On Thu, 29 Aug 2013 18:51:24 -0600 Ken Springer <snowsh...@q.com> wrote:
> On 8/29/13 4:47 PM, Steve Litt wrote: > > On Thu, 29 Aug 2013 10:19:34 -0400 > > Richard Heck <rgh...@lyx.org> wrote: > > > >> On 08/29/2013 03:59 AM, Liviu Andronic wrote: > >>> On Thu, Aug 29, 2013 at 3:28 AM, Ken Springer <snowsh...@q.com> > >>> wrote: > >>>> Much like the speakers in a sound system, it occurs to me the > >>>> actual quality of the printed output from a LyX document will > >>>> depend on the quality of the printer being used. > >>>> > >>>> Right or wrong? If wrong, why? > >>>> > >>> Well, kind of. Of course the printing quality will depend on the > >>> quality of the printer and the paper that you use. But once > >>> exported to PDF, the typesetting quality of your document should > >>> be rock-solid, whichever printer you use. > >> > >> Obviously, a low resolution printer will give worse printed output. > >> This is especially true since the fonts used are (usually) vector > >> fonts. > >> > >> That said, my two books /Frege's Theorem/ and /Reading Frege's > >> _Grundgesetze_/ were both printed, by the publisher, from a PDF I > >> provided. And they look great, if I do say so myself. I assume they > >> used very good printers! > >> > >> Richard > > > > Sort of on topic: After becoming dissatisfied with the 26 minute > > print time, on my new Brother MFC-8810dw 40ppm printer, of my book > > "Manager's Guide to Technical Troubleshooting > > (http://www.troubleshooters.com/bookstore/mg.htm), I set the print > > resolution down from 1200x1200dpi to 600x600dpi (11 minutes, > > yeah!), my admittedly old eyes could find no appreciable difference > > in the print, except for an almost imperceptable lightening at > > 600dpi. But the images were another matter: They looked better at > > 600 because 1200 showcased the mistakes and pixellations of the > > artwork itself. > > > What would have happened if you applied stochastic screening to the > images? I'm assuming that would be retained in a PDF file. Deeeuuuuud! You're getting so tweak here I had to look up stochastic screening on Wikipedia. The graphics involved were: 1) A photo I took of a wrench 2) Various diagrams I did in Dia, Inkscape and Gimp. Since I don't believe LaTeX can natively handle .svg, a lot of this depends on the conversion LyX uses (which of course you can configure). Keep in mind also that filesize goes way up with resolution, and that makes it costly to email or download PDFs, and taxes printers in terms of making the engine stop while loading the next big image. I've known about stochastic screening for all of five minutes now (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stochastic_screening) so let me dazzle you with my opinions... Any laserprinter I ever used used, as far as I know, a certain number of dots per inch, each dot being a certain shade (I use monochrome/grayscale) or color (if you want each page to cost you a dime or a quarter or whatever). The shades are made from dot size, with "dots" being a whole bunch of dots from the dpi measurement. As far as I know, they cannot vary placement of their dots, only shade or color via size (AM). So even if the PDF looked great on the screen, I'd imagine the printer would have limited ability to reproduce the (FM) stochastic screening. Indeed, the Wikipedia page talks of stochastic screening mainly in terms of printing from plates (which I presume assumes print runs of at least 100), and not from laser printers. I just searched Inscape+"stochastic screening" and got a bunch of useless stuff including an anti-Obama site (whaaaaat, how'd Google do that?). Then I did the same thing for LaTeX, nothing ontopic for us. Same thing with "Computer monitors". One site said most inkjet printers use stochastic screening. I don't think stochastic screening will come into your life unless you're using a very unusual printer, or long-run print at a print house. It won't help me, AFAIK, because today's monitors can't use it. If filesize is no object, just go 1200dpi, and make sure your .svg to .eps conversions are high resolution. If filesize *is* an issue, you appear to know a lot more than I about how to minimize pixelization, moire, and all that stuff. Thanks, SteveT Steve Litt * http://www.troubleshooters.com/ Troubleshooting Training * Human Performance
