# 5007- Tips for Printing to a PostScript Device

Under certain conditions, problems may be encountered when printing to a PostScript device. 
The following information will help you isolate and resolve these issues. 

Verify that you are running with the latest PostScript printer driver.
It is important to verify that the latest PostScript driver is in use.  To date, the most current
revision is Version 3.58. To check the version of the driver, double-click on the Control Panel
icon in the Main group. Double-click the Printer icon, and click the PostScript printer icon. Click
Setup, and click About. To obtain an updated driver, contact Microsoft.


Using The Error Handler
Before determining the best approach to getting a file to print, it is import to find out exactly what
the problem is.  Downloading an Error Handler, before the print job, will force the printer to print
out error messages indicating the source of the problem.  If the Error Handler is not loaded, your
printer will go idle. 


PostScript Printing Errors
Offending Command: limitcheck Error: Curveto. 
To resolve this, perform the following steps:

1.  Find the offending object.  The file is printed in the same order as the objects were created.
Therefore, finding the offending object is as simple as locating the object created after the last
printed one. To do this, click the last printed object, and press SHIFT, TAB.  This will click the
next object.  This is likely the offending object. 

Alternatively, you could split the graphic into four quadrants and us the Print Selected Only
option to print each quadrant. By process of elimination, you should be able to find the offending
object.  

Once the object is found, delete and recreate it or reduce its complexity as follows.

2.  Reduce the complexity of the graphic.  If you have isolated the offending object you can
work on it directly or you can take a more global approach and affect the entire file. It is
recommended that you try to isolate the offending object and reduce its complexity. 

The following steps will be helpful in reducing the complexity of a single object.

          Reduce the number of nodes on the path. Control points and nodes add 1 byte each to the
     objects size.
          If the object has a fountain fill, reduce the number of fountain steps.
          Avoid combining text with other objects. 
          Break the object up into smaller less complex objects.

If for any reason these steps cannot be taken, you can take a more global approach to the
offending file. The following steps will be helpful in reducing the overall complexity of the file:

          The CORELDRW.INI file contains a setting that may help. Open the CORELDRW.INI
     file with Notepad, and locate the following line:
          PSComplexityThreshold=3000.

You can change the value to be lower or higher. When printing files that have complex fills (i.e.,
fountain fills, vector fills, bitmap fills and PostScript textures) within complex shapes, you should
lower the value to 100 or 200 to simplify the data being sent to the printer. Lowering this number
will lengthen print times, however, the file will be more likely to print.

          If your document contains more than eight text blocks at 19pt. or smaller, and your 300
     dpi printer has only 1 MB of RAM, the printer may process everything and go idle. The
     printer memory may be overloaded and may yield a VM error if the error handler has been
     loaded. To resolve this, open the CORELDRW.INI file with Notepad, and locate the
     following line:
          PSBitmapFontLimit=8 

You can change this to 4, 2 or 0 to help when printing.  Refer to the CorelDRAW online Help for
a detailed explanation of this feature.

          In the Print Options dialog box, locate the Flatness option.  This is equal to 1 by default.
     Increasing this value will simplify the print job and affect the overall quality of the image.
     As a general rule, try increasing the value in increments of 4 or 5 until the drawing prints.

When Bezier curves are used to describe a path on a PostScript printer, the interpreter must first
flatten the path in order to render it as a series of straight lines. The Flatness setting affects the
degree of accuracy used during the flattening process ,and hence the number of straight lines that
are used to describe the curved path. The higher the value, the less accurate the flattened or
approximated path will be. A circle, for example, will start to look more like a stop sign as the 
flatness setting is raised.

If you select Auto Increase, CorelDRAW will automatically increase the flatness value in
increments of two until the drawing prints. If a limit of 10 plus the current Set Flatness To value is
reached and a particular object still will not print, the printer will skip that object and print the
next.

If you are able to print a file to a 300 dpi PS printer but your service bureau cannot to a higher dpi
device, you can try reducing the flatness value to simulate the calculations needed to produce the
graphic on the high end device. Lowering the flatness value to .25 will simulate the complexity of
an image setter printing at 1200 dpi. A value of .12 simulates printing at 2500 dpi. If your file will
not print to a laser PostScript printer, at this flatness setting, then chances are it will not print to
an image setter. Make sure to change the flatness back to 1 before sending your file to the service
bureau and follow the steps outlined to avoid the error.

          Open the WIN.INI file.  This is located in the WINDOWS directory. Locate the following
     line:
          TransmissionRetryTimeout=45

Change the value to 999.  This sets the time that Windows waits for the printer to report that it is
ready to receive more data. A value of 999 is equal to an infinite amount of time. Once changed,
exit from Windows and reboot.

          While working in CorelDRAW, temporary files are created and stored on the computer.
     Overtime, these files build up and take up unnecessary hard drive space. To remove these
     TMP files, exit Windows to a  DOS prompt.  Type SET. A screen will follow that shows
     the directory where the temp files are being saved, i.e. TEMP=C:\WINDOWS\TEMP.
     Change to the directory, and delete any files that have a .TMP extension.

