(gimpprint.info.gz) 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.
 
    * 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.
 
      * 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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