OSX, VW10 & Canon i9100

[sarahearney]

OS 10.3.9

VW 10.0.1

Canon i9100 driver v 2.32

I have one VW file that is 19MB, which I wish to print onto 4 x A3 sheets of paper on the above printer. Every time I try to print it at 1:250 scale VW crashes, without fail. I cannot print each page individually, it crashes, I cannot create PDFs, either all 4 pages or one by one, it crashes. Sometimes I can print it at 1:500, but that's really not much use to me. I have previously (2 weeks ago, before the drawing got more complicated) been able to print this file without any problem at all.

I have reinstalled VW and the printer driver. I have copied just the necessary bits of the drawing into another file, reducing it to about 5MB, the problem is still exactly the same.

My iBook is 1.2GHz with 768MB RAM, the problem also happens on my G4 desktop, which is 1GHz with 1.1 MB RAM (but running OS 10.2.8).

It seems, however, at the moment, to be happy printing to an Epson 1290 (which I only have limited access to and doesn't print completely borderless from a mac).

HELP!!!! I am tearing my hair out and need to be able to print this file repeatedly and reliably this week and next before the final final final hand-in for my post-grad diploma. I may fail unless I can print this file.

[Guest]

Update the software to VW 10.5 or 10.5.1.

[calsan]

Hi

Here's something that can be done when all else fails:

Print to pdf! javascript:void(0)

Then open this file and then print that to the canon printer.

Hopefully, this will work and give you time to do your assignment, rather than trying to fix the computer, which is best left for a time when you have nothing better to do...

Cheerio!

[calsan]

ignore that "javascript:void(0)" comment. it just appeared when i posted my reply... I was trying to use those smiley faces in the reply form and it all went wrong.

I have been having similar problems with my kyocera printer - see my post:

http://techboard.nemetschek.net/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=22;t=000475

I eventually worked out that the ppd files stored in the Library>Printers folder were to blame and that an earlier version of the ppd files from Kyocera worked. ie: the new printer drivers on the Kyocera web site weren't working anymore.

If you use the printer utility and click the get printer info button on each of your macs, it will tell you which version of the ppd driver is installed. Then have a look on the internet on canon's web site and see if a newer version is available. In my case, it was the new one that was the problem, so I was lucky to have a copy of the old printer drivers around. If you have a disk that came with your printer and that had osx printer drivers, you could always try reinstalling them.

[calsan]

Oh yeah - forgot to mention - when I print to pdf i'm using the ADOBE pdf printer, not the built in mac osx pdf printer - if you have adobe acrobat professional, you will have this printer driver, which works because it creates a ps file which is then processed by a distiller application. Otherwise no such luck. Something else I just thought of: try doing page setup and changing the 'format for' setting to your canon printer. often if it is on 'any printer' it won't work when printing to laser printers for some reason. On our printer if you have 'any printer' selected you get lines only but no text.

It is interesting that you can print to the epson: With this set up as your printer, can you create pdfs? if you can print to it, you should be able to make a pdf.

Another way to make pdfs: export as epsf from the export menu, then open the epsf file with the preview application. This takes a while and you will probably loose things like shading, but if your drawing is only linework, then it should be ok.

[sarahearney]

Ah ha! Yes, creating a pdf using the built in Mac generator when it's set for the Epson does indeed work. It doesn't allow me to print borderless and I have yet to check the print quality, but that's a great help.

Will also attempt to reinstall the old print driver, though I don't think Canon goes in for updating them periodically as much as Epson does so there may be just one option.

Thanks very much.

[calsan]

No worries

Was all just guess work. Anyway, from what you say, I'm sure that confirms that it is your canon printer driver that is at fault.

There is a zero margins printer driver for your epson on the epson web site:

http://tech.epson.com.au/downloads/product.asp?id=stylusPhoto1290&platform=mac&FileType=1&FileType=6&FileType=2&submit=Search+%3E%3E

Cal