If the same page is output to different printers under Windows, this can lead to different results, since printer drivers allow different interpretations of elements. For instance, each printer may have its own fonts, which lead to different printing results. Each printer type also has different printable margins, so different positions on the page can occur.
Electrical documentation is often printed in DIN A4 format even though a DIN A3 plot frame is used. This leads to problems when putting the pages into binders, since the holes in the plot frame are in a different place. Another problem with incorrect binding is that the terminal diagram ("left to right" orientation) is upside down.
Print settings
EPLAN provides you the option of making different settings for printing in order to adapt the output of project pages. For instance, the print size, print margins, and positioning on the page can all be determined.
In the print preview, you can check the effects of your settings before printing. The page size selected and the printable area are displayed, along with the positioning on the page.
Reverse print order
Electrical documentation can consist of many hundreds of pages, and some portions must be printed in several copies (this is normally performed at night). Not every printer can handle hundreds of pages in its normal configuration. Some printers, for instance, have a second page feeder that simply pushes the pages out the back, but doesn't turn the pages. Reverse print order is not offered as a standard feature by all printer manufacturers. For this reason, EPLAN supports a reverse print order internally.
Scaling
Independent of the paper format, pages are scaled to the page output format of the printer. When doing this, the aspect ratio can be retained or the entire page can be printed, as required.
Scaling can also be deactivated in order to output pages at 1:1 scale. This is often important for graphics pages and mounting diagrams.
Color or black and white printing
In the print settings (Project > Print > [Settings]) you can switch between black and white and color printing. The Print in black and white option is selected as standard. In this case, all elements (except inserted image files) will be printed in black on a white background on a color printer. Image files are always output in their original colors. They are only printed in gray levels when the printer driver of the color printer is set to black and white, or if you are using a black and white printer.
When you switch to color printing, all of the elements are printed in colors corresponding to the color scheme "Color on white" (even if you have selected a different color scheme for the screen display).
Note:
If the Print in black and white check box is deselected and the project is printed on a black and white printer, then all color information is converted into gray scales by the printer. This can result in, for instance, a yellow line being printed only as a light dotted line.
External documents
External documents can be printed from EPLAN. The program associated with the external document is started and is provided with the print command. The print settings, such as Reverse print order, Number of copies, and Collating, have no effect on the external documents. Moreover, no plot frames are printed and the page numbers are not incremented in the project. Pages of external documents are also not presented in the print preview.
Pages of external documents are always printed at the end of a document in separate print jobs. If multiple external documents are printed from multiple projects, they are always printed after all of the other documents.
Note:
Documents linked via hyperlinks are not printed via Project > Print. However, these can be printed via Project > Print attached documents, as long as the files are located on a local drive or a network drive to which you have access.
See also