Given:
Mac G-5/2.7 dual proc
8GB RAM
6.5 MB drives internal
OS X with all updates

Have full CS2 and was running CS3 Beta.

Tuesday morning I decided to upgrade to the new CS3 full release from Beta version.

Well, that was a mistake!
I've spent all of yesterday and today trying to get the CS3 installation download to work. Spent hours on the phone with Adobe and the best they can come up with is that they are having a lot of problems with installs of upgrades from CS2 where CS3 beta had been installed.

They have had me remove ALL Adobe products (Lighroom, CS2, etc.) from my G5 and the install still did not work.

Now I'm trying to rebuild my machine back to the stage it was before I purchased the CS3 upgrade.

In short - if you don't have to have it today, give Adobe time to work out all of the bugs they currently can't resolve.

I'm pissed, and have lost two days of time I should have spent working on images!

Jack

While I can appreciate that you are a bit south of pleased, I gotta ask though if you actually wnet about this whole thing the correct way? Being an alpha and beta tester for over 10 years I know that going from a beta to GM version of a software app can be, well, a pain. But Adobe did actually go out of their way to try to warn people that they should de-activate and properly un-install the beta before trying to install the GM. Did you 1) Read and understand the technotes for removing the beta and 2) follow the advice exactly?

The Mac instructions are HERE, the Windows instructions for XP are HERE and Vista HERE.

There's even a script for removing the beta...see: CS3Clean Script.

So, did you do all this?

If you did, then I suspect your machine may already have been, uh, a bit screwed up. If you didn't do all this, then you simply didn't do you beta testing homework and I really can't feel too sorry. I suspect you feel "pissed" at yourself (or should) than being pissed at Adobe.

I install it without any problem,,I un-install the beta version in I was done in lets then 30 minutes

BlasR

Very nice post Schewe. I might guess not. You know what, I rushed ahead and I didn't un-install the Beta version and I had problems installing the real version of CS3. I had to do a search for "adobe" and I trashed acrobat, CS2 and the CS3 beta. After I trashed everything adobe and restarted it installed just fine. No calls to adobe and it didn't take for ever. I downloaded acrobat and the flash plugin to be safe and off I went.

Best of luck and I love CS3.

Ken

sounds like a nightmare....i bought CS3 the first day off the web, uninstalled the beta and installed the new software without any problems at all.....
there were several warnings on adobe.com and on several photosites about installing over the beta....

Un-installed CS3 beta and installed CS3 Retail on Mac Pro and MacBook all within an hour. I've read the thread on CS3 beta in this very forum, and followed the steps described in Adobe site.

Only bitching point? $199 for an upgrade.

Jae Moon

Wish you were right, but, I developed software for 13 years on the Silicon Graphics platform and I've very familiar with the potential problems one can experience when "upgrading" code. Yes, I followed all of the Beta remove instructions, etc. And yes, we trashed all of the Adobe programs, rans script, etc. and still got exactly the same error. Again, I'm not the only one with the problem according to Adobe.

In talking with the CS folks at Adobe, this is a serious problem they are having with NUMEROUS installs. They currently don't have a fix for it but are working on one. Thus, my comment of be sure you need the upgrade - better to wait till they have their bugs resolved.

Issue is it installs Bridge, etc. but can't install the PS3 module. I'm told by Adobe that if it was just PS3 that consistantly didn't install it would be easier to resolve. But different users have had different modules fail to install and that's adding to the problem for Adobe.


I'll post an update when they get back to me with a fix.
Jack

Jeff, with all due respect Adobe has created a monumental screw-up. You have more experience in this business than I do, but I have NEVER EVER seen so much rigmarole and risk surrounding the removal and installation of two pieces of software. With sufficient time, planning and foresight it is unimagineable for people of that intelligence and experience level that they could not have most likely avoided most of the trouble customers are having by anticipating uninstall issues with the Beta before releasing it in the first place. Now they are playing catch-up because they failed to do this, so they've published several documents describing several whole processes. Before we even go there, the fact that all this stuff is needed tells you what I'm saying.

