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Two Column Printer, Release 5b 4/92 by Jonathan Corey Distribution: FREEWARE - Please include documentation and printer drivers with any copies you give out. Language: GFA BASIC 3.5E New to Release 5: The file README.2CL describes the new features and enhancements in this release. The major ones are sorted paper output for cut sheet printers and new "Auto" and "passed parameter" modes of operation. INTRODUCTION * What does it do? TWO COLUMN PRINTER prints text files (ASCII) in a two column "magazine style" format. This saves paper and makes long listings much easier to refer to. To save even more paper, it has an option that simplifies two sided printing, even on continuous form paper. TWO COLUMN PRINTER works very well with program documentation, source code listings, bulletin board captures, and "online" magazines. It's not designed to do fancy desktop publishing work. * What kind of files does it print? ASCII text files. Basically, these are files that are readable when they are displayed by the Desktop SHOW option. TWO COLUMN PRINTER will warn you if you ask it to print the wrong kind of file. * Will it work with my printer? That's likely. Included with Release 5 are drivers for some EPSON, PANASONIC and HP Deskjet printers. All but the Deskjets are "Epson compatible" and you should be able to get reasonable results using one of them with other Epson compatible printers. It is possible to write a custom driver for almost any printer. Instructions for this are given below. Your printer should be able to print at least 20 characters per inch (CPI) to get the most out of TWO COLUMN PRINTER. Standard printer output is usually at 10 or 12 CPI. So called "compressed" print is 17 CPI. Compressed type works fairly well but being able to go to 20 CPI gives better results with many files. Not all printers can do this. IMPORTANT: Some printers (such as the Panasonic KX-P1091i and KX-P1191) have control panel settings that cannot be changed by software. TWO COLUMN PRINTER will not function properly unless they are set to a programmable mode (the Panasonic KX-P1091i calls this "Std Pgm", the KX- P1191 calls it just "Pgm"). * What resolutions does it run in? I have tried to make TWO COLUMN PRINTER work in all screen resolutions (ST/TT/non-standard) but I do not have the hardware to test all possible displays. Let me know if you find any that do not work. Don't run it in a resolution that displays less than 80 columns of text (e.g. ST low resolution) until you are familiar with it since most of its help screens won't be readable. The two new "auto" modes of operation should be completely resolution independent. * What are its memory requirements? Given a certain minimum amount of memory, almost any sized file can be printed. Just how much memory is this? That depends on when you measure it. If you check free memory the first thing after boot up, you will need to see about 205K. If you check it after running a program, it's about 175K. TWO COLUMN PRINTER will warn you if there isn't enough memory available and will show you the amount needed. The two automated modes need a little less memory than the normal one since they don't load the Resource file. TWO COLUMN PRINTER works a little differently when free memory is tight compared to when its plentiful (relative to the size of the file being printed). These differences mainly affect its speed. * How can I change the default settings in the PRINT dialog? I be uploaded a file to GEnie and Compuserve (2CLRSC.LZH) that contains several versions of 2COLUMNS.RSC, each will have the defaults set somewhat differently (single vs double sided printing, etc.). The file number for this on GEnie is 22488. The definition file for 2COLUMNS.RSC was also included with the main release so if you have access to a copy of RCR2.PRG you can change them yourself. Just don't do anything that would cause a re-sorting of the objects. * Where can I send comments, questions, bug reports, or thousands of dollars? For electronic mail, my GEnie address is JWC-OEO. For the other kind, write to: Self-Styled Software, 321 J Street, Sparks NV 89431. TWO COLUMN PRINTER is free. No payment is requested. INSTRUCTIONS TWO COLUMN PRINTER's normal mode of operation is a simple step-by-step process with several HELP options to aid with decisions. Release 5 has two new automated modes of operation as well. You'll need to be familiar with its normal manual operation before you can use these. See README.2CL for information on the automated modes. You'll find an overview of the program below along with some information not covered in the HELP screens. The final section explains how to create or modify a printer driver. * Configuration files, 2CL-TP mode, AUTO mode See README.2CL * Loading a Printer Driver After you're satisfied with your printer driver you'll probably want to merge it with your copy of 2COLUMNS.PRG. That way, you won't have to load it each time 2COLUMNS.PRG is run. You can merge different drivers later and can always