Change /Add Printer Configuration

Use the Change Printer Configuration/Add Printer Configuration dialogs to create a new printer configuration or to change the configuration of your printing mode, colour scaling and other print options.

Use the dialogs to:

  • Select a printing driver.

    • Oasis montaj’s built-in drivers may speed up your printing or plotting.

  • Adjust the display resolution.
  • Change the default colour scaling.

Change Printer Configuration dialog options

Configuration

Specify the name for the printer configuration you want to create.

When using the Change Printer Configuration dialog, this parameter will be greyed out as the configuration name was selected on the previous dialog.

When using the Add Printer Configuration dialog, you are prompted to add a new printer configuration name.

The new configuration name must consist only of letters, underscores and/or numbers.

Print Mode

Windows

Select the Windows radio button to use your Windows driver from your Printer Manufacturer.

For optimal printing, you may have to experiment with printer settings and properties. Different drivers allow different selections (paper size, orientation, dithering patterns and colour controls). However, Windows drivers can be very slow especially for large plots.

Geosoft bands

Select this button to use the Geosoft bands driver option.

The Geosoft bands option processes Map files and then sends them to the Windows driver. This option significantly reduces the swap space required and reduces printing time.

When using this driver, you must turn off the Dithering and Colour Matching in your printer Graphics Properties.

Geosoft band and dither

Select this button to use the Geosoft bands and dither driver option.

The Geosoft bands and dither option processes and rasterizes Map files and then sends them to the Windows driver. This option significantly reduces the swap space required (about the same as CPLOT -- 40 to 70Mb for E size) and reduces printing time.

When using this driver, you must turn off the Dithering and Colour Matching in your printer Graphics Properties.

Geosoft HP-RTL device

Select this button to use the Geosoft HP-RTL device option.

This option works only on HP and HP RTL-compatible colour printers. This option processes, rasterizes, bypasses the Windows driver and sends the plot directly to the printer or to a file. It also reduces the printing time and the file sizes dramatically. This can avoid printer RAM problems for large format plotters like the HP 650 or 750.

You must enable the Geosoft Driver for this option to work.

Geosoft Postscript

Select this button to use the Geosoft Postscript option.

The Postscript printing option uses the Geosoft Postscript driver to generate a Postscript file. This file can be saved as a Postscript file (*.ps) or sent to the printer directly.

The Postscript files that are generated by the driver are uncompressed files and therefore very large. For example, a letter size (8.5' x 11") graphics file will result in a postscript file around 20 MB in size.

Colour Scaling

Cyan

Specify the Cyan colour scaling (the default is 100%)

Magenta

Specify the Magenta colour scaling (the default is 100%)

Yellow

Specify the Yellow colour scaling (the default is 100%)

Black

Specify the Black colour scaling (the default is 100%)

Options

Band Memory Size

Specify the band memory size (0 for automatic). It is recommended that you use 5-10% of your total RAM).

To increase the amount of memory your computer uses for print processing, adjust the band memory size to 25-50% of the RAM of your computer.

Image Print Resolution

Adjust the print resolution. 100 dpi is recommended.

Application Notes

HP-RTL Printing

HP-RTL Print Nesting

Oasis montaj provides the ability to nest your saved print files (*.PRN) for HP-RTL printing. The HP-RTL nesting option enables you to plot multiple maps on a single map sheet.
You can enable the HP-RTL nesting option in the General Settings dialog.

Postscript Printing

If your maps are being cut off at the margins when using the Postscript driver to print, you can adjust the width of the margins so your file prints correctly. To adjust the margin settings for the Postscript driver, edit your advanced settings file via the Advanced Settings dialog.

These settings are global settings, therefore you will only need to edit this file once — the system will use the new settings every time you print.

Printing Map to PDF

The instructions below are intended only as a guide. The time it takes to make a PDF will depend on the quality /resolution settings you choose and the computer’s CPU speed and RAM.

If you have the full version of Adobe Acrobat, you can create PDF files of your maps from Oasis montaj.

To save the print output as a PDF Document from Oasis montaj, you print it as if it were to a real printer. But instead of printing a paper copy, you create a PDF file that can be viewed in Adobe Acrobat (Reader or full version):

  1. Open the map (you want to convert to a PDF) in Oasis montaj.

  2. Zoom in on the map so that the map window shows only the part of the map you want to print. You can use the Full map button to make the map fit the map window.

  3. On the Project menu, click Print > Printer Setup:  the Printer Setup dialog will be displayed.

  4. Change the current Printer option to the 'PDF' option and click the Properties button.

The next few steps will take you through a few of the common Acrobat Distiller settings. Note that these dialog boxes are all part of Adobe Acrobat Distiller:

  1. On the Layout tab, select the paper orientation (landscape or portrait). If you click the Advanced button, you can view the advanced options and set the paper size, scaling or custom postscript options.

  2. On the Adobe PDF Settings tab select the print quality you want to use for the PDF. The menu lists several preset quality options depending on whether you want to create your PDF for Screen, ebook, print or press. The "Print" preset is recommended, as it will create a PDF with graphics down sampled to 300 dpi, which will print well on most inkjet printers. Click the Edit Conversion Settings button to edit an existing preset option or create your own.

Once you have finished selecting all your PDF options, click the [OK] button on all the open dialog boxes to close them all. Now you are ready to print:

  1. On the Oasis montaj Print menu, click Print, the Print dialog box will be displayed.
  2. Click the Change Config… button, the Change Printer Configuration dialog will be displayed.

  3. Select the Windows print mode and click the OK button, the Print dialog will again be displayed.

  4. In the Select Region to Plot section, select Viewed Area. In the Plot Scale section, select Fit to Page. In the Options box, select Centre on Page. Make sure the Print to file box does not have a checkmark in it.

  5. Click the Print button to create the PDF. A dialog box is displayed for you to select where you want to save the PDF file.

See Also: