How to improve print quality of 3D Graphs

[ceties]

Hello,
I’m using LabView 3D graphs (ActiveX) and when printing they look too pixelized.
Does anybody know how to print nicer 3D graphs?
Thanks

[Darren]

Go to Tools > Options > Printing and try the different print options (Standard, PostScript, Bitmap), along with their sub-options, and see if any of the different selections result in a nicer printout.

-D

[ceties]

Hi Daren,
thank you but it doesn't help. Standard is as I wrote pixelized. PostSript(2) doesn't work (my printer does not support PostScript printing) and when bitmap checked it prints grey rectangle.
I think this is more about 3DGraph component than about LV printing. 😞

Anyone knows?

[Darren]

Maybe it's your printer driver...I just tried printing one of the 3D Graph examples that ships with LabVIEW (examples\general\graphs\3dgraph.llb\3D Graph Properties - Torus.vi) and it looked fantastic...no pixelation anywhere (I got a second opinion from one of my colleagues and he agreed it didn't look pixelated at all).  For your reference the printer I used was an HP LaserJet 4000 Series PS with the latest drivers installed on Windows XP.

-D

[ceties]

I printed high quality pdf to eliminate printers fault, it looks better than from printer but it's still not enough. Torus example looks better, but especially the axes are still pure. Can it cause graphic card?

[Darren]

I see that the text on the axes is a little pixelated in the printout, but it looks exactly the same as it does on my screen.  So I think the printing is behaving as expected.  Whether or not you can do anything about the pixelation of the axes on your screen, I believe there is a way to change the font of the axes through the ActiveX interface to the 3D graph, although I have never done this.  That's the only other avenue I can think of that you can take to try to make your axes more attractive.

Good luck,
-D

[ceties]

Hi Darren and others,
I didn't think more about problem with quality of printing because I hadn't time. But now I must finish my work.
The problem is that the pixelization appears when making picture as well (JPEG, PNG, BMP). Just try. It looks horrible.
Any ideas how to obtain nicer picture? I need at least something like attached matlab_picture.png. I'm especially confused with the quality of the axes and "support lines".
Is there any other way how to export images to get what I really see in the moment, just like printscreen function (but only on graph)?

I don't understand how can someone be satisfied with the quality of 3D graph pictures 😞

Thank all for quick help, I really need it. I developed sophisticated application but it looks unusable because none can work with such low-quality outputs.

[Darren]

First of all, the printouts and the image files look exactly the same as the image displayed in the ActiveX container on the LabVIEW front panel, so the issue you have is with the ActiveX control itself, not with printing or saving to image files. 

I think the fundamental difference between the LabVIEW appearance and the MATLAB appearance is that the labels of the axes in MATLAB are shown with standard fonts with no special orientation, i.e. the MATLAB graph appears in such a way that the X and Z axes can have normal horizontal text, and the Y axis has vertical text.  Since the 3D graph in LabVIEW allows you to change the orientation to any arbitrary angle, the text of the axis labels is drawn, as an image, to accomodate your arbitrary angle.  There are certain angles you could view the graph from where it would be impossible to represent each axis label as standard or vertical text (as shown in the MATLAB screenshot).  I'm not that familiar with MATLAB, so I don't know if it's even possible to view their 3D graphs with any arbitrary angle, and if so, how their axis labels look when you do this.

Nevertheless, I will file a suggestion to LabVIEW R&D to see if anything can be done about the pixelated look of the axis labels in a future LabVIEW version.

-D

[unclebump]

Maybe adjusting the antialias settings on your video card will help.

[ceties]

Hi all,
"....the printouts and the image files look exactly the same as the image displayed in the ActiveX container on the LabVIEW front panel..."
Sorry, but in my case this is not true. Just look on the pictures.
Printscreen.png is what I exactly see and GetImage.png is the result of the invoke node.
I haven't got problems with the text locked to the axes my problems are the axes and their lines itself. Just look.
Can someone pls post the result of the vi I attached in my previous post (picture_export_or_print.vi)?
Thank for your help!