Black and white printing

[Ivan]

Hi Mark,

In the documentation for the Investment Overlay - Price Graph it says: "When printing this graph on a black and white printer there are a maximum of 5 unique line styles used (solid, dot, dash, dashdot, dashdotdot)." I am not seeing this when I print a graph. I have the line width set to 1 as instructed. Is there somewhere that I specify that I am using a black & white printer to activate this feature?

Thanks,
Ivan

[Mark]

Hi Ivan,

This isn't something you set in Fund Manager. Fund Manager reads the printer's capabilities from Windows (and the printer driver). Did you try setting your printer to black/white mode? If you use "File / Print / Window..." and then select your printer, and choose the "Properties..." button that will show your printer options. This varies by printer, and isn't directly controlled by Fund Manager. Many printers give you the option to print black/white here.

[Ivan]

Hi Mark,

The printer is a black and white only, laser printer. I looked through the settings and, as expected for a black and white printer, couldn't find anything related to color settings. This isn't a big issue for me, so it's not necessary to pursue it if you don't have a ready solution.

Thanks,
Ivan

[Mark]

Hi Ivan,

I'm currently out of the office, with no access to a physical printer. I did test it by printing to a virtual PDF printer (PrimoPDF) in black/white mode, and notice that if your time frame is wide, the dots/dashes almost appear as a solid line. If you zoom in though (View / Dates...), so there is a significant line size between plotted points, then the dots/dashes are noticeable. I think it is a side effect of the way we're drawing this, and the pen is resetting each time we draw a segment. You might check and see if this is the same cause of what you're seeing.

[Ivan]

Hi Mark,

I don't think that's it. I set the date range for 1 week and the lines are still solid, although one is lighter than the other - certainly due to printer's handling of the colors. There is also no line type in the legend next to its associated investment as described in the documentation.

Thanks,
Ivan

[Mark]

Hi Ivan,

It sounds like for some reason FM thinks your printer supports more than 2 colors. It queries this from the printer driver to make this determination. If you'd like, I can email me you a test version that outputs this information to a message box. Let me know if you're interested in pursuing this.

[Ivan]

Thanks for your attention to this Mark, but the message box option isn't necessary. I only have two or three lines on the graph and it's easy to know which is which by comparing the color graph on my monitor to the printed version.

Ivan