Plot to PDF EXACTLY as I see it? (no color changes)

[djbeatsent]

I am wanting to plot a file to PDF exactly as I see it. Every time I try to plot something it changes a few colors to make it easier to print. I would take a screenshot, but the file is too large too see the details all on one screen.

[MSasu]

If you will use "None" under Plot Style field in Plot dialog, you should get the colors used in drawing in your PDF.

 

Regards,

Mircea

[djbeatsent]

If you will use "None" under Plot Style field in Plot dialog, you should get the colors used in drawing in your PDF.

 

Regards,

Mircea

 

This did not work. The white lines I drew turned black...?

[MSasu]

The white lines I drew turned black...?

I'm affraid that this is normal - the color white (index 7) is printed as black.

 

Regards,

Mircea

[RobDraw]

If your background color is black then AutoCAD changes black to white for display purposes but it is still black for printing purposes. Change your white lines to black and they will print white but you won't be able to see them on a black background..

[djbeatsent]

I changed the lines to black, and it still prints black. I am plotting to PDF, not paper.

[MSasu]

I don't think that you can get true white by plotting from AutoCAD (even as PDF). The closest color you can use is 255.

 

Regards,

Mircea

[ReMark]

Just out of curiosity, what color is the background in your PDF?

[Jack_O'neill]

Guys, you can't print in white anyway. There is no combination of pigments in laser or inkjet cartidges that will make white. You can mix colors of light in a monitor or tv screen to get white, but not with pigments. If you use that very lightest shade of gray, you'll get that, because it will be simply a few black dots here and there, but only on white paper. If you use colored paper you'll get a few black dots darkening the area where it prints but it will be what ever color the paper is. You can simulate it by printing a colored background and allowing the paper to show through an void, but the "white" area will be simply that...a void.

 

Epson and a few others make printers that will simulate white ink, but they are very expensive as is the white ink.

[RobDraw]

That sounds like the voice of experience, Jack. You explained that very well.

[bill_borec]

You could use color 255, as recommended above or create a custom color using the 'true color'. But, as already stated, color 7 (white) will print as black...I suppose you could modify your .ctb to associate color 7 with a 'true color' that is 'white'-ish. Hope these couple of ideas help.

[ReMark]

Kind of the basis behind my less-than-normally-sarcastic question (What color is the PDF background?).

 

Here is how you can do it. Get an empty ink cartridge, water down some "white out", fill the cartridge with it, swap out the black ink cartridge with the replacement white, not-quite-ink, cartridge and run a test copy. What happens?

 

So Jack, can you explain to the good folks tuned in today how "real" blueprints were made a hundred years ago. You know the ones I mean, where the background is dark blue and all the lines are white. The kids will love this story.

[bill_borec]

Are you (ReMark) referring to the lovely Ammonia-based Diazo machines? Those were GREAT! (especially in a room with poor ventilation) *dripping with sarcasm*

[RobDraw]

I hated handling those prints when they were fresh. It was like nails on a blackboard to me.

[MSasu]

I can remember the ammonia smell...

 

Regards,

Mircea

[Jack_O'neill]

Clipped from the help files in 2010:

 

ACI colors are the standard colors used in AutoCAD. Each color is identified by an ACI number, an integer from 1 through 255. Standard color names are available only for colors 1 through 7. The colors are assigned as follows: 1 Red, 2 Yellow, 3 Green, 4 Cyan, 5 Blue, 6 Magenta, 7 White/Black.

 

 

If you notice, it lists color 7 as White/Black. This is a hold over from the old days when you had a black screen or a white one. This color would display as white on a black screen, and black on a white screen so you could see what you were doing.

 

 

 

After re-reading this I see that the OP is trying to get this to happen in a PDF file...I thought he was trying to send it to a printer. You can set what ever you want to color 255 which is a very pale gray, almost white, but you will get a gray line when it sends to the PDF at the very best. It will be so faint though, that you'll not be able to see it. It will however show up in the print preview as a fairly distinct gray. Don't trust the print preview to show exactly how it will turn out.

 

 

 

The pic below is the corner of a triangle drawn and solid hatched in color 255 surrounded by a red background and zoomed at 3200% in Adobe Reader X. I did it originally without the red background and could not find the triangle on the page.

 

 

[ReMark]

Are you (ReMark) referring to the lovely Ammonia-based Diazo machines? Those were GREAT! (especially in a room with poor ventilation) *dripping with sarcasm*

 

No. This was BEFORE the advent of diazo machines. Those are referred to as bluelines not blueprints. There is a difference.

[Jack_O'neill]

The diazo process actually produced blue lines on an almost white background. The paper was coated with chemicals that included diazonium salt and some other stuff. The paper was turned blue by this coating. You drew your "master" on a piece of vellum or onionskin (or later a sheet of mylar) and then fed the two pieces into the machine, which exposed the chemical on the paper to UV. This faded the blue everywhere except where the master was casting a shadow, leaving blue lines behind. These things were a pain in the katookus, because exposure to natural or artificial UV light (florescent light bulbs) would cause them to gradually fade. If you left a page rolled out on the hood of a truck on site in full sun and went home for the weekend, it was not uncommon to come in on Monday morning to a blank page!

 

The older version of this that created blue paper with white lines was a similar process invented in 1861 and worked like this:

 

Ferro-gallate is coated onto a paper from aqueous solution and dried. The coating is yellow. In darkness it is stable for up to three days. It is clamped under glass and a light transmitting document in a daylight exposure frame, which is similar to a picture frame. The frame is put out into daylight requiring a minute or two under a bright sun or about ten times this under an overcast sky. Where UV light is transmitted the coating converts to a stable blue or black dye. The image can be seen forming, when a strong image is seen the frame is brought indoors and the unconverted coating, under the original image, is washed away. The paper is then dried.

The result is a copy of the original image with the clear background area rendered dark blue and the image reproduced as a white line.

 

Ain't you glad you don't have to do that anymore?

Edited February 2, 2012 by Jack_O'neill
fingers got ahead of my brain

[djbeatsent]

Guys' date=' you can't print in white anyway. There is no combination of pigments in laser or inkjet cartidges that will make white. You can mix colors of light in a monitor or tv screen to get white, but not with pigments. If you use that very lightest shade of gray, you'll get that, because it will be simply a few black dots here and there, but only on white paper. If you use colored paper you'll get a few black dots darkening the area where it prints but it will be what ever color the paper is. You can simulate it by printing a colored background and allowing the paper to show through an void, but the "white" area will be simply that...a void.

 

Epson and a few others make printers that will simulate white ink, but they are very expensive as is the white ink.[/quote']

 

I think I am being misunderstood. This file will NEVER be put on paper. It is an electronic file (plant layout) to be viewed on adobe reader in PDF form. I currently have:

 

The background that is standard for AutoCad 2012, which is a grey color.

Many different color lines, each for a different purpose.

I want to take what I see right now, and make that a viewable PDF document. I don't want ANY colors changed in any way when it moves to a viewable PDF file.

[RobDraw]

Like this?

 

Test.pdf