Amiga Collections: MegaDisc/MegaDisc 08 (1988)(MegaDisc Digital Publishing)(AU)[WB].zip/MegaDisc 08 (1988)(MegaDisc Digital Publishing)(AU)[WB].adf/TUTORIALS/PRINT.MANUAL_1

Text File | 1988-05-28 | 18KB | 386 lines

         ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT PRINTING WITH THE AMIGA

                                                  by Jim Bolf

         [Ed: Jim wrote the NEC P6 review on MD6, and has really got
          got to grips with printing on the Amiga. He's writing the
          definitive "How to Print" manual for inclusion in the
          MD DOS Manual-on-Disk which should be out mid-October. He's
          also willing to help people out with printing problems.]


Apparently a lot of you out there are having the same problems with
your attempts at graphics printouts that I have had.  I hope that this
article can help to solve some of them.

First, I would like to say something about the Software Industry for
their lack of printer support.  If they mention anything about
printing, it usually goes something like "select printer settings in
Preferences then select Print from the Menu".  Select what settings??
What do the bloody settings do after you've selected them????
Wouldn't it be nice if the people who wrote the programs told us the
effect of selecting 8 lpi instead of 6 lpi??  Or give us some idea
that if you change Pitch from 10 to 15 you also have to change the
margins to suit?  That changing the page length can be used to change
the height to width ratio of the printout.  Wouldn't it be nice if the
Computer manufacturer (COMMODORE) would tell us about these things in
the user's manual???  Yes, there are some explanations in the manual
and now that I have figured everything out for myself I can make some
sense of them.  But, before that they were as clear as mud.  Very
thick mud...

Next, PRINTER DRIVERS.  Selling a printer without a driver for it is
like selling a car without a transmission.  Imagine buying a $20,000
car, hopping in to drive it away and it doesn't go.  The engine starts
and runs beautifully, the clutch works, the brakes work, the radio
works, the windows go up and down, the doors open and close but the
car won't move.  You ask the salesman why it doesn't go and he says
"Oh, we just sell the car we don't sell transmissions."  You accept
this explanation even though it doesn't make much sense to you, and
ask where a transmission to fit your model of car can be found.  The
reply is "I don't know, maybe some of the spare parts houses would
have one".  Wellllll, I can tell you that you will have an easier time
finding a transmission than you will finding a Driver to suit your
Printer.  Come on, you Printer Manufacturers, there are only a few
basic different computer systems.  It wouldn't take all that much time
to write a driver for each one.  Even better, why the hell don't you
all get together and adopt a standard Printer command code.

Now that I've gotten that out of my system I'll get down to what I
hope will be helpful information.

CENTERING

The first thing that you will have to do to get good printouts is to
center your paper in the printer.  Most software assumes that you are
using 8 1/2"x 11" paper.  But, most people in Australia are probably
using A4(8 1/4"x 11 11/16").  Therefore the paper may not be centered
in the printer.

Printers usually have a ruler of some sort embossed on the top
somewhere.  If yours doesn't, don't worry, it isn't too difficult to
center the paper.

The main thing to remember in centering the sheet of paper is that a
10" printer only actually prints 8" wide.  The extra 2" is there so
that you can use a tractor feed with continuous paper and to provide
room for some margins when using the full 8" wide printouts.

So if you have a ruler on your printer then just put a mark at the top
of a sheet of paper in the exact center and put it in the printer.
Then use the paper release knob (it takes the pressure off of the
paper so that you can move it around easily) and adjust the paper so
that the mark on it is lined up on the 4" mark of the ruler.  Once the
paper is centered you then move the paper guides (usually plastic
angles on top of the printer) so that they just touch each edge of the
sheet.  From then on (as long as you use the same size paper) the
sheet will be perfectly centered.

MAKING YOUR MARK

If you don't have some sort of ruler or there are no numbers marked on
the ruler, you can put your own markings on.

