Direct Printing Using Large Format Printers

Note: Using large format printers may appear too complicated for the less-experienced user. In this case, it may be wise to export the graphic as a PDF file for printing in a professional print shop. A qualified print shop should have Adobe (1) Acrobat and RIP software (see section Printing PDFs Using Large Format Printers).

Modern color plotters usually use standard inkjet technology and are now usually called large format printers (LFP for short).

Direct printing means that the large format printer needs to be installed directly on the local computer on which FamilyTreeFactory is installed or be reachable as a network printer. In addition, a Windows printer driver for the large format printer must be installed. FamilyTreeFactory cannot use AutoCad drivers (often used for industrial applications).

Activate the large format printer in FamilyTreeFactory (File menu, Printer Setup...) and select a paper format that is appropriate for what you want to print. You will usually need to enter a user-defined paper format. For this, use the dimensions of your graphic. These can be seen at the bottom of your screen in the FamilyTreeFactory status bar, such as 120 inch wide, 32 inch high. Take the standard roll paper widths into account (such as 24, 36 or 54 inches). For the above-named example, you would use Landscape format with a roll paper width of 36 inches. Warning: The graphic height of 32 inch determines the roll width of 36 inch and the graphic width of 120 inch determines the roll length of 120 inch.

The following example shows how you would configure the Windows printer driver for the widely-used large format printer Hewlett-Packard DesignJet 1050 (2):

Paper Size tab:

Set the orientation to Portrait or Landscape. In this example, use Landscape.

The More sizes... button opens the Paper Sizes dialog for setting user-defined paper formats:

Set the width to the dimension shown in the status bar, here 120 inch. Set the height a few tenths of an inch less than the roll paper width, 35.8 inch in this case for a 36" roll. Under Help, you can find information about the maximum values for width and height.

The paper type Coated Paper is generally used for normal paper with a weight of about 70 to 90 gsm. For paper with a weight greater than about 120 gsm, select Heavyweight Paper.

The roll sizes that can be used on the HP DesignJet 1050 (roll paper widths) are 24 inch and 36 inch.

Layout View tab:

This page shows the selected layout and does not offer any further configuration options.

Options tab:

Color settings should generally be left at Automatic.

The quality should always be set to Best (enhanced). This increases the processing time, data flow and printing duration, but is absolutely necessary, at least for graphics with images.

Every configuration setting can be saved with a unique name.

Advanced tab:

You should always leave this option set to ...In computer. This will help you to avoid problems with the printer's system memory, although printing will be somewhat slower.

Sharpen lines should always be set to On (CAD or line drawings). Graphic output can also be optimized, but FamilyTreeFactory is not intended for this purpose.

Fast Raster Printing should always be enabled. This speeds up output of very large image files without affecting the quality of the images.

After you have finished configuring the printer, update the graphic. To ensure that the graphic fits the paper format as well as possible, turn on the Automatic Width/Height function first (Treeview Options, Automatic Width/Height tab, Use Automatic Width/Height function) and specify that Printer Setup dimensions should be used (Use settings from Printer Page checkbox).

Use the Print Preview function from the File menu each time before printing to check the position of the graphic on the set paper format. Print Preview allows you to determine various measurements on the resulting printed page and to display the various margins, see Functions in Print Preview.

It may be wise to print a small test graphic before attempting to print the first large and expensive version. The test graphic should contain examples for all elements planned for the full-size graphic, such as photos, to ensure that printer settings are correct. Talk to the owner of the large format printer about what you are planning to do and ask him/her about appropriate driver settings; the above settings are only examples for the HP DesignJet 1050).

The section The dialogs, Treeview Options, Printer Page, contains more interesting tips.

(1) Adobe Systems Incorporated

(2) Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.