In our OCAD Wiki we have summarized information and tips on the subject of printing orienteering courses.
https://www.ocad.com/wiki/ocad/en/index.php?title=Course_Setting_Printing
In our OCAD Wiki we have summarized information and tips on the subject of printing orienteering courses.
https://www.ocad.com/wiki/ocad/en/index.php?title=Course_Setting_Printing
With the last update, the Define Paper Size function was added to OCAD. The paper size is visible in the drawing area and the area outside is grayed out.
This is useful for displaying a print area or creating a map layout.
You can find detailed information about the function in our OCAD Wiki.
On the subject of map printing, we repeatedly receive support requests such as:
High time for a blog entry!
Why do the colors of the printed map look different than on the screen?
OCAD works with CMYK colors. But what you see on your computer screen are RGB-colors from the Windows Graphics Device Interface (GDI). When you print maps directly out of OCAD, OCAD converts the CMYK values first in RGB values and sends the data to the printer and your printer driver converts the data back to CMYK values. Also, each printer driver may handle the conversion in a different way.
This way it may come to changes in the color values. Therefore, we recommend you to always create a PDF first out of OCAD and print this PDF afterwards.
Why is the export area slightly different from the print area?
When exporting a PDF in A4 Portrait format, the size is always 210 x 297 mm.
However, your home printer will not be able to print the full size, as he needs some ’empty borders’ to guide the paper through the printer. How much this is exactly differs from printer to printer. Typically this is 2 – 5 mm.
Because of that, export area and printing area of the same format can differ, as you can see in the picture below.
Side note: In professional printing, maps are printed on ‘oversize’ paper, which is slightly bigger than A4/A3 format and so-called bleed and trim marks are added. After the printing, the maps are cut to the exact size.
How should we print maps?
The International Orienteering Federation IOF has updated the recommendations for Printing and Color Definitions according to modern practices.
OCAD implemented the new color specification in the latest OCAD 2018 Service Update. Download this Service Update from the OCAD Help menu.
You can read the Appendix to ISOM 2017, which explains the background of the update and the different printing techniques, here: ISOM 2017 Appendix 1 – CMYK Printing and Colour Definitions.