Tutorial on charting

Family History Charting

DEFERRED PRINTING OF CHARTS

There are essentially two reasons to defer the printing of a chart (but some software does not give you this option):

Because you want to make further edits on the chart before you actually print it.
Because the printer you wish to use is not physically attached to this computer.

The Chart Needs Further Editing
This is only possible if you are using charting software that allows you to save and restore a file that holds your current edited chart, such as The Master Genealogist, Generations or Reunion.

The Actual Printer is Elsewhere
To achieve the transfer of a chart to another machine requires one of two methods:

If you are using charting software that allows you to save and restore a file that holds your current edited chart, then you can open that chart file in the same version of the software on the computer that has the printer and print the chart from the software. You send the saved CHART FILE to the machine attached to the printer.
If you install some additional and appropriate printer drivers on your computer, then it is possible to capture the information that would have been sent to the printer as a file. This file is then opened by different software on the computer with the printer and printed that way. The best format for this approach is PDF. It is possible to install a "PDF Writer" as a printer on your computer. This acts like an additional printer, but actually converts the printed document to a PDF file. The PDF can be later printed by other software on this or another computer. Some "PDF Writer" software is available as free downloads, but much of it is not suitable to create large custom page sizes. To be effective you must save the PDF file with the real page size at which the chart is to be finally printed. Often the charting software imposes even more restrictive limits. These limits are described here.