JETprint ASCII - Print Utility for HP Deskjet and Laser Printers Jürgen Schlie Driverweg 16 W-4600 Dortmund 50 Phone ( 49 ) ( 231 ) 77 28 40 Sept 8th, 1991 Table Of Contents 1 Copyright notice for JETprint 2 2 Deskjet and Laser Printers 3 3 Soft- and Hardware configuration 4 4 Installation of JETprint 4 5 How to use JETprint 5 6 Configuration file and environment 7 7 Trouble Shouting 8 1 COPYRIGHT NOTICE FOR JETPRINT 2 1 Copyright notice for JETprint This Program and AMIGA implementation are Copyright cO 1991 by Jürgen Schlie, W-4600 Dortmund 50. The program package consists of one disk containing the executable program JETprint and extensive documentation. The documentation can be printed out on any of the above printers. The package JETprint may NOT be passed on to anyone else !! Explicitly forbidden are o Passing on and selling and the program o Any way of duplicating the program - except for one copy to work with or to backup o Using or possessing the program without being registered as official user o Changing the program code or the documentation Please note this copyright arrangement. Consider implementing this printer driver was hard work. Tell us your ideas for changing and extending JETprint ! Please contact us by quoting the program version and your registration number ! Programming Jürgen Schlie Driverweg 16 D-4600 Dortmund 50 Phone (49) (0231) 77 28 40 Thank You For Purchasing Our Products ! 2 DESKJET AND LASER PRINTERS 3 2 Deskjet and Laser Printers These printers are very nice machines. While working with them, I got some ideas to improve their handling. So I wrote a printer driver to print my files. o In order to improve clarity of the document and to economize paper consumption, the driver prints in LANDSCAPE format, placing two DIN A 5 pages on one DIN A 4 sheet. Combined with duplex mode you can print up to FOUR pages on ONE sheet ! o In DUPLEX mode the driver prints in two passes. The first pass prints all "even" pages, then the driver asks you to reload the paper for the second pass. o When printing multiple pages, they are ejected in CORRECT PAGE ORDER ( the driver can print backwards ) . You no more need to turn round each page !! o You can choose to place a header or footer consisting of the file name, page number and printing date on each page. o The driver may be comprehensively configurated by changing the font, the page dimensions and many other options. You configure the driver using a default file, the environment variables and command line switches. All these settings may be saved in the default file. o The driver can print MULTIPLE FILES by once calling it. Files can optionally be separated by automatic insertion of blank pages. o JETprint also has a smart feature called BOOK MODE. The BOOK mode computes a funny page order, but when you get out the printed document, you only fold it in the middle - and get a correctly numerated BOOK in DIN A 5 format !! o You may find it hard to remember ALL these parameters. The program assists you by calling a complete help page. o ENJOY the graphical user interface ! AND HERE IT IS : JETprint - The Print Utility For Deskjet and Laser Printers !! The driver scans the files to print, computes the page order and sends them to the printer or to any specified file. 3 SOFT- AND HARDWARE CONFIGURATION 4 3 Soft- and Hardware configuration JETprint will run on any AMIGA. You don't need a hard disk, a color monitor or anything special. JETprint also should run in any software configuration - sorry, I couldn't test everything. Since JETprint needs some memory to store information on the files to print, there is a maximum number of pages you can print in one call ( ca. 200 .. 300 ) on a standard AMIGA with 1 MB of memory. 4 Installation of JETprint There should be no problem to install JETprint on your harddisk. Copy the program JETprint and it's icon to your harddisk. Then copy the configuration fileJETprint.ENV into your S: directory. You may - if you like - set the environment variable. Don't forget to install req.library when using Kickstart < 2.0 . You may save your own default options by calling the graphical user interface as described below. Please refer to all chapters of this manual ! 5 HOW TO USE JETPRINT 5 5 How to use JETprint It's really easy to use JETprint . You simply invoke JETprint by typing JETprint. If you call JETprint without parameters, you get the graphical user interface which may be handled by clicking the mouse or typing hotkeys. Special hotkeys : Return key activates file1 gadget, space + return invokes the file requester ( install req.library for Kick 1.2 / 1.3 ! ) . Escape key cancels program without doing anything. Calling JETprint with the filenames to print doesn't invoke the graphical interface. You may change many parameters : lines per inch / -i# sets lines per inch to # ( 6 . .9.) . Default is 8 lpi, which results in 63 lines per page. Note : many laser printers can't print 7 or 9 lpi. use small / medium / large font / -c# specifies the size of print characters, 0 = small, 1 = normal sized characters and 2 = large characters