PrintGF 1.10 PrintGF/D - GIF printer for IBM/DOS systems PrintGF/W - GIF printer for Windows systems (c) Copyright Ravitz Software Inc. 1993,1994 AccuSoft IFL image interpreter for DOS - PRINTGF.OVR AccuSoft IFL image interpreter for Windows - PRINTGF.DLL (c) Copyright AccuSoft Corporation 1992,1993 Fargo Primera PR ROM code - PRINTGF.FPR (c) Copyright Fargo Electronics, Inc. 1993 Ravitz Software Inc. BBS/FAX 606-268-0577 P.O. Box 25068 Lexington, KY 40524-5068 USA Compuserve Cary Ravitz [70431,32] ------------------------------ License ------------------------------- PrintGF (including PrintGF/D and PrintGF/W) is provided as is. There are no warranties expressed or implied. PrintGF is copyrighted by Ravitz Software Inc. PRINTGF.OVR and PRINTGF.DLL are copyrighted by AccuSoft Corporation. PRINTGF.FPR is copyrighted by Fargo Electonics, Inc. You may copy PrintGF only for use under this license agreement. PrintGF is distributed as shareware. You may use PrintGF without charge on a trial basis to determine its suitability for you. If you continue to use it after your evaluation, you MUST purchase a registered copy for $34. The PrintGF shareware package does not include PRINTGF.DLL. You may distribute PrintGF without PRINTGF.DLL as a stand alone product if you keep the entire package together, unchanged, including this license explanation, and do not charge more than $10. You may not distribute PrintGF as part of another product or on the same disk with any commercial software. See License and Registration for more information. ------------------------------ Contents ------------------------------ Introduction ....................................................... 3 License and Registration 4 What Is New ........................................................ 4 Installation 5 Operation .......................................................... 5 Syntax 6 Overview of Options ................................................ 7 /1, /2, /3, /4, /5 - Default Options 7 /A - Area Option ................................................... 7 /B, /C - Brightness, Contrast Options 8 /D - Output Destination Option ..................................... 8 /E - AccuSoft IFL Option 9 /F - Output Format Option .......................................... 9 /G - GIF File Option 11 /I - Intermediate File Option ..................................... 11 /J, /K - Printer Code Prefix, Suffix Options 11 /L - Page Layout Option ........................................... 12 /N - Page Number Option 12 /Q - Print Quality Options ........................................ 13 /X - User Interface Option 13 /Y - Gray Balance Correction Option ............................... 14 /Z - Gamma Correction Option 14 Menu .............................................................. 15 Menu Specific Functions 15 Menu Input and Picture Quality Options ............................ 16 Menu Output Options 16 Menu Window and Margins ........................................... 16 Large Paper 17 Answers ........................................................... 17 Useful Prefix and Suffix Codes 18 Dithering ......................................................... 19 Blurring 20 Gamma Color Correction ............................................ 20 Color Processing 21 Output Devices .................................................... 22 Compatibility and Technical Information 28 User Support ...................................................... 28 p-3 Introduction --------------------------------------------------------- PrintGF is a shareware GIF printer for IBM/DOS and Windows systems. It includes a DOS program that can be run from the command line and BAT files or via menu (PrintGF/D) and an equivalent Windows program (PrintGF/W). It prints GIF files on Epson and IBM 9 pin printers, Epson, Fujitsu, IBM, NEC, and Toshiba 24 pin printers, HP LaserJet, DeskJet, PaintJet, HI JetPro, IBM ExecJet, LaserPrinter, Canon LBP, BJ, and BJC printers, Kodak Color 4, Fargo Primera, PostScript printers, Tektronix ColorQuick, and others. It will also display on a CGA, EGA, VGA, VESA SVGA, or HGC. PrintGF includes an overlay (PRINTGF.OVR) and DLL (PRINTGF.DLL) that contain the AccuSoft Image Format Library image interpreter for DOS and Windows. These let PrintGF read a number of image formats beyond GIF, including BMP, JPEG, PCX, TARGA, and TIFF. These files are not needed for reading GIF images. PRINTGF.DLL is not included in the shareware version of PrintGF. PrintGF transforms the bit map size and resolution to match the user specified size and the native resolution of the output device. It outputs 240 level dithered gray on black/white devices and 240 level per plane dithered color on three plane (CMY or RGB) color devices (giving 13 million colors). The dither pattern size and error diffusion filter can be set to trade speed verses print quality. The user options include picture area, print area and margins, processing resolution, brightness and contrast, gamma and gray balance color correction, printer type, output destination, etc. GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format. It is a widely used format for storing bit mapped images. The images are defined with a palette of up to 256 colors each defined at 256 levels per plane. GIF files are compressed via LZW compression and may contain multiple images so they are an efficient way of handling images. The Graphics Interchange Format (c) is the Copyright property of CompuServe Incorporated. GIF (sm) is a Service Mark property of CompuServe Incorporated. For further information, please contact: CompuServe Incorporated Graphics Technology Department 5000 Arlington Center Blvd Columbus, OH 43220 USA This program is produced by a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at 545 Grover Road, Muskegon, MI 49442 or send a CompuServe message via CompuServe Mail to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536. p-4 License and Registration --------------------------------------------- PrintGF (including PrintGF/D and PrintGF/W) is provided as is. There are no warranties expressed or implied. PrintGF is copyrighted by Ravitz Software Inc. PRINTGF.OVR and PRINTGF.DLL are copyrighted by AccuSoft Corporation. PRINTGF.FPR is copyrighted by Fargo Electonics, Inc. You may copy PrintGF only for use under this license agreement. PrintGF is distributed as shareware. You may use PrintGF without charge on a trial basis to determine its suitability for you. If you continue to use it after your evaluation, you MUST purchase a registered copy for $34. The PrintGF shareware package does not include PRINTGF.DLL. Registration covers use by a single person (on multiple computers) or installation on a single computer (may be used by a group of people). There is no cost to use a later 1.** version after registering any 1.