Re: Printing Woes

[davidf(at)dfanning.com (David Fanning)]

Anthony Davis (diftil@earthlink.net) writes:

> I am having difficulty printing to the Windows printer device from IDL
> 5.3.1.  The origin of the printed image is always halfway down the page
> (instead of at the bottom where I'd like it.)  The returned size is correct,
> but I can't get the thing to print on the whole page.  Here's the code I'm
> using.  Any ideas.  

Well, a couple of things are going wrong here. First
of all the default "window" on the output page is set
so that in portrait mode the "plot" will show up
in a 5 x 7 inch window on top of the page. Why the
top and not centered? Uh, you will have to ask RSI. :-(

You can see the default offsets and window sizes by
typing this:

   Set_Plot, 'PRINTER'
   Help, /Device

If you want to center to image, you will have to
calculate the proper offsets and sizes to do that. I do this
by calling my program PSWindow (which you can find
on my web page), like this:

   keywords = PSWindow()
   Set_Plot, 'PRINTER'
   Device, _Extra=keywords
   
PSWindow returns a structure with fields that are
appropriate for setting the PostScript or Printer 
devices:

   IDL> Help, keywords
** Structure PSWINDOW_STRUCT, 7 tags, length=24:
   XSIZE           FLOAT           5.95000
   YSIZE           FLOAT           4.25892
   XOFFSET         FLOAT           1.27500
   YOFFSET         FLOAT           3.37054
   INCHES          INT              1
   PORTRAIT        INT              1
   LANDSCAPE       INT              0

It's just a little bit more complicated than this,
of course. Because I've found it is impossible to
change the printer orientation (I.e., landscape to
portrait, or visa versa) at the same time I am setting
the sizes and offsets.

If I'm trying to print in landscape mode, I usually 
do something like this, which gets the printer oriented
properly:

   keywords = PSWindow(/Printer, /Landscape)
   Set_Plot, 'PRINTER'
   Device, Landscape = keywords.landscape
   Device, _Extra=keywords

Note, too, that unlike printing to a PostScript file,
the point by which offsets is calculated stays in the
lower-left corner of the page, no matter how the page
is rotated. (Nice, but that is why there is a Printer
keyword to PSWindow. It has to know how to sort out
landscape offsets.)

To just add one more complication, the point at which
the printer offsets are calculated is NOT the very
corner of the page, as it is in PostScript. Offsets
are calculated from the point on the paper that can
actually print. This point varies from printer to printer,
so there is no fool-proof way of absolutely centering
output on a PRINTER page. On my printer the offsets
are calculated from the point at (0.25, 0.25) inches,
so I have to add this "fudge factor" to the size and
offsets returned from PSWindow, like this:

   keywords = PSWindow(Fudge=0.25)
   Set_Plot, 'PRINTER'
   Device, _Extra=keywords

(Note that the sizes and offsets returned by PSWIndow are
in inches unless the CM keyword is set to specify everything
in centimeters. Also, if you use an A4 page size, you want
to use the PAGESIZE keyword, too.)

Anyway, you can see this all in operation in the program
PRINTWINDOW, which you can find on my web page:

   http://www.dfanning.com/tip_examples/printwindow.pro

This program is designed to send the contents of a graphics
window directly to the printer. The output will have the
same aspect ratio as the display window and will be
centered on the output page. It is really no different
from sending an image to the printer, so it should be
directly relevant to you. :-)

> (As a suggestion, why doesn't anything change in the !D
> structure when I adjust the /XOFFSET or /YOFFSET keywords?)

I don't think there is anything in the !D system variable
that *would* change if the offsets are changed. I would
be looking at HELP, /DEVICE to see how your output device
is configured.

You can find PSWindow here:

   http://www.dfanning.com/programs/pswindow.pro

Cheers,

David

-- 
David Fanning, Ph.D.
Fanning Software Consulting
Phone: 970-221-0438 E-Mail: davidf@dfanning.com
Coyote's Guide to IDL Programming: http://www.dfanning.com/
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