Note : Maybe your printer isn't able to print every font. wrap / cut long lines / -w This switch disables linewrap. Long lines are just cut at max column width. Long lines are split into two lines, the second line beginning with a '?' . ( no ) line numbers / -u activates numbering of lines. The line numbers refer to only one file. This takes 5 extra characters of column width, so call -f option ! start new page / sheet / -m# now it's getting trickier : If you print multiple files in one call of JETprint, you can choose the number of blank pages to be inserted after each file. This switch means : 0 = no blank pages 1 = start all files on the left print column 2 = begin a new sheet for each file ( default ) default / draft / letter quality / -q# chooses print quality 0 = no change to printer settings ( default ) 1 = Draft, this is very fast 2 = Letter Quality ( LQ ) 5 HOW TO USE JETPRINT 6 ( no ) header on top / bottom / -h# prints a header - containing file name, page number and date. 0 = no header, 1 = header on top and 2 = header on bottom. normal / reverse order / -r# selects reverse printing. Default is reverse printing, since it's needed for Deskjet printers. So the printer ejects the sheets in descending order. single / double-sided / -d# sets JETprint to DUPLEX mode. After the first pass JETprint will ask you to turn round the paper and it will start the second pass. 0 = no duplex, print always on front side of the paper 1 = double-sided printing, including back of sheets BOOK MODE ON / OFF / -d# The BOOK mode computes a funny page order, but when you get out the printed document, you only fold it in the middle - and get a correctly numerated BOOK in DIN A 5 format !! 2 = PRINT IN BOOK MODE, duplex printing is set by default. toplines / -t# Number of blank lines on top of page. bottomlines / -b# Number of empty lines on bottom of page. column width / -f# width of each print column in characters. Default is 80, the maximum width is 88 chars per line. Smaller columns are automatically centered on the page. left offset / -x# Corrects the left margin setting of your printer. We recommend a value of 5 for laser printers and 0 for deskjet printers. size of tabs / -s# select the size for expanding tabulators, default is 8 spaces. # of copies / -n# number of copies to print, default one copy. print delay / -z# correct timeout interval of printer.device. I recommend to enter a value of 20 for deskjet printers. Laser users are lucky and simply enter 0 ! -l# configures the pagelength in lines. 6 CONFIGURATION FILE AND ENVIRONMENT 7 ATTENTION : This option can conflict with other parameters, it's safer to use -t, -b and -i to adjust pagelength ! File 1 .. 3 / Name of the files to print. There is a limit of 3 files to print in the graphical interface; by calling JETprint directly there is no limit. -o JETprint prints to the printer. You may choose a different output file. When using the output to file, the driver will filter unnecessary escape sequences. HELP / -? shows you the internal help page. All parameters described in this manual are explained online. save defaults saves your settings in a configuration file. This file is evaluated every time you call JETprint. PRINT OK, let's start printing ! QUIT Leave the program without doing anything. Now I give some more examples how to call JETprint : JETprint -t3 -b1 -d0 JETprint.doc or ( same difference ) JETprint -t3b1d JETprint.doc 6 Configuration file and environment JETprint reads the file S:JETprint.ENV every time it's started. You may store your own default values in this file. The options are same as described above but without leading '-' . m0d1 t2 b2 Example configuration file JETprint.ENV You automatically create this file by clicking 'save defaults' from the graphical user interface ! 7 TROUBLE SHOUTING 8 JETprint also reads the configuration from your environment. You may store all valid parameters in the variable JETprint. Example: SETENV JETprint=d0t2b2 But there is no need to set the environment variable. 7 Trouble Shouting There may be some problems while using JETprint . Most of them are USER errors, but I' ll try to give you some hints. o JETprint ignores some of my parameters Please note that there are lots of configuration items. First the driver reads the configuration file, then it evaluates the environment variable, and last it refers to your command line switches. Be careful, any option you set in the file may be overridden by the environment ! o JETprint doesn't use different fonts Maybe a problem of your laser printer - I try to get fonts of height 6, 8.5, and 12 point. o The page ouitfit of the first page is not correct, the following pages are OK : You must call INITPRINTER before first invocation of JETprint in order to initialize printer.device. o The Printer Trouble Requester ... Simply click RESUME, you may correct the delay time by '-z' parameter ! And now I wish all users ( who read up to this point ) to enjoy JETprint . If you detect errors in the printer driver - or just have useful ideas to improve JETprint , please contact me, Jürgen Schlie !