printing a chart file from another user

RobinL · Post by **RobinL** » 03 Jun 2009 23:32

It does not seem possible to correctly print a .FHC file emailed to me from another FH v4 user without that user also sending the whole GEDCOM file that created the data for that chart.

Is this true? If so, this is a severe limitation on this FH product. I can't just close the current project and import the the FH chart.

Any work arounds?

The user also sent a PDF of the same chart (2700mm wide, 800mm high) that I tried to print via Adobe Reader 8.1.2 on a wide format printer. While it is previewed OK in Adobe, there is a corruption in the PDF process for a chart of this size that means that it does not print correctly. It is as if the content is not correctly located on the page meaning that about the lefmost 700mm of the chart is not cut off and there is an extra about 700mm of blank paper at the right side of the chart. This is the first time that I have seen this error with PDF files in 8 years of printing them. From other family history programs I have printed charts up to 14.9m (49ft) on a single page.

Thanks.

ID:3801

YouTube · Post by **Jane** » 04 Jun 2009 06:23

The FHC file only contains the references which allows it to build the chart from the data, it is not a fully formatted chart.

I have not tried printing a large PDF so far on V4. There are some settings when printing the chart which can be changed so it might be worth experimenting with that. Another option is simply to get the other user to zip up their project folder and send it to you.

RobinL · Post by **RobinL** » 04 Jun 2009 06:52

Thanks for this response. I later had a dig inside the FHC file to see that it contained no user-entered data.

I presume that the FHC file is really only a collection of settings that the FH program uses to re-create the chart when it is required. Therefore it is not a portable self-contained file like the chart files output from other family history packages are.

It will be interesting to see whether others can replicate my experiences with large custom page size printing of FH generated PDF files.

Post by **hsw** » 04 Jun 2009 08:25

Just a thought -- does v4.02 fix the PDF problem?

RobinL · Post by **RobinL** » 04 Jun 2009 09:21

I would have expected that the download version was the latest, but I see that it is stuck at 4.0.0.

Further to the previous comments in this thread. I have now got the GED file that goes with the FHC file. The chart now prints directly correctly to the wide format printer.

So that leaves the PDF problem.

YouTube · Post by **Jane** » 04 Jun 2009 10:40

As I said in the announcement the 4.0.2 is not yet officially released, it's in the Early adopters phase, no doubt once Calico fully release it the download version will be updated.

With regard to the PDF problem it seems strange that the PDF renders correctly in Adobe, but fails to print correctly, to me this might suggest a subtle problem in the Adobe rendering, rather than a problem in the PDF file, I would have expected Adobe to preview the file incorrectly as well.

RobinL · Post by **RobinL** » 04 Jun 2009 11:28

BTW: I noticed that to get the particular chart onto a single sheet that I had to move the correct page size grid to the right and down. The movement to the right to get to the place where FH considers that the whole chart fitted on a single page is about the amount distance that became a blank space to the right of the printed PDF chart. I wonder whether there are two coordinate systems within the PDF and the rendering for output somehow trips over that distance that the page boundary was moved while creating the chart? Just a thought. There are too many variables at the moment, FH, the novaPDF writer used by FH, the Adobe Reader screen rendering and Adobe rendering of the output stream.

Does anyone know what PDF spec version the novaPDF actually uses? There seems to be 3 levels of maximum page size that have been used in the past. These are discussed on the Abobe User Support pages, early PDF was limited to 44in * 44in, then 200in * 200in, and now in the 64 bit world the new limit is something like 150,000in * 150,000in. But 200in limit is a problem for descendancy charts that have over about 800 persons on them.

Post by **SimonOrde** » 04 Jun 2009 11:44

Robin

If your friend is using the option to save a a diagram on a single PDF page they would get better results by upgrading to 4.0.2. At time of writing, you can download an upgrade from http://www.family-historian.co.uk/downloads/latest (the upgrade will probably move on to the Downloads page itself shortly).

