GNU Info
(gimpprint.info)The GIMP plugin
The GIMP Print plugin
=====================
The GIMP Print plugin is the printing facility for the GNU Image
Manipulation Program(1). This section examines the features offered by
the Print plugin.
The main window is divided into five panes:
Preview
-------
The Preview pane contains a positioning widget that allows
interactively positioning the output on the page. It contains an outer
border, representing the sheet of paper; an inner border, representing
the printable area of the printer; an arrow, pointing to the top of the
page (the end that's fed into the printer); and a black rectangle,
representing the position of the image on the page. The image can be
moved around on the paper. When the first (left) button is used, the
image is moved in screen pixels; when any other button is used, the
image is moved in points(2). The arrow resizes depending upon the
media size chosen; the shaft of the arrow is always equal to one inch
on the output.
[Figure not available in Info format]
Printer Settings
----------------
The Printer Settings pane contains a dropdown menu for selecting a
printer to print to. There is a special `printer' named `File' that
allows you to choose a file to print to, rather than a printer queue.
The Setup box to the right allows specification of a printer type, a
PPD file(3), and the command to be used to print. Each distinct
printer in the Printer list can have different settings applied to it.
Below that is a combo box allowing choice of media size. The choices
are constrained to those that the printer supports. Below that are
dropdown menus for choosing media type (what kind of paper), media
source (what input tray), ink type, and resolution. All of these
settings are printer-specific.
[Figure not available in Info format]
Position
--------
The Position pane contains various widgets to place the image on the
paper. These widgets work in conjunction with the Preview pane. At the
top of the pane is a button to center the image on the paper (not on the
printable area), and on either side buttons to center vertically and
horizontally. Below these are four boxes that allow entry of the left,
top, right, and bottom of the image. These positions are relative to
the top left of the paper(4). There are two additional boxes that
allow specification of the right margin and bottom margin if you
prefer; these are relative to the bottom right corner of the paper.
Any of these may have values entered into them; the preview image will
be moved appropriately.
*Note*: These entries do not resize the image.
Finally, there is a pick box for orientation (landscape or portrait).
There is an `Auto' mode that picks the orientation that yields the
orientation that best matches that of the image to be printed.
Scaling
-------
The Scaling pane contains a slider that allows scaling of the image.
The image can be scaled in either percent of the printable area (*not*
the page in this case) or pixels per inch (PPI) via a radio button
below the slider. PPI allows matching image resolution to printer
resolution. The image may be scaled using either method to between 5
and 100% of the imageable area. It is not possible to crop with the
Print plugin. In Percent mode, the image is scaled so that neither
axis will be longer than the percent of the printable area specified.
For example, if you print an image at 20%, it will be possible to tile
the image 5 times on one axis and at least 5 times on the other. To
the right of the radio button is a button called Set Image Scale. This
sets the scaling to PPI, and sets the resolution as closely as possible
to the resolution stored in the image. To the right of the Set Image
Scale button are two boxes that allow entry of width and height of the
image. These set the scaling mode to PPI. Specifying one
automatically sets the other, and the image is repositioned as needed
to prevent it from falling off the edge of the page.
To its right is a button group that allows choosing English (inch)
units or metric (centimeter) units.
Image Settings
--------------
The Image Settings pane allows choice of Line Art, Solid Colors, or
Photograph image type. Line art or Solid Colors should be used for
graphics containing mostly solid areas of color. They're very similar
to each other. Photograph mode dithers more slowly, but produces more
accurate colors. To the right of these three radio buttons is a button
called Adjust Color. This pops up a new window that controls various
output quality settings. That will be described separately. Finally,
there is a choice of Black and White, Color and Monochrome output.
Monochrome output can be used to print absolute black and white very
quickly.
Adjust Output
.............
The Adjust Output button button pops up a non-modal dialog that
allows adjustment of various parameters related to the print quality.
These are independent of the controls within the GIMP itself and only
affect the print.
