MacDraw II: Patterns Not Printing on the Tektronix 4693 DX

With MacDraw II, when printing to the Tektronix 4693 DX (with Phaser option) you may notice that your patterns will not print out. Because this is not a problem with a specific object type, circles, rectangles, polygons, freehands and arcs will show this same problem. This problem will only appear if you have the Phaser Laser Option.

This information was provided by Claris Corporation on 16 March 1998, and incorporated into Apple Computer's Tech Info Library.
The solution is to use the "Print Station Administrator" software that comes with the Phaser station and remove the "Set Screen" document from the "INIT Jobs Folder." You will then need to restart the Phaser Station for this change to take effect.

Note: Restarting the Phaser Station should take approx. 4 minutes.

The information below is provided by Tektronix Technical Support
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The SetScrn InitJob corrects several compatibility problems with the Phaser PrintStation. Several programs, notably the Informix WINGZ product and PowerPoint (by Microsoft), seem to exhibit these problems. The difficulty arises when the application attempts to send output to the printer at something other than the default (37 degree) halftone screen angle that the Phaser PrintStation uses.

This file will smooth out "banding" in areas of swept color, most notably in Microsoft PowerPoint slides. In addition, it will speed up printing time of applications that use screen angles to create color. Informix WINGZ shows the most improvement, with print times reduced from several hours to only a few minutes. Take note, however, that colored areas in WINGZ will be solidly filled and will no longer contain "patterns". Also, you will be limited to eight colors. For most charting applications this is usually sufficient, but if you need access to more than eight colors you will have to remove this patch by turning the PrintStation off and rebooting it.

For some applications like MacDraw II, the Setscrn InitJob will cause Fill Patterns to "smear". SetScrn InitJob will need to be removed when sending a MacDraw II file that contains patterns within the image.

The software vendors have stated that they will incorporate fixes into upcoming releases of their software.
Published Date: Feb 18, 2012