However, they don't have to upgrade. Even if they are using 4.0.0 they can achieve the same accuracy by selecting 'Family Historian PDF File' in 'Print Setup' (on the File menu) *before* generating the PDF file. And whichever version of Family Historian they have, there are good reasons to do this anyway. This is because the Diagram Window always shows diagrams as they would appear if you printed them using the currently selected printer (except insofar as you override this by - for example choosing to show buttons or background stripes on-screen, but not when the chart is printed). How a diagram will look when printed will vary depending on the capability and quirks of the current printer. Tiny variations in the width in which different printers print fonts can make a significant difference in the overall shape of the diagram if you have a large enough diagram. If you switch between printers, it can affect the look and layout of the diagram.

If you choose 'Family Historian PDF File' in File - Print Setup, you are asking Family Historian to show the diagram as it will look when output to a PDF file. That way you will get better page sizing accuracy, and better layout accuracy generally.

As you no doubt know, there are actually have 2 ways of generating a PDF file. One is to use the 'Save as PDF File' command on the Diagram menu, and the other is to simply 'print' the diagram using 'Family Historian PDF File' as your printer. Either option is fine, although there can be advantages in the latter approach - e.g. if you want more control over how the diagram is laid out on a page.

Another issue is that there is a page height and width limit of 120' if you use the menu command approach as a way of saving a PDF file. For technical reasons, you can overcome this and get pages up to 200' if you print directly to Family Historian PDF File. As explained in the Help:

Finally, it is possible to get Family Historian to generate PDF files that are up to 200' wide or high or both. To do this, use the Print command on the File menu. Select 'Family Historian PDF File' as the printer and click the Properties button. Choose the Profiles tab and select the default profile in the list (probably the only profile in the list). Click on the Edit button and in the 'Edit Profile' window, tick Profile settings override paper settings from printing applications. Press OK. Then in the Page tab, tick Customize and set the page width and height to 200 inches (or whatever size you want up to, but not exceeding, that). With a little experimentation you should be able to generate a PDF file with very large pages, up to 200' wide or high. We recommend that you undo these changes afterwards, when you have created the PDF file you need.

Hope this helps.

RobinL · Post by **RobinL** » 04 Jun 2009 13:29

Simon, Thank you very much for responding here. At least I now know the expected limitations of PDF page size.

There is a catch-22 in your suggestion about selecting the printer first before creating the chart. In the world of wide format printing, it is most common to set the page size to match the shape (aspect-ratio) of the output that has been created by the application. The current printer default page size and also any of the standard page sizes of the printer selector are highly unlikely to be suitable with content to be printed as most charts are much wider than they are high, often being more than 5 times wider than they are high. Using a predetermined page shape will not achieve the desired outcome. That is, you have to create the chart first to know what aspect ratio is the best fit to chart, then set the suitable custom page size in the printer properties from within the application - you do not want to have manipulate the settings of the printer properties at the Windows Settings level as that could interfere with other uses of the printer. Finally, to then work out how to get the chart on that new page size as single sheet.

Wide format printers are unlike any other printers in that they are roll-fed only being limited by their drivers as to maximum length of a page that they can render as single output. The entries in the original list of fixed page sizes in the printer driver are very seldon used for printing family history charts. This has been a serious problem with other family history chart printing packages, including the most popular US package.

I do not know how Family Historian could be improved to make this 2 stage process simpler for custom page size work.

BTW: I really like the FH layout of the 'everyone' chart in the examples that have seen so far. Well done!

Post by **SimonOrde** » 05 Jun 2009 10:39

Robin

I certainly had envisaged that if you were selecting 'Family Historian PDF File' as your printer, you would want to use a custom page size - which of course you can do. Here are some suggestions of things you can do to make the process easier. My suggestion would be to start by selecting 'Family Historian PDF File' as your printer in Print Setup on the file menu (don't worry about the page size initially), and then do the following:

(1) Look at 'Diagram Statistics' on the Diagram menu to get the full size of the diagram
(2) Allowing for a suitable margin on all sounds, go back into Print Setup and set an appropriate custom page size based on the diagram size.
(3) Back on the Diagram Window, enable 'Show Page Boundaries'. Click on the 'View Whole Diagram' (looks like a globe) button to zoom right back and get an overview of all printable pages. At this point, the likelihood is that the diagram will not be on one page. Click-and-drag (left mouse button) on any boundary intersection to move the boundaries so that the diagram will fit within one page.
(4) Print it to 'Family Historian PDF File'.

