I'm sure everyone knows how terrible the virtual

Malorkus · 03-07-2005, 11:50 AM

I'm sure everyone knows how terrible the virtual printers for all Tablet note taking software is about resolution - As far as I know there is no way to import a PDF, say, into Journal, One Note, or Gobinder without it looking like its been xeroxed 15 times. This is especially bad when you work with mathematical formulas that require fine resolution to make out details.

My question is, who is responsible for this and will it be fixed? Is it a Tablet PC OS issue? It's hard to believe these apps all bungled the virtual printing individually. Why hasn't this been fixed? Is it being worked on at least? Is MS aware there's an issue?

Now for my little rant (feel free to skip unless you work for MS):
On a larger scale this is indicative of the problems with Tablets. I love the concept but the execution is ridiculously buggy. There's already been a SP for Tablet PC edition and this issue, the TIP memory leak issue, and a host of other small but noticeable bugs are still unfixed. Weird TIP behavior, other memory leaks in ink, you name it- see my other posts if you don't know what I mean. Not to mention MS has fewer vendors and more control over the platform than on normal windows. Is it asking too much for basic TPC functions to work properly? Should the only convenient way to mark up a PDF document this late in the tablet platform lifecycle be PDF Annotator, a program that is still essentially a beta and doesn't even support all PDFs properly? I'm not bashing PDF Annotator, which is a new and promising product. I'm just flabbergasted that TPC's have been around for 3 years now and can't properly do the first thing it's being marketed for-marking up notes! And people wonder why it's taking so damn long for them to become mainstream?

Sorry, had to get that off my chest.

markpayton · 03-07-2005, 01:17 PM

Malorkus,

I'm glad you feel better. <grin> I know I do after some of the postings I've made about stupid Tablet PC program implementations.

The OS itself is not quite 2 1/2 years old. Having one service pack in that time seems pretty reasonable to me, especially since the bulk of that was for the underlying OS. That they vastly improved the TIP at the same time is both a real benefit to us and proof that they are behind the platform.

The one to blame about the pdf issue is Adobe, not MS. (Unless you are blaming MS's miserable marketing job, which I would agree with.) It is, after all Adobe's app that still doesn't support ink with, what, 2 version releases made since the TPC came out?

I think that the TPC is so very different from XP based systems that even Microsoft is still getting a handle on just how much of this is really new and different--and needs to be treated as such. Kind of like the early days of Windows. They kind of understood it (and were about the only ones who did) but it took them a while to get the apps right. In the meantime, Lotus and WordPerfect were on the way to becoming skeletons drying in the desert. (Though I understand that US Justice just made a major deal with Corel to purchase WordPerfect rather than Office. There may be life in those bones after all, even if it is bought with bitterness over a lawsuit.)

I can't explain the problems with printing pdf files to GoBinder or OneNote, not having done this myself I don't know how bad it is. But remember, Agilix is new in a new market and they have lots on their plate right now. This may appear to them as a relatively trivial issue. MS didn't even release the OneNote printer powertoy though I am sure Chris must have something going along those lines for the next release.

Mark

Malorkus · 03-07-2005, 08:04 PM

I do appreciate the work smaller devs like Agilix do and know its hard. But that still begs the question as to why MS doesn't help more. They are a huge company with an investment in the platform and they leave it to tiny startups to make the bulk of the useful software. Why? And I don't buy the blame Adobe argument... Sure they suck for not supporting ink, but the fact that PDF Annotator exists and sort of works proves it can be done without Adobe's help or blessing. PDF is a very common file format. How can it take 2.5 years and counting to adequately support markup? Surely MS could have made a PDF Annotator type product in house, or built PDF importing into One Note, or funded development of PDF Annotator to speed things up, or SOMETHING...

I'm sorry to complain so much but I do like tablets a lot and its so frustrating when you don't have the tools to actually use them!

tqc · 03-07-2005, 08:34 PM

Microsoft is in a difficult position, both competing with and supporting other development companies. They could have built a pdf product, but that would probably damage the chances of getting Adobe to support the platform.

jkjk · 03-16-2005, 12:50 AM

http://www.analogreality.com/onenote...mageWriter.htm

This is a virtual printer for one note. It works perfectly and allows higher resolutions. It is the sole reason I got one note. Microsoft is simply too cheap to get people capable or give them enough time to give us a decent printer driver. They use the classic, it is too big/slow , basically a performance issue. which we know is anon-issue as this virtual prints works perfectly.

sumocat · 03-16-2005, 01:25 AM

quote:Originally posted by Malorkus

I'm sure everyone knows how terrible the virtual printers for all Tablet note taking software is about resolution - As far as I know there is no way to import a PDF, say, into Journal, One Note, or Gobinder without it looking like its been xeroxed 15 times.

The quick setting for printing to Journal definitely looks like a bad photocopy, but I think the higher setting (print as image) is pretty good. Captures the grays pretty well. Even 10pt white Times New Roman type against black is legible at 85% zoom, and that's on my 10.4" screen. My experience is that the quality of the source PDF is the major determining factor for quality.

For example, I have a number of eBooks, most produced straight from the digital source, some are scans. Pages from the scanned books printed to Journal never look great, but the all-digital books print pretty well. Certainly the grays look better than what I would expect from an average laser printer.

KenMagel · 03-16-2005, 02:06 AM

I have PDFs imported to both OneNote and GoBinder with mathematical equations and they look fine. I use 300 x 300 resolution in the OneNote virtual printer powertoy linked to above and it works well.

KenMagel · 03-16-2005, 02:12 AM

I think your comments about Microsoft doing a poor job with the Tablet PC Operating System are not correct. Microsoft launched a significant improvement on the previous efforts to make the pen a viable user interface. However, as with any other complex software, the product required refinement based on actual use. There has been one SP in 2 and a half years. There will be another version, hopefully with major improvements along with Longhorn in 2006. Compared to the original Windows, for example, which took unitl Windows 3.1 several years after initial release to become reasonable, the tablet pc software is maturing rapidly.

Yes, the tablet pc software is not yet mature. This is the nature of producing complex products. The automobile was not mature until at least a couple of decades after first introduction. Same thing with many other technologies. If the tablet pc software survives another five or more years, it will be much more mature.

Trev · 03-17-2005, 02:58 PM

Have you tried the image setting in journal?

Image Insert:

22.45KB

I find that using that settings makes many things possible.

Malorkus · 03-23-2005, 03:16 AM

Ok, I have to say, the One Note VP actually does work well. I guess it only defaults to crappy resolution, but really does do 300dpi if you find the option... though I'm not sure why this isn't default. Thanks for the replies. I rescind my rant about there being no viable options for virtual printing PDFs.