But then when you start reading those documents, the real risk dawns. If normal de-activation and uninstall doesn't work, then you need to either follow a large number of instructions to do it manually, or if you don't fancy that - risk your computer's life using their Clean Script Tool. Did you read Adobe's warning that accompanies their CleanScript Tool? I've just today been looking into the purchase of Acronis True Image 10 to mirror my hard-drive because of the extent of possible damage and back-up Adobe so dutifully warns us about in case we need to use this tool of theirs. (Well, mirroring one's HD is probably a good idea anyhow, but I didn't need Adobe's problems to trigger it for me.)

I'm sorry - beta/shmeta, this is thoroughly unacceptable, and in my case will not be repeated, because they have lost my confidence. I'm waiting another week or two to see how this evolves before I install my CS3 up-grade, but I shall not trust Adobe with Beta software again unless it comes with firm commitments to respect such basic useability as removing it without risk when finished.

"I shall not trust Adobe with Beta software again"

Did you read what you just wrote? You downloaded and installed BETA-FRIGGIN' SOFTWARE, what did you expect? Have you ever beta tested software before?

I gotta tell you that in all my experience beta testing that CS3 was generally the most stable and easy to get rid of betas ever. Understand, I run on a Mac-and in the past they never MADE an un-installer. In the past we had to use either manual or scripted remove proceedures and that failed more often than not. Remember, as an internal tester I was removing betas at a rate that far exceeded the single public beta. I lost track of the total number of internal release build, but the final release build of 1480 tells you how many builds were made internally.

The only thing I think Adobe learned in this whole public preview/beta situation is that most people simply should never get pre-release software.

Hi Jeff - you didn't disappoint me - I knew exactly what was coming. You asked what I expect - as you know, I wasn't born yesterday either and I'll tell you. A company with the smarts of Adobe should know better. It's fine if they do this with a small community of seasoned beta testers who have the stomach and experience to deal with just about anything they will throw at them. When they decide to broadcast it to every Tom, Dick and Harry in the community, where the experience variance is HUGE, they need to anticipate such elementary precautionary issues as how to uninstall the software without risk and provide for it before they invite us to the party. They themselves think what they have produced is risky enough to issue dire warnings to their customers. This kind of thing should not be necessary and it should not happen regardless of whether it is a beta and especially when it is a broad public release. Basic functional safety should be assured in a beta product before they issue it to the general public. With that precaution I don't see any harm making pre-release software available. I certainly learned from it and enjoyed using it - until now!

Well said Mark. The issue is this was a PUBLIC beta. Most of us shmoes took it for granted that the uninstall or upgrade to v. 1.0 would be seemless. We've never beta tested before. We are completely naive about complications in using beta versions. I'm sure Adobe could have delayed the release a few days while they "beta tested" a method of uninstalling the beta version so as not to confuse the average user. BTW, I consider you to be quite sophisticated inthe use of a computer. So if you are having problems, what chance do most of us have?

Ken, exactly - except I have not myself experienced trouble yet, because after reading quite a bit about other peoples' trouble and seeing what Adobe posted on their website for dealing with it, eventhough I have the box sitting and waiting, I'm going step by step. First I shall purchase Acronis to mirror the HD. Then I'll wait a bit to see how the dust settles. That is the extent of the sophistication I know how to deploy under the circumstances! I can operate my computer and do some basic management with it well enough, but I'm not an O/S guru so I approach such issues with considerable caution and I suspect like many people don't particularly appreciate nasty surprises.

Well, I don't know where you've been hanging out but the Adobe User to User forums have not been lighting up with many, many users having problems installing. Yes, there are some...it's not yet known if there is an real issue.

The biggest problem is that the Adobe Store released the downloads early...before QE got the removal scripts posted and the "Remove the beta warnings" so that on Mon the 16th and Tues the 17th, a lot of people (more on the Mac side than PC because Mac users didn't even know about the uninstaller) either tried to install over the beta of simply tossed it in the trash. That was indeed a rash of installer problems...but that was last week.

