Mirror image printing for PCBs

[VanIsleDSM]

I suppose this is the right forum?

I make my own PCB board with the iron on method after laser printing.. so far since I don't have a laser printer I've just been photocopying inkjet printings and using those.. but I decided to buy one.. a dell 1100 laser printer, got it used so I can't take it back..

Problem is there's no option in the print preferences to print out a mirror image like there is for my inkjet (and most printers I imagine) ..so this is pretty useless to me.. as I need to print mirror images to transfer to the PCB so it's the right way.

I already called DELL tech support.. and all that guy did after 10mins was basically confirm that there is no way he knew of to change it..

I use ExpressPCB to make my boards.. and there's no mirror option in it's print page setup either.. so I ask, are there mirror printing options in the other PCB design programs? like eagle maybe? (or just an option in the program to flip the design would work too) or do any printing gurus out there know how to print a mirror image somehow? A third party driver that works for all printers maybe that would have the option? ..I'm pretty stuck here, if there's no way I suppose I'll just have to try and re-sell this printer and get another.. too bad, it's brand new when I got it from the lady, only printed the test page.

 

[Mr Happy]

Don't know. But it seems like the printer has a Samsung engine, so you could try a Samsung printer driver like the Samsung ML-1020 perhaps, just in case that might have a mirror image option.

 

[X_Marine]

Try searching "dell 1100 laser printer, ps driver"
If you find a postscript driver it will most likely have what you need.

Keep an eye out for an old HP Series II or III LaserJet, they are great work horses and you will find parts at PrinterWorks site.

Also try print to file and importing into CorelDraw and mirror and print.

Good luck, hope that was helpful.
X/BillyD..

 

[X_Marine]

Just remembered another possible option I thought you should try.
Google "Win2Pdf" which will install a very small print driver and show up in your printer selection for you to print to.

It gives you a lot of options and is not printer specific so may do what you need. After printing your file you will have a file.pdf which you can open and print giving you more versatility.

Again gl
X..

 

[MatajumotorS]

I am drawing PCB's in Eagle, then i export the image to *.bmp and the in MS Paint i invert colors and mirror the image, and i am also printing from there, because then there is no need to care about dpi in image and dpi set on printer.

 

[warlord]

I am drawing PCB's in Eagle, then i export the image to *.bmp and the in MS Paint i invert colors and mirror the image, and i am also printing from there, because then there is no need to care about dpi in image and dpi set on printer.

I'm going to have to agree. No need to get over-elegant in the solution, as this simple one will work fine.

 

[VanIsleDSM]

Thanks for all the suggestions.. I haven't tried everything yet, just searched around for a samsung driver, but no luck finding one.. samsung doesn't even have the ML-1020 (Dell 1100 clone) on their website any more.. I tried one of their newer drivers but it had no mirror option either.

How do I print to file? I suppose I'll look around for that.. as for exporting to .bpm, expressPCB doesn't do that.. So I suppose I may have to switch PCB design programs here.

I'll try the win2pdf too.

Edit: win2pdf creates a nice PDF file, but unfortunately there is no mirror or flip option in adope either... I then tried copying the image to clipboard and pasting it in MSpaint to print.. but the quality degrades ridiculously.. gets all blocky, won't retain it's original resolution... there is a solution here, and I think I'm getting close with all this help.

 

[jtr1962]

I've been using the exact same method as you for small runs of boards. I'm even using the old DOS version of autotrax which has no drivers for current laser printers. What I did was use a third party printer which prints to a .pcx file instead. I then simply flip the file in image editing software, and print.

I'm pretty sure ExpressPCB has a print to .bmp feature. Just do as I did-open the .bmp in your favorite image-editing software, flip it, and print. Make sure you have the dpi correct when you're printing or the size will be wrong. In the event there is no print to .bmp option use the brute force method. Do a print screen, then save, scale, and flip the image file as needed.

 

[jtr1962]

I then tried copying the image to clipboard and pasting it in MSpaint to print.. but the quality degrades ridiculously.. gets all blocky, won't retain it's original resolution... there is a solution here, and I think I'm getting close with all this help.

