# 3466- CorelDRAW™ 8 Print Preview and Options CorelDRAW™ 8.0 shipped with an expanded print preview which has evolved into an interface with interactive prepress marks, imposition, and signature layout tools. This document is an introduction to the powerful tools and techniques that are available in the CorelDRAW 8.0 Print Preview. Pick Tool - Use this tool to select and manipulate objects (pages) for layout and/or scaling & positioning. When this tool is active, the status bar will show the X,Y coordinates of the top-left corner of the page relative to the X,Y origin (bottom left by default). The status bar will also provide numerical values indicating the page's dimensions and percentage of scaling as set in the document. Signature Layout Tool - Most conventional layouts such as Booklet, Tent Card, Double-sided full page, etc., are available as presets within CorelDRAW's layout menus. This tool gives further flexibility in designing and saving particular layouts. When this tool is activated, the status bar displays relevant layout options such as the number of rows and columns Across/Down, Width of Gutters, Ordering, Page Sequence and Rotation Angles. N-Up Format Tool - This tool is the imposition feature within CorelDRAW 8. Use it to take full advantage of imagesetters and output devices that support large film or page sizes. Presets are available for N-Up formats from 1-up to 15-up (15x15) with the option to create custom formats and save them for future use. The Auto Gutter Spacing and Auto Margins options are available to quickly calculate these dimensions based on the document and specified film size. Margin and gutters can also be defined manually in the appropriate status bar boxes. A button to Clone Frames is also located on the horizontal button bar when this tool is in use. Marks Placement Tool - This tool provides a visual interface for placement of prepress marks and info. This is accomplished by manipulating the Marks Alignment Rectangle (the red dashed-line rectangle displayed when this tool is active). Once the X,Y origin is accurately established, manipulate the dimensions of the Marks Alignment Rectangle by entering them numerically in the corresponding status boxes and/or by dragging them visually. This tool also gives the user options for adding various prepress marks such as crop and registration marks, page number's, a color calibration bar, and file information. Only the densitometer scale can be individually placed. The other marks are bound to the perimeter of the Marks Alignment Rectangle. Zoom Tool -. Common zoom presets such as Zoom to Height, and Zoom to Selection are available. Print preview features and settings Print styles - A print style is a set of saved printing options. Print styles are useful because it allows the user to avoid setting printing options each time during printing. To create a print style 1. Click File, Print Preview 2. Change the print options. 3. Click File, Save Print Style As. 4. Enter a name for the style in the Save Print Style As dialog box. Miscellaneous View menu settings Show image - Displays the image to be printed. If this option is disabled, the print preview represents the position of the image as a box Preview Color and Preview Separation Auto - Automatically sets the view options to best simulate the output of the printer. Color - displays the image in color, this setting provides an accurate representation of color printer output. Grayscale - displays the image in shades of grey, this setting provides an accurate representation of a non-color printer output Printable area Displays a dotted line around the edge of the page representing the area that the printer is able to print within. The Settings Menu General Provides several options including the ability to choose a specific printer, which pages of the document to print, what print styles to use and the number of copies. Layout If using a Full Page or Manual signature layout style, allows the change of position and image size being printed, Tiled output and selecting from preset Signature layouts and N-up formats. Signature layout styles determine the way the pages of the print job are placed on the printed page. For example, if printing a brochure, two pages from the document may appear on a single printed page. The type of document being printed (e.g., greeting cards or a book) determines the signature layout style chosen. There are preset signature layout styles from which to choose, or create custom styles. N-up formats - An N-up format allows arrangement of several pages of a document on a single printed page. Although similar to a signature layout, an N-up format arranges multiple copies of a signature layout on a single sheet of paper. This is useful if printing on paper that can fit more than one copy of a signature layout. Separation - If sending color work to a service bureau or printing shop, determine who will need to create color separations. Color separations are necessary because a printing press applies only one color of ink to a sheet of paper at a time. A color separation is created by first isolating each color element in an image. Each color element is then used to create a sheet of film. Each sheet of film is used to apply one color of ink to the sheet of paper. If the Print Separation box is checked, all colors used in the document will appear below. If a color is deselected from the list it will cease to print and will not be viewable on the print preview screen Prepress Crop Marks - Enabling this feature provides the ability to print aligned marks that appear at the four corners of a printed page. Crop Marks make it easier to trim the paper to the proper size and appear only when the page size is smaller than the paper used by the printer. Print Registration marks - This option enables registration marks which serve as guides when aligning color separations. To see the registration marks, define a working page size that is smaller than the actual dimensions of the sheet of paper or film. Color Calibration Bar - Color calibration bars are color scales that print on each sheet of a color separation. Calibration bars are required to ensure accurate color reproduction. Densitometer Scale - A densitometer scale is a series of gray boxes ranging from light to dark. These boxes are required to test the density of halftone images. Position the densitometer scale anywhere on the page. Customize the levels of gray that appear in each of the seven squares on the densitometer scale. To position a densitometer scale 1. Click File, Print Preview. 