WinDisp Print Options Description

[Company Logo Image]

WinDisp Print Menu

When the print menu item is selected, WinDisp first checks that the current display has been completed. If the display is incomplete, you are given the option for the complete display to be generated. This regeneration occurs in the background without the display being regenerated, so it is considerably faster than using the Display! menu item for large images. Once the display is acceptable, the following Print Option menu is displayed:

Standard Print Menu Items

Printer Selection Options

There are three printer/file output options provided by WinDisp:

Windows Printer- uses the Windows printer driver to produce output
PostScript - outputs the current display as a PostScript file
HPGL/RTL - outputs the current display as an HPGL/2-RTL file

The Print Options Menu will vary according to which printer is selected.

Printer Actions Command Buttons

There are three Printer Action buttons provided:

the Print button starts outputting the current display to the currently selected Printer
the Cancel button cancels the current print job and returns to the main display
the Select Printer (enabled only for Windows Printer selection) allows you to select which Windows printer to use and to change options for that printer.

Colour Output Option

If a plot without colour is required, turning off the Colour Output option will produce a plot in which all colours are converted to equivalent greyscale intensity values.

Landscape Option

This option is provided so that the best match between the aspect ratio of the plot to the height and width of the paper can be obtained. This allows the plot to be produced at a larger scale if it fits on a single sheet of paper or using fewer panels if it does not fit on a single sheet. Note this option is not currently available for HPGL/RTL output containing images.

X,Y Margins

When a display is being printed at scale, the amount of space around the plot printed on the page can be controlled by changing these values. The X margin value specifies the amount of space on the left and right sides of the plot on the page. The Y margin specifies how much space to allow at the top and the bottom of the page.

Overlap

This specifies the amount in cm by which multiple page plots overlap. This overlap ensures that no portion of the overall plot is lost between overlapping pages.

X,Y Offsets

The location of the plot printed on the page can be modified by changing the values for the X and Y offsets. These values determine the amount the plot should be shifted in the across page and up page directions in cm. The plot is normally centred on the page for single page plots and starting at the top righthand corner of the first page for panelled plots. If this positioning is not optimal for the required plot (eg not enough room for binding), the offset values can be changed to obtain a better placement of the plot on the page.

Plot Scale Option

When plotting the current display, the output can either be scaled to fit the currently selected paper size, or produced at true map scale using multiple sheets of paper if it is too large to be printed on the currently selected paper. If the Fit Plot to Page option is selected, the Reduction Factor required to scale the plot is calculated and the user can modify the value to obtain a better fit on the page or simpler reduction ratio for calculating distances on the scaled plot.

Current Plot Preview Window

The current plot preview window displays an outline of the current paper size (in thick black lines) and the current plot area (in thin red lines). This preview allows the user to determine what the best option in terms of paper size/plot scaling/plot rotation to use in order to print the current display. If the Plot Scale Option is set to Print Plot at Scale and the plot is larger than the current paper size, the Plot Preview Window shows how the plot will be panelled on the required number of sheets of the currently selected paper size.

Options For Windows Printer Output

When the Windows Printer option is selected, the Print Options Menu displays the currently selected printer and the paper size. The printer, page orientation and paper size can be selected by clicking on the Select Printer button and selecting from the printers available on your computer and selecting the page and printing options available for that printer.

Options For PostScript Output

When the PostScript Output option is selected, the Print Options Menu takes on the following appearance:

This is essentially the same as the basic Print Option menu with the exception that the Select Printer button is disabled and a new paper size drop-down box has been added. This drop-down box permits the user to select from A0-A4, US, 36" roll and Plot Limits paper sizes.

Options For HPGL/RTL Output

When the HPGL/RTL Printer option is selected, the Print Options menu is modified from the basic form and has the following appearance:

Once again this is quite similar to the basic form of the Print Options Menu and has the same form as the PostScript Print Options with the removal of the Rotate Plot option and the addition of the Dots per Inch text box and the Options menu item.

The Dots per Inch (dpi) text box allows the user to modify the resolution of the image output. The default value is 300 dpi which performs well on the DesignJet plotters. Increasing the dpi value results in larger plot files and slower processing time, while decreasing this value produces smaller plot files but can also reduce image quality.

The HPGL Options menu item provides further control over the generation of the HPGL/RTL output. These options are:

Enable Negative Motion

The Enable Negative Motion menu item provides the user with control over how the image is to be processed on the target plotter. One of the principal advantages of the use of RTL to output images is that the image can be printed immediately by the plotter without first being stored in the memory of the plotter. Thus RTL images processed in this way are not restricted to fit within the memory on the plotter. This mode of processing is set if the Enable Negative Motion is turned off. The disadvantage of this method of processing is that the image can only be processed from top to bottom, and so the plotting of multiple images (such as colour legends) has to handled by merging all images before the single image is sent to the plotter. This method of handling multiple images has not yet been implemented in WinDisp and so if the image is too large for the plotter memory size and Enable Negative Motion is turned off, any colour legends will not be printed. If Enable Negative Motion is turned on, the full image and colour bars will be printed, but the plot file must be small enough to fit within the memory available on the plotter.

Maximum Plot Size

If Enable Negative Motion is turned on, the user may wish to set the memory size of the target plotter so that WinDisp can ensure that the plot will fit within the available memory before the plot file is produced thus avoiding wasted time producing plot files which are too large for the plotter.