Setting the Printer defaults
Contents
N.B. This applies to viewing and all formats.
Your original source document was intended to be sent to a particular type of printer (such as HP-PCL or Adobe® PS®); 
EscapeE interprets the instructions in this document and represents it on your screen instead. The document file usually contains all the instructions necessary for the pages to be printed, but if they are absent, e.g. in a raw text file, the printer resorts to using 'default' parameters, and EscapeE is configured to cope with this. Experts using specialist systems may, however, have altered these defaults; in this case EscapeE must also be reconfigured to match:
1.Choose 'Options | Configuration...' then select the Printer tab. 2.If emulating a printer, select the Paper size from the drop-down list; the measurements will be entered in the width and height boxes automatically (in inches or centimeters as you prefer). To use non-standard sized paper, choose CUSTOM from the list and enter the width x height in inches or centimeters alongside. You may Save the custom size if you wish. 3.Click the > button to set up the default font select string. 4.Set the line end symbols and number of lines per page and font as required. (Try looking in the printer's menus, or print its 'test page'.) 5.Tick the Plotter check-box if the printer is required to start in HP-GL mode, i.e. to emulate a plotter rather than a PCL printer. Click Plotter options... to configure plotter-specific options: see Plotter options. 6.Select the appropriate ink color if you are emulating a spot color printer. 7.Tick the Edge to edge printing option if the emulated printer prints to the edge of the paper. 8.Select the orientation of the document. 9.Click the Save button to retain these settings after you close the program. Alternatively, click OK to use them for the current session. |
If the file is known to be from a plotter then there is no need to set up a default paper size - the page is made big enough (maximum coordinate value is 8,388,607) to encompass the whole area of the plot. (The file is deemed to be from a plotter if the file extension is .PLT or .HPG or it starts with a plotter command rather than PCL or if the 'Plotter' box has been checked.) You may override print file setting for paper size for images so that, for example, a series of TIFFs read via a Control file can be forced to fit a particular paper size. |
The printer you use to print your document may not be the same as the original document was created to use, so you may need to set up some default parameters relating to your chosen output printer: 1.Choose 'Options | Configuration...' then select the Printer tab. 2.If your printer allows an alphanumeric ID to be associated with a specific tray, click the Add media button. You will be repeatedly prompted first for the name and then for the tray number with which it is associated. Giving a null name or clicking Cancel terminates the process. 3.Enter the number of the input paper tray that the printer should default to if the tray number was not specified in the original document. oTick Override print file setting if you want to ensure that the default input tray is used in preference to that specified in the original document. If the input paper tray box is left blank, the Windows printer driver's configuration setting will be used: see Printer Setup. 4.Enter the number of the output bin that the printer should default to if the bin number was not specified in the original document. oTick Override print file setting if you want to ensure that the default output bin is used in preference to that specified in the original document. If the output bin box is left blank, the Windows printer driver's configuration setting will be used: see Printer Setup. 5.Select a printing mode: oSimplex (prints on one side of the paper only) oDuplex-short edge binding oDuplex-long edge binding oDefault. An undefined duplex mode that enables the User to set the plex mode at the printer. 6.Tick Override print file setting to ignore the original document's printing mode. 7.Tick Simulate simplex using duplex (short) 8.In duplex printing, you need to keep track of whether a page is a 'front' or a 'back'. A tick in Show blank pages check-box ensures that all pages, even blank pages, are taken into account rather than suppressed. See also Configuring the view. 9.Click the Save button to retain these settings after you close the program. Alternatively, click OK to use them for the current session. |
If you are exporting PCL or PostScript output or printing directly, you can specify multiple copies by entering a number in the "Copies" panel of the 'Configuration | Printer' dialog. Tick the check-box if the copies are to be collated. Note that collated copies may result in file which is many times bigger than an uncollated file. |
Some printers allow an alphanumeric ID to be associated with a specific tray and to be used in the {escape}&n#W command instead of selecting the tray by number. When adding media, if there is a default tray number already filled in then that shows it was already defined. If a null tray is typed it will remove the definition. |
•Some defaults, e.g. Spot color, Special media, Copies can also be specified on the command line: see Command line syntax •Typical 'paper tray' numbers: •Typical 'output bin' numbers: |
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