Chromatography Forum

How do I Print the chromatograms that I get from the chemstation. The problem is that I have Version 8.03 and it is installed on a windows 95.
Also I dont have a Printer attached to it. So is there any way I could print out the chromatograms??
Any suggestions would be really appreciated.

Hi,

I assume your computer isn't able to be put onto a network, and buying a cheap printer isn't an option. That would be my first sugestion. Normal method is to suggest to a senior person that they need a new printer, then acquire their old one.

You could save the results as a *.wmf or one of the other graphics formats available in the report options of 8.03. ( I haven't used Chemstation for months, so can't give detailed menus, but you have several choices of report formats, of which a couple are graphical ).

You should be able to call the data up and then save the report in a suitable format that you can put on a disk. You could then import into a programme that prints those formats out, perhaps MS Word or Internet Explorer.

There may be some geeky options like screen captures and printing to file, but for me, they have always been more trouble than temporarily borrowing a printer.

Please keep having fun,

Bruce Hamilton

Following up on Bruce's suggestion, you could install one of the numerous freeware "virtual printers" to send your output to a pdf file (which you can then hoof over to another system that does have a printer connected). One that I've used is "primo pdf": http://www.primopdf.com/

I don't know about Windows 95 compatibility, though.

My favorite is Bruce's proposal that you convice your boss that he/she needs a new printer so you can inherit the old one

We do this all the time, from Win95. In Data Analysis, load, overlay, integrate, annotate, zoom, etc. like you want it to look. Under Graphics (2nd column), the last entry is "Copy chromatogram to clipboard" or similar terminology, click that (you may need to go to View, Full Menu first). Open up Wordpad, click Paste. Save the Wordpad document to a floppy or CD-RW (as Win95 doesn't support USB flash drives, which are great). Take that file and print from Wordpad or Word. This is how we paste chromatograms into reports, you don't need to mess with screen captures, and the chromatograms are clear and small files. Copying the chromatograms into Wordpad to print also allows us to "shrink" the image so we can paste directly into our lab notebooks without having to fight the always-broken copy machines.

Thanks to all of you for your valuable suggestions.
It really helped me a lot.
Great going.