** version. You may distribute PrintGF without PRINTGF.DLL as a stand alone product if you keep the entire package together, unchanged, including this license explanation, and do not charge more than $10. You may not distribute PrintGF as part of another product or on the same disk with any commercial software. To purchase a registered copy of PrintGF, send your name, address, and $34 check to: Ravitz Software Inc. P.O. Box 25068 Lexington, KY 40524-5068 USA You will be sent a current disk - specify 3.5 or 5.25 inch disk. PRINTGF.DLL is included on this disk. If you previously registered PrintGF, you may send $10 to get a current disk. For users outside the USA it is preferred that the check be drawn on a bank in the US, Canada, England, France, or Switzerland, and be payable in US Dollars. If the check is drawn on a bank from any other country, please make it payable in the currency of that country with the amount calculated at the current exchange rate. What Is New ---------------------------------------------------------- Version 1.10 replaces PrintGF and PGFMenu with PrintGF/D, adds PrintGF/W, adds online help (F1), supports PostScript, Fargo Primera, direct parallel port drive (/DP1, etc.), picture aspect ratio is maintainted unless stretch is specified, landscape is specified with the /A option. Version 1.08 enhances PGFMENU with new mouse and color control and sorted directory lists. PRINTGF.OVR is a general image interpreter. The latest version of PrintGF is available from the support bulletin board at 606-268-0577 (1200..14400, N,8,1, 24 hours/day, XMODEM, 1K XMODEM, or ZMODEM download), packed in ZIP format. p-5 Installation --------------------------------------------------------- Copy the files PRINTGFD.EXE, PRINTGFW.EXE, PRINTGF.OVR, PRINTGF.DLL, PRINTGF.FPR, and PRINTGF.DOC to your working disk or directory. All of these files should be in the same directory and it is preferred that the directory be in your DOS PATH. PRINTGF.OVR and PRINTGF.DLL are needed only for non GIF images. PRINTGF.FPR is needed only for Fargo Primera Photo-Realistic prints. In addition, the README.* files (quick information) are included in the package and must be included if you distribute PrintGF as shareware. To install PrintGF/W as an icon in the Windows Program Manager, select File, then New, then program item to bring up the Program Item Properties menu. Enter the item name - PrintGF/W, the command line - \path\PRINTGFW, and the working directory - wherever you keep your GIF files. You can choose from three icons designed for two, sixteen, and 32K color setups. Operation ------------------------------------------------------------ When working with flat GIF files (most of them), printed in portrait orientation, PrintGF reads a GIF file and prints simultaneously. Interlaced GIF files, landscape prints, Primera output, and images read by the AccuSoft IFL image interpreter require PrintGF to read the entire file into XMS memory and then print it, so there is a delay between startup and printing. Esc stops PrintGF at the next good break point, leaving the printer ready for new data. Ctrl-B stops PrintGF as quickly as possible. You generally need to do a printer reset after a Ctrl-B. When you display a plot, press Enter or Esc to return to the DOS text screen, any of the four cursor movement keys to scroll across the plot, PgDn to magnify, PgUp to reduce, or S to cycle between full, half (the default), quarter, and eighth page scrolling. Print quality and print speed are predominantly affected by the output format (/F) and quality option (/Q). Color and gray level are predominantly affected by the brightness (/B), contrast (/C), gamma correction (/Z), and gray balance (/Y). Look at these options to correct any such problems. PrintGF works within a printer's current margins and starts at the current vertical print position. If you decline the form feed suboption of the /L option then PrintGF leaves the printer at the start of the line directly below the plot. PrintGF will not automatically change a printer's operating mode. On multimode printers, the right operating mode must be set before running PrintGF or with the prefix code (/J) option. p-6 Syntax --------------------------------------------------------------- PrintGF can be run from the command line (DOS or Windows) using various options to tell it what to do. And it can be started with no options to bring up a menu system. The menu options have corresponding command line options, so the two forms of options will be described together. The menu options are noted by the menu name in quotes followed by the menu choice in quotes, for example "page/area" "GIF page number:". From the command line, the calling syntax is: PRINTGF giffile /option1 /option2 ... PRINTGFW giffile /option1 /option2 ... Spaces between parameters are not required. The GIF file may be specified with the /G option if it is inconvenient to make it the first parameter. If a given option is entered more than once, only the last entry is used. And if an option is invalid (but not incorrect), it is ignored. When run from the command line, PrintGF uses the current menu options as the default, so if you have the menu set up as desired, you can run PRINTGFW giffile from the command line and avoid going through the menu to select the giffile. Below, [ and ] enclose optional suboptions and | separates mutually exclusive suboptions. The options and suboptions may be in any order except that multiple numeric suboptions are ordered and numeric suboptions must follow character suboptions where the characters may be digits. "c" refers to a suboption character, "w", "x", "y", and "z" to suboption numbers, "i", "j", "k", and "l" to suboption integers, "b" to a suboption byte, and "f" to a DOS file or device name. For numbers (w, x, y, z), a decimal point is allowed but is not required, and scientific notation is not allowed. "-" is allowed but not "+". For integer input (i, j, k, l), only base ten integers from -32768 to 32767 are allowed. "+" is not allowed. A byte (b) must be a base ten integer from 0 to 255 or a hexadecimal number prefixed with $ from $00 to $FF. Further range checking is done for most options to flag unreasonable input. If an option has multiple numeric suboptions, these may be separated with commas or blanks. p-7 Overview of Options -------------------------------------------------- PrintGF's options fall into four categories. The first is input and output choices. The input is chosen with /G, the GIF file, /N, the page number, and /A, the area of the GIF file to be printed. Output options are /F, the output format (printer model), and /D, the destination port, device, or file. The second category is the page layout. /L controls the size and location of the print window and the option to not send a form feed. The third category defines how the image is processed. /B and /C set the brightness and contrast. /Q sets the dither type and and blur level. /Y sets the gray balance and /Z sets gamma color correction. /E specifies the image interpreter. /X sets all of the user interface options and /1, /2, /3, /4, and /5 choose one of the menu setups as the command line default. /1, /2, /3, /4, /5 - Default Options --------------------------------- These command line options select a configuration from the menu to be used as the default. This option must match