17
Operating Your Printer
Dither Line :
Most output devices rely on dithering to achieve shades of
gray. With the Dither Lines option on (the default), your ML-5050G Series
printer gives you accurate grays even if it has to dither them. You get exactly
what you ask for. However, fine dithered lines appear dashed instead of solid.
With the Dither Lines option off, your ML-5050G Series printer maps text
and lines to the nearest gray. For black & white output, grays that are darker
than about 50% map to black; lighter grays map to white. For color, colors
map to the nearest gray.
Dither Text :
Most output devices rely on dithering to achieve shades of
gray. With the Dither Text option on (the default), your ML-5050G Series
printer gives you accurate grays even if it has to dither them. You get exactly
what you ask for. However, small dithered text is difficult to read. With the
Dither Text option off, your ML-5050G Series printer maps text and lines
to the nearest gray. For black & white output, grays that are darker than
about 50% map to black; lighter grays map to white. For color, colors map to
the nearest gray.
Accept Larger Bitmap Pattern :
When an application sends a bitmap fill
pattern (also called a Òpattern brushÓ) to the printer, the expected, standard
size is 8 pixels square. Some applications are able to send larger patterns. If
Accept Larger Bitmap Pattern is on, and you encounter output where your
bitmap fills have repeating pattern anomalies in them, try turning it off.
Bitmap fill patterns can be used for any repeated design, or even to simulate
grayscale dithering. Some applications send box tints as bitmap patterns.
One problem that arises with this is that some programs donÕt make
allowances for the difference between screen resolution and printer
resolution. (Another problem is that some do!) The typical result is that
patterns printed to a laser printer get very small, and tints get too dark.
Scale :
Your ML-5050G Series has a process that automatically enlarges the
bitmap fill patterns so that the output more closely matches the screen. For
example, with the default, ÒautomaticÓ setting of Scale: 0, patterns that come
from a VGA system (96x96 logical pixels per inch) are enlarged
three times to (almost) match the 300x300 dpi of a laser printer. If you set
Scale to 1, your printer can handle the brush patterns exactly as they come
from the application-no scaling. You can also
force your printer to scale by 2, 3, 4, or more times by entering larger
numbers.
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