15 - Printing and Plotting

December 9, 2025

Overview

To print or plot a design, you work with the standard Windows dialog boxes, whether you want to send output to a printer, a plotter, or an encapsulated PostScript file. Capture can send output to any driver that Windows supports.

In the Print dialog box, you make choices for a print job. The choices you establish are used for previewing and for creating output. Each time you open the Print dialog box to request a print job, all the choices are reset to the default settings.

For additional information on printing and plotting, see your Windows documentation.

At certain zoom scales, Capture substitutes filled rectangles for text that is too small to appear. These placeholders are for display only—the text prints correctly.

To print or plot, do the following:

Open the schematic page, part, or symbol to print.
From the File menu, choose the Print command.

Printing or Plotting a Part

With the part editor active and open to a specific part, you can create a print or a plot of that part. You can also print a part from the project manager.

To print or plot a part, do the following:

Select the part in the project manager window.
Or
Open the part to print.
From the File menu, choose the Print command.
The Print dialog box displays.
Select the scale, the print quality, and the number of copies, then click OK.

To print or plot a multiple-part package, do the following:

Select the part in the project manager window.
OR
Open the part, and from the View menu choose the Package command.
From the File menu, choose the Print command.
The Print dialog box displays.
Select the scale, the print quality, and the number of copies, then click OK.

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Setting Print Options for Schematic Page Objects

You can specify various options for determining how specific objects on the schematic page are printed.

To define if an object is printed or plotted, do the following:

From the Options menu, choose Preference.
Go to the Colors/Print tab.
Select the check box located beside the color block for the object that you want to be able to print or plot.
Clear the check box if the object is not to be printed or plotted.

Objects are always displayed on the schematic page, regardless of the setting of their check boxes.

Printing Documents

Documents can be printed, as indicated in the following table:

Document to print	From Project Manager	From Schematic Editor	From Part Editor	From Text Window
Single schematic page	Yes	Yes	---	---
Multiple schematic pages	Yes	---	---	---
Entire schematic folder	Yes	---	---	---
Single part or symbol	Yes	---	Yes	---
Multiple parts and symbols	Yes	---	Yes (a)	---
Entire package	Yes	---	Yes (b)	---
Text	Yes (c)	---	---	Yes

(a) Multiple-part package in package view, only.

(b) In package view.

To print a document, do the following:

In the Project manager, select the document to print
To print more than one document, use the Ctrl+click combination.
From the File menu, choose the Print command.
Choose either to print the highlighted text or the entire document.
Click OK.
The "Printing" message appears. Capture prints the window.

When printing a multi-page schematic, make sure that the pages do not have multiple Title Blocks with different page numbers. Otherwise, the pages will not be printed in the correct order. If you change the page numbers in the Title Blocks manually, then make sure that the Do not change the page number checkbox is checked in the Annotate dialog box.

To print from a text editor window, do the following:

Open the text editor window to print.
From the File menu, choose Print.
Choose either to print the highlighted text or the entire document.
Click OK.
The "Printing" message appears. Capture prints the window.

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Printing or Plotting a Schematic Page

With the schematic page editor active and open to a specific schematic page, you can create a print or a plot of that page. You can also print a page from the project manager. Windows sets the printer to the Portrait mode, by default. You can use the Print Preview command to check the output before sending it to the printer or plotter.

To print or plot one schematic page, do the following:

If you are working in the schematic page editor, open the window for the page you wish to print.
OR
If you are working in the project manager window, then select the schematic page.
From the File menu, choose the Print command. The Print dialog box opens.
Select the scale, the print quality, and the number of copies, then click OK.

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Behavior of offsets in printing and plotting

Your entire schematic page will be output to the printing or plotting device, regardless of the use of offsets.

The following rules define the number of output pages that will be printed or plotted:

The device and its driver determine the dimensions of the printed page area.
The number of pages is calculated from the physical dimensions of the schematic page and the driver-provided area dimensions.
A positive offset shifts the entire schematic page to the right in the X direction, and down in the Y direction. Additional pages are output as required, therefore, the entire schematic is printed. No truncation takes place.
A negative offset shifts the schematic page left, and up. The effect of a negative offset will be to start the drawing on a “previous” page. Previous pages are “pre-pended” so drawing can start at the starting portion of the schematic. No truncation takes place.

Only the number of pages required to print or plot the schematic page will be printed. Extra “blank” pages are omitted.

Previewing Print Output

Using the Print Preview command, you can make sure that your schematic folder or schematic page is complete and that its appearance is what you want before you commit it to paper.

To preview print output, do the following:

In the project manager window, select the documents you wish to print or plot.
Or
Select the entire design or library you wish to print or plot.
Or
Open the single part or schematic page you wish to print or plot.
From the File menu, choose Print Preview. The Print dialog box appears.
Edit the values as necessary.
Click OK to begin. The "Printing Now" message appears and after a moment, the Print Preview window opens. If the document requires multiple printer pages, scroll through them using the scroll bar.
Use the Previous page and Next page buttons to look at additional printer pages of the document.
To zoom in, move the magnifier pointer to a specific area and click.
When you finish, choose the Close button to dismiss the Print Preview window.

To preview print output from a text editor window, do the following:

Open the text editor window you wish to print or plot.
From the File menu, choose the Print Preview command. The window displays the Print Preview and Print Setup dialog boxes.
Use the window's vertical scroll bars to view the other pages, if the document extends beyond one page.
When you finish, choose Print Preview from the File menu to return the text editor window to its normal editing state.

In the Print Preview window, if you select the Print all colors in black option, any color used in the design object will be printed in black.

Setting up Printer or Plotter

There are some considerations you should take into account when printing or plotting from Capture.

Special considerations for plotters

Plotters do not support bitmaps directly. If you are sending Capture output to a plotter, your bitmaps will not be plotted.
The Capture setup command may not give you access to all your plotter's setup options. For access to additional printer settings, use the Printers icon in the Windows Control Panel.
Many plotters do not have drivers that ship with Windows. If you do not see the plotter you are looking for in the list of available drivers, contact your plotter manufacturer and ask for a Windows driver. If your plotter will emulate HPGL, an alternative solution is to use the HPGL driver.

Plotter pen colors

The plotter driver maps your color choice to the closest available pen color as established in your plotter driver configuration. See your plotter's driver setup and documentation for more details. For access to additional printer settings, use the Printers icon in the Windows Control Panel.

To set up a printer or plotter

From the Print dialog box, choose the Setup button to select a different printer or plotter or to change printer settings.
If you need to set up your printer or plotter, see the documentation that accompanies the printer or plotter. For access to additional printer settings, use the Printers setting on the Start menu.

Scaling a Print or Plot

You can manually scale or have Capture automatically scale prints and plots to fit the paper size you choose.

To scale a print or a plot of a schematic page or part, do the following:

From the File menu, choose Print. The Print dialog box appears.
Select one of the three radio buttons in the Scale box.
- The Auto scale option scales each schematic page to fit a single sheet of paper.
- The Scale to page size option scales your schematic pages to the page size you select in the Scale to size box. This will result in multiple sheets of paper if you select a sheet size larger than your printer paper.
- The Scale by factor option scales your schematic pages to a factor of your choice. The acceptance range of factors is 0.100 to 10.000.
If you select the Scale to sheet size option above, the Scale to size list becomes available. Your schematic page is scaled to the sheet size you select. This will result in multiple sheets of paper if you select a sheet size larger than your printer paper.
Click OK to send the image to the output device.