Testing & Viewing
Preview the Form
Before creating your load (.asc) file, you can test your forms using FTPreview. FTPreview simulates a production print run using the .asc file and a sample print stream.
Load a Data File
To preview your form:
- Select Load data file... from the Tools menu.
- In the Open dialog box, select the data file you wish to use as a sample.
- Select the appropriate Ascii/Unicode conversion
option:
- Auto - If necessary, FTDesign automatically converts the selected sample data file to Unicode based on your current system locale.
- Custom - Choose a custom filter to convert the data file. Click the Filters... button and the Input Filters dialog box will open. Click Add and select a filter to be used for conversion.
- None - No conversion filter is used.
- Click the Open button to load the sample data file.
The choice of Auto or Custom depends on the Locale of your machine (the language it operates in) and the language of the data file. If these are the same (Simplified Chinese for example) AND you have that filter loaded, Auto will suffice. If these are different (English Locale with Korean data), then you will need to chose Custom and select the appropriate Filter for the language of the data file. The Western filter is applied for all Roman languages (English, and European languages).
Preview the Forms
To preview your form:
| Select from: | FTPreview (color, fast) ... |
| or FTPreview (color, best quality pictures) ... | |
| or FTPreview (B&W, fast) ... | |
| or FTPreview (B&W, best quality pictures) ... |
Image quality issues apply only to substitution images where the original image is low resolution, especially 75 dpi images.. "fast" produces pixelated images from low dpi images, especially when printed in B&W from color. Where this is the case chose "best quality pictures".
- FTPreview appears with the sample data file formatted with the
current form.
- PCL Preview - if you selected a PCL5x Printer, and ...
- PCLXL (PCL6) - if you selected a PCLXL (PCL6) printer. The form preview will be in color or b&w depending on your preview selection. This is a TCG-written routine and allows the option "Print to ANY Windows Printer" if you have that option installed in your FormTrap Spooler.
- PostScript Preview - if you have selected a PostScript printer driver to preview the form, the preview will be via Adobe PDF viewer in color PDF format for FTPreview (color), or black and white PDF for FTPreview (b&w).
If a data file has not been loaded to use as sample input FormTrap will not be able to preview the form.
More information on Configuring FTPreview in Design Options
Save the Output File
Preview files... shows details from the prior preview, meaning you can view the Log file produced by the formatting program and save the output file.
Output files are named "out" with extensions .pcl, .pclxl (pcl6) and .ps.
From version 7.2.0.2 of FTDesign, you can also view the Associated File.