I have no idea what the OP's actual problem is...while he claims to have been a software developer, the phraseology is a bit odd...he says he followed the uninstall procedure and the scripts for removal but not until he wrote his followup post.

It's also unclear if he's trying to install Photoshop CS3, CS3 Extended or one of the Suites with CS3 included. He says he gets an error but doesn't say what the error is...

Clearly, he's had a nightmare...which is too bad. Most people have not.

I was hanging out where the folks with issues were complaining - was last week. OK, since then Adobe issued some advice and a fix, but they themselves warn me that the cure could be worse than the disease, so I need to buy some vaccine. It would be nice if they could design a *bullet-proof* uninstaller. Anyhow, Jeff , everyone will have to just write this one off to experience and hope that all the appropriate people will have learned from it.

Cheers,

Mark

I don't think there's any such animal out there Mark

Uninstalling software always carries some risk.

I had the beta on four machines (Windows MCE, XP x64, Vista x32 and Vista x64) and had no problems uninstalling and then running the clean scripts.

I think Adobe's warnings are there for purely legal reasons for users who do not know how to follow fairly simple instructions. There is probably more risk of getting killed crossing the road - but then again we don't have warnings written on every kerb stone warning that you might be killed in attempting to cross the road

Carol, OK nothing is perfect - that's why I put it in "*". And I hope you are correct - it would be good. But I'm apprehensive. I started with PS6 some 7 years ago. As I migrated through PS7, CS and CS2 uninstalling previous versions was a non-issue and never accompanied by any warnings from Adobe of the kind we are seeing now (and of course none of those were Beta releases - this is a first to the general public). I also recall seeing advisories some time ago about damage to CS2 program files that can occur from uninstalling Beta CS3. When was the last time a software company advised you to back-up your whole hard-drive in order to safely uninstall an application? They know far more about the workings of the tools they design than we will ever know, so if they're now coming out with such warnings, I must believe it is more than legal *CYA*. But time will tell.

Let's put this in perpective. I had no problem transitioning from LightRoom beta to v.1.0. Why should there be so many problems with CS 3? Does it contain a worm or some propietary code that insinuates itself deeper into the software than just the application level?

Mark,

I have the Beta residing on my PC, but I generally use CS2. After reading the various horror stories about upgrading, I've decided to wait until you report on exactly what has worked for you, once you bite the bullet and do the upgrade. Whenever you do decide not to wait any longer, I hope you will share details of your experience.

I too have worked professionally with computers and software for close to 50 years, and the gyrations that Adobe has gone through with this public beta make me exceedingly nervous.

Eric

I must admit to being disappointed in this thread.

I posted my initial comment to WARN others of a serious problem that enough folks are experiencing that Adobe support personal freely admit is serious and with no solution at this moment in time.

I was just advising of a real problem!
If you were lucky enough to avoid it, fine.
But not all escaped without harm.

Disappointed at some of the posts that followed my OP - thought this was a wiser group of folks and a person did not have to spend time defending what they are experiencing!

I spend most of my time shooting and not posting.
I've just been reminded why.

Jack

Jack, you should not be disappointed. I guarantee you are being heard - I for one am listening closely to as much experience as I can lay my eyes on, and I am dead-certain many others are too. But we must all recognize the fact that this is a public forum which benefits from the participation of many people with tremendously varied skill-sets, perspectives and experience.

Eric - I too have the Beta on my PC. I use it for ACR-4 and then revert to CS2 for the remainder of the processing. I am also waiting a bit. I don't have anywhere NEAR your experience with computers (I started using them in consumer-mode from the mid to late 1970s) so if you are nervous you can see why I would be. I hope Carol is right that Adobe is just being extremely pro-active with CYA, but it is so hard to know except by seeing other peoples' experience. If trouble dies down within a week or so, or if Adobe posts more re-assuring material, after I mirror my C-drive I shall upgrade and I'll share my experience, which I hope will be a non-event!

Thanks for the warnings, dude. Double checked everything before I did the install.

