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-
- 1.3 Preferences
- ===============
- by Eric Cotton
-
-
- The new Preferences program has a number of additions to support new features
- of the V1.3 release, including extended printer support. Changes from V1.2
- Preferences are as follows:
-
-
- Main Screen
-
- o Selecting Save or Use automatically updates the battery backed up
- clock with the new date and time.
-
- o The CLI On/Off option has been eliminated. Henceforth, the icon for
- the Command Line Interface (CLI) will always appear in the System
- drawer (unless deleted by the user).
-
-
- Printer Screen 1
-
- o The Graphic Select gadget has been replaced by two new gadgets:
- Graphic 1 and Graphic 2.
-
- o The new Graphic 1 gadget is equivalent the the V1.2 Graphic Select
- gadget and is used to request the first of two printer graphic
- Preferences screens.
-
-
- Printer Screen 2 (Graphic 1)
-
- o The Printer Screen 2 is selected by clicking on the Graphic 1 gadget
- in Printer Screen 1.
-
- o There is a new Print Shade selection: Gray Scale2. This shade is for
- printing pictures designed using the *Hedley Monitor* (when only
- seven shades of gray are available).
-
-
- Printer Screen 3 (Graphic 2)
-
- This is a totally new Preferences screen to allow for extended printer
- graphics support. The various gadgets are as follows:
-
- o Antialiasing ON/OFF - Antialiasing (when ON) attempts to smooth
- diagonal lines. This option is best suited for use with programs that
- do graphic dumps of text (like ProWrite, PageSetter, CityDesk,
- Publisher 1000, NotePad, etc.). Note that this option automatically
- turns off Floyd-Steinberg dithering (and selects Ordered dithering)
- as they can not be used in conjunction with each other.
-
- o Left Offset - The printed picture is offset horizontally in increments
- of tenths of an inch. The 'Center Image' option (below) disables this
- option.
-
- o Center ON/OFF - This turns on/off horizontal centering of the picture
- on the paper. This option overrides the Left Offset value.
-
- o Density 1 through 7 - This is used to override any density an
- application program has selected and thus ensure a certain density.
- The lower the density the faster the print time (on those printers
- with multiple densities).
-
- o Color Correction R/G/B - This option selectively tries to match all
- shades of either red (R), green (G), or blue (B) from the screen
- to the printer. Initially the printer device can print all the 4096
- colors of the AMIGA on a printer. However, as color correction is
- applied the total number of printed colors is reduced to a low of 3172.
- To see the effect of this option, print out a picture with solid red,
- green, and blue shades twice; first with this option on, and then with
- it off. Now compare the two pictures with the screen display. The
- results should be obvious.
-
- o Dithering Ordered/Halftone/F-S
-
- Ordered - Color intensities on the printer are formed using an
- 'ordered' dither method. This is the default.
-
- Halftone - Color intensities on the printer are formed using a
- 'halftone' dither method. This technique is similar to the one
- used in newspapers and comic books and works best on high density
- printers (greater than 150 dots/inch).
-
- F/S - Color intensities on the printer are formed using the
- 'Floyd-Steinberg' error distribution method. Note that selecting
- this option automatically turns off Antialiasing as they can not
- be used in conjunction with each other.
-
- o Scaling Fraction/Integer
-
- Fraction - Performs normal scaling. This is the default.
-
- Integer - every dot on the screen is guaranteed to appear as an even
- number of dots on the printer both in the x and y dimension. Ie. if
- the source picture is 320 x 200, the printed picture width will be
- either 320, 640, 960, etc. dots wide and 200, 400, 600, etc. dots
- high. SELECT THIS OPTION WHEN TRYING TO PRINT A PICTURE THAT
- CONTAINS THIN VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL LINES (LIKE A GRID). The
- actual size of the printed picture will be the size asked for scaled
- up/down to the nearest multiple of the width and height of the
- picture. Integer scaling will completely override the aspecting
- feature of the printer device. Ie. it is possible to get a
- slightly distorted (non-aspect ratio correct) picture. This option
- is also usefull if you are printing out bit-image text (like in
- notepad) as the fonts will not be distorted due to fractional scaling.
-
- o Width Limit - This selection limits the width of the printed picture in
- tenths / inch.
-
- o Height Limit - This limits the height of the printed picture in
- tenths / inch.
-
- o <- Limits - This gadget determines how the above Width and Height
- limits are to be interpreted as follows:
-
- Ignore - The limits are to be IGNORED. The printed picture's size is
- bounded by:
-
- width = (right margin - left margin + 1) / characters per inch.
- height = lines per page / lines per inch.
-
- This option is included to remain compatible with pre V1.3 software
- and is the default.
-
- Bounded - The printed picture's size is bounded by Width Limit and
- Height Limit. Ie. if you want the printed picture to be no bigger
- than 4 x 5 (but it could be smaller), set MaxWidth to 40, MaxHeight
- to 50, and select Bounded. This option is here so that the text
- settings (margins, lines per page, etc.) need not be changed
- everytime a graphic print is made.
-
- ABSOLUTE - Width Limit and Height Limit are taken to be absolute values.
- The printed picture's size is no longer bounded. Rather, it will
- be the absolute size specified. For example, if you want the
- printed picture to be exactly 4.0 x 5.0 inches, set MaxWidth to 40,
- Width Limit to 50, and select Absolute. This will completely
- override the aspecting feature of the printer device. Thus it is
- possible to get a very distorted (non-aspect ratio correct) picture.
- Setting one (but not both) of the dimensions to zero aspect ratio
- corrects that dimension. Ie. if Width Limit is set to 40 and Height
- Limit to 0, then the printed picture will be 4.0 inches wide and as
- tall as it needs to be in order to be aspect ratio correct. If both
- of the dimensions are zero then the printed picture will be the
- printer's maximum dots wide and as tall as it needs to be in order to
- be aspect ratio correct.
-
- Pixels - Width Limit and Height Limit are taken to be absolute values in
- printer pixels and not tenths of an inch. Otherwise, the same rules
- for the Absolute selection (Width Limit = 0 and Height Limit = 0)
- apply here.
-
- Multiply - Width Limit and Height Limit are used to multiply the
- source picture's width and height. Ie., if you specified a Width
- Limit of 2 and a Height Limit of 4, the printed picture would be
- two times the source picture's width pixels wide and 4x the source
- picture's height pixels high. Thus if the source picture were
- 320 x 200, the printed picture would be 640 (320 x 2) pixels wide
- and 800 (200 x 4) pixels high. The same rules for the Absolute
- scaling (Width Limit = 0 and Height Limit = 0) apply. Also, the
- benefits that apply to Integer scaling are valid here.
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