Image / figure won't print!

[Jere]

Help!

I have two images that I'm superimposing and trying to print. One is a jpg image saved from Google Earth that prints fine; the other is a TIFF file of a contour map that won't print.

I've made the contour map's display order to on top. It is set to transperancy mode. I've tried inserting the file as a jpg, png, tiff, & bmp and everytime it won't print. Does anyone have a clue as to how to get this to work? I've read similar threads on this site and on wiki and the tips didn't help.

[Anonymous]

Try to save first as PDF.

[Anonymous]

The only bug i know off the top of my head, is that;

If an image is rotated , slightly or at all in the layout the file size increases ridiculously and usually ceases that image or other on the page to print.
( experienced this one myself far too many times before i finally researched it, and it was usually a scanned contour like what you are referring to. )
This includes .PDF's too.

But from the looks of it you are just trying to print whats on screen as opposed to whats in your layout.

Hopefully some one else can shed some knowledge that might be more useful.

[Thomas Holm]

Jere wrote:
I have two images that I'm superimposing and trying to print.

Do all the bit-map editing, superimposing, re-scaling, rotation, resolution-reducing, cropping and color reduction in Photoshop. Edit 'til ONE image that will print at 300 or even 150 dpi at your final output scale. Save the result as one TIFF or PDF file and just import that. No change within Archicad other than moving.

[Jere]

Thomas, that worked. That's a shame I have to do that though, i found it so much easier to just stretch the images in archiCAD to fit. I'm not very good with graphics.

I don't have photoshop (too expensive for me) but I do have Corel Paint Shop Pro XI. It seems to do the trick.

[Thomas Holm]

Archicad lets you import, transform (stretch, rotate) and superimpose various image formats on your display to use as reference and basis for your work. It remembers the original size and lets you revert or change the transformation at any time. But it's not an image editor and can't permanently change or merge them. So at print time, it outputs them one-at-a-time, again transformed like you wanted, and it's up to your printer to superimpose them correctly.

Problem is. most printers can't handle transparency that easily. It's not even in all PDF versions. And overlaying of large bitmaps is a huge job for the printer, to be done every time you print, and every part covered by another is discarded and a waste.

So it's best to get this done once and for all in an image editor, as soon as you've decided on the final format. Take note of the transformation needed from Archicad's image dialog, and re-do it in the image editor at the final resolution needed!

Corel is excellent, but Photoshop Lite will do for this, or perhaps the new free on-line version.