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Yes it is possible to improve the printing a lot. This point as been neglected for many years. Can you list what you like in the print you mention? And also list more improvement not in this print. One I personally like is not related to printing, this is to not draw the comet symbol at each point of the orbit. But I find strange the choice of the labeled DSO. For example on the Nevsky chart, why label the faint planetary EGB6? and why not label the bigger and brighter galaxies? |
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I don't know about the choice of the labeled DSO, maybe some are labeled because of their proximity to the path of the comet? In the print I like the use of the black dots of variable size depending on the star magnitude and the clean layout of the chart. The print also seems to be of higher resolution making it easier to see finer details like deep sky objects on the chart. The labels above and below the chart (name of the comet, information about the comet, star magnitudes symbols, field of view in degrees) are also nice. The print really looks like a page from a printed star atlas and it reminds me of Sky Atlas 2000 and Uranometria 2000. I am not sure how easy would be to implement such improvements? |
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About the star dot size there is some setting you can already use. I upload three example : cdc_default.pdf : the print with the default settings. cdc_25-75.pdf : increase the star size from the menu Setup/Display, click "Star display" = "Line mode", set size=25, contrast=75. cdc_portrait.pdf : the same in portrait orientation Do this improve the result for you? I voluntarily not use very fine line or gray color for the print because a few years back I was using a B/W laser printer that render this thing very badly. But I can add an option for that because it will lock better on ink-jet printer or on PDF files. |
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Yes the results are better. Maybe you could also add a number scale in Setup > Display > Star display > Line mode for bright star size and contrast? In your pdf examples (cdc_25-75.pdf) I see that some objects/labels overlap for example 40 Leo (near gamma1), UGC5470? (near alpha Leo), M65, M105. Any way to fix this? You could add the option you mention if it will help with ink-jet printers and pdf files. |
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I also agree that readability of printed Skycharts maps is not the best, in my opinion the main point to work out is text overlapping lines/objects. I've remembered that years ago I used to print charts with a small command line program and after searching a lot I found it again: http://pp3.sourceforge.net/ I admit that compared to Skycharts the amount of data that PP3 prints is much less, butif I remember well, this small program uses some trick in the code to adjust text position to avoid overlapping lines and objects, maybe you can find something useful in its source code. Another thing I liked in PP3 is the way it renders the Milky Way in grayscale. I think it can be used in Skycharts not only for printing, but also on screen to avoid the mono-chromatic way it is actually rendered. |
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Reported by emilnp in 0001246 , this points will be examined here: The "fill milky way" is not working - or am I doing something wrong? I guess that when I press "fill milky way" it should be filled with a solid color (which I should be able to choose). Another point when it comes to printing. I think that in previous versions (I mean versions from years ago) the grid lines (dash, dash dot, dash dash etc) looked a lot better in print. Now, even with anti-aliasing off, the lines are somewhat blurry and stubby... |
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The proposition to draw the Milky Way as in PP3 is implemented by revision 2894: http://sourceforge.net/p/skychart/code/2894 Screenshot: http://www.ap-i.net/skychart/_detail/en/screenshot/x006_milkyway.jpg |
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The Milky Way this way is nice, but a bit bloated. I made some test in a vector graphic program. I think Milky Way points should be draw with a fade from 100% to 0% opacity. Also the radius should be no less than the distance of the points, the better result seems to be with a proportion radius:distance of 3:2 (see attachment, top result is 1:1, bottom is 3:2). |
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plots.png (11,573 bytes) |
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Right, and I was fooled by the radius value on the first line of the file. It look like it is half the diagonal distance between the points. With the following change it is much better: http://sourceforge.net/p/skychart/code/2902/ I also plan to replace the data file by using the more recent Milky Way panorama by Axel Mellinger. |
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I close this issue for now as many point are now improved. Please start a new issue after the release of version 3.12 if you have other point that need improvement. |
- Anonymous
