HP DesignJet Z2100 24 User Manual

							5Printing
●Select print quality
●
Select paper size
●
Select margins options
●
Print with shortcuts
●
Rescale a print
●
Change the treatment of overlapping lines
●
Preview a print
●
Print a draft
●
High-quality printing
●
Print in gray shades
●
Print with no margins
●
Reprint an old job
●
Use paper economically
●
Use ink economically
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							Select print quality
The printer has various print-quality options because best-quality printing requires some loss of speed,
while fast printing implies some reduction in print quality.
Therefore, the standard print-quality selector is a slider that allows you to choose between quality and
speed.
Alternatively, you can select from the custom options: Best, Normal, and Fast. There are also two
supplementary custom options that may have an effect on print quality: Maximum detail and More
passes. See 
High-quality printing on page 48.
NOTEIn the Windows driver dialog, the rendering resolution for your job is displayed in the
Custom Print Quality Options dialog box. In the Mac OS Print dialog, it is displayed in the
Summary panel.
You can select print-quality options in the following ways:
●In the Windows driver dialog: go to the Paper/Quality tab and look at the Print Quality section.
If you select Standard Options, you will see a simple slider with which you can select speed or
quality. If you select Custom Options, you will see the more specific options described above.
●In the Mac OS Print dialog: go to the Paper Type/Quality panel and select Paper. If you
select Standard quality options, you will see a simple slider with which you can select speed or
quality. If you select Custom quality options, you will see the more specific options described
above.
●
Using the front panel: select the Setup menu icon 
, then Printing preferences > Print
quality. This option is available only with the HP-GL/2 Upgrade.
NOTEIf the print quality is set from your computer, it overrides the print-quality setting in
the front panel.
NOTEYou cannot change the print quality of pages that the printer is already receiving or has
already received (even if they have not started to print yet).
Select paper size
The paper size can be specified in the following ways.
NOTEThe paper size specified here should be the paper size in which the document was
created. It is possible to rescale the document to a different size for printing. See 
Rescale a
print on page 44.
●In the Windows driver dialog: select the Paper/Quality tab, then Document Size.
●In the Mac OS Page Setup dialog: select your printer in the Format for popup menu, then Paper
Size.
●
Using the front panel: select the Setup menu icon 
, then Printing preferences > Paper >
Select paper size. This option is available only with the HP-GL/2 Upgrade.
NOTEIf the paper size is set from your computer, it overrides the paper size setting in the
front panel.
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							To choose a non-standard paper size not shown in the list of paper sizes:
●Under Windows, there are two different ways:
●In the driver dialog, select Custom from the paper size list in the Paper/Quality tab, then
specify the paper dimensions, then click Save to save your new paper size. To see your new
custom size in the list of custom sizes, you need to exit the printer properties, then reenter
them and use the More button.
●From the Start menu, select Printers and Faxes, then from the File menu select Server
Properties. In the Forms tab, check the Create a new form box, specify the name and
dimensions of the new form, then click Save Form.
●Under Mac OS X 10.4, select Paper Size > Manage Custom Sizes in the Page Setup dialog.
●Under Mac OS X 10.2 or 10.3, select Settings > Custom Paper Size from the Page Setup dialog.
Select margins options
By default, the printer leaves a 5 mm margin between the edges of your image and the edges of the
paper (17 mm at the foot of a sheet of paper). However, you can change this behavior in several ways.
●In the Windows driver dialog: select the Paper/Quality tab and then the Layout button.
●In the Mac OS Print dialog: select the Paper Type/Quality panel and then Layout.
You will then see at least some of the following options.
NOTEUnder Mac OS, the available margins options depend on the paper size selected in
the Page Setup dialog. For instance, for borderless printing you must select a paper size name
that includes the words “no margins”.
●Standard. Your image will be printed on a page of the size you have selected, with a narrow margin
between the edges of the image and the edges of the paper. The image should be small enough
to fit between the margins.
●Oversize. Your image will be printed on a page slightly larger than the size you have selected. If
you cut off the margins, you will be left with a page of the size you selected, with no margins
remaining between your image and the edges of the paper.
●Clip Contents By Margins. Your image will be printed on a page of the size you have selected,
with a narrow margin between the edges of the image and the edges of the paper. In this case, if
the image is the same size as the page, the printer assumes that the extreme edges of the image
are either white or unimportant, and do not need to be printed. This may be useful when your image
already contains a border.
●Borderless. Your image will be printed on a page of the size you have selected, with no margins.
The image is slightly enlarged to ensure that no margin is left between the edges of the image and
the edges of the paper. If you select Automatically by Printer, this enlargement is done
automatically. If you select Manually in Application, you must select a custom page size slightly
larger than the page on which you intend to print. See also 
Print with no margins on page 49.
Print with shortcuts
The printer driver provides many options that can be set to different values when printing a particular
job. A printing shortcut stores the values of all these options that are appropriate for a particular kind of
job, so that you can set them all with a single click. Some settings (such as paper size, paper source,
and orientation) may be overridden by the values provided by your application.
To use a shortcut, select the Printing Shortcuts tab in the Windows driver dialog.
