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The Printer Driver Interface
The printer driver is a piece of software that allows you to create jobs for the laser system using the Windows print
system. The printer driver has a preferences dialog with two tabs which allow you to set various parameters for a
print job. One tab offers a materials-based approach to setting job parameters and the other offers a more
detailed manual approach to setting job parameters.
Materials Database Printer Driver Tab (beginner and casual user)
This tab of the printer driver is for beginners and
the casual user and automatically calculates the
appropriate laser job settings for a nominal effect
based on the material selected and the maximum
output power of the laser installed. Please note
that when this tab is used to set up a job, all
raster data is printed using one set of job
settings, all vector cut data using another set and
all vector marking data using a third set. There
are only three sets of job settings available, one
for each type of graphic element in your print job:
raster objects, vector cut objects and vector mark
objects. All elements of the graphic interpreted as
raster objects will be converted to grayscale and
printed using the raster job settings with a
grayscale dither pattern applied. A dither pattern
is a method of mimicking shades of gray using
patterns of dots with varying spacing. Dots further
apart will appear lighter gray and dots closer together will appear darker gray. This is how the laser system is able
to print shaded images and photographs. If you desire a solid background removal for certain elements of your
graphic instead of a dither pattern, you must make those elements solid black in color. Objects to be vector cut
must be in red and must have a thickness of .001" (.0254 mm) or less. Objects to be vector marked must be in
blue and must have a thickness of .001" (.0254 mm) or less. Any vector elements in your graphic that are not
blue or red in color will be converted to grayscale and printed as raster objects. Order of execution when using the
materials database tab proceeds with raster objects first, then vector marking objects and finally vector cutting
objects.
The various controls in the materials database printer driver tab are explained below:
Materials Tree
Materials settings in the database are arranged in a multi-leveled tree structure. Click the plus symbol next to
a material category to expand the category, and then select a material type. Double clicking on a material
allows you to read the material record for standard materials and to read and edit custom or cloned materials
using the materials editor explained laser in this section. Right clicking on a material or category opens a
menu with the following options.
New Category (category only)
Create a new category in the materials tree
New Material (Category only)
Create a new custom material. You can then edit the settings using the material editor described later in
this section. Please note that new materials will not be compatible with the VLS air filtration unit.
Clone (material only)
Make a custom copy of the selected material. This copy can then be edited to make a new material
record. Please note that cloned materials will not be compatible with the VLS air filtration unit.
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