JB,
Ah the plot thickens - this may have done the trick, thank you. I say may have as I didn't think deleting the Plist had made any difference as post deletion I tried to print a 6x4 card from iWork Pages, same problem - however when I tried to print a PDF of same document via OSX Preview - voila multiple pages were sent by the dialogue to the print driver - printing 1 of 100...
Prior to deleting the plist as per your recommendation, I had reset the printing system, removed and reinstalled my print drivers, and run the 3rd party app Print Therapy 6.0.2, that goes to town on all print settings including my CUPS setup (and I believe deletes the relevant Plists), all with seemingly nil effect!
It was then, that in response to your question about my inference of a poor print dialogue, I wished to screen capture the variety different Print Dialogues that I see day to day Word/FileMaker/Preview, only to find that the Preview Dialogue would successfully print multiple copies of a PDF version of my problematic Pages document?! I had tried this (pdf print of) previous to all my resetting and reinstallations incidentally.
Perhaps the issue lays with Pages... Anway workaround found.
Thanks for your input JB.
For completeness and to assist others that may google this bad boy...
Mute point now but my printers, that had both worked seemlessly for at least 18 months previously (previous to what though?!) are:
1. Canon Selphy CP600 photo-card printer via USB with latest native Canon driver.
2. A Samsung Laser ML-1520 hanging off my Airport with a Foomatic/gdi printer driver (Installed GPL Ghostscript & native CUPS).
Print Dialogue Observations:
My criticism of the OSX Print Dialogue (mute calling it OSX Print Dialogue as every app seems to have it's own Print Dialog, there's the first issue) borne out in the above experience is that the core elements of printing, orientation, paper size etc should be visible, not hidden under presets or a separate page layout within the application - just too many button clicks and variables that can be inadvertantly set wrong as they are not visible. Dependant on 'where' you print from you understandably see an application specific dialogue - but imho the core elements should always be visible, OS not App controlled, and obvious not hidden under the several options within drop downs.
Too often I have printed a photo inadvertantly as a partial banner across the middle of a photo card rather than the correct orientation, and there is nothing in the GUI to assist in preventing this obvious gotcha. I would partially accept the argument that blame could lay with the printer (driver) manafacturer, however it should be the OSX GUI that drives the experience and sets the standard.
OSX Preview (as in native PDF app) Print Dialogue: they nearly got it right and it has the core elements visible (imo) - but the orientation is still not obvious in relation to the printer (head) itself unless you are printing to std A4 printer (important when printing the 'correct way' up onto the front of photo cards with a printed rear for instance). It is not intuitive - you still need a practice print run to realise the orientation, a minor annoyance when printing to a photo printer with no draft option.
Most of OSX is a joy and user oriented, however I am seasoned computer user and have managed to be bemused trying to replicating a very very simple printing workflow (settings issues aside). Given the vast range and sizes of printers and mediums to print to available, a consistent dialogue with clear graphical relationship of paper to printer (head) would be a vast improvement.
Notes to self.
1. get familiar with using Print Presets I guess?
2. If one print dialogue doesn't work, especially an iApp - fire up another application and try an alternative print dialogue!
Cheers
