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  2. How to print a single QSL Card ?

How to print a single QSL Card ?

3t3
 

Hello everyone -

In DX Keeper,
in the QSL Tab,
after clicking on the QSL Configuration button,
in the Printer Tab,
in the Media for QSL Cards section,
in the SIZE pull down menu,
there is a selection called "User Defined":

Once I have selected "User Defined" how do (or where do) I go about actually defining it (specifying the definition's parameters) ?

--
Terry McCarty
3t3@comcast.net
wa5nti
Dave AA6YQ
 

AA6YQ comments below
-----Original Message-----
From: dxlab@yahoogroups.com [mailto:dxlab@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of 3t3
Sent: Wednesday, August 17, 2011 1:02 AM
To: Reflector-DXLab
Subject: [dxlab] How to print a single QSL Card ?

Hello everyone -

In DX Keeper,
in the QSL Tab,
after clicking on the QSL Configuration button,
in the Printer Tab,
in the Media for QSL Cards section,
in the SIZE pull down menu,
there is a selection called "User Defined":

Once I have selected "User Defined" how do (or where do) I go about
actually defining it (specifying the definition's parameters) ?

That option is provided by your printer manufacturer. If it's not
described in your printer's documentation, you could try calling the
manufacturer's customer support department.

73,

Dave, AA6YQ
3t3
 

Dave -

OK, I will call Samsung tomorrow and let you know what I find out.

By brute force experimentation I have discovered that if I tell DK to
print a single card using QSL Media of "Envelope Monarch 3 7/8 X 7 1/2"
I can get the center-feed printer to print on 8 1/2 X 11 inch paper with
the correct vertical spacing for the printed card-image. Looking at
the sheet of paper that comes out of the printer doing this (looking at
the sheet of paper in Landscape orientation) the printed card-image
would then only need to be shifted about 3 1/2 inches, in the extreme
left direction, on the "page" so that it would print on the edge of the
paper and in the right place if the sheet of paper paper were a card
instead.. I think I then could insert an actual pre-cut QSL card
instead of the 8 1/2 X 11 inch sheet of paper and it would print on the
QSL card in the right place.

Terry McCarty
3t3@comcast.net
wa5nti



Dave AA6YQ wrote:



AA6YQ comments below
-----Original Message-----
From: dxlab@yahoogroups.com <mailto:dxlab%40yahoogroups.com>
[mailto:dxlab@yahoogroups.com <mailto:dxlab%40yahoogroups.com>] On
Behalf Of 3t3
Sent: Wednesday, August 17, 2011 1:02 AM
To: Reflector-DXLab
Subject: [dxlab] How to print a single QSL Card ?

Hello everyone -

In DX Keeper,
in the QSL Tab,
after clicking on the QSL Configuration button,
in the Printer Tab,
in the Media for QSL Cards section,
in the SIZE pull down menu,
there is a selection called "User Defined":

Once I have selected "User Defined" how do (or where do) I go about
actually defining it (specifying the definition's parameters) ?

That option is provided by your printer manufacturer. If it's not
described in your printer's documentation, you could try calling the
manufacturer's customer support department.

73,

Dave, AA6YQ
Kenneth Johansson <kenjohan55@...>
 

Another thing that has to do with printing out paper-QSLs: The background must be in bmp-format. I certainly don't have a lot of bmp-pictures on my computer but thousands of jpg-pictures. I guess that goes for most of us. Is there a way to use jpg-files as QSL-backgrounds?
I bet this question has popped up b4.

73
Ken/SM4EMO



________________________________
From: Dave AA6YQ <aa6yq@ambersoft.com>
To: dxlab@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, August 17, 2011 8:12 AM
Subject: RE: [dxlab] How to print a single QSL Card ?


 
AA6YQ comments below
-----Original Message-----
From: dxlab@yahoogroups.com [mailto:dxlab@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of 3t3
Sent: Wednesday, August 17, 2011 1:02 AM
To: Reflector-DXLab
Subject: [dxlab] How to print a single QSL Card ?

Hello everyone -

In DX Keeper,
in the QSL Tab,
after clicking on the QSL Configuration button,
in the Printer Tab,
in the Media for QSL Cards section,
in the SIZE pull down menu,
there is a selection called "User Defined":

Once I have selected "User Defined" how do (or where do) I go about
actually defining it (specifying the definition's parameters) ?

That option is provided by your printer manufacturer. If it's not
described in your printer's documentation, you could try calling the
manufacturer's customer support department.

