OS X 10.5 with Epson Stylus Photo

[Howanitz]

I recently setup a new notebook user with OS X 10.5 with an Epson Stylus Photo 1280 and R800 (printing over the network). Setting the same printers on Ubuntu 8.04 gives print options for Paper, Print Quality, etc. In OS X 10.5, there are no setting options for the printers in the OS X System Settings, and the printers print in draft quality? (Anyway, in very poor quality settings, and with horizontal streaks across the printed photos.)

Manually edited the ppd files for each printer in /etc/cups/ppd/ and changed the following settings:

*DefaultMediaType: Photo
*StpDefaultMediaType: Photo
*DefaultStpQuality: HighPhoto
*StpDefaultStpQuality: HighPhoto
*DefaultResolution: 1440dpi
*StpDefaultResolution: 1440dpi

After a system restart, the printers now print well. (How do you reload the ppd files without a restart?)

Happy to send more info on the ppd files, but I think this is the version info for the R800:

*FormatVersion:	"4.3"
*FileVersion:	"5.1.3"
*LanguageVersion: English
*LanguageEncoding: ISOLatin1
*PCFileName:	"STP00818.PPD"
*Manufacturer:	"Epson"
*Product:	"(AFPL Ghostscript)"
*Product:	"(GNU Ghostscript)"
*Product:	"(ESP Ghostscript)"
*Product:	"(GPL Ghostscript)"
*ModelName:     "Epson Stylus Photo R800"
*ShortNickName: "Epson Stylus Photo R800"
*NickName:      "Epson Stylus Photo R800 - Gutenprint v5.1.3"

It would be nice if the options were available in the Apple settings dialog, but I think the defaults should be changed in any case. If this report belongs someplace else, just let me know and I will resubmit it.

TIA,
-Keith