Archive for the ‘printer’ Category

Design a Label for a Printable DVD

Sunday, July 14th, 2013

On the rare occasions I produce a DVD, always the same question: How best (easiest and best quality) do I design and print the on-disk label?

In the end, the best option seemed to be to (download and) use the CD/DVD Label-Designer application that came with my disk-printing capability printer (a Canon).

  • Canon Easy-PhotoPrint EX

Initial use of it brought up a templates-selection stage that appeared clunky and restrictive.  However that was just the initial “wizard” stage of using it, and subsequently I was able to move text, create new text etc. to my satisfaction.

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Posted in Blu-Ray, Blu-Ray, CD, DVD, DVD, Optical Disk, printer, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Print on Multi-Sheets (e.g. useful for large GraphViz diagrams)

Monday, March 21st, 2011

Suppose you have a drawing that is so large or wide (like a strip) that you’d prefer to have it printed onto several sheets that can be tessellated (e.g. sellotaped together) afterwards for viewing.  One way is to import the image (e.g. .png) into Visio 2003.  It even provides a useful small margin of overlap.  In that case the steps that worked for me are:

  • Open Visio 2003
    • (Haven’t tried other versions)
  • Blank drawing
    • (No need to size or orientate)
  • File > Open
    • (The .png file or whatever)
  • File > Print
    • (Select Printer)
  • File > Page Setup
    • Print Setup
      • Paper size (e.g. A3 or A4)
      • Landscape (say)
      • Fit to n pages across by m pages down
    • Page Size
      • Size to fit drawing contents
  • File > Print…

Posted in GraphViz, printer | No Comments »

Canon 5250 Printer Software – Mac OS (10.6.5) Install & Initial Experiences

Tuesday, December 28th, 2010

Differences from the Windows (7) experiences:

  • As is typically the case for any device, the Mac installation dialogs etc. differed slightly from their Windows counterparts.
  • Once installed, its Print dialog seemed somewhat over-minimal, there being no obvious way to specify duplex printing for example.  The solution was found by experimentation, as follows:
    • In the dialog, under “Paper Size” and “Orientation” was a multi-choice selected as Preview
    • Clicking on this revealed that the other choices were the missing (expected) printer properties options (such as duplex):
      • Preview
      • Layout
      • Color Matching
      • Paper Handling
      • Cover Page
      • Scheduler
      • Quality & Media
      • Color Options
      • Borderless Printing
      • Duplex Printing & Margin
      • Supply Levels
      • Summary
        • This would have been the best default option, for first use, because it shows all(?) of the other options in a twirlable (expand/collapse) tree.

Once installed, can get to the printer’s optons & job-queue as follows (no obvious options here to define duplex as default):

  • Apple > System Preferences > Print & Fax > Canon MG5200 Series
    • Open Print Queue
    • Options & Supplies
      • General
      • Driver
      • Supply Levels
      • Utility
        • Cleaning (regular cleaning, eliminate smudges and lines)
        • Deep Cleaning (un-clogs nozzles that cannot be cleared by regular cleaning)
        • Bottom Plate Cleaning (prevent paper smudges during printing)
        • Roller Cleaning (for smoother paper-feeding)

Using it:

  •  From NeoOffice (3.1.2) Writer, with a three-page document:
    • File > Printer Settings
      • NeoOffice crashes…
    • File > Print
      • Print-dialog appears
      • Has a multi-choice (default selection = Layout)
      • Select Duplex Printing & Margin
      • Enable Automatic Duplex Printing
        • Staple-side = Long-side stapling (Left)
    • Result: It worked!
      • But these settings were not retained for a further printing even of the same document.
      • So you have to check duplex etc. every single Print operation…
      • Duh!

Posted in Canon, Mac, printer | No Comments »

Canon 5250 Printer Software – Windows (7) Install & Initial Experiences

Tuesday, December 28th, 2010

On Windows 7 / Boot Camp 3.1 on a MacBook Pro (MBP) of January 2010 vintage, I installed the Canon printer software for their Pixma MG5200 printer (as supplied with my MG5250 printer).  Installation was unexpectedly lengthy (one or two hours) due to a USB issue, a one-way-only Setup application (and consequent need to do a System Restore and fix knock-on effects of that)  and finally an unexpected confusion over paper source. The latter was explained by popup dialogs but these were not noticed at first as they were hidden under the document being printed (a user-interface issue – application or windows?).  The solutions I immediately found to these issues were:

  • Unplug all other USBs from the machine – which in this case was a cheap Microsoft wireless mouse.
  • Set the paper source specification to Manual, then manually specify it to be the rear tray.
    • But there is a better solution – read on.

Having subsequently read the manual, and indeed having looked at the setup dialogs more attentively:

  • Rear tray is intended for speciality paper such as photo paper.
  • Plain paper should normally be loaded into the Cassette
    • This is a paper tray located low-down on the front of the printer.
    • To open it, don’t try to pull via fingernails through thin gap, instead use purpose-made “gripper” on underside of “Cassette”.
  • Note: The multi-lingual nature of the Manual’s pages is hard on the eye…

This is better really, as it reduces the printer’s “visual clutter” and “space invasion”. It worked fine, for duplex too.  It is also possible to configure the printer to use the rear tray as an additional source of plain paper e.g. if the Cassette runs out:

  •  In Windows System Tray:
    • Canon My Printer >RtClk> Open My Printer > Paper Source Settings
    • (Not recommended though)

(more…)

Posted in Canon, printer, Uncategorized | No Comments »