2. Click and drag the densitometer scale to its new position. In most circumstances it is best to position the densitometer scale outside of the printed image. PostScript® Note : The following tab settings will only be available if a PostScript print driver is currently selected on the General tab Comparability Enables the use of PostScript level 1, 2 or 3 features. PostScript® Level 2 and 3 are more advanced PostScript languages. Using them can reduce printing errors and access to new features. Use the equivalent PostScript Level device to take advantage of these features. Consult the printer documentation for information about the PostScript level it supports. Use JPEG compression Compresses bitmaps using JPEG compression when printing. Enabling this option can reduce the size of the print job. This setting is commonly used with the Print to File option to reduce the overall .PRN (print) file size for delivery to a Service Bureau. This feature is for PostScript Level 2 and 3 devices only. Output color bitmaps in RGB Defines bitmaps in RGB values instead of the usual CMYK values that are found in PostScript files. Use this option when outputting to RGB devices (e.g., slidemakers). Maintain OPI links Informs the service bureau's Open Prepress Interface (OPI) server to substitute the low-resolution images in the file with the corresponding high-resolution images. This substitution is done before the print file is rasterized and imaged to film. Resolve DCS links The service bureau may a Desktop Color Separation (DCS) file to act as the low resolution placeholder for the image(s) in the file. Find out whether the Service Bureau prefers resolving the DCS links. If the Service Bureau want to resolve the links themselves, change the Resolve DCS Links setting to Leave DCS Links Unresolved. Screen frequency - If printing halftone images, set the screen frequency properly. Consult with the service bureau to determine the appropriate screen settings. Note: When the screen frequency is set to Default, the image is printed using the default screen frequency of the output device. Download Type 1 fonts By default, the printer driver downloads Type 1 fonts to the printing device. If disabling the Download Type 1 Fonts check box, fonts are printed as graphics (either curves or bitmaps). This may be useful if the file contains a large number of fonts that would take a long time to download, or would fail to download because of their size. This option is available for PostScript devices only. Tip: If there is difficulty printing text to a PostScript printer, (i.e., text dropped from the output, font-related PostScript errors, etc.) try disabling this check box. Maximum points per curve Specifies the maximum allowable number of control points per curve. Reducing this number helps alleviate printing problems caused by objects that are very complex. Set flatness to This value determines how smooth a curve will appear when printed. As the flatness increases, curves begin to appear as connected straight lines. If having problems with complex objects, start by leaving this value at 1.00 and enable the Auto Increase Flatness check box. If this doesn't help, increase the flatness by 2 and try again. Note: A flatness level set too high will produce distorted curves. Auto increase flatness Causes the application to automatically increase the flatness in increments of 2, as needed. When attempting to print an object, all printing will cease when the flatness value exceeds the value set in the Set Flatness To box by 10. At this point, the printer skips the problematic object and goes on to the next object. Tip: If objects are being dropped from the output due to complexity, try enabling the Auto Increase Flatness check box. Auto increase fountain steps Enables an analysis of the file and the various print settings specified. It automatically increases the number of steps used to render fountain fills to avoid banding. Banding is the appearance of strips across a fountain fill which occurs when a fountain fill does not contain enough steps. This option may increase print time, but it will ensure the best possible rendering of fountain fills. Optimize fountain fills Enables an analysis of the file and the various print settings specified. If the number of steps in a fountain fill is greater than the number that the output device can render, the number of steps used to render the fountain fill is decreased automatically. Tip: By enabling both the Auto Increase Fountain Steps and Optimize Fountain Fills check boxes, the number of fountain steps automatically increases and decreases as required reducing banding and complexity. Miscellaneous Use color profile - When this option is selected CorelDRAW will use it`s color management to process the print job. Disabling it is not recommended, however, this may have positive effects if the color manager has not been set up correctly. The Set Profiles button will allow viewing or changing the current device profiles installed on the system Special Settings Spot color separation warning - warns of a print job about to be processed that contains more than the specified limit. Preview color default - default setting as stated earlier from the view / preview color menu. Preview separation default - default setting as stated earlier from the view / preview separation menu. Page orientation warning - By default, to print an image with an orientation different from that selected in the printer properties, the Corel application warns and asks to adjust the printer paper orientation. Disable this warning and Corel automatically adjusts the paper orientation without asking. Overprint black threshold (PostScript drivers only) - This number represents the percentage of black above which black objects overprint. Always overprint black creates a color trap by causing any object that contains 95% black or more to overprint any underlying objects. It is a useful option for artwork containing a lot of black text, but it should be used with caution on artwork with a high graphics content. If a black threshold greater than 95% is needed, change this setting as required. Bitmap Chunk Overlap pixels - If printing bitmaps as chunks, specify the degree to which each chunk overlaps adjacent chunks. This overlap reduces the grid pattern that can appear on some printers when printing bitmaps sent as chunks. Bitmap Output Threshold - Bitmaps sizes that exceed this value will output in 64K chunks regardless of what