PDF Rendering Settings

This is a sub-dialog to the Export courses as PDF dialog. These settings determine how the course, map and graphics are rendered on the PDF page.

For Overprint, use

This setting controls how overprint effect is handled in the PDF file, both for map colors and for the course overprint.

There are two options: "Overprint operator", and "Blend mode DARKEN". The default setting is "Blend mode DARKEN".

There is virtually no visible difference between "Overprint operator" and "Blend mode DARKEN".

When you choose "Overprint operator", you need to ensure that the software used to display and print the PDF file, is configured to simulate overprint effect. For example, when using Adobe Reader, you need to configure Adobe Reader to show overprint effect, otherwise it ignores overprint effect.

When using Blend mode DARKEN, such considerations are unnecessary.

Embedded bitmaps

Reduce embedded bitmap resolution

If the map file or a graphics object is a bitmap file, Condes normally renders the bitmap at the original resolution into the PDF file. If you wish to reduce the resolution of the bitmaps rendered in the PDF file, you can use this option. This may produce smaller PDF files, at the expense of lower quality, more blurred bitmaps

Resolution of graphics objects converted to bitmaps

Condes renders graphics objects that are originally WMF/EMF files as bitmaps in the PDF file. This setting controls the resolution of the resulting bitmaps. The default is 600 dpi, which is sufficient in most cases. You can set the resolution higher for high-quality printing.

Overprint Effect

By default, when you print opaque, overlapping colors, the top color knocks out the area underneath. You can use overprint effect to prevent knockout and make the topmost overlapping printing ink appear transparent in relation to the underlying ink.

When printing orienteering maps and courses, using process colors (CMYK, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, black), to make the map and the course more readable, we aim to emulate spot color printing (spot color printing is printing with 5+1 color: black, brown, green, blue, yellow + purple). This is done by using overprint effect for certain colors. For example when overprinting the purple course color, the purple blends with the colors underneath and therefore does not "knock out" features such as rocks, paths or contours. Or, when overprinting brown over green, the brown color blends with the green, thus making contours look darker and more prominent when crossing green areas.