Re: [Usability] Printing dialog in GNOME

[Till Kamppeter <till kamppeter gmx net>]

michael chang wrote:
> On 12/14/05, usability-request gnome org <usability-request gnome org> wrote:
> 
> 
>>>What about a "manual duplex wizard" instead of/in addition to odd/even?
>>>With pictures, like one sometimes finds in Windows printer drivers.
>>
>>Do people really still bother with manual duplex printing that
>>much these days when many printers come with duplex support
>>already?
> 
> 
> Yes.  Look at the consumer printer market.  Not to mention who knows
> how many people are still using their older inkjet printers from 1997.
>

I read often "Manual Duplex" in consumer printer advertizing. And that
means usually that the software coming with the printer has such a
manual duplex wizard. If we provide it from the OS or from the desktop,
we can say "Duplex on every printer, either manual or automatic".

> 
>>Supporting manual duplexing right requires a knowledge of how
>>the pages come out (face up or face down), but I suspect this
>>behavior would be best implemented by providing a duplex option
>>in the dialog and triggering a special two-job submission mode in
>>the GUI rather than requiring the user to say "print the front
>>sides" and "print the back sides".
> 
> 
> If this wizard is implemented in a higher level and there is a
> configuration option, you could configure this once with a few test
> pages (e.g. print like A, B on various pages and ask how they come out
> of the printer, e.g. orientation and ordering, then repeat with C, D
> on the same pages reinserted into the printer...) and then have it
> automatic as an option in programs.  However, this would have to be a
> per-printer setting...
> 

Great idea. Simply add a "Set up wizard" or "Calibrate wizard" button
and this starts a wizard asking at first for how the in/out tray on the
printer are places (in horizontal at bottom, out horizontal on top like
most lasers and most HP injets, vertical at back and vertical at front
like HP LaserJet 1100, vertical at back and horizontal at front like
Epson inkjets, ...), then print test page AB and ask where A and B are
placed, ask for putting back into input tray, print CD and ask where C
and D are placed. Save settings and let the manual duplex wizard use
this info to show pictures how to take out the stack with the odd pages
printed on and how to put it back into the input tray, so that the even
pages get printed the right way.

> That said, the coding would be irritation for such a thing, I'd say. 
> It would take a while to plan such an application, and then a while
> longer to write it out.  Not to mention figuring out interoperability
> with other things... *sigh*
> 
> Asking the user to print only the fronts or only the backs may be
> useful if he recieves a unique document.  I believe OpenOffice.org
> does this too, even in things like Windows - but I'm not sure if
> that's lazyness or something, or if that was an intentional part of
> the design.
> 

A manual duplex wizard would be the best.

   Till