>How to print from NeoOffice at more than 300dpi

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One of the limitations in NeoOffice 2.0 and 2.1 is that the maximum resolution when printing 300dpi. This is especially an issue when printing images with tiny details, such as screenshots. Photos are normally just fine at 300dpi.

However, there is an easy way around that:

1. export to PDF;
2. open in Adobe Reader and print from there.

That’s it, now you can have higher quality output.

 

>A3 printing problem in Acrobat 8.0 Pro

>Just filed a bug report for Adobe Acrobat 8.0 Professional on the Mac:

Steps to reproduce bug:

1. Open A3-size PDF document in Acrobat 8.0 Pro on Mac OS X 10.4.9 (Intel): http://ernstdehaan.com/a3.pdf
2. Cmd-D (Document properties) to confirm the setting ‘paper source at page size’ is enabled (OK).
3. Have an A3 printer connected. In my case an HP Business Inkjet 2800dtn, connected via Ethernet (TCP/IP).
4. Cmd-P for print dialog.
5. Select ‘none’ for scaling.
6. Confirm document size, displayed under the small preview is OK (indeed: 296.7 x 419.5 mm)
7. Select tray that contains A3 paper.
8. Confirm the paper size is correct (it is not, it says: 209.9 x 297.0 mm)

Results:

• Paper size is incorrect, see: http://ernstdehaan.com/acrobat8-printdialog.jpg

Expected results:

• Paper size set to A3.

Updated (April 10): The trick is to set the page size in the print settings dialog (Shift-Cmd-P) to A3 explicitly, every time you start Acrobat.

 

>HP Business Inket 2800dtn woes (updated)

>I purchased an HP Business Inkjet 2800dtn, expecting to receive a high-quality, Mac-compatible colour printer. Although the printer looks good from the outside, I have quite some issues with it:

• can’t get any A3 prints out using Adobe Acrobat 8.0 Professional; all output is clipped at A4-size;
• when I select which tray to use in any Mac OS-standard print dialog, all output is mirrored and flipped upside-down (?!);
• when printing A4 using Acrobat 8, there are margins of about 3 mm on both the left and the right side;
• all output from NeoOffice (2.0 Aqua Beta 3 Patch 15) is printed in light-gray.

I tried using different drivers, but there only seems to be the Foomatic driver, which is included in Mac OS X 10.4, it’s on the HP installation CD and it’s the current printer driver according to linuxprinting.org… The HPIJS printer driver doesn’t work at all.

Update (April 10, 2007): The trick is to use the network interface only, not the USB interface. Then the Foomatic PostScript drivers work like a charm.

Update (July 2, 2007): The issue with Acrobat was my fault. I did not realize I have to set the paper size manually each time I start Acrobat, using Shift-Cmd-P.

 

>Adobe Photoshop CS2 installation

>I need an image edit program. On Linux I used GIMP, which is quite powerful and nice to work with. On Mac OS X, however, GIMP is not so easy to install and does not integrate with the Mac OS very well. I used DarwinPorts, which automates the fetching, compilation and installation and even the dependency handling.
The fact that GIMP is not integrated with the Mac made me look at alternatives. I could not find a lot of image editing programs for the Mac, which surprises me. It’s probably my lack of search abilities.
Anyway, the obvious alternative is Adobe Photoshop. The current version is CS2, 9.0. At almost 400 MB, the download is fairly big. One of the first things it asked me is whether it’s OK to look for updates. I said OK. I didn’t expect any, since I just downloaded it and I would expect all the download to contain all current updates. However, it still proposed installing about a dozen updates.
That’s OK as well. But then during the update installation process, I was asked for my password about 6 times. That’s just plain annoying.
Any tips on alternative image edit programs for the Apple, let me know.