Printing - The Case For A Single Dialog

In the general sense computers keep getting better and better, however there also exists the phenomenon of getting used to bad designs. We learn to accept and work around unnecessarily complex software. Perhaps complex is not the right word, more like disorganized. With the amount of functions that we want our software and hardware to do making things simpler isn't the easy answer, but I do think things can be made far more organized so that the operator can view and change the parameters without a lot of fuss. I speak specifically of printing. No matter if your platform is Mac or Windows, printing software is absurdly complex. There are literally dozens of dialog boxes you can go through, some of them are useful for what you want to print, others aren't. But no matter what you have to memorize a dizzying array of screens\dialogs to wade through before you get what you want. If you ask me the whole thing is a complete mess and we need to start over on this printing business. There is far too much rope with which to hang one's self.

I print stuff everyday on a variety of printers from desktop inkjets to laser printers and high end RIPs. Even though I have learned what most of the settings mean and how to get it to print in the way I want, it is still very frustrating and numerous mistakes are incredibly easy to make. Learning the settings is difficult enough, but the process is made all the worse in that there are too many places to make the settings. There's an OS interface, an application interface, and a printer interface and they all might have redundant or self-defeating settings. The possibility for screwing it all up is extremely high. Why does it have to be this complex? Why do we have so many places to change printer settings? We need ONE dialog box. Make it full screen. Use every inch of the monitor to display EVERY setting. Be able to change everything in one screen with NO hidden functions. Show a legible preview of exactly what you're getting.

The closest I have seen to a decently-designed print dialog is Adobe Acrobat's, but that's not saying much. There are still plenty of hidden functions. Why are there TWO separate dialogs for Page Setup and Print? If you hit Print and the page size isn't correct for your printer you have to exit that dialog and open another. It makes no sense, I am printing the damn thing, so why not have all the preferences clear and visible in one go? If it makes sense to hide the features you never use that's fine, but at least the option should be there.

Maybe nobody cares about printing in this day of gee whiz pocket organizer doodads, but I know my job would be a lot easier if I thought there was some logical interface to use when printing documents. We have just piled complex stuff on top of each other without trying to make it one cohesive operation.