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Printing... Do's, don'ts, experiences and tips.

Show Profile  JohnR Posted: 3 May 2014, 4:16 PM  
Why don,t we put the logos in the program and keep the map clear of rubbish and problems---simple

Show Profile  rhigham Posted: 4 May 2014, 2:26 AM  
To get an overprinting view of course files in OCAD use the draft mode in menu item 'View', then all the hidden knolls and slope lines under the purple bits can be seen.

Show Profile  onemanfanclub Posted: 4 May 2014, 4:22 AM  
...or, following on from Robbie, as Ross and Duncan (Sprint the Bay) and one or two others have figured out, there's a whole Other Side of the piece of paper with plenty of room for sponsors' logos and the like.

Show Profile  Paul I Posted: 6 May 2014, 8:54 AM  
Duncan/Ross, any chance of some additional advice from informed technical masters?

Show Profile  Paul I Posted: 6 May 2014, 8:56 AM  
Duncan/Ross, any chance of some additional advice from informed technical masters?
Unfortunately I don't think some sponsors would be that keen on likened to rubbish.

Show Profile  DMjunior Posted: 7 May 2014, 4:47 AM  
We use adobe illustrator to prepare the maps for STB. We set the courses in ocad and then export as PDF's and then bring into illustrator for all the borders and stuff. Works a treat (according to Ross who does that side).

Show Profile  The Map Guy Posted: 7 May 2014, 5:24 AM  
I too have been preparing maps as described by DMjunior for a number of years. AI is very good for importing multiple and/or complex raster images (including photographs). The only drawback is the PDF file size can get fairly large. Resizing and placement of the image is dead easy compared with trying to import it in via OCAD.
Condes also allows easy importing/resizing/placement of raster images.

Show Profile  Michael Posted: 12 May 2014, 11:59 AM  
Bitmap backgrounds in OCAD have been given a bad rap. That assessment may be too simplistic. I have half a dozen logos (png files) in the background of a current map, have used the OCAD pdf export, and the map itself appears to remain in vector form. That is, I cannot see any jaggies at high magnification in Adobe Reader, nor can I see the slightest suggestion of them when printed by a commercial printer. When OCAD asks for a resolution, I think it applies only to the bitmaps.

The answer may be different if the map has a background which has a background which has a background.... but there's no need to avoid bitmaps in this simple case.


Show Profile  Michael Posted: 12 May 2014, 1:38 PM  
It used to be that WYSIWYG was an advanced feature of software. Now WYSIWYG is expected, so much so that I haven't heard the term in years.

Well experimenting with "the overprint effect" brings back "what you see is NOT NECESSARILY what you get" and it might be a mixed blessing. To summarise, when you tick the "overprint" box for a colour then it becomes darker when it is drawn over another colour. Something that we might want to do with purple. But you don't see the effect on the screen. You only see it in the pdf when you adjust your preferences. I think you only see it on the paper if you print from Adobe Reader. At a commercial printer, the operator has to do something to recognise overprint.

Now the crunch point (correct me if I'm wrong). Many maps are drawn with colours on top of other colours. Either little overlaps to speed up drawing, or in some cases a dirty great big overlap. Switching on overprint for the colours recommended in the spec (purple black brown blue green) may cause unwanted darkness variations. Streams on yellow will become green. So will a pond unless you cut a hole in the yellow.

We may have been saved from problems only by (a) old files including files that borrow their symbols from old files, which don't have overprint ticked (b) our commercial printers don't usually have overprint switched on. But if you started a new file in OCAD you could get darker contours in green (good) and green streams in yellow (bad). Strangely, a fresh OCAD file (from version 11) has control circles in a no-overprint purple.

Add to my understanding, all. Come in, Jymbo and Ken.

Show Profile  Michael Posted: 13 May 2014, 3:01 AM  
Ken Dowling (Oz OCAD agent) says "Actually I think I did encounter it a couple of years ago when OCAD had a bug that caused rasterisation of the whole map or something - but I think that was in OCAD 10 and they fixed it promptly." So keep your versions up to date.

Show Profile  Paul I Posted: 13 May 2014, 10:54 AM  
Overprinting - Michael that's a good point. I am thinking though that the yellow colours default is not ticked for overprint. So surely/maybe that means that a blue will not overprint on yellow. However the blue is ticked so not completely confident that this is the case. Need someone to try it!

Show Profile  Paul I Posted: 13 May 2014, 10:59 AM  
Bitmaps images -
Strange though, it was these that I imported (to Ocad 9) for Middle Earth National middle. The final maps were pretty sharp I thought. I think we had to select a high dpi somewhere in the printing process.

Show Profile  Michael Posted: 13 May 2014, 4:42 PM  
Overprinting: Only takes 5min to do Paul:-))

Show Profile  Michael Posted: 23 May 2014, 11:18 AM  
Selwyn has confirmed that there's a printing pitfall which may one day hit you when you pick up your maps (how long before the event???) Blue over yellow which looked fine on the screen in OCAD may turn out green. What follows is a bit tentative, if anyone can show that this is all a bad dream please say so.

It would arise from an OCAD file with the OCAD default colour table, which has certain colours ticked in the "Overprint" column. (I.e. you made it using File..New.. and picked the ISOM 1:10,000 or 1:15,000 symbols) Overprint sounds like a good idea but it is bad for blue and may be "interesting" for other colours too. (It might be good for purple, that's why we are experimenting.)

When you look at your file in OCAD the blue replaces the yellow. When you make a pdf an "overprint" code is put into the pdf. When you inspect the pdf in Adobe Reader the blue replaces the yellow UNLESS you flick a switch in the edit preferences. When you print the pdf on your home printer the blue may turn into green. We haven't sorted out what controls this, there's an overprint switch in the print dialogue under "advanced" but it sometimes works, sometimes not.

Who knows what is going to happen at your print-shop on the Friday before the event? They may use Adobe Reader to send your file to their printer, or they may have fancy printer-management software. Whatever, the result may not be as it seemed to you on your screen. Until we get a better handle on this, it would seem advisable to inspect your colour tables and make sure "overprint" is off for blue. And colours should not be drawn on top of other colours even if they seem to block out the underneath one.

Show Profile  fraser Posted: 23 May 2014, 12:42 PM  
This is how OpenOrienteering does it http://sourceforge.net/p/oorienteering/tickets/193/

And in the software it is as simple as selecting a checkbox.


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