It can be necessary for the user to insert a stamp in the printed documents to mark documents with information relevant to their creation, distribution or storage.
Black Ice Printer Driver can be configured to add a custom stamp to a printed document.
To configure Black Ice Printer Drivers to use stamps, perform the following steps:
1. Open the Black Ice Printer Drivers preferences.
2. Click on the Watermark/Stamp tab and check the Enable Image Stamp checkbox.
Stamp Options
Add watermark or stamp to the first page only - When this checkbox is checked, the stamp is printed only on the first page of the document.
Unique watermark or stamp on the first page - The stamp on the first printed page can be different from the stamps on the other printed pages.
Stamp image file - Specifies the image file that is used as a stamp. The supported image formats are TIFF, BMP, JPG and PNG.
If needed, the printer driver converts the image color depth, used as a stamp, to the format of the page that is currently printed. For example, if a 24 bit color image is specified as a stamp and the printer driver is set to generate monochrome (Black & White) images, the 24 bit stamp image is dithered to monochrome and the monochrome image is added to the page as a stamp.
NOTE: Make sure images are located in a directory where all printer driver users have read access privileges or higher.
NOTE: Environment variables cannot be used to specify the image file.
Stamps can be stretched to fit the page, and separate stamp image files can also be set as portrait and landscape-oriented pages. This way one can specify a portrait-oriented stamp for portrait-oriented pages, and a landscape-oriented stamp image for landscape-oriented pages.
Visibility - The visibility value determines how visible the stamp is on the page. A lower percentage value produces a lighter stamp; and higher value produces a more visible stamp.
With Visibility set to 100% the stamp will be completely opaque, covering the printed document.
If the stamp does not contain an alpha channel, the Printer Driver uses multiply blending to insert the stamp on the converted document. The darker the color in the stamp the more visible it is on the converted document. This allows the usage of images with white background without interference with the document. The lighter colors will be less visible.
When the stamp used contains an alpha channel, the Printer Driver inserts the image as is. The configured alpha channel will also be inserted into the document.
Position - Sets the mode for how stamps are printed on the page. The available options are:
Stretch to fit:Stretches the stamp image to the size of the image page. Depending on the size of the stamp, stretching can distort the stamp image.
Stretch to width:Stretches the stamp image to fit the width of the page. Stretching does not distort the stamp image but the length of the image can become longer than the page itself and parts of the stamp may not be visible on the page.
Center image:Prints the stamp in the center of the page. No stretching is done.
Tile:Prints a stamp tiled on the page. The original size of the stamp image is not changed and the stamps are cropped if they do not fit on the page entirely.
Top:Prints a stamp on the top-center of the page. The original size of the stamp image is not changed and the stamps are cropped if they do not fit on the page entirely.
Top Left:Prints a stamp aligned to the top-left corner of the page. The original size of the stamp image will not be changed, and stamps will be cropped if they do not fit completely on the page.
Top Right:Prints a stamp aligned to the top-right corner of the page. The original size of the stamp image will not be changed, and stamps will be cropped if they do not fit completely on the page.
Fit to Width – Top:Prints a stamp on the top of the page and stretches the stamp image to fit the width of the page. Depending on the size of the stamp, stretching can distort the stamp image and the stamps are cropped if they do not fit on the page entirely.
Bottom:Prints a stamp on the bottom of the page. The original size of the stamp image is not changed and the stamps are cropped if they do not fit on the page entirely.
Bottom Left:Prints a stamp aligned to the bottom-left corner of the page. The original size of the stamp image will not be changed, and stamps will be cropped if they do not fit completely on the page.
Bottom Right:Prints a stamp aligned to the bottom-right corner of the page. The original size of the stamp image will not be changed, and stamps will be cropped if they do not fit completely on the page.
Fit to Width – Bottom:Prints a stamp on the bottom of the page and stretches the stamp image to fit the width of the page. Depending on the size of the stamp, stretching can distort the stamp image and the stamps are cropped if they do not fit on the page entirely.
NOTE: Images and documents have their own DPI settings. For the best results, make sure the stamp image has the same DPI as the desired output.
If, for example, a 72 DPI stamp image is placed on a 300 DPI output, the stamp image may appear smaller than the desired size.
Restore defaults - The Restore defaults button will restore the default printer settings from the printer configuration INI file for the current User only. The Save As dialog options revert to the same default settings as well. This operation deletes all the custom paper sizes. Once pressed, the following warning message is displayed:
