling parameters include: Parameters include: auto assign, set by application; divider title:"set manually" list of available ICC files; import new...
Preview
Defaults
- print-on: White A4 paper
- icc color profile: set by application
- color rendering: automatic
Print On: When media types are known but user wishes to print on an unlisted media-type
Control
- User selects my choice
- User selects media type - from a list of supported media types
- User selects size of media from a list of available sizes for the selected media or custom size
- when the desired media type is not available: user selects custom size
- user selects size. units are the default system units. the 2 size spin boxes are not labelled. This will work in conjunction with orientation controls.
- user selects margins- choices are auto, borderless, small, medium, large, extra large, custom. Margin size changes are shown in the preview.
- when a user selects custom four spin boxes are displayed in the constellation depicted in the image above (NESW) they correspond to the sides of paper which is currently displayed - taking into account it's orientation.
- when the desired media type is not available: user selects custom size
- User can save this new print-on choice so it will appear in the list of available media types by clicking on save. This is displayed as a link-type control
- A further dialogue box will be opened
Preview
Show media type and size where appropriate
Show Margins and margin size
Defaults
ICC color profile: auto assign Rendering Intent: automatic
Print On: When media types are unknown
Control
- Print on: list supported media types- plus "my choice".
- size: when media type is selected, list available sizes.
- custom size: as print on known
- margins: as print on known
- color profile: as print on known
- rendering intent: as print on known
Preview
Where appropriate, the preview image will reflect the media type. The exact media type and size will be listed in the written summary.
Default
The default is set by the manufacturer or printer administration.
Print On: When media types are unknown and user selects my choice
In this case the default actually becomes identical to the "known" version.
Borderless printing
See the Print on section
Pages
There are three seperate approaches to choosing page ranges:
- for jobs of 1 page
- 2-4 pages
- more than 4 pages
Pages- When only 1 pages
In this instance there will be no controls, just the "Pages:" label and the "1" text as content.
Pages- When 2-4 pages
Control
- See image. Each page in the print job is represented by a page image which can toggles between a selected or deselected state.
- If selected: a green check symbol, the page icon is highlighted in the approriate select colour. The page number is bold and visible.
- If unselected: the page icon has a red cross mark over the page number, the check box is shown as unselected.
- If there is only 1 page in the print job: the page cannot be deselected.
- There must always be at least one page selected. Therefore when a user deselects the final selected page, page one of the print job will be reselected. When page 1 is the final selected page, page 2 will be re-selected.
In Preview
The number of pages to be printed -i.e. the number of selected pages- is shown in the page range number.
Default
All pages selected.
Localisation
The order of the pages in this case will follow the page-turning order therefore:
- Languages which read right to left: The page order will remain unchanged (although the icons will be aligned right).
- For languages which flip right-to left: The page order will be reversed.
Page(s)- When more than 4 pages
Control
Select one page range using pop up numerical list. In the second box, the option - (blank, line) heads the list.
Click on the plus icon to add a free text box pre-populated with instructions. Click on the minus icon to remove the second selected range.
In the Preview
Default
print the complete page range available.
Pages per side (n-up)
Pages per side cannot be shown in conjunction with poster.
Control
Select the number of pages to be printed per sheet using pop up alpha-numeric list. 1, 2, 4, 6, 9, 16, 25 Choose the running order of the pages, from a series of diagrams accessed via a pop up box
Preview
Show:
- correct number of pages per sheet
- appropriate orientation
- the range of pages per sheet in the display showing the current age and page range (under the preview image)
Default
1
Poster
Poster cannot be shown in conjunction with pages per side.
Control
Select the number of sheets the page is to be printed over, using pop up numerical list. E.g 2x2, 3x3, 4x4, 5x5
Higher numbers of sheets, or a banner print options are available in a second level pop-up.
Preview
Show the complete number of sheets required to make up one complete page image. This number will appear in the page range counter.
Default
Off
Both sides
Otherwise known as duplexing. These controls are for automatic duplexing only.
Control
- duplexing is turned on using radio button controls.
- only when duplexing is on, show the page turning options. Despite there being only 2 options, this is a pop-up list to differentiate it from the radio button control used directly above.
Preview
- animate the appropriate page movement when scrolling through pages on the preview
- show the both sides icon in the appropriate corner of the preview image: top right for book-style. bottom right for flip-over style
- show pages 1-4 of number of pages in page number
Default
- duplexing: off
- page turning: bookstyle
scaled printing: scaling % (x-y)
reverse print
Print quality
resolution: draft/high/standard/custom
Colour effects
Control
A pop-up list populated with: none, greyscale, black and white, sepia for example, according to manufacturers requirements.
Preview
The colour effect selected is shown in the preview
Default
none
Source
The source has some resonance and relationship with the selection of media type. It is accepted that a small number of users may wish to select the type as media to be printed upon by selecting the corresponding printer tray. It must firstly be stated that users will not be encouraged to do this and no concrete information about available media types shall be given here. However to take this instance into accountmedia type(print on) will be updated in the rare cases that:
- a user has not changed the "Print on" selection, and the print on choice remains on default
- the types of media available are known
- a user has selected a specifically named tray
Control
A pop-up list populated with:automatic, and the feed names and any trays which the printer may have. No media names to be used.
Preview
Source is listed in the summary text.
Default
Automatic
Which way up
Control
Select either right way up or upside down using icons which toggle between on and off states. The names given can be used as alternative text.
Preview
Show the image orientation in the preview
Default
Right way up.
Maintenance
status monitor print head alignment head cleaning nozzle check ink cartidge replacement (head position) ink level status (warning when empty)