To do this load your favorite Paint program (DeluxePaint etc.) and
draw a thick line from the left edge of the screen to the right.  If a
toolbox or menu is on the screen then make sure that the line
continues all the way to the edges.  I.E. if you are using DeluxePaint
you may have to hit Function key F-10 to remove the menu and toolbox.
Once you have done that then go into Preferences and click on Change
Printer.  Change the left margin to 1 and the right margin to 80.  Set
the pitch to 10-Pica.  Click on Custom and change the Length to about
5.  Click on Graphics 1 and make sure that Aspect is set to
Horizontal.  Click on O.K. and then O.K. again. Then click on Use to
return to your Program.

Select Print after making sure that your Printer is hooked up and
running and the paper is in place.  You should get a thick line 8"
wide printed on your paper.  Measure it to make sure that it is 8"
wide.  If it isn't then you will have to go back and check to see if
the line goes all the way to both edges of the screen.

Once you have gotten an 8" line, you mark the center of it (should be
exactly 4" in from either edge).  You then put a mark on your printer
or its ruler ((the clip that holds the paper against the platen (the
platen is the rubber roller that moves the paper through the printer)
is usually a good place)).  After the center is marked you can put on
any other measurements that you may need.  You can then go through the
procedure described above for centering the paper in the Printer.

SETTING MARGINS

I'll start out with the easiest thing first.  Setting margins for
text.

<If you are going to do a lot of Wordprocessing for letters and labels
etc., I suggest that you get in touch with your local Wang Computer
Dealer and buy a Word-processing Ruler.  Theirs seems to be the best
available.  It is set up with markings for 10-12-15 characters
(letters) per inch and also 6-8 lines per inch.  It only costs around
Five dollars, and will pay for itself the first time you attempt to do
a sheet of labels.>

The characters per inch that you set margins with tell you how many
whole characters will fit into a horizontal line of one inch.  If you
are using 15 cpi then the right hand side of the 15th character(letter)
will be on the one inch mark.  As below.

-->|abcdefghijklmno|<--
   0"              1"

To get a one inch margin on each side of A-4 paper you will need the
following settings.

  CHARACTERS    RIGHT    LEFT
   PER INCH    MARGIN   MARGIN
      10         10       70
      12         12       84
      15         15      105

To select the proper page length click on Custom in the Page Size box
and type in 70 for length if you are using 6 lpi (A4 is 11 11/16"
long.  11/16" = .687".  11.678"*6 lpi = 70.068 lines for the whole
page)  For 8 lpi you should use 93. (By the way, Preferences will only
recognize the new page length if you have clicked on Custom)  If your
Word processor has a place to set the number of text lines, then that
should set at 58 @ 6 lpi or 77 @ 8 lpi.

GRAPHICS

THE MUCH AWAITED WORKBENCH 1.3

I guess that I should start the Graphics section by covering the
extended and much appreciated (I think you will agree) features
contained in the upcoming Version 1.3 of Workbench.

SPEEEED

The new WB prints much faster than the 1.2 version.  In fact even on
180 x 180 dpi density it cuts printing time about in half.  Forget the
claims of printing 6 times faster.  That only happens when you are
using a draft quality density (such as 60x60 dpi).  The resulting
print is only good for giving you a rough idea what the final print
will look like.  However, taking 15 minutes for a sideways, 8" x 10",
180 x 180 dpi print is a lot better then taking 30 minutes.

The program for increasing the printer speed is in the
Devs/printer.device.  It can be copied onto any disk that has the
slower 1.2 Devs/printer.device.

USING CLI

For those of you that are new to the Amiga I will go through the copy
procedure step by step.  The rest can skip these paragraphs.

Reboot with Workbench 1.3.  Once it is on the screen, double click the
left mouse button on the Workbench icon.  Then double click on the
System drawer in the Window that appears.  That will cause the System
window to appear.  You double click on the Cli icon in that window.
This will give you a CLI window and the cursor will be next to a  1>.