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							NOTEShortcuts are available only under Windows.
You can see a list of available shortcuts; select the one that matches the kind of job you want to print.
The driver options are now adjusted to suit your job. You can either print immediately, or examine the
settings to check that you agree with them. If you like, you can select a shortcut and then change some
of its settings manually.
TipCheck at least the settings that you can see in the Printing Shortcuts tab: the document
size, orientation, etc.
The Factory Defaults shortcut contains the printers default settings. When you click on it, it sets all
options to their default values.
Printing shortcuts can be customized to your particular needs. To create your own shortcut:
1.Select the shortcut that comes closest to satisfying your requirements.
2.Change any value in the Printing Shortcuts tab and/or other tabs.
3.Save the new printing shortcut.
If you decide later that you no longer want a shortcut, you can delete it.
Rescale a print
You can send an image to the printer at a certain size but tell the printer to rescale it to a different size
(normally larger). This may be useful:
●If your software does not support large formats
●If your file is too large for the printers memory—in this case, if you have the HP-GL/2 Upgrade,
you can reduce the paper size in your software and then scale it up again using the front-panel
option
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							You can rescale an image in the following ways:
●In the Windows driver dialog: select the Effects tab, then Resizing options.
●The Print document on option adjusts the image size to the paper size you have selected.
For example, if you have selected ISO A2 as the paper size and you print an A4-size image,
it is enlarged to fit the A2 paper. If the ISO A3 paper size is selected, the printer reduces a
larger image to fit the A3 size.
●The % of normal size option enlarges the printable area of the original paper size (the page
minus the margins) by the percentage indicated, then adds the margins to create the output
paper size.
●In the Mac OS Print dialog: select the Paper Handling panel, then Scale to fit paper size, and
select the paper size to which you want to scale the image. If you want to increase the size of the
image, make sure that the Scale down only box is unchecked.
●
Using the front panel: select the Setup menu icon 
, then Printing preferences > Paper >
Scale. This option is available only with the HP-GL/2 Upgrade.
If you are printing to a single sheet, you must ensure that the image can actually fit onto the sheet,
otherwise the image will be clipped.
Change the treatment of overlapping lines
NOTEThis topic applies only when printing an HP-GL/2 job with the HP-GL/2 Upgrade.
The merge option controls the overlapping lines in an image. There are two settings:
●Off: where the lines cross, only the color of the top line is printed.
●On: where the lines cross, the colors of the two lines merge.
To turn merge on, go to the front panel and select the Setup menu icon 
, then Printing
preferences > HP-GL/2 > Enable merge. You can set the merge option from your software in some
applications. Settings in your software override the front-panel settings.
Preview a print
Previewing a print on the screen allows you to check the layout of the print before printing, which may
help you to avoid wasting paper and ink on a bad print.
●To preview a print under Windows, you have two options:
●Use your applications print preview option.
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							●Check the Show preview before printing option, which you can find in the drivers Printing
Shortcuts tab, Paper/Quality tab, and Features tab. The preview is shown before printing;
you can check the print settings and the layout of the image, and then click Print to proceed
with printing or Cancel to cancel the job.
●To preview a print under Mac OS, you have three options:
●Use your applications print preview option.
●Click the Preview button at the bottom of the Print dialog box. This is the basic print preview
provided by Mac OS.
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							●Click the PDF button at the bottom of the Print dialog box, then click HP Print Preview. This
provides a preview with more features, such as the ability to change paper size, paper type,
and print quality, and to rotate the image. See below:
NOTEHP Print Preview is not available if you are using Adobe InDesign, Adobe
Illustrator, Adobe Reader, or Apple Aperture.
Print a draft
You can specify fast draft-quality printing in the following ways:
●In the Windows driver dialog: go to the Paper/Quality tab and look at the Print Quality section.
Move the print-quality slider to the extreme left (Speed).
●In the Mac OS Print dialog: go to the Paper Type/Quality panel and select Paper, then move
the print-quality slider to the extreme left (Speed).
●
Using the front panel: select the Setup menu icon 
, then Printing preferences > Print
quality > Select quality level > Fast. This option is available only with the HP-GL/2 Upgrade.
NOTEIf the print quality is set from your computer, it overrides the print-quality setting in the
front panel.
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							High-quality printing
You can specify high-quality printing in the following ways:
●In the Windows driver dialog: go to the Paper/Quality tab and look at the Print Quality section.
Move the print-quality slider to the extreme right (Quality).
●In the Mac OS Print dialog: go to the Paper Type/Quality panel and select Paper, then move
the print-quality slider to the extreme right (Quality).
●
Using the front panel: select the Setup menu icon 
, then Printing preferences > Print
quality > Select quality level > Best. This option is available only with the HP-GL/2 Upgrade.
NOTEIf the print quality is set from your computer, it overrides the print-quality setting in the
front panel.
If you have a high-resolution image
If your image has a resolution greater than the rendering resolution (which you can see in the Custom
Print Quality Options box under Windows), print sharpness may be improved by selecting the Maximum
Detail option.
