New in this release are polygon mode printing, printing to an offscreen bitmap (OSBM), subdivide printing, and printing to a PDF file.
Polygon Mode Printing
This release of MapInfo Professional introduces a new way of drawing complicated polygons, such as those containing holes or many nodes through a User Interface. This was due to an issue with printing such objects using an Adobe PDF printer driver. It left visible seams and gaps in the image when the PDF was printed. These seams and gaps were not visible on screen nor when printed using other printer drivers.
Printing with the new method means that large polygons are now rendered as-is not broken into smaller polygons, as the older method does. Additionally, the new method uses different calls that specifically support drawing polygons with holes. The older method manipulates the polygon with holes to draw as a single polygon, which caused seams and gaps to appear in the PDF
Polygon Mode may be set for each of three types of drawing: on-screen, printing, and exporting. On the PRO tab, select Options, and click Output Settings to open the Output Preferencesdialog box. Select the Polygon Mode check box on any of the Display, Printing, and Exporting tabs.
Printing to an Offscreen Bitmap (OSBM)
The Print using Offscreen Bitmap (OSBM) printing method renders a print job to offscreen bitmaps prior to sending it to the printer or plotter. It is used when printing maps and layouts containing translucency and/or anti-alias content, particularly for raster images. When printing, on the HOME tab, in the Output group, click Print to open the Print dialog box. Click Advanced to open the Advanced Printing Options dialog box. Select the Print using Offscreen Bitmap (OSBM) check box.
This printing process generates an Offscreen bitmap of your MapInfo Professional image before sending it to the printer. Offscreen bitmap is invoked depending upon the type of translucent content in the map and enhanced rendering state of the window. However, setting OSBM from this window means that while printing Offscreen bitmaps (OSBM) will be selected regardless of the translucency and anti-alias settings.
Setting Print to an Offscreen Bitmap as your Default
You can set this option as a default on the PRO tab, select Options, and click Output Settings to open the Output Preferences dialog box. On the Printing tab, select Print using Offscreen Bitmap (OSBM) to sets the default for all new windows.
Subdivide Printing
In earlier versions of MapInfo Pro, there was an optional registry setting, called SubdividePrinting, to allow print jobs to be broken into multiple, smaller print requests. This was especially useful if printing large raster/ translucent maps to large paper sizes. Now that option has been added as a preference. The preference is initialized using the registry setting if it existed.
On the PRO tab, select Options, and click Output Settings to open the Output Preferences dialog box. On the Printing tab there is a check box for Subdivide Printing. If checked, the print job is broken into multiple smaller print request. If unchecked, the print is done in a single request.
Printing to PDF
MapInfo Professional lets you save a map to a layered PDF file. Since Acrobat 6.0, PDFs are capable of holding multiple pages of information in the same space through the use of Optional Content Groups (OCG), which are more commonly known as layers. Layers in PDFs are very similar to MapInfo Professional map layers.
Your PDF now displays layers in the same order as shown in the MapInfo Professional Layer Control window, and it displays translucency. The MapInfo PDF Printer supports GeoRegistration, which stores the bounds and coordinate systems of the map view in the PDF file. The PDF file also stores the attribute data of the records on the map.
- Print to PDF – On the HOME tab, in the Output group, click Print to PDF to save your map, browser, or layout to a PDF file. This option is similar to Save As, and gives you the option to concatenate PDF files.
- MapInfo PDF Printer tool – The Main menu includes a new MapInfo PDF Printer tool, which is the same as on the HOME tab, in the Output group, clicking Print to PDF to save your map, browser, or layout to a PDF file.
- Translucency – You can create a layered PDF that includes translucent layers in MapInfo Professional 10.5.
- PDF Preferences – The MapInfo Professional Print dialog box (on the HOME tab, in the Output group, click Print) now includes a PDF button that displays after selecting MapInfo PDF Printer from the Name list. This button opens the PDF Preferences dialog where you can make the following settings:
Layered PDF
Select to save layers for a map, as shown in the MapInfo Professional Layer Control window, to the PDF file. When saving a Layout window, each frame, such as map frame and legend frame, becomes a layer in the PDF.
Georegistered PDF
Select to store the bounds and coordinate systems of the map or layout view in the PDF file.
Add Attribute data to PDF
Select to store the attribute data of the records on the map in the PDF file.
Automatically open the PDF
Select to have the PDF file open after it is generated.
Selecting the Layered PDF option in the PDF Preferences dialog box enables the Direct to Device option, and disables using OSBM and EMF.
If you select the Print using EMF or Print using the Offscreen Bitmap (OBSM) output method and later on select the Layered PDF from the PDF Preferences dialog box, then the output method forcibly sets to Direct to Device. However, disabling the Layered PDF option resets the print output method back to your original selection, EMF/ OSBM.
- Context Sensitive Help for the MapInfo PDF Printer – This version of the MapInfo PDF Printer includes documentation in the form of a Help System. To access this help system, on the HOME tab, in the Output group, click Print. In the Print dialog box, click Properties. This opens the MapInfo PDF Printer Properties dialog box, which has a Help button on each tab.