the first character of the title of one of the five menu configurations. /A - Area Option ----------------------------------------------------- /A[L][M][S]i,j,k[,l] - area to be printed - default /A50,50,100 "page/area" "picture area:" "page/area" "landscape: " "page/area" "mirror: " "page/area" "stretch to fit window: " /A defines the area of the GIF file that is to be printed and offers several options to modify the printed image. This can be any rectangular area, defined by the center point of the rectangle, its width, and optionally its height. The center point is set as the percent distance from the left and top of the picture to the center of the area (0..100). The width is set as a percentage of the picture width, from 1 to 100. The height may be set as a percentage of the picture height (1..100) or defaulted to the same percentage as the width. The center point will be adjusted to insure that the entire width and height are on the picture. The L suboption specifies landscape orientation. M says to mirror the image. S says to stretch the picture to fill the print window. This can distort the aspect ratio, which may be desirable if PrintGF has misinterpreted the true aspect ratio. This often happens when there is no information in the bit map that lets PrintGF determine the correct value. S is ineffective if you have set the print window height to 0. /A50,50,100 the default, prints the entire picture /A25,25,50 prints the upper left hand quarter of the picture /A25,75,50 prints the lower left hand quarter of the picture /A25,90,20 is adjusted to 25,80,20 so the area fits p-8 /B, /C - Brightness, Contrast Options -------------------------------- /Bi[,j[,k]] - brightness - default /B50 /Ci[,j[,k]] - contrast - default /C50 "print quality" "brightness:" "print quality" "contrast:" PrintGF modifies each GIF color based on the /B and /C options. These numbers can be specified overall or for each color plane (RGB). They are applied before any conversion to black/white. The brightness number specifies the output level (%) at an input level of 50%. 50 is the default and it leaves the brightness unchanged. The contrast number specifies the difference in output level at input level 100% verses input level 50%. 50 is the default and it leaves the contrast unchanged. Output levels clip at 0% and 100%. If the brightness plus contrast total 100 or less then you will not clip any colors at the top. If the brightness minus the contrast is 0 or above then you will not clip any colors at the bottom. /D - Output Destination Option --------------------------------------- /D[+]f - destination - default /D1 "destination" The D option specifies the output printer port, device, or file. The + suboption causes files to be appended rather than overwritten (it has no effect on device output). 1, 2, and 3 select the BIOS printer routines. P1, P2, and P3 select direct parallel port drive. X1, X2, X3, and X4 select xon/xoff controlled serial port drive. H1, H2, H3, and H4 select hardware controlled serial port drive. You can also use the DOS devices LPT1, COM1, etc. /D is ignored for display output. For PrintGF/W, specify W to send data to the Windows print manager. P1, P2, and P3 are generally the fastest way to drive a printer. PrintGF cannot set up the serial ports. This is usually done in the AUTOEXEC.BAT with MODE (probably MODE COM1:9600,N,8,1,P). /D2 sends output to the second parallel port via BIOS /DLPT3 sends output to the DOS device LPT3 /D+TEMP.PRN appends output to file TEMP.PRN p-9 /E - AccuSoft IFL Option --------------------------------------------- /E - read bit map via AccuSoft IFL image interpreter "interpreter" If you add the /E option to the PrintGF command line, it reads the GIF file via the AccuSoft Image Format Library interpreter contained in PRINTGF.OVR (DOS) or PRINTGF.DLL (Windows, registered copies only). This interpreter reads a number of different file types including BMP, GIF, JPEG, PCX, TARGA, and TIFF. These images are loaded directly into XMS memory before any processing, so XMS is required for any use of this interpreter. 24 bit images require three bytes per pixel for the entire original image. For a 1024x768 image this is 2.25 Meg. /F - Output Format Option -------------------------------------------- /Fc[-|+|*|^][%][!|­][~|`][x,y] - output format - default /FN~ "output format" "print quality" "CMY (3) or CMYK (4) color: " "print quality" "Primera heat (1..96): " The F option specifies the output format. -, +, *, and ^ are resolution modifiers, ! and ­ select compression levels, ~ turns off color processing, and ` switches to or from four plane color processing. % uses equivalent Windows modes instead of full screen displays. These suboptions are allowed even if they have no effect. For PCX and PostScript (/FZ, /FS) you can append the resolution. For the Primera (/F8) you can append the heat setting (1..96). Each printer driver has a default level of data compression, chosen to give maximum compatibility among the different printers that the driver supports. Many drivers have an optional enhanced level of compression, chosen with !. This will be incompatible with some printers. And some drivers let you turn all compression off with ­ (ASCII 173). This is rarely of any use. Where these suboptions are effective, they are marked in the table below. Drivers marked below with ~ can handle color. Using ~ suppresses color processing, substituting black for all colors except white. ` switches between 3 and 4 plane color (see Color Processing). /F1 IBM 9 pin .................................... 120x72 /F2 IBM Quietwriter 2 240x240 /F3 IBM Quietwriter 3 ........................... 240x240 /F4- !­ IBM LaserPrinter (PPDS mode) 150x150 /F4 !­ IBM LaserPrinter (PPDS mode) ................ 300x300 /F4+ !­ IBM LaserPrinter (PPDS mode) 600x600 /F5 ! ~ IBM 24 pin alternate 1 ...................... 180x180 /F6 ! IBM Proprinter X24 180x182 /F7- ­ Canon BJ IBM mode, IBM ExecJet .............. 180x180 /F7 ­ Canon BJ IBM mode, IBM ExecJet 360x360 continued p-10 /F8[i] ~ Fargo Primera, heat i ....................... 203x203 /F8+[i] ~ Fargo Primera Photo-Realistic, heat i 203x203 /F9 ! ~ NEC 24 pin .................................. 180x180 /F#- ­ JRL J bubblejet Epson mode 180x180 /F# ­ JRL J bubblejet Epson mode .................. 360x360 /F&- ~ Canon BJ/BJC native mode 180x180 /F& ~ Canon BJ/BJC native mode .................... 360x360 /F@- ~ Canon BJC CaPSL mode 180x180 /F@ ~ Canon BJC CaPSL mode ........................ 360x360 /FA- ! ~ HP DeskJet 500C, Mannesmann Tally MT92C 150x150 /FA ! ~ HP DeskJet 500C, Mannesmann Tally MT92C ..... 300x300 /FB- ­~ Canon BJ/BJC Epson mode 180x180 /FB ­~ Canon BJ/BJC Epson mode ..................... 360x360 /FC CGA display 80x33 /FD- !­ Canon LBP (ISO/CaPSL mode) .................. 150x150 /FD !­ Canon LBP (ISO/CaPSL mode) 300x300 /FD+ !­ Canon LBP (ISO/CaPSL mode) .................. 600x600 /FE ~ 128K EGA color display 80x58 /FF ! ~ Fujitsu 24 pin .............................. 180x180 /FG ­ PDP Protracer (IBM mode) 360x360 /FH Hercules graphics card display ................ 