Where I have put Diskname: you have to replace the word Diskname with
the name of the disk that you want to copy the new information onto.
If you don't know what the diskname is then put the disk in the diskdrive
and adjust the cli window so that you can see the name written under its
icon.  Once you have written down the disks name, you just type it in
place of Diskname.

Now all you have to do is type:

>copy devs/printer.device to Diskname:devs/printer.device

Once you have done that you will get the faster Graphics print-outs.

FEAR IS NORMAL AND HEALTHY

If you haven't used CLI before or are afraid to try it, don't worry.
You aren't alone out there.  Many of us have gone through the same
process.

Remember, the First Commandmant of Computing is, never use the
original copy of Software.  Make a copy of it then put the original
away in a safe, cool, dry place.  Then make a copy of the copy and use
it for any experiments or trials.

Just relax, take your time, persevere and you will eventually get to
where you are going.

If you want to copy the new Preferences onto another disk then go into
CLI again.  I delete the old Preferences first because I have had some
problems with read/write errors when trying to copy over the top of
it.  So just type in the following:

Delete Diskname:preferences

After the disk light has gone out for the last time then type

Copy preferences to Diskname:Preferences.

You will get a bonus because the new Preferences is about 3 kbytes
smaller than the old one.

THE ALL NEW GRAPHICS TWO

The ANTIALIASING (slightly smooths out the sharp jagged corners on
graphics prints) works ok but is more effective on smaller circles.

The LEFT OFFSET window gives you the opportunity to set the point that
you want your picture to start printing at.  It is only adjustable to
tenths of an inch. (I would have preferred to see it in pixel mode,
but it works.)  It also has a Center control, just click it on and
the picture will be centered horizontally on the page automatically.

COLOR CONTROL

(No, this isn't something thought up by Bruce Ruxton.)  The R.G.B.
(Red, Green, Blue) adjustments in the Color Correct Box work very
well.  No longer will you have to go into a palette to adjust the
colors (especially Blue and Green) so that the print will be close to
those on the screen.  You won't have all 4096 colors but you should be
able to live with the 3172 that are left.  It's a small price to pay
for the more accurate printed colors that you get.  However, in Digitized
HAM screens (4096 colors) the red seems to come out better if left off.

The dithering control produces quite noticeable differences in the dot
patterns that are used to produce the large variety of colors that are
obtained from the four inked sections contained on a color printer
ribbon.  It would be a good idea for you to try all three types to see
which you like the best.

DPI OR PIXELS

A short explanation is appropriate here.  The word -Pixels- comes from
the words -Picture Elements- used to describe the smallest size dot
that can be displayed on the Video Screen.  The Pixel size varies with
the Screen resolution.  I.E., a Pixel on a 640x400 screen will be 1/4
the size of a Pixel on a 320x200 screen. (1/2 the height and 1/2 the
width).  DPI, on the other hand, refers to the number of Dots that the
printer can print per inch on the paper.  24 pin Dot Matrix Printers
can put down as many as 360 dots per inch. (Most Laser Printers can
only manage 300 dpi).  Even though the smallest Printhead pins are
around .2 mm in diameter (approximately 127 per inch) they achieve 360
dpi by overlapping the Dots.  This is accomplished by moving the
Printhead only 1/360ths of an inch at a time.  Unfortunately, the word
-Pixels- and the letters -DPI- are being freely interchanged by a lot
of people.  Just remember that when used in conjunction with printing
they both refer to the number of Dots that will be put on the paper.

Ok, back to Wb 1.3.  The Density feature gives the following settings
for my printer. (NEC Pinwriter CP6)

  SETTING   HORIZONTAL VERTICAL
                DPI       DPI

     1           90       180
     2          120       180
     3          180       180
     4          120       360
     5          180       360
     6          360       180
     7          360       360

These figures mean that when I print out a graphic file in setting #1
I will get 90 dots or pixels per inch across the page and 180 dots or
pixels per inch down the page.

It doesn't matter if I am printing the picture out across the page or
sideways down the length of it.  I will always get 90 dpi across the
page (horizontal) and 180 dpi down the page (vertical).  It's very
important to remember that.

