Amiga Format CD 28/amigaformatcd28.iso/-seriously_amiga-/hardware/photoprint/photoprint.doc

Text File | 1998-04-23 | 10.0 KB | 197 lines

PHOTOPRINT for ALPS MD-2300 MASTERPIECE PRINTER

OVERVIEW

This is a functional demo version of a program for printing images on the
Alps MD-2300 Masterpiece printer using its photographic quality (dye-sub)
mode.

The Alps MD-2300 Masterpiece printer is a low cost combination dry ink and
dye-sub printer. (The so-called "inks" are actually ribbon cartridges.) In
dye-sub mode, using the special photographic ink cartridges, it is capable
of near continuous tone photographic quality printing, which makes it one
of the lowest cost printers in this category. Until now, there have been
no print drivers available to utilize the photographic quality mode with the
Amiga.

PhotoPrint is not a true print driver, as it does not link into
the operating system to be called by other programs.  Rather, it is a
program which allows one to select an image file, resize and position it
on the page, and print it.  I wanted to get it working as soon as possible
and concentrated solely on that problem, so I made no attempt to reinvent
other software tools which are readily available and do those jobs better
than I could duplicate.  Any color balancing, image rotation, contrast
adjustment, etc. must first be done in an image processing program of your
choice.  The image must then be saved in raw red, green and blue files, or
"Sculpt" format. Programs such as ImageFX or ADPro will save in this
format.

REQUIREMENTS

Should work on any Amiga system and chip set.

Works with Alps MD-2300 parallel interface model in photographic mode
only.  Compatibility with future models or revisions cannot be guaranteed.

Image files must be raw (Sculpt) format color separated RGB files with
.red, .grn, and .blu extensions. These files are read from disk as printing
proceeds, and are not loaded into memory, so if you can process the image
with your computer, whether using RAM or virtual memory, you should also
be able to print it.

INSTALLATION

Copy the drawer with all its files to the location of your choice. No
startup-sequence changes or assigns are necessary.  Click on the
PhotoPrint icon to start.

USAGE

The image to be printed must first have been color separated in raw, or
"Sculpt" format, files with .red, .grn. and .blu extensions using your own
image processor software. To select the image file for printing, go to the
pull down menu entry "Select File", which will bring up a file requester
on the Workbench screen. Choose any of your image's three files with
either the .red, .grn, or .blu extension; it does not matter which one.

Once a file has been selected, you may see a message in the Status window
reminding you to enter the width of the image in pixels. This is because
the raw file format does not include any information as to dimensions of
the image.  If you are using ImageFX, this information is included in the
NAIL.INFO files which it creates during saves (if this option has been
selected in the ImageFX preference settings). If the nail file is found,
the pixel dimensions will be obtained automatically.  If you are not using
ImageFX to color separate the image files, then you will have to keep
track of the horizontal pixel width of the image and manually enter it in
the input box.  (An easy way to keep track of it is just include the width
in the file name.)

Once the file is selected (with or without proper pixel width) it will be
represented on the page area of the screen as a blue rectangle at 300dpi
size, (unless it has to be shrunk to fit on the page).  You can resize it
by moving the mouse pointer below and to the right of the blue area and
holding the LEFT mouse button down as you move the mouse.  Similarly, it
can be dragged anywhere within the allowable print area by moving the
pointer over the blue area before holding down the LEFT mouse button.  For
MOST ACCURATE sizing and positioning, type the dimensions directly into
the input boxes.  Ruler indices along the edge of the paper area are for
guidance, and are not as accurate as the values appearing in the boxes.

As you change the size of the image, you will notice the width:height
aspect ratio remains constant. The aspect ratio is calculated based on 1:1
pixel dimensions, or square pixels. For work with scanned image sources,
this is desirable. But if your image is other than 1:1, such as digitized
video, or for any other reason where you want to change the width:height
ratio, you will have to first scale the image in your image processing
program.

When ready to print, be sure the printer is on line and has ALPS
PHOTOGRAPHIC QUALITY stock in the feeder, as well as photographic ink
cartridges. Select the PRINT gadget box and printing will commence.  If
desired, you can print to a file instead. (You can do this if testing this
demo software and you don't yet have the MD-2300 on your Amiga.)  The file
can later be printed by doing a COPY FILENAME TO PAR: command from a CLI
window.

