Printing from SIS Desktop

Cadcorp SIS Desktop can use any printer with a Microsoft Windows printer driver.

You can simply print what you see on screen. 

TIP: For more sophisticated output, use Print Template or Quick Print Template.

Unlike other applications (eg word processors) Cadcorp SIS Desktop will only print a single page in Map View or 3D View. (you can however print multiple pages in Table View).

Printed maps are either scaled or cropped to fit the page.

Raster data, colour-filled vector boundaries, thickened lines and Microsoft Windows TrueType fonts are printed at the resolution of the printer being used.

Note: Remember some printers do not support colour output so raster data may not appear as expected.

Cadcorp SIS Desktop automatically checks if the printer handles colours. If not, the map will be printed in monochrome.

In rare instances the printer driver cannot keep pace with the printer’s capabilities.

In this case, use the Drawing and Printing tab of the Options dialog to force colour or monochrome graphics when printing.

TIP: Use Print Preview (File > Print) to check effects before printing.

Many colour printers use Enhanced Metafile (EMF) format.

This simply means Cadcorp SIS Desktop just supplies the instructions for what to draw on the page. (rather like a script and the printer driver interprets the script).

Enhanced Metafiles results in smaller print jobs.

Typically the Metafile is low colour depth e.g. 4-bit, 16 colour.

Cadcorp SIS Desktop will not "dither" its output to the colour depth but instead chooses the closest available colour in the printer’s colour palette. This can lead to seemingly random colours appearing in Grid item cells.

Other raster data e.g. Bitmap items also print without being dithered and can look completely different to what is seen on screen.

The effect is more pronounced for Grid items because each cell or pixel in the Grid is typically large on screen and on the print.

In this case, try changing the printer to accept RAW data instead of EMF data. This lets Cadcorp SIS Desktop do the rasterisation which can then be dithered, resulting in a better output.

Remember the size of the print job will be significantly increased using this method.

To print OpenStreetMap or Bing datasets, we recommend creating the SWD using the WGS84.Pseudo Mercator Coordinate Reference System, i.e. add this layer to the SWD first.