Questions regarding problems with plotter or printer
Plotting to my ink jet plotter is very slowly. How it is possible to accelerate plotting?
In general ink jet plotter are controlled by their respective Windows driver. When plotting with this driver, each picture is converted into a pixel graphic and transfered in this way. Especially with higher resolution pixel graphics have a big size and the transfer to the plotter takes a long time. If you are using a plotter which is compatible to HP-GL or HP-GL/2, then you can use the Grafis plotter driver. With Grafis plotter driver HP-GL vector pictures are created which are very small and can be transfered very fast. Furthermore the plot time of the device can be reduced by a smaller resolution and a smaller amount of colors. Plotting in draft mode or super draft mode is absolutely sufficient for plotting of patterns. Before buying a new plotter please see to it that these options can be set directly at the device or at least via the driver!
Last update on 08/07/2017 by Volker Friedrich.
Connection of printer or plotter via USB or network
GRAFIS is able to send plot data (e.g. HP/GL-2) also to plotters using USB or network adresses. Main requirement is a printer driver installed for that device. Modern ink jet plotters normally contain such drivers in their delivery. For old devices or missing drivers for the current Windows version also a default driver from Windows "Hewlett-Packard" -> "HP-GL/2 Plotter" or "Standard" -> "Text only (nur Text)" can be installed. Such a printer driver can also be shared with other users in the network.
In GRAFIS plotter settings select target ("connected with") the option "WINSPOOL:". When the dialog is closed a selection of all existing printers is displayed. Select the printer driver that should be used to send the plot data.
In some cases plotter drivers of certain companies do not support this kind of data transfer. When you send out data there will appear a concrete error message.
Last update on 08/07/2017 by Volker Friedrich.