Printing Issue with Epson 7900 Mac 2014 LT

[joeligammari]

Hi to all,

I need some help?

When printing to an Epson 7900 printer all my settings are set for matte black ink and plain paper; when Printing Autocad uses Photo Black Ink with the printer asking me to change the ink cartiages.

This does not happen when Printing to Preview and then Printing with the Matte Black Inks and plain paper from Acrobat. Seems to be an issue with Autocad taking over the printer with the default set for photo black ink? Is there a way to change the settings?

Thanks

Joe

[maxim_k]

Welcome to the Autodesk Forums!

Hi,

Have you tried to use "Presets" feature of Mac OS Print dialog?

You need to create Preset for your Epson printer to use Matte Black Inks and plain paper. You need to do this only one time, then reuse when you print from AutoCAD:

When in print dialog, select "Printer Features" (from drop-down list where you see "AutoCAD" when you open Print dialog. In Printer Features section set everything you need for Ink and paper properties, than from "Presets" drop-down select "Save current settings as preset", give the name to the Preset.

Next time you start to print from AutoCAD you need at first to select Preset you saved and all settings for printer should change to your preset.

Maxim

[joeligammari]

Thank you for the very fast response!!!

Attached is the printer dialogue I have been using as a preset. It just switches over to PK when it goes to the printer.

Thanks again.

Joe

[maxim_k]

So, I don't understand: the trick with presets doesn't work?

Maxim

[joeligammari]

Hi Maxim,

Right, the trick doesn't work.

I tried all different settings as presets ( printer managers color, etc...). Seems as though Autocad is overwriting the setting and sending the printer a Photo Black override from Matte Black. My Epson 7900 is setup for matte black and all other applications (Lightroom, Photoshop, Illustrator and Acrobat) are seeing the correct black ink to use without issue.

Maybe I am still doing something wrong in Autocad?

Joe

[maxim_k]

Hi Joe,

Outside AutoCAD: when printer driver switches to Photo Black cartridge? When you change media type from plain to photo? When you switch to borderless paper?


Maxim

[maxim_k]

Have you tried to create preset with Matte Black cartridge outside AutoCAD (for example in Preview app) and then use this preset in AutoCAD?

Maxim

[joeligammari]

The Epson 7900 can use either PK or MK and the printer automatically selects MK or PK based on the paper selected (ie. Plain paper can only use MK). Therefore I set the printer manually to use MK or PK. Hope that made sense.

It does not matter, from what I can see, whether I use a borderless or retained size setting on the paper. I has to do with the paper type. Photo paper uses PK, matte paper use MK. You can only override the settings if the paper profile has that option, but plain paper can ONLY use MK, there is no other option. This is not an issue with other applications they just print using MK.

To answer your other question, It does print correctly if I am using the Preview (app) on my Mac with a Preset.

I will try again with your recommendations and let you know how it goes.

Thanks  for your time and receommendations.

Joe

[joeligammari]

I tried all options with presets still having issues with AutoCad. I tried using other matte papers besides plain paper still have the same issue.

Just a thought, can it have anything to do with the pen table assignments?  I am using monochrome. Also printing from a Layout if that matters. AutoCad is just overriding the settings within the application, once out of Autocad  printing is as it should as a PDF.

Any other ideas?

Regards,

Joe

[maxim_k]

If the type of Black cartridge depends only on paper type, than it seems to me that AutoCAD can not change paper type when it spool information to the printer. Or I'm not correct - don't know.
What if you will try to use Batch print feature to Publish to "Printer from page setup" (not to PDF). For this method you have to create or edit current page setup, then call PUBLISH command and select Publish to "Printer from page setup" in upper left side of Publish dialog.

Maxim

[joeligammari]

Hi  Maxim,

Just tried the Publish Option and it did not work it generates the same error message "wrong ink cartridge".

I think you are right when it spools to the printer Autocad just wants to have the Photo Black ink, it can not see the matte black setup. It just disregards the setup.

I get a dialogue box that shows it is spooling to the printer and then stops looking for the photo black ink cartridge.

Oh well, that knid of stinks!!! It will be a pain to Publish a set of drawing this way.

Has this been an issue with other printers?

Thanks again,

Joe

[maxim_k]

I thought: why not try to use another printer software (driver) for your Epson 7900?

Just checked and found that Gutenprint drivers supports your model (with limitation of use orange/green inks, but you don't need them if you print in black&white).

So you can try to download Gutenprint drivers for Mac OS from here:]

http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/MacOSX.php

Install it and add your printer in Mac OS System preferences, but this time select not "native" drivers, but driver from Gitenprint:

After installation you can try to print from AutoCAD.

Settings for cartridge are here:

Maxim

[joeligammari]

Good idea. I will give it a try tomorrow. Kind of "burnt out" to take that on now!!!

I will let you know how it works out for sure. You certainly have a lot of patience and are very resourceful.

Thanks Maxim. I promise no more questions today!!!

Regards Joe

[joeligammari]

Hi Maxim,

The Gutenprint Driver worked with my Epson 7900, printing directly to matte black!!!

I have not looked into all the options, but it prints to matte black and all dimensions are accurate. I learned a lot through this post.

Thanks so much for your help.

Regards,

Joe