●In the driver dialog (Mac OS Print dialog): select Custom instead of Standard print-quality options,
then check the Maximum Detail box.
●
In the front panel: select the Setup menu icon 
, then Printing preferences > Print quality
> Enable maximum detail. This option is available only with the HP-GL/2 Upgrade.
NOTEThe Maximum Detail option results in slower printing with photo papers, but it does not
increase the amount of ink used.
If you have printhead problems
If your printheads have an excessive number of clogged nozzles, print quality is improved by selecting
the More Passes option.
●In the driver dialog (Mac OS Print dialog): select Custom instead of Standard print-quality options,
then check the More Passes box.
●
In the front panel: select the Setup menu icon 
, then Printing preferences > Print quality
> Enable more passes. This option is available only with the HP-GL/2 Upgrade.
NOTEThe More Passes option results in slower printing, but it does not increase the amount
of ink used.
TipInstead of using this option, consider using the Image Diagnostics Print to identify the
printhead or printheads that are causing the problem, and then clean or replace them. See 
The
Image Diagnostics Print on page 135.
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							Print in gray shades
You can convert all colors in your image to shades of gray in the following ways:
●In your application program: many programs provide this option.
●In the Windows driver dialog: go to the Color tab and look at the Color Options section.
Select Print In Grayscale.
●In the Mac OS Print dialog: go to the Paper Type/Quality panel and select Color, then select
Print In Grayscale.
If you select Print In Grayscale when using glossy paper, you must also choose between Gray and
Black inks only and Full set of inks.
●Gray and Black inks only means that only gray and black inks are used in your grayscale print.
This gives the most neutral shades of gray and is selected by default for all paper types.
●Full set of inks means that a mix of different colors are used in your grayscale print. This may give
a better result if you are experiencing bronzing on glossy paper with the Gray and Black inks
only option. See 
Bronzing on page 132.
See also 
Print a black-and-white photo for an exhibition (Photoshop, Mac OS) on page 67.
Print with no margins
Printing with no margins (to the edges of the paper) is known as borderless printing. This can be done
only on rolls of glossy paper.
In order to be sure of leaving no margins, the printer prints slightly past the edges of the paper. Any ink
deposited outside the paper is absorbed by the sponge situated in the platen.
You can request printing with no margins in the following ways:
●In the Windows driver dialog: select the Paper/Quality tab and press the Layout button. Then
select Borderless.
●In the Mac OS Page Setup dialog: select a paper size name that includes the words “no margins”.
Then, in the Print dialog, select Paper Type/Quality > Layout > Borderless.
When you select Borderless, you must also select one of the following Image Enlargement options:
●Automatically by Printer means that the printer automatically enlarges your image slightly
(normally by a few millimeters in each direction) in order to print over the edges of the paper.
●Manually in Application means that you must enlarge the image yourself in your application, and
select a custom paper size that is slightly larger than the actual paper size.
NOTEIf the first print job after loading paper is a borderless job, the printer may trim the leading
edge of the paper before printing.
At the end of a borderless print, the printer normally cuts the print slightly inside the image area
to ensure that the print is borderless. It then cuts the paper again so that no residual part of the
image is included in the next print. However, if the job is cancelled, or if there is white space at
the bottom of the image, only a single cut is made.
Reprint an old job
You can reprint an already-printed job from the front panel, if you have the HP-GL/2 Upgrade and it is
an HP-GL/2 job.
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							Select the Job Queue menu icon , then select the job from the queue, then select Reprint.
NOTEIf you do not have the HP-GL/2 Upgrade, you will not see the Job Queue menu icon
.
To reprint old jobs that are not HP-GL/2, you may be able to use your operating systems printer spooler,
if you have already told the spooler to save old jobs. This facility depends on your operating system.
Use paper economically
Here are some recommendations for making economical use of paper:
●If you are printing relatively small images, you can print up to 16 of them on one sheet of paper.
Use the Pages per sheet option in the Features tab (Windows driver) or the Layout panel (Mac
OS driver).
NOTEThis works for multipage documents only.
●You may be able to save some roll paper by using the following options:
●In the Windows driver dialog: select the Features tab and then Remove Top/Bottom Blank
Areas or Rotate by 90 degrees.
●In the Mac OS Print dialog: select the Paper Type/Quality panel, then Paper, then Remove
Top/Bottom Blank Areas.
●If you check the print preview on your computer before printing, you can sometimes avoid wasting
paper on prints containing obvious mistakes. See 
Preview a print on page 45.
Use ink economically
Here are some recommendations for making economical use of ink.
●For draft prints, use plain paper and move the print-quality slider to the left end of the scale
(Speed).
●Clean the printheads only when needed, and clean only those printheads that need cleaning.
Cleaning the printheads can be useful, but it uses ink.
●Leave the printer permanently turned on so that it can maintain the printheads in good condition
automatically. This regular printhead maintenance uses a small amount of ink. However, if it is not
done, the printer may need to use much more ink later to restore the health of the printheads.
●Wide prints make more efficient use of ink than narrow prints, because printhead maintenance
uses some ink, and its frequency is related to the number of passes made by the printheads.
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