Can't get a legible print out

GanttProject Desktop Support
1

Hi,

I have been trying for days to get a legible print out but it’s not happening. I spent hours on google reading other responses but nothing solved my problem.

I want to print out my chart on a single “letter” size paper. I have tried export PDF: A0 landscape, A0 Portriat, A4 landscape, A4 portrait. I also tried exporting as PNG but I get this super long picture like a giant receipt from a store… Even if I could read it, it wouldn’t fit on one page. I also tried the tiling software suggested and set it to A4. When I did that it destroyed my Gantt chart. For the most part it was 15+ white pages, a few lines, and my project name.

I need to export dates between October 1 2019 and October 31 2020 which is the entire project. I have around 12 tasks with 5 sub-tasks under each. Not a huge chart compared to some I have seen.

Only one time I did I get a somewhat legible print out. It was in portrait (I think?) and filled about 70% of the page with all my dates. The writing for the tasks was tiny but I could read it. Everything since then it beyond tiny and fuzzy.

2

PNG output is basically what you would get by making a screenshot of the chart. If your project has many tasks, they are unlikely to fit on a single sheet of paper. We can’t do anything with the geometry.

If you believe that the generated PNG does not match your project (otherwise why do you think that it can be printed on a single sheet) please send us the PNG and the source project.

If they actually match, and you really have a “tall” or “wide” chart then you really need to tile it. Yes, chances are that tiling software will produce many nearly blank pages. If you print the chart on a huge A0 page, you will get a lot of blank space too.

3

Anyway, can you share the PNG output please?

4

Hi Dmitry. Thanks for your response.

I want to print the entire chart on a single letter size paper IF possible. That left hand column needs to be legible.

For some reason my most recent PNG looks better. My printer however refuses to print it? Got it working but it still comes out tiny and the left column is cut in half.

Here are the settings I used…

PNG Settings used:
Today’s Date
4x zoom in from all the way zoomed out
Dates October 1 2019 to October 31 2020 - Upon export it automatically chose dates December 1 2019 to March 29 2020

PDF Settings used:
Today’s Date
4x zoom in from all the way zoomed out
Dates October 1 2019 to October 31 2020 - Upon export it automatically chose dates December 1 2010 to March 29 2020
Paper Size: A0 Landscape
Font: Arial

Not sure if it matters but I changed the base chart font to very large If that affects the print out let me know.

PNG: https://i.imgur.com/thfjqEw.png
Picture of PDF in Adobe Reader: https://i.imgur.com/m2QANoL.png

If you need the project file or any more info let me know.

Thanks!

5

So you have 125 tasks and want to print them on a single sheet which is ~280 millimeters. Excluding header, that’s about 2 millimeters per task. Do you really expect it to be legible?

If you want legible printed version, you really want to tile PNG over a few sheets of paper. Microsoft Paint allows for choosing the number of tiles, so you can control how many sheets will it use

6

Thank you for your response.

I was able to print out my chart on a single page with a legible task column, but I don’t remember the settings I used. It was tiny, but you could read it.

I will try this tile method again. This time with paint instead of Adobe Reader.

So does the chart font size not affect the exported print?

7

The larger is the font, the taller is the chart, it is pretty natural. If you print a tall chart on a single sheet, printing software will try to scale it down which loses the quality. However, I don’t know what looks better when printing, chart with smaller fonts and less scaling factor or chart with bigger fonts and bigger scaling factor.