          Check to see how much RAM is resident in the printer. A minimum of 1.5 MB is required
     to print a full page of graphics to a 300dpi device. To print more complex files, we
     recommend a minimum of 4 MB of RAM in the printer. 

Note: Some files may require more than 4 MB.
 
          Depending on the type of PostScript device, some allow the user to set a Wait Time. This
     specifies how long the printer should wait to receive data from the computer.  Set the
     Wait time to equal INFINITE, if possible.  Refer to the printer documentation for more
     information.

          Disable the Print Manager when working with large or more complex images. To do this,
     open the Control Panel, and double-click Printers icon.  Disable the Use Print Manager
     check box.

Font Appearance
If your fonts appear bitmapped (jagged) at small point sizes when printing to a PostScript high
resolution output device you will need to edit your CORELPRN.INI. 

          Load the Windows File Manager, change to the CORELDRAW\CONFIG directory.
     Double-click the CORELPRN.INI.
 
          Locate the line PSBitmapFontLimit=8 in the Config section.

If the font used meets certain a criteria, a bitmap version of the font is created in the printer's
memory. Bitmap character descriptions are used because they look better at small point sizes and
print faster than the normal character outline descriptions.  This process is called Hinting.  
You can change this value to 4, 2 or 0 where 0=disable.


Print Options
The CorelDRAW 5 print menu includes options for setting the flatness, called Set Flatness To. 
The default is 1.000.  Increasing this value will simplify the print job, however, it will also affect
the overall quality of the image.  As a general rule, try increasing in increments of 4 or 5 until the
drawing prints. 

Note:     When bezier curves are used to describe a path on a PostScript printer, the interpreter
must first flatten the path in order to render it as a series of straight lines.  The Flatness setting
affects the degree of accuracy used during the flattening process and hence the number of straight
lines that are used to describe the curved path.  The higher the value, the less accurate the
flattened or approximated path will be.  A circle, for example, will start to look more like a stop
sign as the Flatness setting is raised.

If you select Auto Increase, CorelDRAW will automatically increase the flatness value in
increments of two until the drawing prints.  If a limit of 10 plus the current Set Flatness To value
is reached and a particular object still will not print, the printer will skip that object and print the
next.

If you are able to print a particular file to a 300 dpi PS printer but your service bureau cannot to a
higher dpi device, you can try reducing the flatness value to simulate the calculations needed to
produce the graphic on the high end device for troubleshooting purposes.  Lowering the flatness
value to .20 will simulate the complexity of an image setter printing at 1270 dpi.  Since this
increases the complexity of the paths, it's a good way to test whether the file will print to a higher
resolution output device (although it is not a guarantee).  If your file will not print to a laser
postscript printer, at this flatness setting, then chances are it won't print to an image setter.  You
can also lower the value of the PSComplexityThreshold as described earlier in this document.
Make sure to change the flatness back to 1 before sending your file to the service bureau.


Suggestions to avoid error messages
          Make sure the correct printer has been selected and that the printer is functioning correctly
     from other applications.

          Open the WIN.INI file which is located in the WINDOWS directory. In the [Windows]
     section, locate the TransmissionRetryTimeout=45 line.  Change the value of '45' to '999'
     (this sets the time that Windows waits for the printer to report that it is ready to receive
     more data).  A value of 999 is equal to an infinite amount of time. Click Apply, and OK.  

          CorelDRAW uses temporary (.TMP) files to store data while it is running.  These files
     contain objects in a drawing which do not fit into available memory.  Your temporary area
     can run over several drives, which will make it easier to work with complex drawings.
     CorelDRAW .TMP files begin with the characters ~CDR and are deleted at the end of
     each session.  If your computer stops responding, CorelDRAW will automatically search
     and remove any .TMP files it created during startup.

          When printing to a Postscript device, it is recommended to enable Fast Printing Direct to
     Port.  This is enabled from the Control Panel, Connect Menu.

          Check how much RAM is resident in the printer.  A minimum of 1.5 MBs is required to
     print a full page of graphics to a 300dpi device.  To print more complex files, a minimum
     of 4 MBs of RAM is recommended, although some files may require more.

          Disable the Print Manager when working with large or more complex images.  To do this,
     open the Control Panel, and double-click the Printers icon.  The option is located at the
     bottom left hand corner.

          If you are suffering from General Protection Faults, try switching your video driver to the
     standard VGA driver provided by Microsoft.  If fewer errors occur you can  investigate a
     possible conflict with the video card.  Contact the manufacturer of the video card to
     confirm that you have the latest version of the driver.
          
          If color bitmaps are printing black and white to a PostScript printer change the following
     line in the [config] section of the CORELPRN.INI file:

     PSColorBitmapsAsGrayscale=1

          Change this value to 0.  This will force CorelDRAW to download color bitmap
     information to the black and white PostScript driver 

          Reduce the number of nodes on long paths. CorelDRAW allows you to globally change
     the complexity of a path.  Marquee-select the object with the Shape tool, and click  Auto
     Reduce.  This feature will reduce the complexity of the path.

          If the object has a fountain fill, reduce the number of fountain steps in the Fountain Fill
     dialog box.

          Break a complex object into smaller less detailed objects.  To do so, click any combined
     objects and click Arrange, Break Apart.

          Remove any extraneous outlines