Using the Print Dialogs

This chapter shows you how to print in Photon. The following topics are covered:

• Starting the Printer Setup dialog
  • Setting up a printer
  • Changing the default printer
  • Printing a document when a printer hasn't been set up
• Print Properties
  • Print Properties dialog
    • Paper tab
    • Graphics tab
    • Margins tab
    • Other tab
    • Info tab
  • Graphical Image Properties dialog
    • Bitplanes
    • Dimensions
    • Scale
• Print Preview dialog

Starting the Printer Setup dialog

Before you can print files, you must select a printer from the Photon Printer Setup dialog. To do this:

• From the PWM Workspace Menu, choose Setup Printers...

  Or

• Click the Printer Setup icon in the Utilities Desktop Manager folder:

  

If Printer Setup is running but hidden, you can find it by clicking on the Printer Setup icon in the Taskbar:

The Printer Setup dialog looks like this:

If there are no printers listed in the Available Printers pane, talk to your system administrator or refer to the Photon Installation & Configuration guide on how to install printer drivers for your system.

Here are the main parts of the Printer Setup dialog:

Installed Printers

Displays the list and location of printers that you have personally installed for your Photon session.

Available Printers

Displays the list and location of printers that you may add to your personal configuration. Output that goes to spool devices is indicated with a printer icon. Output that is prefiltered and sent directly to a file, such as a bitmap output, is indicated with a paper icon.

Install

Installs the printer(s) that you selected from the list of available printers.

Uninstall

Uninstalls the printer(s) that you selected from the list of installed printers.

Set Default Printer

Sets your default printer to the one that you selected in the Installed Printers pane.

Properties

For the selected printer in the Installed Printers pane, you can specify options such as paper size, margins, and print quality. For more information, see the section on "Print Properties."

Save

Saves the current configuration.

Exit

Closes the Printer Setup window.

Setting up a printer

You use the Photon Printer Setup dialog to choose a default printer and optionally select other printers you might use. To set up a printer:

1. Click on a printer from the list of available printers in the right pane. The printer name and location is highlighted, and the Install button is enabled.
2. Click Install. The selected printer moves to the Installed Printers pane. (If you want, you can select more printers using these steps.)
3. To save the changes and close the dialog, click Save.

Changing the default printer

Only one printer can be set as the default printer. If you select only one printer, it automatically becomes the default. If you select more than one printer, the printer at the top of the Installed Printers list is the default printer. To change the default printer:

1. Highlight only the printer that you want to make the default from the list of installed printers. When it's the only highlighted printer, the Set Default Printer button is enabled.
2. Click Set Default Printer.

The printer is moved to the top of the list. The Set Default Printer button changes to Is Default Printer.

Whenever you print from a Photon application, the printer you choose as the default is displayed in the Printer field. Before you print, you can accept the default printer, or choose from any of the printers in the pull-down printer list.

Printing a document when a printer hasn't been set up

If you haven't set up a printer prior to printing (for example, you selected a Print command from an application's File menu before clicking on the Printer Setup icon), you'll be prompted to set one up. The following dialog appears:

To select a printer:

Click on Add Printer... The Photon Printer Setup dialog appears. Follow the instructions in the "Setting up a printer" section.

Print Properties

You can view the print properties for the selected printer by clicking the Properties button in the Photon Printer Setup dialog. There are currently two print property dialogs:

• Print Properties - a configuration interface for printers
• Image Properties - a configuration interface for saving bitmap graphical images

Print Properties dialog

Five tabs display properties information:

• Paper tab
• Graphics tab
• Margins tab
• Other tab
• Info tab

For the following tab options, the values for the print properties displayed on your screen may differ from those in this guide because the supported values for an option are customized in the printer definition file. For more information, see the Printing Support chapter in the Photon Installation & Configuration guide or ask your system administrator.

Paper tab

You use the Paper tab to select print properties such as paper size, paper source, type, and orientation.

Paper size

Select the paper size from the combobox (e.g. Letter, Legal, etc.).

Paper source

Select the paper source from the combobox (e.g. Auto, Upper, Envelope, etc.).

Paper Type

Select the paper type from the combobox (e.g. Normal, HighQuality, Draft, etc.).

Orientation

Select either Portrait or Landscape.

Reset_Defaults

Select the default settings from /usr/photon/print/printers.

Graphics tab

You use the Graphics tab to change graphic properties like color mode, dithering type, ink type, and resolution.

Color Mode

Specifies the color mode to use (e.g. GrayScale, B&W, Color, etc.).

Dithering

Specifies the type of dithering to use (e.g. None, Coarse, Fine, etc.).

Ink Type

Specifies the ink type for the graphics (e.g. Normal, B&W, Color, etc.). Note: color ink is necessary for color printing.

Resolution

Changes the DPI (e.g. 75, 150, 300).

Intensity

Sets the color intensity from dark to light (e.g. 0 to 100).

Margins tab

You use the Margins tab to change the printer margins:

Margin settings may be set in inches or millimeters. Use the up and down scroll arrows to increase or decrease the setting. The default is .001 inches.

Other tab

You use the Other tab to specify single or double-sided printing and the collating method.

Duplex

Specifies one- or two-sided printing.

Collating Method

Select "111" if you want multiple copies of each page all at once, or "123" if you want a collated set. If you don't select either, the pages are printed in the order set by the printer.

Info tab

You use the Info tab to view the selected printer's name, location, spool device, and spool filter information.

Graphical Image Properties dialog

You can view the printer properties for images by clicking the Properties button in the Photon Printer Setup box when the BMP filter is chosen as the default printer.

Currently only BMP format properties can be set.

Three main areas display image property information:

• Bitplanes
• Dimensions
• Scale

Bitplanes

Print the image using 8 or 24 bits per pixel.

Dimensions

Choose the dimensions of the printed image. You must specify one of these options:

As Required

The size is set according to the image size.

As Displayed

The size of the graphical image is specified by entering the x and y dimensions in pixels.

Scale

Here you choose whether the image will be scaled or not. You can set the scale separately for the x and y dimensions. You can set the scale to:

No

No scaling is done and the image is set to the size of the source image.

Displayed factor

The image is scaled by the displayed scale factor.

Maintain aspect ratio

The image's size is set according to the dimension and the scale factor, but the aspect ratio between the x and y dimension is maintained. For example, suppose an image is 100*50 pixels and you set the dimension as 200*200 and the scale as "maintain aspect ratio." The size of the image printed is 200*100 pixels because the image's aspect ratio is 2:1.

Print Preview dialog

You can view a document on screen from the Select Printer dialog. To do so:

Click Preview

In Print Preview you can:

• Scroll forwards and backwards through your document if it's larger than one page.
• Zoom closer into the image, or further away from the image by selecting the magnification.
• Print or save the document.