The PrintOMatic Xtra is the premier printing tool for Macromedia Director and Authorware. PrintOMatic adds a full set of page-layout, text and graphics printing features to Director 5 and later, and Authorware 4 projects on Macintosh and Windows.
PrintOMatic includes commands for accurately specifying the position of any text or graphic element on the page. PrintOMatic documents can contain graphic files from disk, styled text, graphic primitives, cast member bitmaps, and snapshots of the Director stage.
Registering PrintOMatic MX
You are free to use the unregistered version of PrintOMatic MX for the purpose of evaluating the software and its suitability for use in your project. However, every page that the unregistered version prints will contain a "printed by an unregistered copy" message on the bottom. Distributing an unregistered copy of the Xtra in a finished production is a violation of the product license.
Product Features
ΓÇó Generates multi-page layouts with full control over the placement of text and graphic elements on the page.
ΓÇó Print styled text: any combination of available fonts, sizes, or styles
ΓÇó Print text, PICT, BMP or EPS files from disk, any portion of the Director stage, or Director cast members.
ΓÇó "Master Page" can contain any combination of text or graphic elements
ΓÇó Automatic page numbering
ΓÇó Customizable and hideable Print Progress dialog
ΓÇó Paper-saving Print Preview feature
ΓÇó Supports color and landscape-mode printing
ΓÇó Supports all Macintosh and Windows compatible printers
ΓÇó Fully compatible with Mac OS X, Mac OS 9, Windows XP, Me, 2000, NT, 98 and 95System Requirements
ΓÇó Mac OS 9, Mac OS X, Windows 95, 98, Me, NT, 2000, or XP
ΓÇó Macintosh or Windows-compatible printer (local or networked) with current print drivers
ΓÇó Authoring: Macromedia Director 8, 8.5 or MX, or Authorware 5, 6, or 7
ΓÇó Web Playback: Shockwave 8 or 8.5
We officially support Director 8, 8.5, and MX on Mac 0S X, Mac OS 9, and 32-bit Windows platforms. PrintOMatic MX will very likely work with versions of Director all the way back to 5.0 on Mac and Windows, however, we are dropping any "official" support for these older versions of Director, because doing acceptance testing on all these older versions is just too difficult. Tester feedback shows that the Xtra also works fine with Authorware, but we don't have the Authorware skills (or a copy of the software) to do this effectively.What's New in PrintOMatic MX?
In addition to our primary goal of Mac OS X and Director MX compatibility, we have been able to add a few often-requested features to this release: tab stop support, page breaks, and automatic image tiling (Windows).
Tab stops are now available in all text flows. Each flow has default tab stops at 24pt intervals. This is the same standard tab-stop length as Director's text field editing window. Therefore, if you format your tabs in the text field editor (Ctrl-8 or Command-8), the printout should match. NOTE: this doesn't apply to Rich Text cast members, which still print as bitmaps.
Page breaks are available to split up your text flow. A new command, pageBreak, will stop the text flow in the current frame. All text appended after calling pageBreak will start on the next frame. if you are using the default full-page frames, the text will start on the next page. Be sure to leave the autoAppend parameter set to TRUE if you want to automatically create new frames after the break.
Automatic image tiling addresses problems that some black and white printers have with printing large true color images on Windows (the "blank output on Windows" problem). All true color images are now printed as 128x128 pixel "tiles", which are a more digestible image size for problematic printers. The appearance of these images in printouts should be identical to an un-tiled printout.
Also, a minor change to the text engine adds sensitivity to the text alignment of cast members (left/right/centered). You can mix text alignments in the same text frame without affecting the alignment of previously placed text. Purchasing PrintOMatic
The PrintOMatic MX Xtra is published by Electronic Ink. A cross-platform copy of PrintOMatic MX, with a royalty-free, unlimited use license to use PrintOMatic MX in your multimedia productions costs $350.00 US. You can obtain a serial number for PrintOMatic MX on-line from our web site: www.printomatic.com
The PrintOMatic demonstration movie also prints out an order form for PrintOMatic MX, as well as other Electronic Ink Xtras. To order your copy of PrintOMatic MX, simply fill out this form and FAX or mail it with payment information to:
PrintOMatic is updated and enhanced frequently. The latest version of PrintOMatic is always available, along with lots of other stuff, from Electronic InkΓÇÖs web site: www.printomatic.com
Before reporting a bug in the software, please make sure the version you are using is up to date. Registered users of PrintOMatic will get announcements via e-mail when new major versions are released.
