Printing A Wall Plot To PDF

A guide to printing a wall plot to pdf via the Wall Plot Composer.

1.0 - Printing a Wall Plot to PDF

In most cases, printing a wall plot from the Wall Plot Composer (WPC) dialog within Well Seeker Pro is a simple process. However, a small number of cases have been noted when printing to an A1 or A0 size PDF, particularly from a device with high-resolution display settings, that the resulting PDF document does not accurately represent the image created within the WPC dialog.

This issue is independent of the ‘Page Setup’ settings within WPC and is solely related to the ‘PDF Page Size’ option in the PDF printer properties. So regardless of what size of plot is created within the wall plot composer (A0 to A7 or user defined), the user may only see an issue if they try to print to A1 or A0 size. It should be noted that in general, to get the best possible output, the user should print to the same paper size as selected in the page setup i.e. if an A4 plot is created, print it as an A4 PDF etc.

This is not a problem with Well Seeker Pro, but a common issue with multiple different PDF printing software applications and their interaction with a wide range of chart creation software.

The aim of this document is to give the user a simple solution to this potentially time-consuming problem.

2.0 - Normal Printing Process

When in the WPC dialog, in order to print the WPC design to PDF the user selects ‘File > Print’. The below, or similar, dialog will appear, allowing the user to select one of a number of potential PDF printers. The options available from the drop-down menu, depends on the pdf software the user has installed on their machine.

When the user selects ‘Properties’ the adjoining dialog, or similar, will appear, allowing the user to adjust the PDF print settings. In this example the settings will be left as default and the page size as A4.

The PDF is created when the user selects ‘OK’ in the Print dialog. The below images show the resulting PDF matches the WPC design.

3.0 - A0/A1 Printing Process – Issue with PDF image

In most instances the generated output matches the WPC layout; however, a few users with high resolution display settings may encounter the below issue when printing an A0/A1 plot to PDF.

When in the WPC dialog, in order to print the WPC design to PDF the user selects ‘File > Print’. The below, or similar, dialog will appear, allowing the user to select one of a number of potential PDF printers. When the user selects ‘Properties’ the adjoining dialog or similar will appear allowing the user to adjust the PDF print settings. In this example the settings will be left as default with the exception of the page size, which will be changed to A0.

The PDF is created when the user selects ‘OK’ in the Print dialog. The below images show the resulting PDF matches the WPC design in most respects, but the Y axis grid lines in the section view plot are not printed correctly.

4.0 - Solution

If you encounter this issue it can be overcome by REDUCING the Print Quality DPI setting, without impacting the perceived image quality. This process will differ between PDF printer software, but the below example is for one such software.

To change the print quality DPI setting, when in the WPC dialog, the user selects ‘File > Print’. The below, or similar, dialog will appear, allowing the user to select one of a number of potential PDF printer options. When the user selects ‘Properties’ the adjoining dialog or similar will appear allowing the user to adjust the PDF print settings. In this example the settings will be left as default with the exception of the page size, which will be changed to A0.

The user then selects the ‘Paper/Quality’ tab, and then selects ‘Advanced’, shown below.

This will open the below, or similar, dialog where the user should DECREASE the ‘Print Quality’ to 600dpi.

Once this option has been selected and the printing process has been completed the resulting PDF should represent the image in the WPC dialog, without any graphical flaws in the X or Y axis gridlines of a chart.