load alternate drivers from disk. When TWO COLUMN PRINTER needs to load a driver from disk it first looks for a file named "2COLUMNS.DAT" in the same folder as the program. It loads this auto- matically if it finds it, otherwise it prompts you for the name of the driver. You'll probably want to use a descriptive name (e.g.EPSON_FX.DAT) for the driver you merge with 2COLUMNS.PRG and save the use of the name "2COLUMNS.DAT" for an alternate driver. There is a short section at the end of this file that gives some more information on merging printer drivers with 2COLUMNS.PRG. * File Preview (plus Tabs & Blank Line Filtering) The File Preview option serves several functions. Besides letting you see the file you will be printing, it lets you strip any embedded left margin in the file, adjust the tab settings, and adjust the blank line filter. TWO COLUMN PRINTER supports true tabs (a tab will cause printing to skip to the next tab stop instead of being expanded into a constant number of spaces). Tab spacing is adjustable here but only regular tab spacing is supported. The blank line filter limits the number of consecutive blank lines in a row that print. It's preset to 2 but can be adjusted here. Setting a value of zero disables the blank line filter. The file display reflects the current tab setting but will not show blank line filtering or left margin shifting. * Format Method Sometimes file lines are too long to fit in a column. TWO COLUMN PRINTER splits off the part that doesn't fit and moves it to the next line in the column when this happens. The "format method" determines exactly where this split occurs, if and how it's marked, and whether this runover can be combined with the next line in the file. A program "HELP" option explains the different format methods and the types of files recommended for each. Split line marking is done in different ways with each of the three different format methods. With the "Source Code" method all split lines end with these three characters; ``> . Continuation lines all begin with; >`` . With the "Text, No Reformat" method, the ends of split lines are not marked unless the splits have to occur in the middle of words; the words get hyphenated in this case. Continuation lines begin with a tilde (~). If splits fall between numbers instead of letters, a vertical bar (|) is used in both places to avoid the possibility of a hyphen being mistaken for a minus sign. The "Text, With Reformat" method works the same way as "No Reformat" except continuation lines are marked only in the "|" case. The different format methods only come into play when file lines are too long to fit a printed column. It is usually best to choose a type size that will allow most, if not all, file lines to be printed without splitting. * Fonts The term "font" here refers to a particular grouping of type face, size, pitch, and sometimes line spacing. You can have up to 6 different fonts in your printer driver. * Column Dimensions TWO COLUMN PRINTER calculates the maximum column WIDTH for each font from information supplied in the printer driver (the entry for the number of characters that will fit on a full line). The maximum column LENGTH comes directly from the printer driver. Printers vary in how close they can print to the top and bottom of a page so maximum column length is not a direct function of line spacing and paper length. The section on printer codes below explains how to figure maximum column lengths for your printer. The values that first appear in the boxes from which you set column dimensions usually will be a little smaller than they could be. With column widths, this is done because using widths a little shorter than the maximum leaves room on the sheet for binding. With column length this a safety factor to help avoid having a column run beyond the bottom of a sheet or having the printer loose its grip on the last sheet. The section on printer drivers shows a method for changing the default column length setting. * Line Spacing Line spacing is not set explicitly. The default spacing is usually 7 lines per inch (LPI); this normally shifts to 6 LPI when a column length of less than 61 lines is chosen. Any line spacing codes included as part of a font's definition will override these settings. Several fonts that come with TWO COLUMN PRINTER use this method to set a spacing of 8 LPI. * BINDING WIDTH TWO COLUMN PRINTER tries to offset the margins to the outside of the sheets to make room for binding. There is room for this only when column widths are set smaller than their maximum size. * Print Options Manual vs. Automatic/normal vs. Automatic/sorted paper feed - MANUAL FEED: There is a pause between pages and you'll be get a chance to skip each page. This lets you go back and fix a page or two that may have gotten messed up the first time around without having to reprint the whole file. Pages always print sequentially even when the Two Sided print option was chosen. You cannot print to a disk file with manual feed. Manual feed does not work in either of the automated modes