Print page layout setup

In the most scenarios there is no need to worry about the layout of the printed page. By default, AutoPrint uses the entire page area for printing, and normally you will ignore this section and start printing right away.
However, and this is not only a great feature but also a must for specific use cases, you can fine-tune where and how the input file content and other objects are placed on the page. Each print channel can get its individual layout setup.

2023-03-04

Print page layout - What does it mean?

Ideally, the printer output will reflect the original layout of the input document. In reality, there are often simple reasons why printouts sometimes deviate slightly from the expected result. A few examples:

• The paper size specifications of the input document differ from those of the printer output tray, like printing an A4 document on a ‘Letter’ sheet or reverse.
• The original document contains objects within the printers non-printable margins.
• The printing application slightly shrinks the page content, while ignoring the original technical scale factor.

AutoPrint is able to perform precise scaling and positioning of the source pages to the printouts according to your preferences.
You can add other objects such as watermarks or barcodes at specific positions.

Under the Print Channel Monitor on the main application window click the small tool button at the upper right edge of a specific print channel.
This will lead you directly to the relevant layout tab.

• Click the Setup button on the main application window
  to open the AutoPrint - Setup window.
• Here select the print channel you are going to modify.
• Click the Graphics processing button to open the layout
  settings tab.

Change the default settings

STEP 1 - Open the Graphics processing tab

If not already done, open the Graphics processing setup page. You will find two alternative ways to get there:

NOTE: Any of the following settings can be modified while the AutoPrint processing is still active, either in the application or in the service mode. After saving the changes AutoPrint will restart the relevant print channel with the new settings.

STEP 2 - Open the Setup print area window

Hoover over the small preview panel and click the center Setup print area button.
This will open a bigger setup window, which provides a more accurate preview of the final print result accompanied by many interactive settings options.

Together with the already visible Input objects scaling options panel in the tab center you got all necessary tools for your fine-tuning work:

STEP 3 - Adjust page layout parameters

The screen shows a representative area of the full paper size, that had been selected for printing before (see Printer settings).

 1  With the red dots adjust the size and the position of the target area, where the input file content (Payload) shall be located.

Normally, the upper left edge is the reference position for the layout, regardless of whether scaling is active or not. Only if the Center content option above is enabled, the center of the red rectangle becomes the reference point.

 2  If cropping content is disabled, AutoPrint considers only the upper left edge for positioning but also attempts to print beyond the target area, if the content occupies a larger area.

 3  The printers non-printable margin, the pink line  6 , is considered by the layout process per default. It can be disabled to allow an original 1:1 layout setup.

On the one hand, nothing can be printed in this area, on the other hand, almost all source documents come with a white margin here. This makes it possible to print without scaling, i.e. in original document size.

 4  If high accuracy is important, you can also enter the dimensional parameters of the target area here manually.

 5  Additional special objects, like bar codes or QR codes, can be positioned, here in the same way.