Tech Note: Text Members and PrintOMatic
Products:
PrintOMatic Lite MX Xtra, PrintOMatic Lite Xtra 1.6.5, PrintOMatic MX Xtra, PrintOMatic Xtra 1.6.5
Platforms:
all
Macromedia Director 5 and later have two types of cast members: text "field" cast members and rich text cast members. PrintOMatic is capable of printing both types of text members, however, this printing is handled in different ways.While Director 5 and 6 allow you to edit Rich Text cast members as word-processing text, the ultimate format that this information is saved in is a BITMAP. While this has changed in Director 7, PrintOMatic still only assumes that it can retrieve bitmap information from RTF cast members.
In Director 5 and 6, when you protect a Director movie and bundle it into a projector, all the text information is removed from Rich Text cast members, and only the bitmap image of the text remains.
It is this bitmap image that PrintOMatic and PrintOMatic Lite are able to print. The Xtras handle an RTF member as a large bitmap, and therefore, these cast members are subject to bitmap image scaling rules:
- If the member is wider or taller than the printable area of the page, it will be scaled to fit the page.
- You can’t "flow" the contents of an RTF member across more than one page. In order to print an RTF member on more than one page, you must break the text up into multiple RTF members, and print them by using the "append" command for each member.
Solutions
The best quality printing with PrintOMatic always comes from using text FIELD members. Consider placing your printable text into these members for best results.
Your other option is to split your RTF into multiple one-page members and print them sequentially, e.g.:
print member 1, member 2, member 3
