Tips for viewing and printing diagrams

When you click the Print button, Blueprint generates a PDF version of your diagram. The great part about the PDFs is that they’re extremely scalable–you can view them on screen or print them on any sized printer (or plotter!). Here are a few tips for working with them:

Viewing Diagrams On Screen
Zooming
By default, Adobe Reader scales the diagram so that the entire picture fits on one screen. If you’re going to present your diagram to other people, you’ll want to zoom in:

Choose Actual Size from the zoom menu to view the diagram as it will appear when printed.

Panning
After you’ve zoomed in, it’s easier to navigate around your diagram using the Hand Tool. Just right-click the diagram and select it from the context menu:

Save a Copy
Need to email a copy of the diagram or just keep it for later? Just click the Save a Copy button in the toolbar and save it to your computer. You can then email it off or file it away for the future.

Printing Diagrams
Printing on a standard printer
When using a standard printer, you’ll need to use several sheets of 8 1/2″ x 11″ (or A4) paper to display your diagram without reducing its scale. To do this, you’ll need to use “tiling”; where you set this option changes depending on the exact version of Adobe Reader you have installed and what printer you are using.

The first place to look is in the Adobe Reader print dialog. You should select Tile All Pages from the Page Scaling drop down if it is available to you:

If you don’t see that option, instead click the Properties button at the top of the dialog. The setting name again varies by the manufacturer of your printer, but it should be called something like “tiling” or “poster output”. For example, on my Dell laser printer:

Printing to a Plotter
Blueprint’s diagram PDFs are formatted for a plotter by default, so you shouldn’t have to change any settings when printing. Your diagram will print on one continuous sheet of “butcher paper”.