Print and export gauges

GaugeMaster Pro is a vector based design app, which means your gauges are stored and rendered in vector format by default. Vector format is resolution independent, giving you always the best quality on any output format, device or resolution.

Printing

Since GaugeMaster Pro is a web app, running within your web browser app, it uses the browser’s print facilities to print out your gauge designs.

Whenever you trigger a print, your usual web browser print popup window will be displayed, where you can configure your printer’s settings.

Print settings

Although most of your print settings will be set on your web browser’s print window, there are some settings you may want to adjust on GaugeMaster Pro’s Gauge Settings or Canvas Settings before you start printing.

A key setting is the print/PDF gauge diameter specified on the Print Options, which can be entered in points(pt), centimeters(cm) or inches(in).

The diameter entered will be the resulting total diameter, in physical dimensions, of the gauge when printed or exported to PDF.

Exporting as PDF

To export your gauge as a PDF use the Save as PDF option on your browser’s print popup window.

Most of the same settings used for printing will apply to the PDF export option.

Exporting as image

GaugeMaster Pro allows you to export your gauge designs in the popular JPEG and PNG file formats, but remember that these are pixel based formats and their output quality will depend on the chosen export resolution on Image Export Options.

Exporting as JPEG

The JPEG format is lossy file format well known for its great compression qualities, respecting the fidelity of an image, with minor compression artifacts, while resulting in small file sizes.

Missing transparent background?

The JPEG format doesn’t support transparency, so if your gauge design uses transparency on any elements or on the background color, this will show as opaque colors on the exported JPEG file.

To export your gauge to JPEG use the Export Gauge button.

Exporting as PNG

The PNG format is a lossless file format, resulting in exact image representations on the output file, with no compression artifacts.

This format supports transparency and is the recommended format for pixel based formats when exporting gauges.

To export your gauge to PNG use the Export Gauge button.

JPEG vs PNG

The JPEG format uses lossy compression and was designed to work really well on images with high level of detail, like real life photography, so although the compression is still effective on gauge designs, it may not result in much smaller files than a PNG file, and sometimes it may result in larger files.

The PNG format uses lossless compression that preserves the exact image composition while still providing very good compression, and works really well on gauge designs.

This is why PNG should be the image export file format of choice for gauge images, unless JPEG is required for technical reasons.

Exporting as vector

Exporting to vector format will result in a resolution independent file, that provides the best quality output for your designs no matter the final destination.

Exporting as SVG

The SVG format is a widely supported vector format that can be used to take your designs to a printer or to embed on a web page. It is a relatively light weight format and can be used as well to import the gauge file into other editing programs for extra retouching.

To export your gauge to SVG use the Export Gauge button.

Exporting as PDF

The PDF file format is another widely used vector format available to export your gauge designs. This is often used to send files to printing shops, but it is a heavier format than SVG.

To export your gauge to PDF see the Exporting as PDF section above, under Print.