Print Front Panel/Change Colors?

[nealpederson]

Unfortunately, the optimal GUI for display on a computer screens does not
work very well for printing. I have a program that has a lot of graphs with
black backgrounds and it really sucks the black ink if it is printed often.
In the past, I solved this issue by having a duplicate screen that I sent my
data to that had white backgrounds. In this case I have a lot of tabs,
controls, and indicators and it would take too long to create all the print
screen scenarios on a separate VI.

Question: Does anyone know of a simple method to invert colors or change
brightness of panel printouts to use less ink?

[Bill Choy]

I am also facing the same problem with you. I solved this by changing their BG color using property node. When the user press the print button, the graphs BG color changed to white first, execute the print command then changed it back to black. It can solve the printing problem but I found that changing BG color frequently is annoying to the user. It's perfect if the screen is not updated when I change the BG color.

Bill

[Philip_Courtois]

When using Bill's solution, you can use the "Panel >> Defer Panel Updates" property using Property Nodes. Set it to TRUE, then change colors, print the front panel, reset the color, then set the "Defer Panel Updates" to FALSE.

That way the user will never see the panel color change.

Please see the attached image.

[nealpederson]

Philip,

Would you mind posting the VI that you posted the diagram screen shot of?
I'd like to copy the code into my diagram and it would save me a bit of time
if I can copy it from your VI diagram.

"Philip C." <x@no.email> wrote in message news:170214@exchange.ni.com...
> When using Bill's solution, you can use the "Panel >> Defer Panel Updates"
> property using Property Nodes. Set it to TRUE, then change colors, print
> the front panel, reset the color, then set the "Defer Panel Updates" to
> FALSE.<br><br>That way the user will never see the panel color
> change.<br><br>Please see the attached image.
>
>
> PrintWhitePanel.JPG:
> http://forums.ni.com/attachments/ni/170/100214/1/PrintWhitePanel.JPG

[Philip_Courtois]

That is normally not the procedure, but since you're such a nice person and Christmas is near, I'll make an exception 😉

Merry Christmas!

[nealpederson]

Thanks and Merry Christmas to you too!

"Philip C." <x@no.email> wrote in message news:170817@exchange.ni.com...
> That is normally not the procedure, but since you're such a nice person
> and Christmas is near, I'll make an exception ;-)<br><br>Merry Christmas!
>
>
> PrintWhitePanel.vi:
> http://forums.ni.com/attachments/ni/170/100508/1/PrintWhitePanel.vi