was selected in Bitmap Printing. Bitmap sizes below this threshold will output to the printer as set in the Bitmap Printing. (i.e., when set at 4096, any bitmap will print in 64K chunks regardless of the Bitmap Printing setting.) Print Bitmaps as RGB - By default, Corel sends bitmap images to the printing device without converting them to 24 bit, RGB (Red, Green, Blue) images. However, some older printers can't print bitmaps that are 8 bit or less. Bitmap Font Limit (PostScript drivers only)- Limits the number of bitmap fonts created. Any TrueType font in the document that meets the criteria as stated in Bitmap font size will have a bitmap typeface downloaded in place of the vector font. Specify a value between 0 and 250. Because bitmap fonts consume a large amount of PostScript memory, the number of bitmap fonts may need to be limited for the print job to avoid PostScript printing errors. Refer to Bitmap Font Size for more information. Tip: If too many bitmap fonts are sent to the printer, this may result in an Out of memory error on the printer. Bitmap Font Size Threshold ( PostScript drivers only )- Sets the bitmap font size threshold. Type a value between 0 and 1000 in the Setting list box. This value represents the bitmap height in pixels. Bitmap versions of TrueType fonts look better at small point sizes and print faster than regular fonts. A bitmap version of the font is created in a PostScript printer's memory if the font meets the following criteria: The printed character size is no larger than the bitmap font size threshold. The default is 75 pixels which corresponds to 18 points at 300 DPI, 9 points at 600 DPI, and 4.5 at 1200 DPI. - The text is not scaled or skewed. - The text does not have an outline or a fill other than a uniform fill. - The text does not have any envelopes (non-linear transformations) applied to it. - The drawing is not being printed using the Sizing options or Fit To Page option in the Print Preview settings menu Composite Crop Marks (PostScript drivers only) - Allows to specify whether the Crop Marks will print as Composite or CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black). Usually, if printing separations to file using crop marks and then importing the .PRN into another application, or back into CorelDRAW, the crop marks will only appear on the black plate. Setting this option to Output In Full CMYK will allow the crop marks to appear on all separation plates. Grayscale Driver Bitmap Output (PostScript drivers only) - Selecting Send Color Bitmaps As Color here will result in a color printout even if the user is using a grayscale driver with a color printer. When grayscale is selected only grayscale information is sent to a grayscale driver for increased speed. Selecting Send Color Bitmaps As Grayscale when using a color printer driver with a color printer should not affect output. Tip: When using a color printer driver and bitmaps are not printing in color, try changing this setting to Send Color Bitmaps As Color. PostScript 2 Stroke Adjust (PostScript drivers only) - PostScript Level 2 uses a faster method for rendering vector curves and lines. This option specifies whether to compensate for resolution effects that may be noticeable when line thickness is a small number of device pixels. Line width can vary when printed, depending on how they line up with pixels. Sometimes this method can change the appearance of the images. If this happens, disable the PostScript 2 Stroke Adjust option. Tip: If outlines print much wider than expected, turn this setting Off. Fonts Warning Threshold - If the print job has too many fonts, it may cause problems with printing. This setting allows to specify the threshold at which the warning will occur. Tip: If getting warnings about fonts being downloaded to the printer, but the output is not being affected, try increasing this value to suppress the warning. NT Double Download Workaround - Under certain circumstances some fonts may be downloaded more than one time in an NT system. Although this is not a Corel related issue, this is provided as a workaround. NT Bookman Download Workaround - The Bookman font is downloaded to printers even though the font is present in the printer in Windows NT® . Although this is not a Corel related issue, this is provided as a workaround. Render to Bitmaps Resolution - This setting allows specifying the resolution that contents below a lens or transparency will render to at print time. Settings > Driver Compatibility This is an often overlooked portion of the print preview interface that can solve many output problems - especially for proofing printers. All Text As Graphics (Non-PostScript drivers only) Default is to send text as text to the printer driver. Select All Text As Graphics to have the text sent to the printer driver as graphics. Use this option when the text will not print or is of poor quality. Use Software Clipping for Fills (Non-PostScript drivers only) The shape of a vector object is used as a clipping path for the fill that is applied. Use this option when fill clipping calculations on complex objects cause printer memory or printing errors, or when fills print outside the outline of the filled object. Output Bitmaps In 64k Chunks (Non-PostScript drivers only) This option can help speed up the printing process with non-PostScript printer drivers or when printing complex graphics. Select this option if the printer is unable to handle the entire amount of information being sent to the printer. This is particularly useful with older printer drivers. Send Beziers and Paths To Driver (Non-PostScript drivers only) Speeds up printing from non-PostScript laser printers that utilize PCL6 language. Allows the device driver to process Bezier curves and path information. The default is OFF for Windows NT and ON for Windows 95. Send Bands To Driver (Non-PostScript drivers only) Non-PostScript printers receive a single segment of data at a time. Use this option if printing becomes too complex for the printer's memory. Use Color Profile For Composite Uses the selected color profile when printing composite images. This option associates a specific profile with a specific printer, and overrides what is selected in the printer dialog box. For example, this can be a time saver when moving back and forth to a proofing printer since profiles do not have to be toggled each time the proofing printer is selected. Do Not Override is enabled from the drop down so that the changes made here are confined to this particular output device.