73,

Dave, AA6YQ




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Richard B Drake
 

Yes it has come up before and it's not a problem. .jpg files can easily be converted to .bmp format using almost any photo processing software or even Windows Paint which is an integral part of all versions of Windows. Usually this is done by opening the .jpg file and using File>Save As... to save the image in .bmp format.

See: <C:&#92;DXLab&#92;DXKeeper&#92;Help&#92;QSLConfiguration.htm> which contains a link to the "Microsoft Pain" documentation.

73, Rich - W3ZJ

Kenneth Johansson wrote:

Another thing that has to do with printing out paper-QSLs: The background must be in bmp-format. I certainly don't have a lot of bmp-pictures on my computer but thousands of jpg-pictures. I guess that goes for most of us. Is there a way to use jpg-files as QSL-backgrounds?
I bet this question has popped up b4.

73
Ken/SM4EMO
Phil & Anne Irons
 

My experience with .bmp files versus .jpg files is that the .bmp images tend
to be of lesser resolution.

If you don't mind a bit of a learning curve, here's a url for yet another
QSL printing program. I haven't tried it yet, but I note that almost any
high resolution image type can be used.

http://www.va3hj.ca/

All the usual disclaimers apply.

73,

Phil/VE1BVD

On Wed, Aug 17, 2011 at 9:14 AM, Rich - W3ZJ <rich@w3zj.com> wrote:

**


Yes it has come up before and it's not a problem. .jpg files can easily
be converted to .bmp format using almost any photo processing software
or even Windows Paint which is an integral part of all versions of
Windows. Usually this is done by opening the .jpg file and using
File>Save As... to save the image in .bmp format.

See: <C:&#92;DXLab&#92;DXKeeper&#92;Help&#92;QSLConfiguration.htm> which contains a link
to the "Microsoft Pain" documentation.

73, Rich - W3ZJ


Kenneth Johansson wrote:
Another thing that has to do with printing out paper-QSLs: The background
must be in bmp-format. I certainly don't have a lot of bmp-pictures on my
computer but thousands of jpg-pictures. I guess that goes for most of us. Is
there a way to use jpg-files as QSL-backgrounds?
I bet this question has popped up b4.

73
Ken/SM4EMO





--
Phil & Anne Irons
Sydney, Nova Scotia
Richard B Drake
 

Hi Phil,
.bmp or Windows Bit Map files are generally intended for display on a computer monitor which by default displays only 96 pixels per inch. So, it may not retain data for much higher resolutions, I really haven't looked into it. However, in my experience 96 dots per inch (the printers equivalent to pixels per inch) is perfectly adequate for printing on 5.5 x 3.5 QSL media provided you don't get out your magnifying glass and start looking for flaws. It will become pixelated if you try to blow it up to a larger size so it's not what one would generally use in a photographic application. If you want higher quality there are indeed other applications you can use. One that I have used is "QSL Maker" by WB8RCR which can print cards from data in an ADIF file.

73, Rich - W3ZJ

Phil & Anne Irons wrote:

My experience with .bmp files versus .jpg files is that the .bmp images tend
to be of lesser resolution.

If you don't mind a bit of a learning curve, here's a url for yet another
QSL printing program. I haven't tried it yet, but I note that almost any
high resolution image type can be used.

http://www.va3hj.ca/

All the usual disclaimers apply.

73,

Phil/VE1BVD
Dave AA6YQ
 

AA6YQ comments below
-----Original Message-----
From: dxlab@yahoogroups.com [mailto:dxlab@yahoogroups.com]On Behalf Of
Phil & Anne Irons
Sent: Thursday, August 18, 2011 11:34 AM
To: dxlab@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [dxlab] How to print a single QSL Card ?


My experience with .bmp files versus .jpg files is that the .bmp images tend
to be of lesser resolution.

That's incorrect, Phil. The resolution of an image is set by it's source
(e.g. your camera or a scanner). Some applications allow you to change
resolution of an image -- either reducing it (to reduce the file size) or
increasing it (via interpolation) -- but there is nothing inherent in the
BMP file format that reduces resolution.

The JPG file format employs compression to reduce file size at some cost
in image quality. When saving a file in JPG format, some applications let
you specify how much compression to be used, others employed a fixed value.
Unlike BMP, the JPG format is "lossy", meaning that if you load an image
into your image processing application (in BMP format, say), save it to a
file in JPG format, and then reload the JPG file and compare it to the
original image, data will have been lost; the higher the compression used
when saving the JPG file, the more data is lost -- and the more image
quality suffers.