Don't be disappointed. This is good advice and I have heard many similar stories. If people got it installed without problems then good, but, it never hurts to know the pitfalls. This is the same as any piece of software, wait until the bugs are ironed out, look at Vista, Dell are now shipping new machines with XP again.

I was on edge a bit after hearing ugly stories, but followed the instructions on MacFixit.com (which go a little farther than Adobe's) for my MacBook Pro. It took about 45 minutes for the whole process. I kept waiting for a hitch in my Beta cleanup/CS3 Web Premium installation, but much to my delight, installation of the whole suite was totally seamless. I didn't even have to enter a serial number for the update.

Granted, it is easier to feel this way since I had no complications, but I have no regrets about installing the beta version. The public beta did have a minor price to pay in having a more complicated uninstall, but I appreciate having much better speed and new features for four months.

An update:
It is now Thursday morning. It's been a week and two days since the installation failure.
I've been checking with Adobe every other day on status and they assure me that the problem is at their highest level of attention.

Told that there is still no fix and that "I'm not alone with this problem".

Their last suggestion is that I reformat my Mac hard drive and try a fresh install of all software, starting with CS3. This is the only way around the problem as of this moment per Adobe.

Nice. Won't that be fun!

Jack

Hi Eric. Well, I had to bite the bullet yesterday because the BETA expired and for Camera Raw 4 alone the up-grade is worthwhile, so I phoned Adobe about the fact that they advise customers to de-activate the Beta license key before installing the commercial release version, however once the Beta expires so does ones access to the de-activation command. They told me not worry about it - just do what I would usually do - uninstall the Beta with Add/Remove Programs, and install CS3 normally. They told me that especially because I am on a Windows O/S I would likely have no problems - most of the issues were on Macs. They assured me if I had an activation issue I could call back and they would give me a code.

So I did what they advised. The uninstall worked successfully. The new install worked successfully. When the activation screen appeared for new CS3 it had pivked-up the serial number of the Beta version, so I simply replaced that with the new serial number for the fresh install. The activation was accepted and the program is up and running. Adobe was right - no problems. When I opened Bridge 3 it picked up the cache in the various image folders just fine. When I opened CS3 it respected my previous desktop settings. (I did not delete these preferences contrary to advice from Jack Flesher - but I may live to regret that - I don't know yet ) . I've had no difficulty configuring Camera Raw 4 for my preferences and establishing them as a new Camera Raw default which the program is respecting.

All custom shortcuts need to be re-entered manually, because not all the free (unused) keyboard combinations have remained free bewtweem CS2 and CS3. I have not yet transfered plug-ins and actions. That happens (I hope) today.

Bottom line: SO FAR, SO GOOD.

Mark DS
I have a Mac G5(PPC) and an HP B9180. Do you have any information about this configuration being supported by CS 3? I have been holding off purchasing the upgrade and doing all my printing through CS 2 with the HP plug-in.
Thanks
Ken

Thanks for the report, Mark. I think I'll uninstall my beta now, but I'll give you another couple of weeks for the dust to settle before I go ahead with CS3. I'll be curious about how smoothly it goes transferring plugins and actions, as I have a ton of both.

I hope it goes smoothly (partly, of course, for my sake )

Eric

I have no information about this at all. I have read (perhaps here, perhaps elsewhere) that some users have had problems with print centering and maintenance of printer settings, but I haven't tried that yet - and I use an Epson 4800 on Windows - so two different animals and no experience with the up-grade on these functions. I've been using Camera Raw 4 for conversion and CS2 for everything else. That will continue until I have CS3 fully outfitted and working the way I like it. The only thought I can contribute is that even if you do buy the Upgrade, uninstall the Beta (BUT NOT USING ADOBE's CleanScript Tool) and install CS3, you will retain a fully functional CS2. This gives you the best of both worlds over the transition period until you are certain that all the features of CS2 you need are fully functional in CS3.

Eric, I expect to know how all this works out within a day or two, and I'll post the experience. Needless to say, I'm hoping for the best too.

