Adobe to Mac Mini/Canon Printer Users: DROP DEAD!
Don't even get me started! I just spent the better/worst part of the day on the phone with Adobe's tech support (after 2 days of troubleshooting and Googling for an answer on my own).
The scenario:
2 Macs - one iMac G5, one Mac Mini - both PowerPCs
1 Canon iP4300 (non-PostScript) printer; both machines had same version of Canon printer driver
Both machines upgraded from CS to CS3.
All programs in CS3 worked fine...until tried printing InDesign from Mac Mini (PS, AI and all non-CS3 apps print without problems, and iMac printed the InDesign document without incident)
Several InDesign document variations later (B/W only; using 1 system font only; without text, etc.) without success, I exported to PDF, but CS3 Acrobat wouldn't open the PDF! (I normally don't use Acrobat to open PDFs.) (And yes, printer dialog box reads, "processing", but just hangs and does nothing, until about 10 minutes later, when my poor Mac Mini starts to sound like it's straining.)
I finally discovered a workaround for printing InDesign files: select "Print as a Bitmap" in Print dialog box under "Advanced" tab. Not what I wanted, but it worked for now.
Next stop, Adobe tech support. Since I don't use Acrobat as a reader, I hadn't noticed it wasn't fully installed (the tip-off was the missing selection "Print to PDF" in the printer-selection drop-down in the print dialog box), so Adobe tech support suggested an uninstall and re-install of Acrobat. Great. So now Acrobat is fully functional, but InDesign still doesn't print.
Possible corrupt fonts and/or a corrupt user account were also mentioned by Adobe. After verifying all fonts (and ditching 2 corrupt fonts), and creating a new user account, still nothing. So I call back Adobe's tech support. THIS guy keeps harping on the fact that in my attempt to troubleshoot the problem prior to calling tech support, I downloaded and re-installed the printer driver (v5.3.3 as opposed to the original v5.3.1) from Canon's site. He kept insisting that because the Mac Mini's printer driver was slightly newer than the version on the iMac, the problem may be in the different driver versions, ignoring the fact that InDesign was NOT printing from the Mini when we'd installed CS3 with the same driver version. So here I am, several hours later, no closer to an answer than before.
I must add, however, that both tech support guys mentioned 2 points:
1)InDesign is not really meant to print to a non-PostScript printer(!!!) and 2)Mac Minis may not be well-suited to CS3 InDesign. I find this very interesting because neither of these statements are even alluded to on Adobe's site or in any of their system recommendations. Also, according to Deke McClelland, among many others, InDesign was specifically created to bridge the gap between print houses that use PS-printers and home-users who want near-PS-quality.
(Sorry for the long post, I am just furious with Adobe's cavalier, monopolistic attitude towards their expensive product.)
Still looking for a proper solution. I'll check around more and add any answers I find.
