PCB Print Preferences

Modified by Susan Riege on Aug 10, 2018

Summary

This dialog provides controls to define global print preferences that are applied to all PCB-related print output (with the exception of PCB 3D Prints).

Access

The dialog is accessed by clicking the Preferences button at the bottom-left of the PCB Printout Properties dialog.

Options/Controls

Colors & Gray Scales

Main Grid - this area allows you to control the coloring that is used for each possible layer than can be printed. For each layer, you can define the color used when printing in gray scale or color. Click on the left-hand color swatch to access the range of gray scale shades. Click on the right-hand color swatch to access the Choose Color dialog, from where you can choose from a range of predefined colors or create your own custom color.
Retrieve Layer Colors From PCB - click this button if you want to print using the same colors configured for the PCB design in the PCB Editor.

Using this feature will overwrite the right-hand color swatch for each layer. The gray scale color definitions will remain unchanged unless you manually change them.

To print in color or gray scale, the corresponding option - Color or Gray - must be enabled in the associated Page Setup dialog for the print output. The color printing mode for the nominated printing device must also be set accordingly in its associated properties dialog.

Include on New Printouts

As well as adding mechanical layers individually to a printout, you can also automatically include them in all printouts - when the print job(s) for the parent document type is sent to the nominated printing device. Use this region of the dialog to enable/disable each of the 16 possible mechanical layers for printing, as required.

Font Substitutions

Default - check the box to use default settings. Use to open theFont dialog in which you can further define the Font settings.
Serif - check this box to use the Serif font. Use to open the Font dialog in which you can further define the Font settings.
Sans Serif - check this box to use the Sans Serif font. Use to open the Font dialog in which you can further define the Font settings.

Options

Print Keepout Objects - enable this option to have keepout-designated design objects included on the printed document.
Use Net override color - enable this option to have the net color used in prints, rather than the layer color.

Content