With some trepidation, based on the above posts, decided to download CS3 (the beta had run out yesterday). I was in the middle of processing a shoot when the beta ran out and I have gotten so used to PS3 that I did not want to go back to PS2. Following the Adobe uninstall directions, it went flawless! I was frankly surprised because I have, in general, really bad computer gremlin experience and had had a fair amount of issues with both CS2 and CS3 beta on this computer. Maybe, for a change because of the above experiences, I actually read and followed instructions for a change or Adobe has tweaked some things in the meantime?

No...nothing has been changed since the original release version of the removal scripts were posted. The trick was you actually read and followed the instructions-which worked. That's the way it's worked for most people...

Further to the above quoted message, I am pleased to say that I have now installed my plug-ins, actions and shortcuts, and it is all performing normally. There was a report that PK Sharpener only works when the Background Layer is selected. This is not my experience. It works no matter which Layer is selected.

I have not yet tried printing from CS3. I am anxious to test whether or not the Print with Preview settings are sticky (they should be, but some have reported they are not). I hope to be able to say something about that tomorrow or Monday.

I have experienced a glitch with Bridge CS3. I have about 1800 images sorted by colour label in Bridge CS2. Unfortunately, when the same files are imported to Bridge CS3, that labelling and sorting is not recognized. So rather than do it all over again, I continue working from Bridge CS2. Perhaps there is some preference or setting in Bridge CS3 I don't have correctly specified, or perhaps there are aspects of the folder cache for CS2 that CS3 just doesn't recognize. Any one who can shed light on that - I would appreciate it.

Don't think Print Settings have ever been "sticky" since it's actual file metadata that is saved in files. That's why opening an image and changing print dialog settings will make the file "dirty" meaning wanting to get saved...even though the only changes in the file are print settings...

Since Bridge CS3 is an entirely new app, it can't read CS2's built in cache...so, unless you have your Bridge settings to write the cache to the folder when possible, there's no way for Bridge CS3 to pick it up. In Bridge CS2 try exporting the cache to the folder then open in Bridge CS3 and see if that works...

Hi Jeff,

Until I see for myself on this system what's happening or not happening, not much point speculating, but just to say that at this moment in time, my previous experience with Print with Preview settings is that they don't change unless I change them regardless of the file. (Stuff like Let Photoshop Determine Colors, the Profile for the paper I'm using, Rendering Intent and BPC - those are the keys). They stick until they are changed, and then they stick again until they are changed the next time. At least this is the behaviour on my computer with CS2. I am given to understand that with CS3 from print to print these very settings revert to an Adobe default, rather than keeping what the user last entered. So what I'm doing next once I fire-up the 4800 is to see whether or not this behaviour really replicates in a Windows XP Pro SP2 environment. As some readers expressed an interest, I'll report back with real results once I've tested it.

Hi Jeff,

OK, this issue is *largely* resolved. It works - but differently from CS2. Here's the deal: because I am using distributed caching in each image folder Bridge 3 is indeed reading that cache created by Bridge 2 as I open any folder in Bridge 3. HOWEVER, instead of sorting all the labelled images in priority and the non-labelled ones behind, it does the reverse. I wasn't expecting this. So when I opened a folder of 382 images and looked accross the horizontal thumbnail strip at the bottom of the window, which shows 8 images at a time, there were no labels. I didn't think to scroll through to the end - just said to myself Oh My God NO LABELS. Now, based on what you said, I decided I should back-step and trace everything through bit by bit, scroll through the Preferences and the whole image folder, and sure enough all the labelled images are sitting there labelled at the end of the pack. What a relief! I wish I could get them to automatically collect at the beginning of the pack like they did in Bridge 2, but that is a far lesser issue than what I orginally thought I saw happening. They will collect at the front of the line if you select to sort by Label and in Descending Order of file number, but not in Ascending Order, so it appears you can't have a combination of images with file numbers in ascending order with the labelled ones at the front of the line. Now if you know a way of achieving that - other than manually - please let me know. Otherwise, I have to conclude it was better in Bridge 2 for this item.

Mark,

My experience with CS3 is that the color management settings, paper profiles, etc. DO stick. Settings in the printer driver, such as paper size/orientation, printing resolution, ICM off, etc. are all lost after you make a print.

These settings would stick in CS2 throughout a printing session -- until Photoshop was closed. With CS3 I have to reset the printer driver for EVERY print -- even if I immediately want to make another copy of the file I've just printed.

I'm printing with Epson printers (3800 and R1800), on Windows XP. I've heard that this is a Windows-only problem, and I'm interested to hear about your experience.

Rick

Rick, this is indeed VERY strange. One wonders how the Epson driver can be affected by Photoshop - they are separate pieces of software doing different things - well, maybe there's a way. I'm using Windows XP also, but my printer is a 4800. So we'll see how that fares. Perhaps it's a 3800 issue rather than a CS3 issue, but that would also seem strange insofar as the Epson Driver is quite similar from one of these professional models to the next. I know the devil is in the details of these things so I suppose anything is possible. Anyhow, thanks for the heads-up on where the problem is lodged from your experience. For sure, once I print from this program I'll share my findings. The worst that can happen is that I'll go back to printing from CS2 until the issue is fixed.

One thing from a previous post I need to correct - PK Capture Sharpen does not need to begin with the Background Layer selected, but I notice that Output Sharpen does. This is a new phenominon, which I asssume the folks at Pixel Genius will be examining, now that several have remarked on it.

Mark,

I should have described the problem more accurately. After making a print, the printer driver returns to default settings. In my case, it returns me to my default printer, a monochrome laser. I then have to reselect the Epson, which has also reverted to default (8.5x11, Premium Luster, High Speed, etc...).

I'll have to try setting one of the Epsons as the default printer, to see what happens.

Rick

Thanks for the clarification Rick. It begins to sound like a configuration issue that may be specific to your situation; anyhow, I'll plunge into some printing most likely tomorrow and see what happens. I'm also on WINXP-SP2.

FWIW: The new version works as it always has for me and remembers the last printer and settings.

Are you using a Mac? This seems to be Windows-specific.

Rick

Further to post #38 in this thread I have now finished testing the Print module in Photoshop CS3 using Windows XP Pro SP2, and I regret to report that it is thoroughly defective - and for my purposes unusable. I have two printers - an HP business inkjet for non-photographic printing, and an Epson 4800 for photographic printing. The HP is the default printer because it gets used more routinely.

(1) Each time I bring up a new image to print, it defaults to the HP printer rather than keeping the Epson 4800 active as long as Photoshop is kept open. With CS2, once the Epson 4800 was selected for the first print, that printer remained selected until Photoshop was shut down. This is logical. CS3 does not respect this logical convention, creating a major interference with batch printing.

(2) Otherwise, all one's colour management and Epson driver settings are retained as one had specified them from image to image and from one Photoshop session to another, except for the orientation of the paper.

(3) The Photoshop CS3 print command cannot automatically center a print no matter what I do with it. The problem is very severe if in the Epson driver one has "Centered" selected in the Paper tab. I turned this feature off in the Epson driver, and that improved but did not rectify the centering problem in the CS3 Print window. (In CS2 it is not necessary to disable "Centered" - in fact to get centered prints one selects it - as one would expect, while at the same time Photoshop is managing colors.) By turning "Centered" off in the Epson driver using CS3, the left and right borders are approximately equal, but the top and bottom ones are not, whether one is printing Landscape or Portrait. To equalize the top and bottom borders, it is necessary to deselect Center in the CS3 Print window, and manually tweak the "top" amount of inches until it looks centered in the preview window. This of course is completely unsatisfactory for an efficient workflow and represents a major reduction of application functionality compared with CS2.

It would appear to me that Adobe was trying to improve the management of print settings by centralizing all the necessary adjustments in one window, as one finds in some RIPs, however regardless of the good intentions, my evidence suggests that this effort was botched, inadequately tested before release, and goes down the same road as many other good intentions, for those who know the expression.

