Altium schematic printing with NO background colour

[AlfBaz]

I cant seem to find a way to disable printing a background colour when printing schematics. The best I can see is setting the background to all white (all RGB values to 255) is this how you turn off background printing?

[T3sl4co1l]

Err... huh...

I mean, I don't think there's such a thing as through-page transparency in PDF.  Objects on the page, maybe?

It's not impossible to suppose that one could actually format a page this way.  The printer would know what kind of media to use, based on the background: a 100% transparent background would be printed on acetate, a partial transparency might be printed on matte (translucent) stock, an opaque background on paper or other; etc.

But, I don't think this is done at all, and so, what's printed, is always an additive pigment (subtractive color) process.  And for that, by definition, white is the absence of all color, yup.

(Not to be patronizing, if this is a misinterpretation of your intent -- rather, just to entertain the thought of a document format that supports transparency literally everywhere.  )

More to the point, though -- let me guess, you've printed it on laser and found the disgusting dither pattern because Altium's default sheet is just slightly off white?  Yeah, I fixed that shit long ago on my templates...

Tim

[tszaboo]

Yes, that is how you turn it off. I think color 233 is White and 3 is black BTW.

[T3sl4co1l]

The color palette is silly.  I never use it.  Always either the color picker grid (true grays, from #fff white to #0 black, are the bottom row), or custom 24 bit color on the other tab.

If in doubt, RGB doesn't lie

Tim

[AlfBaz]

Thanks guys

It's not impossible to suppose that one could actually format a page this way.

and supposing weird things is how I've gotten by with altium/protel for years

[tooki]

First off, the question that brought me to this thread:

More to the point, though -- let me guess, you've printed it on laser and found the disgusting dither pattern because Altium's default sheet is just slightly off white?  Yeah, I fixed that shit long ago on my templates...

How do you do that?? I can't find any settings for the background color for print/PDF output. (Just the settings for the on-screen schematic editor.)

Err... huh...

I mean, I don't think there's such a thing as through-page transparency in PDF.  Objects on the page, maybe?

Old, I know. But actually, yes, PDFs can have a transparent background, and it's VERY handy in some situations, like if you need to extract a vector graphic out of a PDF into some other program, or placing a PDF as a graphic into another document. (This is fairly rare on Windows, but surprisingly common on the Mac.)

Another theoretical use (though I have no idea whether PDF is used for this in practice) is for printing T-shirts and window stickers, where they do, in fact, have white ink as a separate color.

It's not impossible to suppose that one could actually format a page this way.  The printer would know what kind of media to use, based on the background: a 100% transparent background would be printed on acetate, a partial transparency might be printed on matte (translucent) stock, an opaque background on paper or other; etc.

But, I don't think this is done at all, and so, what's printed, is always an additive pigment (subtractive color) process.  And for that, by definition, white is the absence of all color, yup.

Well, no. That's how office printers work. But once you get into commercial graphics, it's not at all unusual to have opaque spot colors to work with, including white ink or metallic films. (Or even surface-modifying coatings: back in the 90s, National Geographic had a few years where they used gloss lacquer as a spot color, selectively applying gloss onto parts of the page. Glossy black on matte black is a fascinating and elegant effect.)

Modern commercial UV-cure inkjet printers (the type commonly used to print rigid boards, phone cases, etc.) often have CMYK plus white, specifically to enable printing white onto transparent or dark substrates. (The CMY inks can be transparent or opaque.)

(Not to be patronizing, if this is a misinterpretation of your intent -- rather, just to entertain the thought of a document format that supports transparency literally everywhere.  )

That's a very, very common thing actually. Most people just don't realize that when using such formats, their software is usually drawing or specifying a white background for them!

[T3sl4co1l]

Cringe, T3sl4co1l posts from 5 years ago, who would even write like that...

As for sheet color -- Document/Options you can edit colors (or since AD18, Properties panel/dialog with nothing selected).

Tim

[ajb]

Color can be controlled by a schematic template (.SchDot file) as well, so background color can be set as part of an overall template, along with title block/border/etc.  I'm not sure when SchDot filetypes were added, but they're created the same way as SchDocs, just saved as a template and then stored in a specific folder.  You can change or reload a template without having to change anything else on the sheet.

[ajawamnet]

Simple - use the Page Setup dialog. This can be done in the standalone or in the outputjob as well as when generating a Smart PDF.  See vid 

[PlainName]

The page setup solution just switches to mono output, which is no doubt the desired result for some purpose. However, keeping the object colours and just making the background white is often preferable.

[tooki]

Cringe, T3sl4co1l posts from 5 years ago, who would even write like that...

As for sheet color -- Document/Options you can edit colors (or since AD18, Properties panel/dialog with nothing selected).

Tim

I could have sworn it was already set to white there! I'll have to look again when I'm back in the lab on Tuesday.

Color can be controlled by a schematic template (.SchDot file) as well, so background color can be set as part of an overall template, along with title block/border/etc.  I'm not sure when SchDot filetypes were added, but they're created the same way as SchDocs, just saved as a template and then stored in a specific folder.  You can change or reload a template without having to change anything else on the sheet.

I really need to look into those.

Simple - use the Page Setup dialog. This can be done in the standalone or in the outputjob as well as when generating a Smart PDF.  See vid  [snip]

Nope, that's not the same thing. I'm not looking for monochrome or grayscale output.

The page setup solution just switches to mono output, which is no doubt the desired result for some purpose. However, keeping the object colours and just making the background white is often preferable.

Exactly!

[nctnico]

Cringe, T3sl4co1l posts from 5 years ago, who would even write like that...

As for sheet color -- Document/Options you can edit colors (or since AD18, Properties panel/dialog with nothing selected).

Tim

I could have sworn it was already set to white there! I'll have to look again when I'm back in the lab on Tuesday.

You may need to set it for existing pages seperately (properties). I had quite a fight with Altium to change the text font to something that is readable when printed small; I needed to modify many objects seperately even after setting the default font.

[tooki]

Cringe, T3sl4co1l posts from 5 years ago, who would even write like that...

As for sheet color -- Document/Options you can edit colors (or since AD18, Properties panel/dialog with nothing selected).

Tim

I could have sworn it was already set to white there! I'll have to look again when I'm back in the lab on Tuesday.

You may need to set it for existing pages seperately (properties). I had quite a fight with Altium to change the text font to something that is readable when printed small; I needed to modify many objects seperately even after setting the default font.

I hear you. It's maddening how many places there are where the font must be changed. (Not to mention when footprints manually override the defaults...)