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.

Print and export scopes

Printing and exporting work on two scopes:

• The whole canvas: all printable gauges, positioned exactly as designed on the canvas. This is the new GaugeMaster Pro 2 multi-gauge workflow.
• The active gauge alone.

On a multi-gauge design with no gauge selected, the Export Gauge section of the export menu and the Active Gauge print option are hidden, and only the Entire Canvas options remain. Cmd/Ctrl + P with no gauge selected prints the entire canvas. A single-gauge design exports and prints its gauge exactly the same whether or not it is selected.

Gauge frames, snap guides and any other design aids are never included on the output.

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.

Printing is 1:1 by default: your gauges print at their true physical size, as designed with the app’s real-world measurement units, with no diameter settings required. If you need to force an arbitrary output diameter, the per-gauge Diam. Override option restores the old scaling behavior.

Your gauges print at true size

Make sure the print scale stays at 100% on your browser’s print window, so the printed gauges come out at their exact physical size.

Changed in GaugeMaster Pro 2

True-size printing replaces the forced print/PDF gauge diameter of previous versions. Files saved before GaugeMaster Pro 2 open with Diam. Override turned on, preserving their original output dimensions exactly until you turn the override off. See the GaugeMaster Pro 2 page for the full story.

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 the app’s Gauge Settings or Canvas Settings before you start printing, like the Diam. Override or the number of copies to print.

Multi-Copy Printing

If you want to print multiple copies of your gauge you will need to use the Multi-Copy Print section within the Canvas Settings, as this requires special processing. It can also line up the copies with flat-bed printer jigs, with its print offsets and gutters.

Off-center gauges output

An off-center gauge is expected to have all its content within the gauge’s preset size, and as such its output will be clipped to the bounding box of its preset size diameter. This applies to PNG, JPG, SVG and PDF/print, both for the active gauge alone and as part of a whole-canvas output.

A deliberate exception to the reference-only rule

The size preset is normally a design reference only and never affects the output. An off‑center gauge is the one exception: its preset defines the gauge face the dial is offset within, so the output is framed to that face.

Diam. Override interacts as expected: with the override off, the output equals the preset face at true 1:1 size; with it on, the face is stretched to the chosen output diameter. See Diam. Override for the details.

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 the Bitmap 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.

When the Text to Path option in the Canvas Settings is enabled, all the text in the exported SVG is converted to pure outline paths, so the file renders identically everywhere (laser cutters, other vector editing apps, browsers) without needing any fonts to be installed.

If a font or symbol cannot be resolved, or a Bold/Italic face is only being simulated on screen, the export stops with a clear error listing the problem fonts and any unconvertible text (emoji being the common case), and suggests turning the toggle off to export actual text instead.

Text to Path defaults

New files default to Text to Path being on. Files saved before GaugeMaster Pro 2 default to off, to keep their old behavior.

PNG and JPEG exports are unaffected by this option, as they are locally rendered images.

Exported SVGs are also flattened for maximum compatibility with third-party vector tools: shapes are exported as paths, transforms are simplified, coordinates are rounded, and empty groups are stripped.

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.