of operation. AUTOMATIC FEED (Normal): With Two Sided printing, the pages come out odd then even (first 1,3,5 . . . then 1,4,6 . . . ). The only pause comes between sides. Use this with continuous form paper. AUTOMATIC FEED (Sorted): Like "Normal" except the first side comes out in reverse order (...5,3,1 if two sided or ...6,5,4,3,2,1 if single sided). This keeps users of HP DeskJets and other printers that use cut sheets from having to resort them from top to bottom. Print To Disk - This is useful when you want to print several files in a single session or have one very large one to do. Printing to disk creates a file (or files) that can be printed later via the Desktop PRINT option (and also can be printed on different model computers). A print spooler can be used. If the file does not print correctly, it is usually because you used a method that filtered out the control characters. Front and back sides of two sided printouts go into separate files. Be careful not to mix one and two sided printouts in the same output file. ************************************************************* *************** Printer Codes and Drivers *************** ************************************************************* Printer Drivers Supplied with Release 5 New: There have been no changes to the format of the printer drivers with this release but you can now set columns to be up to 125 lines long (old max was 99) and the blank-line-filter can now range from 0 to 9 (0 disables it, old range was 1-9). I have added some "long column" fonts to most of the supplied drivers. Drop me a note if you need a version of TWO COLUMN PRINTER that can do columns that are longer than 125 lines. The limit comes from the "low memory" operation mode which does its formatting 250 lines at a time. TWO COLUMN PRINTER now sends the "initialize printer" sequence at the end of each print job to return the printer to its normal settings. This may cause an extra form feed on some printers but so many people asked for a printer reset that I included it anyway. Several printer drivers are included. If your printer is "Epson compatible" (or you have an HP Deskjet) then one of them should work reasonably well. If not, you'll need to do some editing. See the next section for instructions. All these drivers are set up for printing on 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper. You can make a driver for other sizes if you want. The various "Epson compatible" printer drivers are designed for their "Standard Mode". If your printer's DIP switches are set to the IBM mode, you'll need to modify the codes or change the switches (the Epson mode is recommended since 20 CPI type may not be possible in IBM mode). The Epson-FX codes were developed on a FX-85. They have also been tested on an Epson LX-800 and FX-80 and work quit well (some fonts are not available on the FX-80). The LQ codes were developed on an Epson LQ-1050. Some earlier Epson LQ printers (such as the LQ-1500) cannot do NLQ with type sizes smaller than 12 characters per inch (CPI). Double strike should be used instead of NLQ for "enhanced print" with these printers (necessary codes for this are shown in the remarks section of this driver). Two Panasonic drivers (Epson compatible) are included; one is for the KX-P1091i and the other for the KX-P1191. The main difference between the two is that the latter can do 20 CPI printing. The KX-P1191 driver would likely work well with an Epson FX-86e although I haven't tested this. There are three HP Deskjet drivers: "BASIC" uses the built in Courier font and should work with any Deskjet model; "500" is similar but adds a 6 point and a 12 point Letter Gothic font (standard on the Deskjet 500); "GOTHIC" primarily uses the 9.5 point font found on the Letter Gothic cartridge (this is the one I use). EDITING A PRINTER DRIVER Read the sections on line spacing and column dimensions above if you haven't already done so. Getting Started You'll need your printer manual. Edit one of the supplied drivers. Follow its format exactly. Give your driver a new name and save it as a text file (ASCII format, not in any special word processor mode). It's a good idea to use a descriptive name for the driver if it's to be merged with the program. Use the 2COLUMNS.DAT option for alternative drivers. The codes and the remarks that follow must fit on a single line. Each line can be up to 255 characters long. The number of codes allowed varies with the function. See below. Use 3 digit decimal ASCII values for printer codes. Separate them with a single space and put a comma after the last one. Remarks may follow the comma (the comma is mandatory, the remarks are optional). THERE CANNOT BE ANY OTHER COMMAS IN THE DATA SECTION, including in the remarks themselves. The "-----CODES AND DEFAULTS----" line must be left intact. Example: A printer function that requires the code "Escape A" would be encoded as: 027 065, REMARKS (the ASCII value of Escape is 27, that of A is 65). Again, no commas are allowed in the remarks themselves. If your printer requires