90x58 /FI- HP LaserJet 3, DeskJet 150x150 /FI HP LaserJet 3, DeskJet ...................... 300x300 /FI+ HP LaserJet 4 600x600 /FJ- Canon BJ BJ130 mode ......................... 180x180 /FJ Canon BJ BJ130 mode 360x360 /FK ~ Kodak Diconix Color 4 ....................... 192x192 /FL- !­ HP LaserJet 150x150 /FL !­ HP LaserJet ................................. 300x300 /FM 128K EGA monochrome display 80x58 /FN ~ Epson 9 pin ................................. 120x72 /FO ! ~ Toshiba 24 pin 180x180 /FP ! ~ HP PaintJet ................................. 180x180 /FQ HP QuietJet (PCL mode) 192x192 /FR ~ Tektronix ColorQuick ........................ 216x216 /FS-[i[,j]] ~ PostScript 1 bit/plane 72x72, ixi, ixj /FS[i[,j]] ~ PostScript 8 bits/plane ............ native, ixi, ixj /FT ! ~ Epson 24 pin 180x180 /FU- ~ 320x200 256+ color VGA or VESA SVGA display ... 40x33 /FU ~ 640x480 256+ color VESA SVGA display 80x80 /FU+ ~ 800x600 256+ color VESA SVGA display ........ 100x100 /FU* ~ 1024x768 256+ color VESA SVGA display 128x128 /FU^ ~ 1280x1024 256+ color VESA SVGA display ...... 160x170 /FV ~ 640x480 VGA display 80x80 /FV+ ~ 800x600 VESA SVGA display ................... 100x100 /FV* ~ 1024x768 VESA SVGA display 128x128 /FV^ ~ 1280x1024 VESA SVGA display ................. 160x170 /FW ~ Epson 9 pin alternate 120x72 /FX ! ~ IBM 24 pin alternate 2 ...................... 180x180 /FZ[i[,j]] ~ ZSoft PCX 100x100, ixi, ixj p-11 /G - GIF File Option ------------------------------------------------- /Gf - GIF file - no default "gif file" The GIF file may be specified as the first parameter with no prefix, or it may be specified anywhere in the option list with /G. When the GIF file name is SHADE4 to SHADE256 (with no path or extension), PrintGF generates data internally giving a color scale with 4 to 256 steps. This is useful for setting the gamma color correction and gray balance correction. /I - Intermediate File Option ---------------------------------------- /I[f] intermediate output file - default /I "other output" "intermediate file:" /I lets you specify an intermediate file for data output. During processing all print data is sent to this file. Then the file is copied to the destination. This is only effective for destinations 1..3, H1..H4, P1..P3, and X1..X4 (direct drive devices). It is useful when the device requires continuous, fast data flow. /J, /K - Printer Code Prefix, Suffix Options ------------------------- /J[b,b,..] - printer code prefix - default /J /K[b,b,..] - printer code suffix - default /K "other output" "prefix codes: " "other output" "suffix codes: " /J lets you send codes to the printer before PrintGF's usual data is sent and /K lets you send codes after PrintGF's usual data is sent. This lets you set up and reset the printer for special situations. The codes are specified with byte values (0..255 or $0..$FF) separated with blanks or commas. All options are limited to 80 characters, so long sequences must be handled outside of PrintGF. /J27,69 does a printer reset on HP-PCL printers p-12 /L - Page Layout Option ---------------------------------------------- /L[N][x[,y[,x,y]]] - page layout - default /L8,6,0,0 "window/margins" "other output" "form feed:" The L option defines the page layout. N turns form feeds off. It is ignored for PCX and display output. The first optional x and y are the print window width and height in inches, which is the output image size. If the height is 0 or is not included, it is set to give the correct aspect ratio for the image. The second optional x and y are the left and top margins, measured from the printer's left margin and current vertical position to the print window. Margins are measured from the bottom left for PostScript. Margins are ignored for PCX output. THE PRINT WINDOW PLUS THE MARGINS MUST FIT WITHIN THE PRINTABLE AREA OF THE PRINTER. /L8,4,0,1 print window 8x4, margins 0,1 /N - Page Number Option ---------------------------------------------- /Ni - page number - default /N1 "page/area" "page number:" The /N option specifies the GIF page number to print. /N3 prints page 3 p-13 /Q - Print Quality Options ------------------------------------------- /Q[1|2|4|8][F|P|R|S|X][B|D|N] - print quality - default /Q1RN "print quality" "dither pattern (1|2|4|8): " "print quality" "error diffusion (F|P|R|S|X):" "print quality" "blur level (0|1|2):" The 1, 2, 4, and 8 suboptions specify the dither pattern cell size. With 1 each output dot is treated as one dot internally with shade levels 0 or 1. With 2, 4, and 8 output dots are grouped in 2x2, 4x4, and 8x8 cells with shade levels 0..4, 0..16, and 0..64. Larger cell sizes are faster and smaller cell sizes gives better edge definition. The default is 1. For the 256+ color VGA modes (/FU), the Primera in Photo-Realistic mode (/F8+), and PostScript 8/24 bit mode (/FS+) the output devices are multi-level and the dither pattern cell size is always 1. Regardless of the dither pattern, the output shade levels are dithered to 0..240 (or 0..192, 0..170 for some drivers) via error diffusion. Four error diffusion filters are available. The Floyd-Steinberg filter is selected with suboption F. The Stucki filter is selected with S. A special filter, labeled Ravitz, is selected with R (the default). And the Ravitz filter with 50% random noise added into the weights is selected with P (Perturbed). You can turn off error diffusion dithering, leaving only the pattern dither, with the X suboption. This might be useful with the 8x8 This might be useful with the 8x8 dither pattern. If too much digitization detail shows in the output picture, you can reduce it with the Blur or Double blur suboptions. These options increase the processing time and the required memory. You can also reduce detail by increasing the dither pattern cell size. This is faster but may not give the same picture quality. See Dithering for more information on PrintGF's dithering options. /X - User Interface Option ------------------------------------------- /X[P][S] - interface options - default /X "other output" "pause to load paper:" The X option sets various interface options. P causes a pause before each printed page. S suppresses extra information messages. /XS gives only the most important messages p-14 /Y - Gray Balance Correction Option ---------------------------------- /Y[H|R][x,y,z] - gray balance - default /Y1,1,1 "print quality" "gray balance (c,m,y):" "print quality" "gray balance type (H|R):" /Y lets you do gray balancing to compensate for printers that use a cyan, magenta, yellow ink mix to produce an non-neutral black. The three numbers represent the fraction of cyan, magenta, and yellow ink to use to get a neutral black. H specifies HP's suggested compensation for the HP DeskJet 500C printer. R specifies compensation on the black component of each color, without regard to the total non-black range. /YR1,1,1 is the default and does no gray balancing /YH.67,1,1 is HP's recommended value for the HP DeskJet 500C /Z - Gamma Correction Option ----------------------------------------- /Zw[,x,y[,z]] - gamma correction - default /Z.5 or /Z1 "print quality" "gamma correction (r,g,b):" This option specifies the use of the gamma shade level transfer function that corrects for typical printer nonlinearity. The value may be specified for overall red, green, and blue (one number), for independent red, green, and blue (three numbers) or for independent cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (four numbers). A value of 1.0 gives a linear response. Values from 0.1 to 1.0 increase the brightness of the output. The default is 0.5 for most printers and 1.0 for displays. The default for the Primera is 1.0 See Gamma Color Correction for more information. p-15 Menu ----------------------------------------------------------------- PrintGF/D and PrintGF/W include a menu interface to let you select options, choose a list of GIF files, and print. Run PRINTGLD or PRINTGLW with no command line parameters to bring up the menu. The main menu is displayed at the top of the screen, and the bottom of the screen is used differently for each main menu item. The main menu is divided by column into four groups, described below. The functions of the PrintGF options are described in detail above. When the cursor is on a main menu item, the current value of the option is displayed below the main menu. To change the value, press Enter (or left mouse button). The options are modified with cursor movement and typing numbers/names. The Enter key returns you to the main menu with the new option values. Esc (or right mouse button) returns you to the main menu with the option values unchanged. The PrintGF documentation (this file) can be viewed by pressing F1 from any menu that displays F1 on its key line. If one of the first two letters of a main menu item is capitalized, that item may be accessed immediately by pressing the letter. When a cursor bar has a notch, the value in the notch may be edited. Menu Specific Functions ---------------------------------------------- The first column of main menu options is dedicated to menu functions. These include running PrintGF, switching to an alternate configuration, exit, saving the current configurations, and set menu options. The "Alt configuration" item rotates between five configurations. The current configuration name is on line 2. The "save configurations" item saves the current configurations by writing them to the EXE file. The GIF file list is not saved. You can create multiple EXE files with different names and each can have its own configurations. The "menu options" item lets you set the configuration name, screen colors, up to five initial plotfile masks, and the name of the BAT file created by the "create BAT" option. Screen colors are specified with the mnemonics listed here: k black r red k+ gray r+ bright red b blue m magenta b+ bright blue m+ bright magenta g green y yellow/brown g+ bright green y+ bright yellow c cyan w white c+ bright cyan w+ bright white For PrintGF/W you can also use - and * as color modifiers. These are only effective with 15, 16, or 24 bit color setups. To use the default Windows colors with PrintGF/W, blank out the desired line of colors. p-16 Menu Input and Picture Quality Options ------------------------------- Column two of the main menu lets you choose the GIF files to print (the /G option in PrintGF), the GIF page number (/N) and picture area (/A), and the picture quality (/F` - CMY or CMYK color processing, /B - brightness, /C- contrast, /Q - quality, /Z - gamma color correction, /Y - gray balance correction), and the image interpreter (/E). You may enter up to 99 GIF files in the "gif file" main menu option. To choose from a list of files, enter a mask name and press Enter (the cursor must be on the mask). The menu will then display a list of corresponding files. Select any number of the files by moving the cursor to the desired file and pressing Space (or the middle mouse button). If no files have been selected, then pressing Enter selects the file under the cursor. The selected files are added to the file list at or below the cursor. Files that would overflow the 99th position on the plotfile list are dropped. When you "Run PrintGF", PrintGF is run for each file on the GIF file list. Masks are ignored. For any GIF files that PrintGF does not successfully process, an arrow is inserted in front of the GIF file name. You can view the results from the "gif file" main menu item. The arrow is not considered part of the file name, so you do not need to remove it to retry PrintGF. Menu Output Options -------------------------------------------------- The third column of options specifies the output destination (/D), output format (/F), and other output options (/L suboption F - form feed, /X suboption P - pause to load paper, /J prefix codes, and /K suffix codes. In the output format menu, printers that support color have a color option ("clr:" on the menu). This lets you specify a black/white output. Output formats that do not support color do not have this option and always convert to black/ white. Menu Window and Margins ---------------------------------------------- The fourth column of main menu options includes just "window/margins", which lets you specify the print area and its position on the paper. p-17 Large Paper ---------------------------------------------------------- PrintGF can handle printing on paper larger than the usual 8.5x11, but this takes some extra work. First you need to increase PrintGF's print window to cover the large paper. This is done with the /L option. The print window plus the margins must fit within the printer's printable area. And then you must make sure that your printer recognizes the larger paper height. For continuous forms paper this is best done by setting skip perforation to off, either by printer switch or with PrintGF prefix codes. For Canon, Epson, Fujitsu, IBM, and NEC line printers (dot matrix, ink jet, thermal) use /J27 79, or "modify output" "prefix codes: 27 79". For cut sheet paper, on Canon (except BJ native mode), Epson, Fujitsu, IBM, and NEC line printers use /J27 67 0 n, where n is the page length in inches. For the PDP ProTracer use /J27 67 n, where n is the page length in lines, at six lines per inch. And for some printers you need to increase the right margin. For the Canon BJC in Epson mode use /J27 81 114. For the HI V50/100 in printer mode use /J27 91 88 2 0 1 255. For page printers, legal size paper may be specified with these printer code prefixes: HP-PCL printers /J27 38 108 51 65 (/K27 38 108 50 65 to reset to letter), Canon LBP /J27 91 51 50 59 59 112 (/K27 91 51 48 59 59 112 to reset), IBM LaserPrinter /J27 91 70 5 0 3 1 2 1 (/J27 91 70 5 0 3 1 1 1 to reset). To get a 10x16 print window on 11x17 paper with a Canon, Epson, Fujitsu, IBM, or NEC line printer, use these options: /L10 16 0 .25 /J27 67 0 17. You will probably need to adjust the margins (0 .25) for best centering. The maximum width of the print window on most narrow carriage printers is 8. The maximum print window width on most wide carriage printers is 13.6. The horizontal margin should be set to 0 to get this width. Answers -------------------------------------------------------------- For the Canon BJC-800 in Epson mode, the right margin defaults to 8 inches. Use /J27 64 27 81 114 to set it to 11.4 inches. For the Canon BJ-330 and most wide carriage printers, the maximum print window width is 13.57 inches. This is a printer limitation that you cannot get around. If your printer ejects the paper before the plot is finished, you probably need to specify a paper length prefix code. For most line printers use /J27 67 0 n where n is the page length in inches. p-18 Useful Prefix and Suffix Codes --------------------------------------- Below, n represents any number 0..255, nA represents any number in ASCII format (1 becomes 49, 2 becomes 50, 43 becomes 52 51, etc.). Canon, Reset 27 64 Epson, N inch paper 27 67 0 n Fujitsu, 17 inch paper 27 67 0 17 IBM, NEC Right margin n columns 27 81 n (not for IBM) dot matrix, Skip perforation off 27 79 inkjet Unidirectional printing 27 85 1 HP PCL, Reset 27 69 DeskJet, Portrait mode 27 38 108 48 79 LaserJet, Top margin 0 27 38 108 48 69 PaintJet Skip perforation off 27 38 108 48 76 11 inch paper 27 38 108 50 65 14 inch paper 27 38 108 51 65 11x17 inch paper 27 38 108 54 65 Manual feed 27 38 108 50 72 N copies 27 38 108 nA 88 (page printers) HP DJ500C High quality, slow 27 42 111 49 81 No ink depletion 27 42 111 49 68 HP PJXL300 Low quality, fast 27 42 111 45 49 81 HP QJ HP-PCL mode 27 37 65 DIP switch mode 27 37 64 IBM LP 11 inch paper, tray 1, n copies 27 91 70 5 0 3 1 1 n 14 inch paper, tray 1, n copies 27 91 70 5 0 3 1 2 n 14 inch paper, manual, n copies 27 91 70 5 0 1 1 2 n N copies 27 91 70 5 0 0 0 0 0 n Can BJ nat Page length, right margin x 10 27 40 103 3 0 n 1 n Can CaPSL Reset 27 99 11 inch paper 27 91 51 48 59 59 112 14 inch paper 27 91 51 50 59 59 112 Manual feed 27 91 49 113 Automatic feed 27 91 48 113 Full page memory mode 27 59 27 91 50 38 122 N copies 27 91 nA 118 Cursor to top of page 27 91 48 100 Diablo mode 27 58 ISO mode 27 59 PostScript N copies nA 32 88 67 Paper tray n nA 32 88 80 ProTracer N line paper 27 67 n HI V50/100 Max margins 27,91,88,2,0,1,255 p-19 Dithering ------------------------------------------------------------ Dithering is the process of reducing the 0..255 shade per plane color the input bit map to the 0..1 shade per plane color of the output. There is no exact way to do this - edge or color defintion will be lost and artifacts of the dithering process will be visible in the output. Because of this, PrintGF offers a wide range of dithering options, specified by the /Q option. PrintGF starts the dithering process using a pattern dither. The output dots are divided into groups and each group is set from a pattern that gives various levels of color. The pattern can be 8x8 dots giving 0..64 shades per plane (chosen with the 8 suboption), 4x4 dots giving 0..16 shades (4), 2x2 giving 0..4 shades (4), and 1x1 giving shades 0 and 1 (1, the default). Only the 8x8 dither pattern is sufficient by itself to produce acceptable color output, so each of the pattern dithers is enhanced by error diffusion dithering (see Bit-Mapped Graphics by Steve Rimmer) that extends the color levels to 240 levels per plane. The error diffusion can be done via the Floyd-Steinberg filter (F suboption), the Stucki filter (S), a special filter labeled Ravitz (R - the default), or the Ravitz filter with 50% random perturbation of the weights (suboption P) (as suggested by Robert Ulichney in Digital Halftoning), or it can be turned off (X). The Ravitz filter diffuses error only to immediate neighbors, like Floyd-Steinberg, but has directional properties close to Stucki's. Ravitz x 6 Floyd-Steinberg x 7 Stucki x 8 4 3 6 1 3 5 1 2 4 8 4 2 1 2 4 2 1 There are some exceptions to the above. 256+ color display modes are treated as 0..5, 0..30, or 0..240 level color or 0..30 level monochrome devices and the pattern dither is not done. The Fargo Pimera in Photo-Realistic mode and PostScript in 8/24 bit mode are multi-level devices so no pattern dither is done. And the 8x8 pattern dither is extended via error diffusion to 192 levels rather than 240. The 8x8 pattern dither gives the best color, the fewest unexpected dithering artifacts (the pattern is always visible but is not obtrusive), the fastest processing, and the worst edge defintion. This is likely to be the best choice for high resolution devices. The 1x1 pattern dither gives the best edge definition and the slowest processing. The error diffusion does all of the dithering in this case so the choice of filter is important. The order of fastest to slowest filters is F-S, Ravitz, Stucki, and Perturbed. The order of fewest to most visual artifacts is the reverse. The 1x1 pattern is generally the best choice for low resolution devices and for pictures that require sharp edges such as text and line drawings. The 2x2 and 4x4 patterns are in the middle of the 1x1 and 8x8 patterns on all of the attributes and should be tried to determine their usefulness. p-20 Blurring ------------------------------------------------------------- When the output size of a bitmap is significantly larger than the input, the rectangular nature of the input dots may become apparent. This can be reduced by reducing the processing resolution, which effectively reduces the size of the output bitmap. If it is desirable to stay with a higher processing resolution then you can use blurring to reduce the effect. PrintGF has two blur filters, chosen with the B and D suboptions of /Q. The blurring acts on the output bit map, not the input. B blurs to 8 neighbors and D blurs to 20 neighbors. This process is slow. B 121 D 111 242 12221 121 12421 12221 111 Gamma Color Correction ----------------------------------------------- Printer's typically overprint the area of a dot, for example a nominal 1/300 inch square dot might be printed as a 1.2/300 inch diameter circle, giving an additional area of 13%. So dithered shade levels composed of single dots will be 13% too dark. Shade levels composed of multiple connected dots will also be too dark, but by less than 13%. Solid white and solid black will exact. The gamma function is a general correction for this behavior. The function is g(x,gamma)=255*((x/255)^gamma) for 0..255 level additive color. For gamma above 1 the function describes an overprinting situation. Using 1/gamma exactly reverses the function, so if a printer's gamma is 1.5 then it is corrected by using 1/1.5 = .67. The preferred gamma correction will be different for the different dither pattern sizes. The 8x8 pattern will likely need much less gamma correction that the 1x1 pattern. When specifying gamma independently for cyan, magenta, yellow, and black PrintGF uses g(x,gamma)=255-255*(((255-x)/255)^gamma). This is so that cyan, magenta, yellow correction is the same as red, green, blue correction if black gamma is 1 (/Z.6,.7,.8 is the same as /Z.6,.7,.8,1) When the GIF file name is SHADE4 to SHADE256 (with no path or extension), PrintGF generates data internally giving a color scale with 4 to 256 steps. Set up the gamma correction to make this scale look best. The shade scale is also useful for setting up gray balance. p-21 Color Processing ----------------------------------------------------- Color graphics devices use a variety of color technologies. PrintGF supports these basic types. CMY or cyan/magenta/yellow is used by inkjet and dot matrix printers. This uses three color planes and gives eight pure colors. Even when black ink is available, using CMY processing may give more consistent colors than CMYK. Good gray balance values are critical with CMY color. CMYK or cyan/magenta/yellow/black is used by inkjet and dot matrix printers. This uses four color planes and gives eight pure colors. Using black ink instead of a cyan/magenta/yellow mix gives a more neutral and sometimes darker black color. RGB or red/green/blue is used by displays and bit maps. This uses three color planes and gives eight pure colors. RGBI or red/green/blue/intensity is used by displays and bit maps. This uses four color planes to give fifteen pure colors. PrintGF uses only eight or these fifteen colors - dark black and intense red, green, blue, etc. CMY and RGBI are used by default. CMYK and RGB can be selected with the ` suboption of /F. p-22 Output Devices ------------------------------------------------------- Canon BJ and BJC Printers ------------------------------------------ PrintGF has five basic drivers for Canon BJ and BJC printers. /F7 is the IBM mode driver. It works with the BJ130e, BJ5, BJ10/10e/10ex, BJ20, BJ200/230, and BJ300/330. /FJ is the BJ130 mode driver. It works with all Canon BJ printers in IBM or native mode. The printer is set to 10 pitch text. /FB is the Epson mode driver. It works with the BJ200/230 and BJC800/820. Color is supported. For the BJC800/820 the prefix code 27 81 114 sets the print width to 11.4 inches. /F& is the native mode driver. It works with the BJ200/230 and BJC800/820 in any mode. Color is supported. Epson/IBM mode prefix codes are not compatible and are not needed. /F@ is the CaPSL mode driver for the BJC880. Color is supported. Some of these printers have an image density option (DIP switch and/or front panel switch). Low density eliminates every second dot. To get the full 360 dpi resolution, use high density. Canon LBP Printers ------------------------------------------------- /FD works with any Canon LBP 4 and 8 printers that do not have the SX or 30 suffix. If the printer is in Diablo mode, it is switched to ISO mode. At 300 dpi it takes up to one meg of printer memory to print a full page of graphics. The ! suboption switches to CaPSL 4 data compression. /FD+! is the best driver for the LBP 8 Mk4 at 600 dpi. You might need to set up the printer with /J27 59 27 91 50 38 122. To switch back to Diablo mode on completion, use /K27 58. Any Canon LBP printer with the SX or 30 suffix is an HP-PCL printer and should use the /FI drivers. p-23 Display ------------------------------------------------------------ When you display a plot, the cursor keys scroll the plot, S cycles between full, half (the default), quarter, and eighth page scrolling, PgDn and PgUp magnify and reduce by 1.4, and Enter or Esc returns to DOS. Regardless of the size of your monitor, PrintGF acts as if it were 8 inches wide. /FC drives a CGA, but does not give color. The EGA drivers, /FE and /FM, require a 128K or 256K EGA. /FC will work with a 64K EGA. /FM is for an EGA card with a digital (TTL) monochrome monitor. /FH supports the Hercules monochrome graphics card. /FV works with any VGA card. For MCGAs use /FV~. /FV+ uses VESA SVGA 800x600 16 color mode. /FV* uses VESA SVGA 1024x768 16 color mode. The /FU drivers use 256 or greater color modes to give 0..5, 0..30, or 0..240 level per plane color or 0..30 level monochrome. The processing resolution option is ignored for these drivers. /FU- drives any VGA at 320x200. /FU, /FU+, /FU*, and /FU^ use 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, and 1280x1024 VESA SVGA modes. All of these drivers first look for a 24 bit (8r,8g,8b) color mode, then a 15 or 16 bit (5r,5g,5b or 5r,6g,5b) color mode, and then an 8 bit (256 color palette) color mode, using the best mode that it finds at the specified resolution. Display output cannot be redirected to a file. Epson, IBM 9 Pin Printers ------------------------------------------ /FN, /FW, and /F1 cover a wide range of Epson/IBM compatible 9 pin dot matrix printers. You need a cyan/magenta/yellow/black ribbon to get color prints. /FW sets line feeds to 1/6 inch. Epson, Fujitsu, NEC, Toshiba 24 Pin Printers ----------------------- /FT covers all Epson LQ printers and many compatible printers (Panasonic in LQ mode and others). /FF works with Fujitsu 24 pin printers in Fujitsu mode. /F9 works with NEC 24 pin printers. /FO works with Toshiba 24 pin printers. /FO resets the line feed distance to 1/6 inch on completion. For all of these drivers, you need a cyan/magenta/yellow/black ribbon to get color prints. p-24 Fargo Primera ------------------------------------------------------ /F8 includes five drivers for the Primera. /F8 is the CMY driver for standard CMY and CMYK ribbons. /F8` is the CMYK driver for the standard CMYK ribbon. /F8~ is for standard black ribbons. /F8+ is for Photo-Realistic CMY ribbons. /F8+~ is for Photo-Realistic black ribbons. XMS memory is required for Primera output. The Primera heat level (1..96) may be appended to the output format option. The default is 20. The Primera requires fast data flow and can cause long waits in the data flow at times. Because of this it is important to use the direct printer port (/DP1, ..) or BIOS printer destinations (/D1, ..) rather than the LPT destinations (/DLPT1, ..). Depending on your computer and the ribbon type, PrintGF may not be able to send data to the printer as fast as it needs it. In this case the printer will still function but there will be indexing errors or horizontal bands in the print. To fix this use the intermediate file option (/I). This will send all output to an intermediate file and then copy the file to the printer. For the Primera in Photo-Realistic mode, the Fargo recommended color correction is done after any user specified color correction (brightness, gamma, etc.). Fax/Modems --------------------------------------------------------- PrintGF will not create data for direct use by fax/modem devices. Most fax software will read PCX files and PrintGF can generate such files. Use /FZ~200,196 or "ZSoft PCX b/w h,v dpi: 200,196" to generate a PCX at 200x196 dpi which is the native fax high resolution. 200,98 matches the fax standard resolution, but this is not recommended for graphics. HI JetPro V50/100 -------------------------------------------------- In printer mode the HI V50/100 acts as a Canon BJ IBM mode printer (/F7). The maximum print width is 15.25 and you need the prefix code 27,91,88,2,0,1,255 to get beyond 13.6 inches. HP DeskJet, HP PaintJet XL300, Mannesmann Tally MT92C -------------- /FI works with any black/white DeskJet in portrait mode. /FA drives the DeskJet 500C, PaintJet XL300, MT92C, and any color 300 dpi HP-PCL printer that supports data transfer mode 2. /FA has three modes and covers different levels of 300 dpi color HP-PCL printers. /FA uses RGB color and works with the DeskJet 500C and Mannesmann Tally MT92C. /FA! uses CMY color which can speed printing in some cases. This works with the DeskJet 500C, DeskJet 550C, and PaintJet XL300. /FA!