How do you know what density your printer is producing?

With the extra controls available in WB 1.3 it is quite easy to
determine your printers density rate.

Go into Preferences, click on Change Printers, select the proper
driver for your printer, click on Graphics 1 and select Horizontal,
click on Graphics 2, select Pixels in the Limits box at the centerbottom of the screen.  Move to the Width Limit box to the left of the
screen and type in 180 then type 180 in Height Limit.  Go to the
Density box at top right of the screen and select 1.  Click on OK,
click on OK, click on USE.

Now you should be back in the WBench screen.  Make sure that your
printer is turned on and paper has been inserted.  Double
click on the Graphicdump Icon in the System window.  After a bit of
Diskdrive grinding your printer should produce a small picture of the
screen in front of you.

If you go back into Preferences Graphic 2 , select Density 2 and print
it out, and keep repeating this procedure for all seven Density
settings you will have seven small prints of the WB screen.  (Always
leave the Width and Height limits  set at 180 x 180.)

You then measure the Width and Height of the pictures on the paper and
with a little bit of arithmetic you can calculate how many dots per
inch that your printer is laying down on the paper.

THE NUMBERS GAME

The Formula is easy enough.  Just divide the 180 pixels Width limit by
the number of inches of the pictures width.  (180 divided by 1.5" (1
1/2") = 120).  Thus a 1 1/2" wide picture containing 180 pixels (dots)
is being printed at 120 dpi Horizontally.  Then divide the 180 pixel
Height limit by the number of inches of the pictures Height (length).
(180 divided by 3" = 60).  Thus a 3" high picture containing 180
pixels (dots) is being printed at 60 dpi Vertically.

The following table is based on some of the results that I got with my
NEC CP6. (Prtdrvgen).

   Wide x High     Horiz x Vert
    (inches)           (dpi)

   1 1/2 x 3         120 x 60
       2 x 1          90 x 180
   1 1/2 x 1         120 x 180
       1 x 1         180 x 180

If all this has left you high and dry, I will try to clarify it a
little.

We told Preferences (in the Graphics 2 section) that we wanted to
print a picture exactly 180 pixels wide by 180 pixels high.
Therefore, if your printer produced a picture exactly 1" x 1" then the
Density number that you chose has programmed your printer to produce
180 dpi Horizontally and 180 dpi Vertically.  Likewise, if you got a
print size of 1 1/2" x 3" then that Density number has programmed your
printer to produce 120 dpi Horizontally and 60 dpi vertically.

The arithmetic is simple, but if like me you have trouble adding up
more than one number, I will elaborate a bit more.

You have told the computer that you want to put exactly 180 dots
(pixels) wide and exactly 180 dots (pixels) high on the paper by
typing those numbers in the Height and the Width boxes in Graphics 2. Now, if your printer is putting 120 dpi across the page (horizontally)
that means that the printer will still have 60 dots (pixels) left to
print after printing 1" ( remember, you have 180 pixels total to
print, so 180 - 120 leaves you with 60 more to print). 60 dots at the
rate of 120 dpi will cover an area of 1/2".  Therefore, a 180 pixel
wide picture will cover 1 1/2" when printed in the 120 dpi horizontal
mode.

You've probably gotten way ahead of me by now but I will go through
the vertical size of the picture to finish off.

The reason that the picture printed at 120 x 60 is 3" long is because
we have 180 pixels (dots) to make up the height of it.  At 60 dpi we
can only put 60 dots (pixels) per inch on the paper.  (we have 180
pixels (dots) to print, so 180 divided by 60 equals 3).  Therefore, 3"
high.

The major things to remember are:

One: the number of Pixels that you select in the Graphics 2 Width and
Height limits are the total number of Pixels (dots) that the printed
picture will contain in the respective directions.

Two: the actual printed size of the Picture is determined by the
selected Printer density in conjunction with total number of Pixels.

    *** This article is continued as PRINT.MANUAL_2 in this drawer ***

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