23.6.2 The Print Dialog Box

The Print dialog box is for customizing the printing options and performing the printing. Note that the controls in it are dependent upon the active window type (graph, workbook, Excel workbook, etc.)

The Printer Group

Select the printer from the Name drop-down list. If the printer you want to use is not in the list of available printers, add the printer through the Windows Control Panel.

Click the Properties button to set options specific to the printer driver selected from the Name drop-down list.

Select the Print to File check box to print the selected window(s) to a file. This must be selected when you want to create a PostScript file. It is only available when you select Current in the drop-down list in the Print Graph group below when a Graph, Function Graph, or Layout Page Window is Active .

The Print Graph, Print, or Print Range Group

  • When a Graph, Function Graph, or Layout Page window is active
Object Selection drop-down list

Specify the graph, function graph, or layout page windows in the project to print. Here, you can select the current file, the files in project(open or all), the files in active folder(open or all), or all files in the active folder and its subfolders.

Options

This button opens the More Print Options dialog.

Skip Points

Worksheet Data, Skip Points controls the number of worksheet data points displayed in the printed graph(s). When this check box is selected, the Maximum Points Per Curve text box become enabled. Then you can specify the maximum number of points to print for each data plot in this text box.

Skipping points increases the printing speed of data plots which contain large data sets. This option does not effect the worksheet or screen display of the data sets. When this check box is selected, Origin also disables its high-quality dash lines and hatch patterns, converting them into printer supported forms.

Similar to the Worksheet Data, Skip Points check box and text box, the Matrix Data, Maximum Points check box and text boxes control the number of matrix data points displayed in the printed graph.

Enable Color as Gray Scale/Use Simplified Colors

Origin provides two controls for printing a color graph as a black-on-white output: the Enable Color as Gray Scale check box and the Use Simplified Colors check box. Only one of these check boxes is available when you select File: Print. Origin activates one of the check boxes after querying the default printer driver to determine how many colors the printer supports.

For printers that support only two colors, the Enable Color as Gray Scale check box is made available.

  • If you clear this check box, Origin prints black-on-white. In this case, axes and labels will output as black-on-white, irrespective of their color. (In Origin 6.0, if the graph background was black and the axes were white, the axes were not visible in the output because both the background and the axes were printed as white.)
  • If you select this check box, Origin sends to the printer the same colors as those for the screen and lets the printer handle them the best it can.

For printers that support more than two colors (this does not imply that the printer is a color printer, because it could support multiple non-dithered shades of gray), the Use Simplified Colors check box is made available.

  • If you clear this check box, Origin sends to the printer the same colors as those for the screen and lets the printer handle them the best it can.
  • If you select this check box, Origin prints black-on-white as described for the Enable Color as Gray Scale check box.
  • When a worksheet or matrix Window is active
Selection

Select the Selection check box to print a range of data. Type the desired column and row range in the associated text boxes.

Alternatively, highlight the desired worksheet or matrix data before opening this dialog box. Select the Selection check box to display (and print) the selected range in the associated text boxes

Option

This button opens the Option dialog.

  • When a Notes Window is active
All

If the text in a notes window extends beyond a page, select the All radio button to print all pages in the window.

Pages

To print specific pages of a notes window, select the Pages radio button and type the desired page values in the associated text boxes.

  • When an Excel workbook is active
Print Range

To print a range of pages, select the Pages radio button and then specify the page range in the From and To list boxes.

Print What

Select the desired radio button to print a sheet, a selected range, or an entire workbook.

The Copies Group

Type or select the number of copies you want to print from the Number of Copies spin box.

Select the Collate check box, if you want the multiple copies to be collated.

The OK Button

Click this button to print using the current Print dialog box settings.