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This command prints the current image on any Windows-compatible printer. If you output to a black and white printer, the image will automatically be converted to black and white during the printing process. Due to differences in the way color images are displayed on the screen and the color printers generate hard copy, it can be difficult to get a good match between the picture you see on the screen and what comes out of the printer.
When you execute the Print command, Picture Window first displays the standard Windows Print dialog box. Use this dialog box to select the printer you want to use and settings such as the resolution and number of copies you want printed. To select portrait vs. landscape printing or to select a particular printer or printer option, click the Setup button. When you are ready to proceed, click OK. At this point Picture Window displays its own Print dialog box:
Cropping Rectangle
Once you reach the Print dialog box, Picture Window displays a cropping rectangle as an overlay on the window of the image you are printing. Initially, the cropping rectangle covers the entire image, but you can resize or reposition it by dragging its corners, sides, or interior. Only the part of the image inside the cropping rectangle will be printed. Depending on the Scale setting (see below), the proportions of the cropping rectangle may be constrained.
Page Preview
A page preview area occupies the right-hand side of the dialog box. The page preview is a scaled down representation of the output page as it will be printed so you can check the size and orientation of the image. The page preview also reflects any Printer Curves you may have selected (see below). The darker gray area around the image represents the page size. The lighter gray represents parts of the page the image does not cover. This is for illustration purposes only -- these gray areas both print as paper white and not as gray.
Caption
Any text you enter into the caption control is printed in the upper left-hand corner of the page for identification purposes. To label an image properly, use the Text or Layout Transformation.
Page Size
The size of the output page is displayed in the current units.
Scale
This control lets you select how you want the image scaled.
to image dimensions -- The image is printed at its nominal size computed from its resolution (dpi) setting and pixel dimensions. If this size exceeds the area of the page between the margins, the image is automatically scaled to fit page (see below).
one to one -- The image is printed at the printer resolution, regardless of the resolution (dpi) setting of the image. Using this option one pixel in the image equals one pixel on the printer. If the resulting image size exceeds the available print area between the current margins, the image is automatically scaled to fit page (see below). Note that most inkjet printers have a driver resolution lower than the actual size of a printer dot since it takes a group of dots to represent a pixel – for example a 2880 dpi Epson printer might actually have a driver resolution of 720 dpi.
to fit page -- The image is scaled as large as possible to fit the space between the margins.
custom -- Lets you enter an image width or height (see below). If you enter a size that is too large for the available print area, the image is automatically reduced to fit the page. The proportions of the cropping rectangle (see above) are constrained to match those of the custom dimensions you enter.
The image is always scaled by the same percentage horizontally and vertically to avoid stretching it.
The location of the image on the page can be controlled by adjusting the margins and horizontal/vertical alignment (see below). For example, to move the image to the right, increase the left margin and set Horizontal Alignment to Left.
To create multi-image page layouts, first use the Layout Transformation to create a single image at the desired resolution and then print the composite image.
Image Width and Image Height
The size of the image as it will appear on the page is displayed in inches. If the custom scale option is selected (see above), you can enter custom values for the image width or height.
Units
The units control (located just to the right of Image Width) lets you work in inches, millimeters, or centimeters.
Image dpi
This readout can be used to get some idea of print quality before printing the image. The dpi (dots per inch) setting displayed next to the image height is computed by dividing the width of the image (or the part of the image being printed) in pixels by the width of the image in inches on the paper. If the resulting value falls below 150 dpi, at a normal viewing distance, the resulting print will start to look soft or blurry. Beyond 300 dpi there is likely to be little noticeable improvement in perceived image sharpness. All of this assumes that the original image is of high quality and that your printer has good resolution (600 dpi or greater). If the original image is soft or the printer has a lower resolution, you can get away with printing a lower dpi setting.
Orientation
This control lets you optionally print the image rotated 90 degrees, for example to better match the paper size.
Normal -- The image is sent to the printer unrotated.
Rotated -- The image is rotated 90 degrees and printed on its side. This setting is useful for printing images that have landscape proportions on a page with a portrait orientation or vice versa.
Auto -- The image is printed in the orientation that permits the largest possible image size when combined with scale to fit page.
The Mirror Image checkbox lets you print the image reflected about it vertical midline -- useful for certain types of printmaking.
