Printing FTM to HP 500 plotter

[Paul Blair]

The FTM help pages indicate that FTM is not tested for use on plotters.
Nevertheless, I'm going to give it a try.

The output will be on a HP 500 Designjet. I'd welcome any comments from
anyone who has tried this combination of soft and hardware, and has
succeeded (or failes, I guess).

TIA

Paul

[Ron O'Neill]

"Paul Blair" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

The FTM help pages indicate that FTM is not tested for use on plotters.
Nevertheless, I'm going to give it a try.
The output will be on a HP 500 Designjet. I'd welcome any comments from
anyone who has tried this combination of soft and hardware, and has
succeeded (or failes, I guess).
Paul

Hi Paul.

We have used this type of printer commercially for printing family trees
directly from FTM for 5 years.

Using a DesignJet 500 42" with FTM the only problem we have encountered is
that there is a maximum page size of 300 x 42 inches. Over this size and the
quality drops through the floor.

We held a number of experiments directly with H.P. Tech. Services in Ireland
some years ago and even they could not or would not solve the problem.

Good luck,
Ron O'Neill
http://www.genealogyprinters.com

[Charlie]

On Mon, 30 Aug 2004 08:16:22 GMT, "Ron O'Neill"
<[email protected]> wrote:

"Paul Blair" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
The FTM help pages indicate that FTM is not tested for use on plotters.
Nevertheless, I'm going to give it a try.
The output will be on a HP 500 Designjet. I'd welcome any comments from
anyone who has tried this combination of soft and hardware, and has
succeeded (or failes, I guess).
Paul

Hi Paul.

We have used this type of printer commercially for printing family trees
directly from FTM for 5 years.

Using a DesignJet 500 42" with FTM the only problem we have encountered is
that there is a maximum page size of 300 x 42 inches. Over this size and the
quality drops through the floor.

We held a number of experiments directly with H.P. Tech. Services in Ireland
some years ago and even they could not or would not solve the problem.

Good luck,
Ron O'Neill
http://www.genealogyprinters.com

Ron,

Did you see the same quality drop-off if you printed to a PDF file
using Distiller (Adobe Acrobat) and then sending the distiller PDF
file to the printer, or was it only when printing directly from FTM to
the plotter?

Charlie Hoffpauir
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~charlieh/

[Ron O'Neill]

"Charlie" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

Ron,

Did you see the same quality drop-off if you printed to a PDF file
using Distiller (Adobe Acrobat) and then sending the distiller PDF
file to the printer, or was it only when printing directly from FTM to
the plotter?

Charlie Hoffpauir
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~charlieh/

Hi Charlie.

We did carry out some experiments some years ago with PDF and distiller,
they were not very successful. FTM made a mess of the PDF feature when they
introduced it in version 10. It works great for sending the chart as an
attachment but if the chart is over 55 inches in length it will be reduced
in size, the longer the chart the greater the reduction. If the chart is
"blown" back up again to it's original size some resolution is lost.

It appears that there is a problem with the HP driver and windows, about the
only way to overcome the page size problem in Windows and FTM is to use a
R.I.P and that can be very expensive with the software costing up to 50% of
the cost of the printer itself.

Kind regards,
Ron O'Neill
http://www.genealogyprinters.com

[Ole P. Bielefeldt]

"Paul Blair" <[email protected]> skrev i en meddelelse
news:[email protected]...

The FTM help pages indicate that FTM is not tested for use on plotters.
Nevertheless, I'm going to give it a try.

The output will be on a HP 500 Designjet. I'd welcome any comments from
anyone who has tried this combination of soft and hardware, and has
succeeded (or failes, I guess).

TIA

Paul

In 1999 I had a Family Reunion and printed at tree - directly from FTM -
which was about 1.000 inches wide. Because of the limit in the printer,
there were 8 "pages".

I experimented with Acrobat Distiller first to see how I could do it, and I
ended with printing directly from FTM, with page 8 first, then page 7 and so
on, then the pages were right on the output.

Maybe today, you can print the page in reverse order

--
Ole P. Bielefeldt
http://www.familytreemaker.dk

[Nick Spalding]

Ole P. Bielefeldt wrote, in <[email protected]>:

"Paul Blair" <[email protected]> skrev i en meddelelse
news:[email protected]...
The FTM help pages indicate that FTM is not tested for use on plotters.
Nevertheless, I'm going to give it a try.