Yeah, that won't work if it's a fairly complex pcb. Only thing I can think of is see if ExpressPCB exports to some format another pcb program can read. Then you can use the other program to either export to .bmp, or print inverted if it has that option. At least this way you can avoid having to redo the board in another software.

There do exist open source .pdf editors/readers. One of them should have features for flipping an image.

 

[VanIsleDSM]

Using print screen is out of the question unfortunately.. I'll go buy another printer before I try to scale every board I make to fit perfect when I'm dealing with tiny SMT parts and lining up 2 sided boards.. that's just not practical.

There is no print to BMP in express PCB.. I don't know if any imagine programs will open a .pdf and enable me to flip the the image? if so I could solve the problem right now.. every program has the damn rotate option, why not the flip! very annoying...

 

[jtr1962]

I think I might have found the answer. In Adobe reader pick the select tool. Left click once over the pcb image. It should be highlighted (i.e. turn darker). Now right click, and select "Copy Image to Clipboard". Paste in your image editing program, flip, and print. The image should appear in all it's original detail. It works in Adobe Reader 7. I don't know what version you're using but it might not work in an earlier version.

 

[warlord]

alt+print screen then paste in Paint.

edit:

Just to help you out I DL'd expressPCB. You can save your work as a bitmap by choosing "export image of mechanical drawing" then choosing the resolution and then naming your new .bmp.

Then you can open the bitmap in Paint, PS, or whatever.

 

[VanIsleDSM]

I explained that I can't do the print screen method..

Did you actually look at the image of the mechanical drawing? it'll only export the pads.. not the traces... which makes it's virtually useless... I already tried exporting the DXF file and opening it with autocad to flip it.. but again.. it doesn't export the traces.. only the pads for some stupid reason.

I'm going to have to agree. No need to get over-elegant in the solution, as this simple one will work fine.

Oh how I wish that was the case...

Quite ridiculous that's it's so hard to accomplish something that should be so easy.

 

[jtr1962]

This might help:

PDF to BMP Converter

Shareware but free trial.

 

[VanIsleDSM]

I think I might have found the answer. In Adobe reader pick the select tool. Left click once over the pcb image. It should be highlighted (i.e. turn darker). Now right click, and select "Copy Image to Clipboard". Paste in your image editing program, flip, and print. The image should appear in all it's original detail. It works in Adobe Reader 7. I don't know what version you're using but it might not work in an earlier version.

Won't work.. just turns to original nintento square blocks... Maybe I need a better image editor than MSpaint.

 

[jtr1962]

I think I found a better answer. It's called Primo PDF. I have it installed on my computer. It's similar to win2pdf except in the advanced options under the postscript options part there is a box for mirrored printing. Best of all, it's free!

 

[VanIsleDSM]

Right on!

I'll give that a try.. thanks JTR.

..Now I have 2 methods.. as I just figured out that using the "snapshot" tool in adobe reader lets me paste it in paint and retain the quality..

Edit: downloaded PrimoPDF but I don't see the mirror option anywhere?... or anything that says "advanced options" or "post script" .. I even looked through the readme... nothing in there about it either.

 

[jtr1962]

Edit: downloaded PrimoPDF but I don't see the mirror option anywhere?... or anything that says "advanced options" or "post script" .. I even looked through the readme... nothing in there about it either.

When you print you select PrimoPDF as your printer. After that go to preferences. A dialog box for the options for PrimoPDF should come up. In the lower right corner click on the "advanced" button. Another dialog box should appear with more options, including postscript options. See the screenshot below:

 

[VanIsleDSM]

Now I got it!

There is no option to go into the printing preferences from expressPCB, but you can do it through the control panel.. exactly like I do for my inkjet.. I was just trying to change it through the GUI of PrimoPDF to no avail.

Thanks very much to everyone for the help! I'm quite happy that I can actually use this printer.. I knew there must be some way.

 

[X_Marine]

Great,
Good job on the screen shots jtr!!:thumbsup:

Glad to see you got it going Van.

X/BillyD..