The demo version limits you to printing on the smaller format 4x6" paper
(actually the stock is slightly less than 4x6").  Thus the 8.5x11" paper
gadget button is disabled.

Exit the program by selecting "Quit" from the pull down menu.

To stop printing in progress, press the ESC key.

For the full version, capable of printing on 8.5x11" paper, send $15
(U.S.) check or money order to:

OMICRON COMPUTER SYSTEMS
1005 WHITESTONE RD.
XENIA, OH 45385
USA

COMMENTS and TIPS

While impressive in what it can do, for the price, I have found the
MD-2300 does not quite achieve what I consider photographic quality in all
situations.  Scenes with large areas of uniform colors, such as sky
backgrounds in landscapes or backgrounds in portraits, tend to show
horizontal bands of slight color difference. This is not due to problems
with this software, as it also occurs with Alps' own driver running on a
PC. (There have been extensive discussions of this anomaly on USENET by
users of Alps own print driver.)  Several explanations have been given,
the most likely being irregularities in heating across the printhead, or
variations in the ribbons.  Supposedly Alps is now working on improving
ribbon quality. Hopefully, this will solve the problem, although from what
I have observed, I tend to suspect the printhead.

For those who wonder if other print stock can be used in photographic
mode, I have tried HP's photo stock for inkjet printers with no success
other than getting torn ribbons as a result of the experiment.  This will
also happen if the Alps' photographic stock is fed into the printer with
the rough side up!  Either can create quite a mess on the platten, and it
is rather tedious to open the cartridges and splice the torn ribbon (which
I have done).  Learn to recognize the sounds your printer makes when
printing normally so you can identify a malfunction. If you hear unusual
sounds indicating ribbons being pulled from the cartridge and dragging
about the platten, assume that IS the case and stop printing by either
pressing the ESC key or by opening the printer cartridge door immediately.
Quick response may avoid ribbon breakage.  If all is OK, printing should
resume when the door is closed.  Pressing ESC, however, will cancel the
printing and it will have to be re-started.  Also, there may be a delay
when using the ESC key to stop printing due to buffering.

As printing begins, the color progress indication circles will light up to
show which color ribbon is being printed.  If the printer is not online,
the color progress indication circles will not light up.  Due to
buffering, the printer may actually lag behind the computer somewhat. A
fourth pass prints a clear overcoat, but this is not indicated on the
screen. When printing is complete, the paper should automatically eject
from the printer.

The bottom margin is slightly greater than the top margin.  If printing is
allowed to get too close to the bottom edge of the paper (bottom from the
printed page's perspective; the paper is actually fed in upside down), it
will fall out of the carriage and not complete further color passes.  I
have therefore kept a sufficient margin at the bottom so this will not
happen, but top and bottom borders will not be equal.  The Alps printer
manual states .6" or 15mm bottom margin and .5" or 12mm top margin, but I
have found that printing that close to the bottom edge results in the
paper being ejected before the clear overcoat is applied.

(This program was written in F-BASIC, a fast, compiled variation on Basic
published by Delphi Noetic Systems, P.O. Box 7722, Rapid City, South
Dakota 57709)

PROGRAM BACKGROUND

When the MD-2300 became available in June 1997, I had already read several
reviews on it in both computer and electronic photography magazines and
had also seen actual samples from Alps. It was quite impressive and I
immediately ordered one for use with my Amiga system.  I was able to find
existing software drivers which worked fine in its normal dry-ink mode, as
it was similar to the Citizen Printiva and also compatible with certain
Epson emulation codes. But the photo mode was completely different and no
Amiga drivers were planned for production by any of the companies I
contacted.  By then the 30 day return period was up, so I had no choice
but to write my own software. Alps documentation included with the printer
was completely lacking information such as control codes.  Contacting the
company was of no help either, as they were not making technical
information available that related to the control codes for photoquality
mode. I explained it would only help sell more of their printers if more
computers (Amiga) were able to use the printer, but I didn't get anywhere
with that logic.

Since Alps' position essentially denied Amiga users access to this printer, I
became even more determined to get it to work on the Amiga, and so decided
to figure out the codes and write my own driver.  After a week or so of
experimenting, I was able to successfully print in photographic quality
mode.  I have used the program for numerous months now, and with a few
enhancements, decided to make it available to other Amiga users who would
like to take advantage of the photographic quality mode of the MD-2300.