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Author Topic: greyscale + negative for Auto Print  (Read 9872 times)

jhines97

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greyscale + negative for Auto Print
« on: September 04, 2013, 04:02 PM »
I generally print to a black and white (not color) laser printer.  Back when I was using Windows XP I used a screenshot program called PrintScreen32.  PrintScreen32 did not have near as many options or the configurability of Screenshot Captor.  However, one feature that it did have that I can't seem to find / figure out with Screenshot Captor is that you could set the image to be sent to the printer as always greyscale, and if the image were set to greyscale you could invert the colors (so black would become white, dark grey would become light grey, etc).  Anyhow, the application I am doing most of my screen printing from is an iSeries terminal.  The background of the screen is black, and the text is mostly white (some of the text is light blue, yellow, or green).  With Screenshot Captor every screen shot I take and send to the laser printer uses a good bit of toner (since most of the page is black).  Is there a way to set the image to get greyscale and inverted before being sent to the printer?

mouser

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Re: greyscale + negative for Auto Print
« Reply #1 on: September 04, 2013, 04:13 PM »
hmm, that's an interesting idea.

i certainly could add an option to invert colors when printing.

and i could add an option to auto-grayscale while printing -- but i wonder if there is any point in doing that since a laser printer driver must have it's own function for doing that?
« Last Edit: September 04, 2013, 04:22 PM by mouser »

tomos

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Re: greyscale + negative for Auto Print
« Reply #2 on: September 04, 2013, 04:23 PM »
In the scanner side of things, there's the option "reverse colours". I realise that's not the same - and that it doesnt work for screenshots, but just thought I'd point it out in case it's helpful.
Tom

jhines97

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Re: greyscale + negative for Auto Print
« Reply #3 on: September 04, 2013, 04:30 PM »
I wasn't sure if the greyscale needed to happen before the invert colors thing.  I didn't know if a color image inverted very well.  I think the author of the abandoned PrintScreen32 software had the invert as a sub-option of the greyscale option because it might be strange if someone inverted an actual color image ...

tomos

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Re: greyscale + negative for Auto Print
« Reply #4 on: September 04, 2013, 04:41 PM »
I wasn't sure if the greyscale needed to happen before the invert colors thing.  I didn't know if a color image inverted very well.  I think the author of the abandoned PrintScreen32 software had the invert as a sub-option of the greyscale option because it might be strange if someone inverted an actual color image ...

yes, it is :)

But I just noticed, you can also use this option for inverting colours of screenshots (see mouse pointer in screenshot below).
(I say this also for mouser's benefit - he's been known to forget what his programmes are capable of :D)

Screenshot - 2013-09-04 , 23_36_56.pnggreyscale + negative for Auto Print

Tom

mouser

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Re: greyscale + negative for Auto Print
« Reply #5 on: September 04, 2013, 05:06 PM »
Forgot about that feature -- on the scanner toolbar it is.

jhines97

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Re: greyscale + negative for Auto Print
« Reply #6 on: September 04, 2013, 05:20 PM »
Can that option be used with auto print?

mouser

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Re: greyscale + negative for Auto Print
« Reply #7 on: September 05, 2013, 10:43 PM »
Option now available in the newly uploaded beta.
Download here: https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=35886.0

jhines97

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Re: greyscale + negative for Auto Print
« Reply #8 on: September 10, 2013, 10:47 AM »
I tried the beta and the invert colors thing works great!  My only issue is that the print margins are stored somewhere different?  I opened the ini file to see why I had 1 inch margins all around the printed screenshot.  The margin entries in the ini file were all blank.  I set the print margins to .3 all the way around.  I logged off, and then back on.  The print margins in the program were still set to .3, but the ini file shows blank for the margins.  Where are the settings stored now?

mouser

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Re: greyscale + negative for Auto Print
« Reply #9 on: September 10, 2013, 02:43 PM »
Glad the inverted colors are working.

I think the old print settings used to be called "printop_" and you may still see those in the ini file; the new print settings are in the ini file under "EditStreamedPrintSettings" and should be non-blank.

jhines97

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Re: greyscale + negative for Auto Print
« Reply #10 on: September 11, 2013, 12:53 PM »
Glad the inverted colors are working.

I think the old print settings used to be called "printop_" and you may still see those in the ini file; the new print settings are in the ini file under "EditStreamedPrintSettings" and should be non-blank.

I believe I see the settings you are referring to.  Are these the settings and can you give me any insight as to what they mean?

EditStreamedPrintSettings.Text="PRSETv1:000000000000F03F000000000000F03F000000000000F03F000000000000F03F0401000000000000F0BF000000000000F0BF000000000000F03F0004000000050000009A9999999999B93F01010000000000000000"
EditStreamedPrintSettings2.Text="PRSETv1:333333333333D33F333333333333D33F333333333333D33F333333333333D33F04010000000000803140ABAAAAAAAA0A2540000000000000F03F0004000000050000009A9999999999B93F01010000000000000000"
EditStreamedPrintSettings3.Text="PRSETv1:333333333333D33F000000000000D03F000000000000D03F333333333333D33F04015555555555753140ABAAAAAAAAAADE3F000000000000F03F0004000000050000009A9999999999B93F01010000000000000000"

mouser

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Re: greyscale + negative for Auto Print
« Reply #11 on: September 11, 2013, 12:54 PM »
Yes and no  ;D

They are stored in some internal format that is not readily parsable, at least by me.

jhines97

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Re: greyscale + negative for Auto Print
« Reply #12 on: September 11, 2013, 01:02 PM »
Thanks for all the hard work getting the inverted colors working, and now I know which ini lines define the print margins in the program.   :)

tomos

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Re: greyscale + negative for Auto Print
« Reply #13 on: September 11, 2013, 01:45 PM »
For auto-print do you use the post-capture dialogue?
Is there any way to print an image @ 100% - I have to ask myself what is 100% when converted to a page, and I'm not sure.
But this is what I get when I use the post-capture dialogue and choose "Normal" (*not* 'Fit to page' or 'Stretch to page'):

Screenshot - 2013-09-11 , 20_50_31.png

NB: the height of the white area there is A4 width (210mm - I got it very roughly that size on screen here) - (the page is landscape format)
The original image is this size:

Screenshot - 2013-09-11 , 20_30_43.png

But the main point is that it's definitely been enlarged a lot - enlarged to page size.
I believe this is related to the behaviour when creating PDF's using a scanner - images are also enlarged to page size as oppoised to keeping actual measurement. See here for more details.
With the screenshot, as said, I'm not sure what 'actual' measurement is when printed ...
Tom
« Last Edit: September 11, 2013, 01:52 PM by tomos, Reason: minor changes »

jhines97

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Re: greyscale + negative for Auto Print
« Reply #14 on: September 11, 2013, 01:59 PM »
I use the fit to page option, and I have set the margins down to .3 all the way around.  This way a screenshot gets autoprinted, inverse colored, and fills the letter sized paper I am printing to.  I use screenshot captor to also capture images to disk sometimes for making screenshots that get inserted into documentation, but that could probably be done with the snipping tool for all I use it for.  Sorry, can't be of help.

tomos

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Re: greyscale + negative for Auto Print
« Reply #15 on: September 11, 2013, 02:49 PM »
^thanks jhines,
btw, didnt mean to sidetrack the thread - if needs be, that enlarge-to-page issue can always be followed up on in the other thread (link in my post above)
Tom