Color Printing and Plotting

Some printers and plotters are capable of printing plots in color. There are a few things you need to be aware of when printing in color.

Color Setup. First of all, to print in color, you may have to set up the print driver to do color. This is usually done by selecting "File->Print->Printer Setup" from the menu bar.

Background Color. Background color can be troublesome when you print on certain devices. For example, if you print with a black background on an inkjet printer, you may get a black ink-soaked sheet of paper. On a dot matrix printer, you may end up with a dried up ribbon and the plot lines barely visible. For this reason, the Viewer allows you to turn background color on and off. Normally, the Viewer defaults to having the printer background color off. You set the background by selecting "File->Print->Print Options" from the menu bar. You can also set the mode by selecting the proper button in the Print Preview window.

Enabling Background Color. If you use background color in your printout, the background will match the screen background color. This is set by selecting the "Preferences->Colors and Fonts" option from the menu bar. Unless your printer can handle heavy colors, you should use light background colors. On a plotter, background color is meaningless, so the Viewer disables background colors for plotters.

Speed. Finally, printing a color plot of a large cave is very slow, particularly on some printers. If you are concerned about the time it takes to print a color plot, changing the printer settings can improve the print time. For example, using lower color quality or printing at a lower resolution can improve the speed. These options vary from printer to printer, but you can access them by selecting "File->Print->Printer Setup" from the menu bar.

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