Hewlett Packard Design Jet 755CM
- Large-Format Color 300dpi Printer/Plotter
nhpbig01 - located in the
hallway 11th floor near room 1104.
Usage:
lpr -Pnhpbig01 filename
The printer accepts both
Postscript (ps) and Hewlett Packard Graphics Language (hpgl) files.
Maximum size for postscript output is 3 feet x 9 feet and for hpgl
is 3 feet x 50 feet.
We have found that the processing time takes from 6 to 90 minutes
when printing posters. During this time the LED screen on the
printer will be flashing the word "Processing". Postscript lines
and stroke fonts have to be reinterpreted as dots/inch, thus
add time. The printing time is consistent with the amount of
information in the drawing. Thus have some patience while waiting
for the machine to begin printing.
The machine has 3 print qualities which can be set on the front
panel - best, normal, and fast.
The users manual is available
on-line
or locally in
/tools/aml-estarose/printers.
Some Suggestions for Creating
Posters:
PowerPoint:
An easy way to construct a poster is to use Microsoft PowerPoint
(or the equivalent in openOffice or soffice).
To begin, create a one page presentation by selecting:
File -> "Page Setup"
Set width to 48. inches and height to 36. inches (for example).
Slides should have "landscape" checked.
Format->"Slide Layout"
Choose the first example under content - a blank page.
Now you're ready to construct your poster by inserting images,
composing text, and using the various tools.
If you'd like to insert powerpoint slides from a previous
presentation, in that presentation select each slide you'd
like to use and convert it to an image:
Select all the elements of the slide by dragging a box around
the image. Then on one of the corners of the selection boxes,
right click. A menu will appear that has an option to "save as a picture".
Save as an "Enhanced Windows Metafile".
Later insert this file as a picure file into your poster presentation.
When the poster is done, print it by selecting "File" -> "Print" and
choosing "nhpbig01".
Then click on the "Properties" button.
On the window that appears select "Advanced".
On the new window that appears, select the "Paper Size". "Arch E" is the correct size
for a 36"x48" poster. Other sizes such as 36"x 60" can be selected also.
Leave the orientation at "Portrait". The Windows system takes a while
(perhaps 10 minutes) to send the poster to the CIMS printer queue.
To make 8 1/2 x 11 inch versions of the poster:
Select "Abobe PDF" -> "save to pdf file"
This file will print to the normal sized printers.
PDF:
Posters created as pdf files work very well.
When printing you must first go to "Printer Setup" select the
printer, then go to "Properties" , select "Advanced" and
under "Paper Size" set size to "archE" or another apropriate format.
(Otherwise you will get a letter size poster).
Latex:
Posters can be created with latex
using images created by other visualization packages - matlab , avs
, openGL etc. Here is a prototype for a 3, 4 or 5 column poster
created with latex poster.tex
and the a0 configuration file for large size posters config.a0. Sample output in a4 size (8.5x11)
posterL.ps (27Megs). This latex prototype was prepared
by NYU Post-Doc Christiane Marliani and her colleagues at the
Henriche-Heine-Universitat in Dusseldorf.
Here is an example of a poster prepared by graduate student Eunok
Jung eunox_poster.tex using eunox.tex.
Instructions to run latex poster file:
run poster
Postscript:
Alex Barnett has created a webpage (with sample code) explaining
how he created a poster
directly using Postscript, a C program, xfig and gs.
Making large format posters
at the Courant
Image Magick's
Montage:
Montage can be used to assemble a
group of postscript (or other image) files into one postscript file
to be used on the large format printer.
Example: To make a composite image of 6
100x100 images with a white border of 10 pixels around each
one.
epsffit can be used to make a poster
in one size and convert it into one of another size. ( Important:
see note about disabling Auto Scaling below, under Hints and
Problems:). For example to convert a large poster to one of 8.5 x
11 inches (letter size):
This command will convert a
postscript file to one which is standard letter size. Postscript
uses 1/72-inch units. Thus normal letter size being 8.5 x 11 inches
translates into 0-612 in x, and 0-792 in y. The -c option centers
the image.
Inversely a poster can be developed in letter-size (for printing
on the standard printers and viewing with the standard ghostview)
and magnified with epsffit for the large printer. This is a
recommended procedure for making posters.
When viewing a large file with
display, a small window with a slider will appear on the right side
of the image. This slider can be used to navigate through the
image.
Some tools which generate postscript
files include auto scaling in the code. This code detects the size
of the printer and thus scales and perhaps rotates the image to fit
that printer. This is either a desirable or non-desirable
effect.
SDSC Image Tools' imconv
This tool includes code for auto
orienting, sizing, and positioning. A CHANGE THIS comment in the
code, lets one choose his/her desired parameters. After disabling
automatic scaling a program like
epsffit can be used to create output of a designated size.
We've had some problems printing
postscript files with older fragment code (like psfrag) generated
from latex. Without this code the file prints.
Supplies:
- The printer is in the hallway of WWH 11th floor by room 1104.
Spare ink and paper rolls for the printer are found in WWH 1104.
Instructions for replacing paper
rolls and ink are found in the pocket at the back-right of the
printer. For supplies, help in loading paper into the printer,
and any problems contact
Estarose Wolfson in room 1104 or David McQueen in WWH 510.