If the diagram is still too big, here are some suggestions.

(a) All FH diagrams can be scaled to any size. One easy way of doing this is just to adjust scaling on the 'General' tab of Diagram Options. But an even easier solution (if you want to fit a diagram on one page) is to select the largest page size you can have with PDF. Then, in the Diagram Window, with page boundaries showing, right-click on any boundary intersection (the one nearest the bottom-right of the diagram usually works best) and drag to resize the grid. This often seems unintuitive to people who aren't used to it. If you resize the grid, it looks like you're changing the paper size. But you aren't. Actually the paper size is unaffected when you do this. In fact, you are changing the relative size of the diagram with respect to the paper - i.e. you are scaling the diagram. If you check the scale size in Diagram Options (also shown in the status bar if not 100%), you can confirm that this is what is happening. Although a tad unintuitive, once you've got the hang of it, it's actually a convenient and easy way of scaling a diagram so that it will fit on a page (or across a particular grid of pages).

(b) You can move branches around to make better use of space, and to change the overall shape of the diagram (e.g. to make it narrower and taller) by enabling box-and-bar dragging. Click on 'Movement Control Box' on the Diagram menu and choose 'Box & Bar'. Press Help for more info. Better still read the chapters on Diagrams in 'Getting the Most From Family Historian 4' (accessible from the Help menu).

(c) If necessary split the diagram into multiple trees. These can be positioned wherever you like using 'Tree' drag-and-move (see the Movement Control Box) - again, the aim being to make better use of the available space. Any diagram can have as many trees as you like - with different orientations if you wish) and you can link them 'manually' by adding additional lines.

(d) Consider choosing an orientation which uses less space (left-right may be more space efficient), or change the content, number of generations, layout, dimenions (advanced feature on the Diagram Options dialog), picture options, etc etc.

These are just some suggestions. There is a lot more info in the various chapters on diagrams in 'Getting the Most From Family Historian 4'; so I strongly recommend having a look at that.

>> I really like the FH layout of the 'everyone' chart in the examples that have seen so far.<<

Thank you. I expect you know this, but just in case you don't - 'Everyone' charts actually consist of multiple linked trees. If you open the 'Movement Control Box' and select 'Tree' as the drag-and-move action, you move any of the trees around and position them wherever you want.

Post by **SimonOrde** » 05 Jun 2009 11:13

One more thing: There are 5 chapters dedicated to diagrams in 'Getting the Most From Family Historian 4'. These are: 3, 8, 9, 10, 11.

If you are the Robin I think you are, your interest is very much in the printing side of things. As you may know, Family Historian diagrams are designed to be tightly integrated into the program so that you can use them for much more than just for creating wall charts for printing. Creating wall charts is a very important part of their purpose. But it is only one part of it. In addition, they are also designed to be used (and FH users use them all the time) for browsing, navigating, exploring, and even for direct data entry and data update(e.g. you can click-and-drag to add relatives, or use the Move Up/Down buttons to re-order spouses and siblings). You don't have to use FH diagrams for these things. You can work in a more traditional way if you prefer; but many FH users much prefer this way of working as it is highly visual and lets them see the 'big picture' as they work; and they have tremendous control of what information is displayed and in what way it is displayed. Some FH users design 'text schemes', and special box layouts (box and text display features conditional upon conditions which they specify), and even icons to appear below boxes, to give them all the information they need for data entry/update/browsing purposes. e.g. some might like to have a little icon for each census below each box, so they can see at a glance, which relatives have an entry for which census (say), or perhaps use a particular box background colour to indicate that the person is their ancestor (say).

To support all these features, FH diagrams have to be interactive and dynamic (i.e. they update in real-time as data changes) and highly configurable. The auto-source citation feature is also important if you are going to use diagrams to add data; so that new information added in this way can be easily given full and correct source citations.

Apologies if you already knew all of that. For printing purposes, some of these features are not so important; but if you want to understand why FH diagrams work the way they do, it helps to understand how they are used and what you can do with them.

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