The output will be on a HP 500 Designjet. I'd welcome any comments from
anyone who has tried this combination of soft and hardware, and has
succeeded (or failes, I guess).

In 1999 I had a Family Reunion and printed at tree - directly from FTM -
which was about 1.000 inches wide. Because of the limit in the printer,
there were 8 "pages".

I experimented with Acrobat Distiller first to see how I could do it, and I
ended with printing directly from FTM, with page 8 first, then page 7 and so
on, then the pages were right on the output.

Maybe today, you can print the page in reverse order

I think any printer driver I have ever encountered in Windows allows you to
specify printing in reverse order.
--
Nick Spalding

[skids]

It works just fine. The Design Jet is not really a plotter. It is an inkjet
printer that accepts wide paper and roll paper, nothing more, nothing less.

"Paul Blair" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

The FTM help pages indicate that FTM is not tested for use on plotters.
Nevertheless, I'm going to give it a try.

The output will be on a HP 500 Designjet. I'd welcome any comments from
anyone who has tried this combination of soft and hardware, and has
succeeded (or failes, I guess).

TIA

Paul

[Ron Thomas]

When I try and print to a larger size that 120", FTM warns me of a
broken printer driver. Is this a limitation of version 8, and has
that limitation been loosened in later versions to allow for 300"
prints?

Curious....
(btw - OS is Windoze XP Pro)

Ron Thomas
Estes Park, Colorado

Hi Paul.

We have used this type of printer commercially for printing family trees
directly from FTM for 5 years.

Using a DesignJet 500 42" with FTM the only problem we have encountered is
that there is a maximum page size of 300 x 42 inches. Over this size and the
quality drops through the floor.

[Ole P. Bielefeldt]

"Nick Spalding" <[email protected]> skrev i en meddelelse
news:[email protected]...

Ole P. Bielefeldt wrote, in
[email protected]>:

"Paul Blair" <[email protected]> skrev i en meddelelse
news:[email protected]...
The FTM help pages indicate that FTM is not tested for use on
plotters.
Nevertheless, I'm going to give it a try.

The output will be on a HP 500 Designjet. I'd welcome any comments
from
anyone who has tried this combination of soft and hardware, and has
succeeded (or failes, I guess).

In 1999 I had a Family Reunion and printed at tree - directly from FTM -
which was about 1.000 inches wide. Because of the limit in the printer,
there were 8 "pages".

I experimented with Acrobat Distiller first to see how I could do it,
and I
ended with printing directly from FTM, with page 8 first, then page 7
and so
on, then the pages were right on the output.

Maybe today, you can print the page in reverse order

I think any printer driver I have ever encountered in Windows allows you
to
specify printing in reverse order.
--
Nick Spalding

Hi Nick,

It is 5 years ago on a HP plotter

Maybe I did not find the "reverse order"

--
Ole P. Bielefeldt
http://www.familytreemaker.dk

[Ron O'Neill]

Version 8 worked fine and would print up to 300 inches in length. Have you
tried downloading the latest printer driver from http://www.hp.com

Kind regards,
Ron O'Neill
http://www.genealogyprinters.com

<Ron Thomas> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

When I try and print to a larger size that 120", FTM warns me of a
broken printer driver. Is this a limitation of version 8, and has
that limitation been loosened in later versions to allow for 300"
prints?

Curious....
(btw - OS is Windoze XP Pro)

Ron Thomas
Estes Park, Colorado

Hi Paul.

We have used this type of printer commercially for printing family
trees
directly from FTM for 5 years.

Using a DesignJet 500 42" with FTM the only problem we have
encountered is
that there is a maximum page size of 300 x 42 inches. Over this size
and the
quality drops through the floor.

[Ron O'Neill]

"skids" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

It works just fine. The Design Jet is not really a plotter. It is an
inkjet
printer that accepts wide paper and roll paper, nothing more, nothing
less.

Correct on that one, people still refer to large printers as plotters.
Strictly speaking a plotter uses pens to print and not inkjet carts, they
are quite a rare beast nowadays as the pens are hard to get hold of. Their
prime use was for plan drawing. The correct term is wide format printer.

Kind regards,
Ron O'Neill
http://www.genealogyprinters.com