` uses CMYK color to give give better blacks on the DeskJet 550C. p-25 HP LaserJet -------------------------------------------------------- /FL works with any LaserJet compatible printer. /FL! works with LJ 2 (PCL 4) printers. /FI works with LJ 3 (PCL 5) printers. /FI+ is a 600 dpi driver for the LaserJet 4. All of these drivers work in portrait mode, which may be set with /J 27 38 108 48 79 or you can reset the printer with /J 27 69. LaserJets with under one meg of memory may not be able to handle a full page of graphics. /FL! uses less printer memory than /FI, so it may be preferred on LaserJet 3s with limited memory. HP PaintJet -------------------------------------------------------- /FP drives 180 dpi PaintJet printers. The compression mode driver (/FP!) uses data transfer mode 2 (instead of 1) and works only with a PaintJet XL. /FA! (the DeskJet 500C CMY driver) works with the PaintJet XL300. HP QuietJet -------------------------------------------------------- /FQ works with QuietJets in HP-PCL mode. IBM Inkjets --ExecJet 4072, ExecJet II 4076, Color Jetprinter 4079 - These are three completely different printers. The ExecJet 4072 is Canon BJ330 compatible. Put the printer in IBM mode and use /F7. The ExecJet II 4076 is a DeskJet compatible printer and should be used with /FI. The 4079 is basically a PostScript printer and you can drive it with /FS. However you can get faster printing by using it as a raster printer. Newer versions of the printer can be set to ASCII text mode and driven with /F& (Canon BJ native). Older printers can be turned on with the two leftmost buttons held down until startup is complete and then put in ASCII dump mode to use /F&. IBM LaserPrinter 4019, 4029, 4037, 4039 ---------------------------- /F4 drives any LaserPrinter 4019, 4029, or 4037 in PPDS (native) mode. /FL will work for HP LaserJet mode. At 300 dpi it takes up to one meg of printer memory to print a full page of graphics. The ! suboption or "modify output" "compression mode: Y" switches to 4029 data compression. /F4+! works with the 4029 with 600 dpi PPDS upgrade. All 4039s are HP-PCL printers and should be driven with /FI or /FI+. These printers do not support PPDS mode (/F4). p-26 IBM 24 Pin Printers ------------------------------------------------ PrintGF has three drivers for Proprinter X24 compatible printers. Use native mode, not AGM. /F6 is for all IBM X24s and the 24P. These printers do 1/144 inch indexing and using them at 180 dpi gives horizontal white streaks every 2/3 inch. The /F6 drivers compensate for this by indexing 19/144 per line, giving 182 dpi. To work properly the printer must start on a 1/72 boundary so it is best to keep line feeds at a multiple of 1/72 (1/6, 1/8, 1/9). /F5 is referred to as X24 alternate 1 and is for printers that are X24 compatible except for 1/180 inch indexing. This is the case with most X24 compatible printers, including the IBM Quickwriter and IBM 2390 and 2391. /F5* works only with printers that do 1/360 indexing, including the 2390 and 2391 but not the Quickwriter. /FX is referred to as X24 alternate 2 and is the same as /F5 except for the vertical units command. /FX works with Panasonic printers in X24 mode. IBM Quietwriter 2 and 3 -------------------------------------------- /F2 and /F3 drive the Quietwriter 2 and 3. Line feeds are set to 1/6 inch on completion. JRL J bubblejet ---------------------------------------------------- /F# drives the JRL J bubblejet in Epson LQ mode. Kodak Diconix Color 4 ---------------------------------------------- /FK drives the Color 4. Pacific Data Products ProTracer ------------------------------------ /FG drives the ProTracer (base model) in IBM Proprinter mode. The maximum print window width is 15. PostScript Printers ------------------------------------------------ /FS sends 8 bit black/white or 24 bit color data. Unless overridden, the output resolution matches the GIF file. This lets the PostScript device handle all of the dithering. /FS- drives PostScript printers with 1 bit black/white or 3 bit color. It is important to match the resolution of the driver to the resolution of the printer for good results. Some PostScript printers cannot handle this data. The vertical margin is from the bottom of the page with PostScript. Tektronix ColorQuick ----------------------------------------------- /FR drives the ColorQuick. p-27 ZSoft PCX Bit Map -------------------------------------------------- Use /FZ or /FZ~ to output an eight or two color ZSoft PCX bit map. The horizontal and vertical dots/inch may be appended to override the default 100x100, for example /FZ80,90. PCX should generally be directed to a file with the /D option. Since most fax software can take PCX files as input, this is useful for faxing images. Use /FZ~200,196 to match the fax resolution. p-28 Compatibility and Technical Information ------------------------------ PrintGF will run on any IBM compatible system with MS-DOS 3.0 or above. MS-DOS 3.3 or later is recommended. It requires up to 256K of free memory. XMS memory, available from HIMEM, QEMM, 386MAX or other memory managers, is required for interlaced GIF files, landscape mode printing, AccuSoft IFL use, and printing to the Fargo Primera. PrintGF/W is an MS Windows 3.1 program. It uses its own printer drivers, not Windows printer drivers. These programs should not be compressed by any EXE file compressors, as they rewrite the EXE when saving configurations. PrintGF was written by Cary Ravitz and compiled with Borland's Turbo Pascal 7.0. PRINTGF.OVR is compiled with Borland's Turbo C++ 3.0 and contains AccuSoft's Image Format Library 4.0 low level image interpreter. PRINTGF.DLL is AccuSofts's IFL 4.0 Windows DLL. PRINTGF.FPR is Fargo's Primera Photo-Realistic ROM code. User Support --------------------------------------------------------- Correspondence about this program may be sent via the support bulletin board, fax, Compuserve, or mail. BBS: 606-268-0577 1200..14400,N,8,1 24 hours/day To ask a question, prepare an ASCII text file with the details of your question. Then call the bulletin board and choose the upload question option. XMODEM, 1K XMODEM, or ZMODEM file transfer protocol is required for this. Your question will be assigned a number (such as 1015) - remember this number. An answer file (with the assigned number) will be posted, usually within 24 hours on weekdays. To get an answer, call the bulletin board, choose the download option, then the answer option, and then enter the answer number. Compuserve: Cary Ravitz [70431,32] Fax: 606-268-0577 If your fax machine does not send the fax calling signal, the BBS will answer and hang up (about 30 seconds), then the call is routed to the fax. Faxes from outside the USA may be answered via letter. Mail: Ravitz Software Inc. P.O. Box 25068 Lexington, KY 40524-5068 USA