* FH PDF Printer Dialogue Box opening Position

[Gowermick]

When I print to the PDF Printer, the FH PDF Printer dialogue box always opens Top-Left of my screen, which on my wide screen is very annoying.

Anyone know of way for it to remember where I last moved it to, or failing that, make it open at centre of screen?

UPDATE It seems to be a common windows problem, so I've given MS feedback via their feedback hub

[neil40]

Is this a report or a diagram?
For me in a report, I click Print on the right, and the dialogue comes up in the centre
For me in a diagram if I go to Diagram>Save Diagram as...>PDF File, again, it opens in the centre, click OK and the next dialogue opens in the centre, clicking OK to that opens the FH PDF dialogue top left - I presume this is the one?

I presume this is a 'Feature' of the novaPDF driver. Looking at it's printer properties, I can't see any option to force it to 'remember' or place it central screen.

I don't use it often enough to be an irritant, and just moved it to the centre of the screen, though top left for me is still OK.

[Gowermick]

clicking OK to that opens the FH PDF dialogue top left - I presume this is the one?

Yes, that is the one. It looks like I'll have to live with it until MS comes up with a solution. Apparently problem has existed for at least 10 years according to MS Community, so I won't hold my breath waiting for a solution

[Mark1834]

The FH PDF printer is really just a leftover from the early days of FH when Windows didn't include a native PDF printer. Just use the Microsoft PDF printer instead - it's just as capable, and better behaved.

[neil40]

The FH PDF printer is really just a leftover from the early days of FH when Windows didn't include a native PDF printer. Just use the Microsoft PDF printer instead - it's just as capable, and better behaved.

MS applications 'tend' to remember where you left them, EG on which particular screen if you use 2 or more monitors, and I tend to find it's none MS apps that don't, presumably missing some coding that MS use for this function?

[Gowermick]

Just use the Microsoft PDF printer instead - it's just as capable, and better behaved.

Well I disagree with that!

1. FH PDF Printer allows me to change DPI setting to 2400, whereas MS PDF printer has no useful advanced settings, just Portrait or Landscape!

2. It left off most of my diagram, instead of getting a PDF file approx 73Mb, I got a file of only 178Kb

MS PDF printer may be ok for simple text files like reports, but IMHO it's rubbish at printing Diagrams!

Only thing going for MS PDF Printer, is the dialogue opens at centre of screen!

[Mark1834]

OK, I assume you must have particularly detailed diagrams with lots of images. I've just generated a 12 page "All Relatives" diagram from the Sample Project using Microsoft Print to PDF, and it displays and prints perfectly.

[tatewise]

Mark, which Save as PDF File option did you choose?
Use Current Page Layout for me produced a PDF with 12 separate pages which is not what users usually want.
Adjust PDF File Page Size so that Diagram fits into One Page for me produced only the 1st top left page instead of the entire Diagram in one PDF page.
With the Family Historian PDF printer this option produces a single-page PDF containing the entire Diagram, which does not seem possible with the MS PDF printer.
I am using the Family Historian Sample Project with an All Relatives diagram and default settings.

[Mark1834]

I normally print diagrams the other way around - adjust the scale to fit on the required number of pages, then just print. This is an All Relatives diagram for Ian Munro with default settings on a single page with a 220 kb file size.

The only limitation I can find for the Microsoft Print to PDF driver is that it doesn't seem to support a page size greater than A3 or very high resolutions capable for being blown up, so probably unsuitable for huge A0 or A1 poster prints, but for home printing it looks fine.

My challenges back to Mike L are why does this one limitation make it "rubbish at printing Diagrams", and why would you want 1200 dpi resolution anyway? It's 16 times the file size of 300 dpi with no discernible increase in quality, and for many printing applications 150 dpi (one sixty-fourth of the data) is fine unless you have particularly detailed originals.

Are we talking about the same thing?

[Gowermick]

Mark

As you may have guessed from the size of my files, It was a large All Ancestor. - Left to Right diagram in high resolution colour (2400dpi), which FH PDF printer handled with ease, producing a single page diagram.

Addendum-I don’t want to print a file at all, I just want to produce a high resolution image for viewing on my iPad, which FH PDF printer handles extremely well!

Mike,

Glad it wasn’t me doing something wrong, my experience mirrored yours, with just a single page being produced. My large diagram was approx 150” x 68”, but it seem MS PDF printer can’t deal with that. Next time I’m at my PC, I’ll see if I can specify a custom print/paper size for MS PDF printer, although when I tried advanced settings, I didn’t see such an option.

[Mark1834]

Mike (L) - my 220 kb file looks just fine on the ipad as well, and blows up extremely well. Why do you need such huge page sizes and resolutions?

Technically, you are printing, but to pdf not paper - the same comments apply equally. Unnecessarily high resolutions just create much larger files with no perceptible increase in quality. If you want very detailed diagrams, my recommendation would be to start at a low resolution (say 150 dpi) and gradually increase until you stop seeing a worthwhile improvement. Anything above that just takes longer to load and uses up excessive space.

[Gowermick]

Some of my images are very detailed, and at 300dpi are unreadable:-

300 DPI.jpg (131.89 KiB) Viewed 472 times

but 2400 very readable:=

2400 DPI.jpg (298.43 KiB) Viewed 472 times

We don't all just show photo's

All I have to do is workout why detailed baptism images don't come out as well, even at 2400dpi

[Mark1834]

Indeed we don’t - I have lots of such sources that display just fine at ordinary resolutions (150/300 dpi) without having to generate huge files.

What you are demonstrating is that combining very large diagrams with highly detailed images in the same output file is a tough ask for any printing system. I’m not saying you are wrong for wanting to do it, just pointing out that it’s probably a slightly niche requirement.

For more conventional single or multi-page pdf output, the MS Print to PDF driver is fine - you just have to remember to shrink the page to fit, rather than expect the printer to expand the page.