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Select Tools»Options to display the Options dialog box and select Printing from the Category list to display this page.

Use this page to set printing options for all VIs. Use the Print dialog box and the VI Properties dialog box to set printing options for the current VI.

This page includes the following components:

• Standard printing—(Windows and Mac OS) Translates the VI print data (front panel, block diagram, icon, and so on) and sends it to the printer using the standard operating system drawing commands. This option is selected by default. You must use this option if the printer does not have PostScript support or if you want the printer driver to handle the PostScript translation instead of LabVIEW.
  • Allow printer dithering—(Windows) Applicable for black-and-white printing, printer dithering adds grayscale patterns to an image instead of printing only black-and-white areas. The printer type does not affect this option. This checkbox is unchecked by default.
• PostScript printing—(Windows, Non-Intel Mac OS, Linux) Translates the VI print data in PostScript (.ps) format and sends it to the printer as PostScript commands. Do not select this option if the printer or printer driver does not support PostScript printing. PostScript printouts reproduce the image of the screen, including patterns, line styles, and fonts, more accurately.
  • PostScript level 2—(Windows, Non-Intel Mac OS, Linux) Sends PostScript level 2 code to the printer. This checkbox is unchecked by default. Select this option only if the printer works with PostScript level 2.
• Bitmap printing—(Windows) Creates a bitmap, draws all data for that page into the bitmap, and sends the bitmap to the printer. This method might take much longer to print than standard or PostScript printing because LabVIEW sends the image file to the printer instead of sending drawing commands. Bitmap printing can yield a printout of the text and fonts that is more similar to what appears on the screen than standard printing, even though the resolution is lower. The bitmap image is in color for color printers and black and white otherwise.
• Color/Grayscale printing—(Windows and Linux) Sends color or grayscale output to the printer, overriding the printer driver depth settings. If the printer is a color printer, LabVIEW sends color output to the printer. Otherwise, LabVIEW sends grayscale output to the printer. This checkbox is checked by default. Remove the checkmark from this checkbox to send black and white output to the printer. You also can use the Printing:Color/Grayscale? property of an application to specify programmatically whether to send color or grayscale output to the printer.
• Margins—Sets absolute margins for printouts in centimeters or inches. You can set all four margins (Left, Right, Top, Bottom) separately. The physical parameters of the printer limit the margins. If you set margins smaller than the printer accepts, the printer uses its minimum settings. This checkbox is unchecked by default. This option affects any VI in which you have not set custom margins. If the Use custom page margins checkbox in the Print Options page of the VI Properties dialog box does not contain a checkmark, the VI uses the margins you set in the Options dialog box. If the Use custom page margins checkbox does contain a checkmark, the VI uses the margins you set on the Print Options page of the VI Properties dialog box.
  • Left—Sets the width of the left margin.
  • Right—Sets the width of the right margin.
  • Top—Sets the height of the top margin.
  • Bottom—Sets the height of the bottom margin.
  • Inches—Uses inches for the margin values.
  • Centimeters—Uses centimeters for the margin values.

You also can use the Application properties to set printing options for all VIs.