[Figure not available in Info format]
At the top of the window is a thumbnail of the image that changes to
reflect the color settings of the image. This enables you to get an
idea of how the image will print out as you adjust settings.
Below that there are eight sliders:
_Brightness_
(0-2.0, default 1.0) Adjust the brightness of the image.
_Contrast_
(0-4.0, default 1.0) Adjust the output contrast.
_Cyan, Magenta, Yellow_
(0-4.0, default 1.0) Adjust the cyan, magenta, and yellow in the
output. These should not normally need to be adjusted very much;
even very small adjustments can go quite a long way to restoring
color balance.
_Saturation_
(0-9.0, default 1.0) Adjust the color brilliance (saturation) of
the output. Saturation of 0 means pure gray scale, with no color.
Saturation of 9.0 will make just about anything but pure grays
brilliantly colored.
_Density_
(0.1-2.0, default 1.0) Adjust the density (amount of ink) in the
print. The density is automatically corrected for the particular
printer, resolution, and in some cases paper choices. If solid
black in the input is not solid in the print, the density needs to
be increased; if there is excessive ink bleed-through and muddy
dark colors, the density should be decreased.
*Note*: the density will not increase beyond a certain amount no
matter what the slider is set to.
_Gamma_
(0.1-4.0, default 1.0) Adjust the output gamma. The gamma value is
automatically corrected for the choice of printer; this is used if
you believe the automatic setting is incorrect.
Dither Algorithm
................
There is also a selection box for the dither algorithm to be used in
the pop-up dialog. There are currently seven choices:
_Adaptive Hybrid_
Adaptive Hybrid usually yields the best output quality; it chooses
a modified Floyd-Steinberg error diffusion algorithm or ordered
dithering depending upon the image characteristics.
_Ordered_
Ordered uses a pure ordered dither. It generally yields excellent
quality for simple black and white or four color printers without
variable drop size or drop modulation; it is not recommended if
high quality is desired on six color printers. It is considerably
faster than Adaptive Hybrid.
_Fast_
Fast also uses a pure ordered dither, but uses a very simple black
model and makes no attempt to handle multi-level (6-color,
variable drop size, or drop modulation) at all cleanly. It is
substantially faster than Ordered dither. The quality tends to be
quite poor except on simple four color printers. On three color
printers, quality is probably competitive with anything else.
_Very Fast_
Very Fast is similar to Fast, except that it uses a very simple
dither matrix that can be looked up much more quickly than the
matrix used in the Fast dither. For simple pure black and white
images dominated by horizontal and vertical lines, this may
actually yield the best results; for other types of image, the
quality will be poor.
_Adaptive Random_
Adaptive Random is similar to Adaptive Hybrid, except that the
modifications to the Floyd-Steinberg algorithm are slightly
different. This is slower than Adaptive Hybrid on most systems.
For some images the quality may be better than Adaptive Hybrid,
but generally Adaptive Hybrid should yield slightly superior
images.
_Hybrid Floyd-Steinberg_
Hybrid Floyd-Steinberg uses the modified Floyd-Steinberg algorithm
of Adaptive Hybrid on the entire image. Generally, the results
are poor in pale regions.
_Random Floyd-Steinberg_
Random Floyd-Steinberg uses the modified Floyd-Steinberg algorithm
of Adaptive Random on the entire image. Generally, the results
are poor in pale regions.
Action Buttons
--------------
The last pane contains four action buttons:
_Print and Save Settings_
Immediately print the image (or, if the File printer is chosen,
display a file selection window to pick the output file), and save
all current settings for all printers.
_Save Settings_
Immediately save the settings, and continue working in the Print
plugin.
_Print_
Immediately print the image (or, if the `File' printer is chosen,
display a file selection window to pick the output file), but do
not save settings.
_Cancel_
Immediately quit without saving settings or printing.
---------- Footnotes ----------
(1) `http://www.gimp.org'
(2) The output resolution of the plugin.
(3) For Postscript printers.
(4) Again, that's relative to the paper corner, not the printable
area, which is usually smaller.
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