Horizontal and Vertical Alignment
These controls settings let you control where the image is printed if it is smaller than the printable area (the available space between the left and right or top and bottom margins). Horizontal Alignment lets you line up the image with the left edge, the center, or the right edge of the printable area. Vertical alignment lets you line up the image with the top edge, the center, or the bottom edge of the printable area.
Margins
These four controls let you enter the left, right, top, and bottom margins in the current units. If you attempt to set any of the margins to values smaller than the minimum margins supported by the printer, they will revert automatically to the minimum legal values.
Clicking the Minimum button next to the left margin setting resets all four margins to their minimum legal values.
Clicking the Equal button next to the right margin setting sets the right, top and bottom margins equal to the left margin.
Tiling
The Tile controls let you print images larger than will fit on a single page by breaking them into sections called tiles. The final image is assembled by trimming and mounting multiple pages together into a single, large composite. You can print images very large using this method (up to 20 by 20 tiles), assuming you have the patience the paper, and a reliable printer.
The Horizontal Tile setting specifies how many pages wide to print and the Vertical Tile setting specifies how many pages tall to print. Guide lines are displayed on the page preview image to show the tile boundaries. Once you start printing, the image is automatically broken up into tiles and each one is printed on a separate page.
The overlap between tiles (in the current units) is controlled by the Overlap setting. With overlap set to zero, adjacent tiles will just fit together if they are trimmed perfectly at the edge of the image. Setting a larger overlap value leaves you some room for error when trimming the edges.
When you are ready to start printing, click the OK button, or click the Cancel button to exit without printing.
Print Pages
When printing a tiled image, it may be necessary to reprint a subset of the pages if a printer error occurs. The Print Pages setting lets you specify a range of pages to print – any pages outside of this range are not output.
Custom Profile and Rendering Intent
When printing an image with color management enabled, Custom Profile and Rendering Intent controls are displayed at the bottom of the Print dialog box.
By default, printing is done assuming color management is done by the printer.
If you select a custom profile Picture Window transforms your image from its native color space using the specified profile before sending it to the printer. This requires that you have a profile for your printer -- sometimes generic profiles are supplied with the printer driver or from the paper manufacturer. Or for the most accurate results you can use a color profiling program to create a custom profile for the printer, inks, and paper you are using. In this case you must disable any color management or color adjustment by the printer.
The Rendering Intent control lets you specify how colors are transformed from the original image color space to the printer color space:
Maintain Full Gamut -- Expands or contracts the full image gamut to cover the full printer gamut. This is the normal setting for photographic images.
Preserve Saturation -- Gives priority to matching saturation when searching for the printer colors that best match the corresponding image colors. This setting is intended for use with business graphics such as charts.
Preserve Identical Colors -- Match printer colors as accurately as possible to the corresponding image colors. This setting is useful when an absolute match is required as in printing an image of a sweater in a catalog that needs to be as close as possible to the color of the actual sweater.
Preserve Identical Colors and White Point -- Match printer colors as accurately as possible to the corresponding image colors while keeping white unchanged.
Preserve Identical Colors and Black Point -- Match printer colors as accurately as possible to the corresponding image colors while keeping black unchanged.
Printer curves
This function allows you to pick a printer curve that can make the print look more nearly like the displayed image. Printer curves can be created and saved using the Monitor Curves function.
Tips
Printing images of a specific size
To print an image at a specific size, set the Scale control to Custom and enter the desired image width and height into the Image Width and then (after waiting for the preview to update) the Image Height controls. Once you have entered the desired size, if the proportions of the print don’t already match those of the image, adjust the cropping rectangle displayed over the window of the image you are printing to the part of the image you want to print.
Printing images at a specific location on the page
To position the printed image off center on the page, adjust the left/right or top/bottom margins.
If your prints are coming out too dark…
There are several causes of this problem:
You monitor is too bright – using a monitor calibrator can help you set your monitor to a standard brightness level. Using a high monitor brightness setting makes on-screen images look more luminous, but printers cannot duplicate the contrast range of a monitor so prints will look dull by comparison.
You are viewing prints is too dim a light. The standard viewing light for prints is actually quite bright. Viewing prints in dimmer light makes them look muddy and obscures shadow detail.
The image is dark. Check the histogram and make sure it runs all the way to white or close to it.
You can compensate for prints being too dark by creating a custom printer curve or by using one of the predefined curves such as Dot Gain 15% inverse.