Panel in TChartPreviewer

[riskassessor]

I am using the TChartPreviewer component to preview and print a chart.

ChartPreviewer.Execute launches a dialog that allows the Panel to be customized extensively with color, a gradient fill, shadow, emboss etc. But the Panel appears to be the area outside the paper, so does not print. I am struggling to see what is the purpose of customizing the panel?

I explored the Boolean property cpoPrintPanel. I wondered if when set to True, this brings the panel into the print area. But it doesn't do that. So then I wondered if its intended effect was to disable the Panel button in the dialog, but it doesn't do that either. In fact, this setting has no effect as far as I can see. I'm using the latest TeeChart release, Windows 10 and Delphi Berlin.

[Sandra]

Hello riskassessor,

Opens default Chart Print Preview dialog.

The TTeePreviewPanel is a panel that may be inserted on a dialogue form to show WYSIWYG printable output of a Chart. The Panel includes option buttons to change print characteristics.

Could you specify what you want do and we try to give you a more accurate answer.

Thanks in advance

[riskassessor]

My questions relate to the component TChartPreviewer, not to TTreePreviewPanel. (However, I did try TTreePreviewPanel and it does not "include option buttons" as you state. The reference doc. states that it includes option buttons but I did not find that it did.)

I will try to put my two problems relating to TChartPreviewer differently and more clearly:

(1) The property cpoPrintPanel of TChartPreviewer appears to have no effect on the component behavior. This may be a bug. Please clarify what this property is supposed to do.

(2) There is a facility to customize the Panel in TChartPreviewer, i.e. to make the print look nicer. However, TChartPreviewer scales the chart so that it just fits on the paper, which means that most of the Panel is outside the paper. Please see the figure, where I have colored the Panel area blue. Is it supposed to be possible to print to the edge of the Panel? If so, how?

It occurred to me that the second problem may be something to do with the first.

[Sandra]

Hello riskassessor,

Many thanks to clarify the problems.

(1) The property cpoPrintPanel of TChartPreviewer appears to have no effect on the component behavior. This may be a bug. Please clarify what this property is supposed to do.
When you enable property cpoPrintPanel the Chart Panel background is visible and it is printed, otherwise, the ChartPanel is transparent and Chart background color is the same as ChartPreviewer color paper, therefore it should be the print output result.

In that case, we have detected a problem when the cpoPrintPanel (Background) isn’t active, basically, if you change the paper color from white to other color, never is reflected in the print output.
I have added the as a bug in TeechartVCL bugzilla tracker. Here’s the bug: http://bugs.teechart.net/show_bug.cgi?id=1596

Feel free to add your mail to the CC list of the other tickets to be automatically notified when they'll be updated.
Meanwhile, you can active the Smoothed property to get a correct print output when the cpoPrintPanel is disable.

(2) There is a facility to customize the Panel in TChartPreviewer, i.e. to make the print look nicer. However, TChartPreviewer scales the chart so that it just fits on the paper, which means that most of the Panel is outside the paper. Please see the figure, where I have colored the Panel area blue. Is it supposed to be possible to print to the edge of the Panel? If so, how?

TChartPreviewer permit customize the aspect the TChartPreviewer and the printer area, but it isn’t reflected in the print output. Therefore you can’t show the ChartPreviewer aspect changes in the print output.

Anyway, if you disable background option the chart background, the chart should be print with same color as paper TChartPreviewer. As explained above it is a bug.

Hoping this clarify your doubts, otherwise don’t hesitate to contact us.

Thanks in advance