Many consumer cameras directly record JPG files. If you plan to modify
these images, it's best to load them into an image processing application
and immediately save them to a non-lossy file format like BMP or TIF or PSD.
You can save and restore files in these non-lossy formats as many times as
you like without losing image quality; when you have something you like and
want to share with others without sending them an 5 mb file as an email
attachment, save a JPG file with appropriate compression.

Ken SM4EMO mentioned "raw" files, which are produced by pro and pro-sumer
cameras; examples include Nikon's NEF format, and Canon's CR2 format. Raw
files include more information than just the array of captured pixels - they
record information like the exposure and white balance that enables
processing software (like Photoshop's "Camera Raw" add-in") to adjust
exposure and white balance after the fact. Raw files are generally
read-only - you load them into your image processing application, make
changes, and save the result in non-lossy file format. A raw file produced
by a large-sensor camera might be 10 or 20 megabytes in size -- but a
perfectly nice JPG produced from this image might be only 200 kilobytes in
size.

73,

Dave, AA6YQ
Dave AA6YQ
 

AA6YQ comments below
-----Original Message-----
From: dxlab@yahoogroups.com [mailto:dxlab@yahoogroups.com]On Behalf Of
Rich - W3ZJ
Sent: Thursday, August 18, 2011 12:32 PM
To: dxlab@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [dxlab] How to print a single QSL Card ?


Hi Phil,
.bmp or Windows Bit Map files are generally intended for display on a
computer monitor which by default displays only 96 pixels per inch. So,
it may not retain data for much higher resolutions, I really haven't
looked into it.

I just used Photoshop to create an image whose resolution is 512 pixels per inch. I saved this image in a .bmp file, and opened it with MSPaint.
However, in my experience 96 dots per inch (the printers
equivalent to pixels per inch) is perfectly adequate for printing on 5.5
x 3.5 QSL media provided you don't get out your magnifying glass and
start looking for flaws. It will become pixelated if you try to blow it
up to a larger size so it's not what one would generally use in a
photographic application. If you want higher quality there are indeed
other applications you can use. One that I have used is "QSL Maker" by
WB8RCR which can print cards from data in an ADIF file.

DXKeeper's QSL generation capability is intentionally utilitarian; its objective is to quickly and easily produce potentially large numbers of outgoing requests for confirmation at minimum cost in paper and ink. Over the years, options have been provided to improve the aesthetics of the generated cards -- most recently, the ability to include a background image -- but as Rich points out above, someone seeking a "high quality" QSL card would be better served by setting DXKeeper's "QSL Via" panel to "ADIF File" and using the generated ADIF files to drive "QSL Maker", BV7, etc. After generating a batch of cards this way, clicking the "Update Log" button will complete the automation, just as if you'd had DXKeeper print utilitarian cards natively.
73,

Dave, AA^YQ
3t3
 

Hello -

Point of clarification:

I went looking for 'QSL Maker' by WB8RCR and found a lot of "BAD" links
and advertisements for all sorts of things, but not "QSL Maker".

In frustration I wound up sending an email to WB8RCR asking where to
find it. His reply to me follows:

"The
file
you
want
is
QSLmake24.zip

http://qslmaker.ares-mi.org
-
it's
pretty
ugly
Sorry
I
still
don't
have
the
whole
website
back up.
73
de
WB8RCR"


So, if you want to try "QSL Maker" the correct web site and file name
are as WB8RCR indicated in his email above. I just downloaded it and
have not yet started to try and learn how to use it. He says it is ugly
- we will see, I hope he's wrong.

Terry McCarty
3t3@comcast.net
wa5nti



Dave AA6YQ wrote:



AA6YQ comments below
-----Original Message-----
From: dxlab@yahoogroups.com <mailto:dxlab%40yahoogroups.com>
[mailto:dxlab@yahoogroups.com <mailto:dxlab%40yahoogroups.com>]On
Behalf Of
Rich - W3ZJ
Sent: Thursday, August 18, 2011 12:32 PM
To: dxlab@yahoogroups.com <mailto:dxlab%40yahoogroups.com>
Subject: Re: [dxlab] How to print a single QSL Card ?

Hi Phil,
.bmp or Windows Bit Map files are generally intended for display on a
computer monitor which by default displays only 96 pixels per inch. So,
it may not retain data for much higher resolutions, I really haven't
looked into it.

I just used Photoshop to create an image whose resolution is 512
pixels per inch. I saved this image in a .bmp file, and opened it with
MSPaint.

However, in my experience 96 dots per inch (the printers
equivalent to pixels per inch) is perfectly adequate for printing on 5.5
x 3.5 QSL media provided you don't get out your magnifying glass and
start looking for flaws. It will become pixelated if you try to blow it
up to a larger size so it's not what one would generally use in a
photographic application. If you want higher quality there are indeed
other applications you can use. One that I have used is "QSL Maker" by
WB8RCR which can print cards from data in an ADIF file.

DXKeeper's QSL generation capability is intentionally utilitarian;
its objective is to quickly and easily produce potentially large
numbers of outgoing requests for confirmation at minimum cost in paper
and ink. Over the years, options have been provided to improve the
aesthetics of the generated cards -- most recently, the ability to
include a background image -- but as Rich points out above, someone
seeking a "high quality" QSL card would be better served by setting
DXKeeper's "QSL Via" panel to "ADIF File" and using the generated ADIF
files to drive "QSL Maker", BV7, etc. After generating a batch of
cards this way, clicking the "Update Log" button will complete the
automation, just as if you'd had DXKeeper print utilitarian cards
natively.

73,

Dave, AA^YQ



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Richard B Drake
 

I think he meant that the website was ugly. Hopefully, QSL Maker is OK.

73, Rich - W3ZJ

3t3 wrote:

So, if you want to try "QSL Maker" the correct web site and file name
are as WB8RCR indicated in his email above. I just downloaded it and
have not yet started to try and learn how to use it. He says it is ugly
- we will see, I hope he's wrong.

Terry McCarty
3t3@comcast.net
wa5nti
Dave AA6YQ
 

The URL for the QSL Maker zip archive is

<http://qslmaker.ares-mi.org/downloads/QSLmake24.zip>

73,

Dave, AA6YQ

--- In dxlab@yahoogroups.com, 3t3 <3t3@...> wrote:

Hello -

Point of clarification:

I went looking for 'QSL Maker' by WB8RCR and found a lot of "BAD" links
and advertisements for all sorts of things, but not "QSL Maker".

In frustration I wound up sending an email to WB8RCR asking where to
find it. His reply to me follows:

"The
file
you
want
is
QSLmake24.zip

http://qslmaker.ares-mi.org
-
it's
pretty
ugly
Sorry
I
still
don't
have
the
whole
website
back up.
73
de
WB8RCR"


So, if you want to try "QSL Maker" the correct web site and file name
are as WB8RCR indicated in his email above. I just downloaded it and
have not yet started to try and learn how to use it. He says it is ugly
- we will see, I hope he's wrong.

Terry McCarty
3t3@...
wa5nti



Dave AA6YQ wrote:



AA6YQ comments below
-----Original Message-----
From: dxlab@yahoogroups.com <mailto:dxlab%40yahoogroups.com>
[mailto:dxlab@yahoogroups.com <mailto:dxlab%40yahoogroups.com>]On
Behalf Of
Rich - W3ZJ
Sent: Thursday, August 18, 2011 12:32 PM
To: dxlab@yahoogroups.com <mailto:dxlab%40yahoogroups.com>
Subject: Re: [dxlab] How to print a single QSL Card ?

Hi Phil,
.bmp or Windows Bit Map files are generally intended for display on a
computer monitor which by default displays only 96 pixels per inch. So,
it may not retain data for much higher resolutions, I really haven't
looked into it.

I just used Photoshop to create an image whose resolution is 512
pixels per inch. I saved this image in a .bmp file, and opened it with
MSPaint.

However, in my experience 96 dots per inch (the printers
equivalent to pixels per inch) is perfectly adequate for printing on 5.5
x 3.5 QSL media provided you don't get out your magnifying glass and
start looking for flaws. It will become pixelated if you try to blow it
up to a larger size so it's not what one would generally use in a
photographic application. If you want higher quality there are indeed
other applications you can use. One that I have used is "QSL Maker" by
WB8RCR which can print cards from data in an ADIF file.

DXKeeper's QSL generation capability is intentionally utilitarian;
its objective is to quickly and easily produce potentially large
numbers of outgoing requests for confirmation at minimum cost in paper
and ink. Over the years, options have been provided to improve the
aesthetics of the generated cards -- most recently, the ability to
include a background image -- but as Rich points out above, someone
seeking a "high quality" QSL card would be better served by setting
DXKeeper's "QSL Via" panel to "ADIF File" and using the generated ADIF
files to drive "QSL Maker", BV7, etc. After generating a batch of
cards this way, clicking the "Update Log" button will complete the
automation, just as if you'd had DXKeeper print utilitarian cards
natively.

73,

Dave, AA^YQ



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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