(4) What makes matters even worse, is that once my image is "processed" through the CS3 Print module, some instructions stick to it that prevent me from being able to get a centered print in CS2 as well. Hence, anyone using the CS3 Print Module at least for an Epson 4800 printer on a Windows XP O/S needs to be aware of the risk that running images through this module will cause permanent impairment of automatic print centering for all such images. To be sure this is clearly understood, let me clarify, that as long as an image has not been contaminated by the Photoshop CS3 Print module, I can open it in CS2 and print it properly centered, automatically in the usual way I did before CS3 ever appeared on my computer. As soon as I process the image through the CS3 Print module, this functionality evaporates in both CS3 and CS2. Therefore until this problem is remedied in CS3, the only safe way to retain automated printing functionality is to close the images once adjusted in CS3, and re-open them in CS2 for printing.

Therefore, I have come to the conclusion that insofar as other users similarly equipped (Epson driver and Windows XP) experience the same issues, PSCS3 was released prematurely with inadequate testing in respect of this very important function. It is now incumbent on Adobe to repair both these defects (retaining the selected printer through a Photoshop session, and automatic accurate print centering) as soon as they possibly can. It is indeed hard to understand how such sophisticated companies with their minions of testers and QC people produce these screw-ups, but there we have it.

Mark DS
It sounds like you and many early purchasers of CS 3 have been turned into "gamma" testers. The experiences described on this thread have frozen my decision to stay "as is" with CS 2 and just play with the CS 3 until it expires. Then I'm worried how I get the latter fully off my iMac G5
Ken

What happens if you set the Epson 4800 to be the default?

Hi Ken,

Quite frankly, I don't regret buying and installing CS3 regardless of this mess with printing, because there is a viable work-around as I suggested - don't use it. Go back to CS2 for printing. But the rest of CS3 is a great piece of work, and I had no issues (on Windows) un-installing the Beta and installing the commercial release - as I reported earlier. What I like most about CS3 is the new Camera Raw. It is a huge leap forward relative to the version in CS2. As for your Beta CS3, it is expired. In principle you should no longer be able to get into it - as of May 2nd.

Cheers,

Mark

Mark
In which case I'll dump the beta. I have to wait for the new HP plug-in for the B9180 anyways. As for ACR 4, there's always LR.
Ken

Jeff, I didn't try that for two reasons: (a) it would be an impractical set-up for me, and [b] I fully expect it would solve the "Default Printer" issue in CS3, because it would be the Default printer and the behaviour of the Print module as it presently stands seems to be that it always defaults to the default printer. So it would solve one operational problem for printing photographs in a way that I don't find practical relative to other things I do, and shouldn't have to live with. Next time I fire-up the printer I can test it and let you know, but I would be very surprised if the answer were otherwise.

I also doubt very much it would do anything at all for the print centering issue. That would logically seem to be a completely different algorithm, but again, next session I'll give it a whirl on an expendable image with the 4800 as default.

Ken, that's true - the LR Develop module nd ACR 4 are essentially the same thing. But if you want to do stuff that LR doesn't do, then you still need to export the images to PS. I guess you could then re-import them to LR for printing after soft-proofing them in CS3, because LR doesn't have a soft-proof feature - yet.

By the way, how to you like your B9180?

Well, print centering has been a longstanding issue for Epsons on Macs...the way around that for Mac has always been to creat a custom paper size with all four margins set equal. The default for the 4800 is (I think) left/right .13, top 1.3 and bottom .56. So, I create custom page sizes so that all 4 margins are set to .56. (actually, I set all four to be 1" cause I prefer to always have at least a 1" border).

This has been a long standing issue because for the purposes of paper grabbing, Epsons have always had uneven margins. I think the default for the 3800 however was changed so that all four margins are equal.

As far as the "Default" printer issue...one wonders if it isn't a situation where CS3 finally has it right? Arguably, one sets a default print for a purpose, no? So that apps will default to a specific printer? One could argue that CS2's behavior was actually a bug not a feature.