Templot Club Archive 2007-2020                             

topic: 3126PDF colour, infill and style settings
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posted: 12 Nov 2017 00:52

from:

Rob Manchester
 
Manchester - United Kingdom

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Hi,

I have Templot set to print in B&W only. When I print a trackplan it prints fine and has solid black lines for sleeper/timber outlines and centrelines and a solid black line for track centreline. Timber infill colour is set to white. However when I send the same trackplan to a PDF (selecting B&W mode) all the sleeper/timber outlines and centrelines and the track centreline are broken dotted lines rather than solid lines. Where is the setting that I have missed to change this so the PDF ( when printed ) looks just the same as the direct Templot print ?

BTW Templot insists that my Brother HL-2240D ( a B&W A4 Duplex laser printer ) is a colour printer as in the message "You have selected the black & white only option for your template printing. Your current printer is a colour printer." that comes up when I set it to B&W. It doesn't seem to cause any issues with printing.

Rgds
Rob


posted: 12 Nov 2017 06:48

from:

Martin Wynne
 
West Of The Severn - United Kingdom

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Rob Manchester wrote:
I have Templot set to print in B&W only. When I print a trackplan it prints fine and has solid black lines for sleeper/timber outlines and centrelines and a solid black line for track centreline. Timber infill colour is set to white. However when I send the same trackplan to a PDF (selecting B&W mode) all the sleeper/timber outlines and centrelines and the track centreline are broken dotted lines rather than solid lines. Where is the setting that I have missed to change this so the PDF ( when printed ) looks just the same as the direct Templot print ?
Hi Rob,

There is a bug in the 3rd-party PDF engine related to dotted lines.

To get what you want, leave the setting on print in colour on the output menu.

Change to black & white on the export dialog only.

It still won't be quite right, because the grid lines for black & white printing are intended to be dotted.

I will have another look at this, but I remember trying to fix it once before.

BTW Templot insists that my Brother HL-2240D ( a B&W A4 Duplex laser printer ) is a colour printer as in the message "You have selected the black & white only option for your template printing. Your current printer is a colour printer." that comes up when I set it to B&W. It doesn't seem to cause any issues with printing.
Your printer is telling Templot that it is a colour printer, or at least that it can print in more than just black. Possibly it is capable of printing in grey-shades in addition to strict black/white only. Have you tried the grey-shades option in Templot? It produces a much neater result than plain black/white.

The printer dialog notes in Templot are all 20 years old, based on the printers available at that time. They need updating. Unfortunately I can't possibly buy one of every printer to find out exactly how it works. Templot can still print to old 9-pin dot-matrix printers (with an ink ribbon) and to flat-bed pen plotters. I very much doubt that anyone still wants to do that. Anyone?

regards,

Martin.

posted: 12 Nov 2017 19:53

from:

Rob Manchester
 
Manchester - United Kingdom

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Hi Martin,

Thanks for looking at this issue. The 'fudge' you suggest with the mode for PDF export works just fine and suits what I wanted. Don't put fixing this high up the list as you have plenty to be getting on with.

The reason for finding this was I am exporting to PDF files as an aid to 1:1 layout planning. I am making a library of files with ordinary turnouts, slips, junctions etc that I can print out and cut up to lay on baseboards ( or a chalked outline on the carpet :D ) as I find it helps to mock up a layout full size to visualise the effect. When I started printing some I noticed the dotted line issue. File attached of the results I am after, in 2mm scale as it was easier to test on A4 sheets. When I do the larger scale ones it will be easier to print them on another PC, hence the PDF requirement. All the files are for my own use.

Don't fret about the printer ID either. I do actually seem to remember asking about this a while back. It used to be great watching a Calcomp or Benson plotter going about it's business, mind you the ones we had used to throw pens off the carriage on a regular basis and the pens sometimes gauged holes in the paper !

Rob

Attachment: attach_2571_3126_test_n2fs_slips_diamonds_bw_v4.pdf     188

posted: 18 Nov 2017 21:29

from:

Martin Wynne
 
West Of The Severn - United Kingdom

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Hi Rob,

I have now removed all dashed and dotted lines from the PDF output. They will be thin solid lines in all cases instead (which may be very faint on some printers).

This will be in the next program update.

It's unfortunate, but I don't have access to the source code for the PDF engine and it is too much of a battle of wits to try to second-guess the bug. Now that Templot is free, paying for an upgrade to the latest version of the PDF engine isn't really an option, just for this one bug (which may not have been fixed anyway). In all other respects the PDF output works very well, including for large format output.

There is no change to the printed output from Templot, the change is in PDF files only.

cheers,

Martin.

posted: 18 Nov 2017 21:57

from:

Rob Manchester
 
Manchester - United Kingdom

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Hi Martin,

Thanks for looking at the PDF issues. It will improve things for me.

You have been busy, corners on sketchboard shapes for Phil, on-screen reminders for those of us with bad memory and PDF files that look better. Well done. Do you have a date in mind for releasing the update ?

Rob


posted: 18 Nov 2017 22:53

from:

Martin Wynne
 
West Of The Severn - United Kingdom

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Rob Manchester wrote:
Do you have a date in mind for releasing the update ?
Hi Rob,

I have devoted my life to not answering questions which begin with the word "when", and I'm not going to start now.

However, it would be nice if it was available by the end of this month, wouldn't it? :)

The most important change to get released is the additional beginner buttons, because until everyone has those in front of them I can't make any progress on the Templot Explained beginners guide.

cheers,

Martin.

posted: 18 Nov 2017 23:43

from:

Rob Manchester
 
Manchester - United Kingdom

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Martin,

Wasn't trying to tie you down to a date, just wondered that's all - it will be nice to use the new features before the 2nd test starts in Adelaide( with England 1-0 up ) :thumb:

The MS marker will be useful too, lost count of the number of times track has appeared on the wrong side in my plans.

Rob




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