ASCII 238, 239, or 240 as code values (unlikely), see the section below on merging printer codes. Printer functions may require a combination of several codes. In the Epson FX driver, the "definition" for type size #2 includes both the codes for both compressed type ( 027 015 ) and for wider margins with this type size ( 027 081 137 ). Line-By-Line Editing Instructions (*) The number in parentheses following each code type below is the maximum number of code groups allowed for it. A code group is one three character ASCII value ( "027 081 137 009" would count as 4 ). These limits only apply to codes that will be merged with the program. Defaults line This line lets you set the maximum number of consecutive blank lines that will print, the spacing of tab stops, and the default column length. This line comes before the "---CODES AND DEFAULTS---" line and begins with a dollar sign instead of an asterisks. All that's needed on this line is: $ MB=x, TS=x, CL=x (where "x" is the value you want). MB is the default Max Blank line setting and can range from 0-9, TS is the Tab Spacing and can range from 2-9, CL is for the default Column Length. Enter the number you want subtracted from the maximum column length for each font; range 0-9. See any of the printer drivers for an example. Paper-Out Sensor (20)* The first two entries in the "CODES AND DEFAULTS" section are: 1) Disable (turn off) the paper-out sensor, and 2) Enable (turn on) the paper-out sensor. If your printer does not allow its paper-out sensor to be turned off, just enter a single blank space followed by a comma (see the drivers for the HP Deskjet). Line Spacing (20) Next enter the codes for a line spacing of 7 lines per inch. You may find that you can only use a value equivalent to slightly more or slightly less than this (7 lines per inch is a spacing of 0.143 inches). In this case choose the next smallest value available. For example, the Epson-FX definition uses 10/72 (0.139) inch spacing. Printer Initialization (35) Certain settings have to be in effect before printing begins. These initial conditions are: A pitch of 10 characters per inch (CPI); Draft print; 6 lines per inch line spacing; and top-of-form reset. These are the standard "power up" settings for most printers. TWO COLUMN PRINTER sends an "initialize" sequence to ensure that these conditions are met. The codes that are needed in this sequence vary somewhat from printer to printer and also depend on how you normally have your printer's DIP switches and control panel buttons set. As a minimum, you should include: "Reset Printer" (also called "Initialize Printer"); 10 CPI printing; and draft mode. Unless you have your printer's DIP switch set at 8 lines per inch you probably don't need to set 6 lines per inch. If you use the Super/Sub script font for one of your type sizes, you also need to add the codes to cancel this font to the "initialize printer" sequence. The Epson FX driver does this. There are some other codes in the "initialize" sequence for the Deskjet, see the note at the bottom of one of the DJ drivers. Skip-Over-Perforations (20) Enter the codes to turn OFF your printer's "skip-over-perforations" function. TWO COLUMN PRINTER handles page breaks itself. Output will be totally messed up if "skip-over-perforations" is not turned off. Fancy Print for the Heading (20) TWO COLUMN PRINTER puts a heading consisting of the name of the file being printed (and optionally the current date) on the first printed page. For this to print properly you'll need to enter the codes for Double Width (expanded/5 CPI) printing here. The heading will not be centered if you don't. Enhanced Print (20) Use either Letter Quality (LQ), Near Letter Quality (NLQ) or double strike printing. Ideally, your "enhance print" codes should work with all the fonts in your driver. Some printers can't do LQ/NLQ with the small type sizes that work best with TWO COLUMN PRINTER. Default Extension Only files with this extension show up in the File Selector the first time you're prompted for a file to print. This entry cannot exceed three characters and must be surrounded by quotes. If you prefer that all files are shown, enter "*" or just "" here (don't forget the comma). Number of Type Sizes/fonts Six is the maximum, there can be fewer. Make sure the number you enter here is not larger than the number of fonts in your driver. Entries for Each Font (35 for font definitions) ****==> Proportionally spaced fonts will not work <==**** Name The name of each font cannot exceed 25 characters. Put whatever descriptive information you like here, surround it by quotation marks. Like all other entries the name MUST be followed by a comma and optional descriptive remarks may follow the comma. Definition (35) This is where you put the codes that actually set the font. You are limited to 35 codes (see above) if you will be merging a driver with the program. Width The entry for the number of characters that will fit on a full line is mandatory. Get this value from your printer manual if possible (sometimes given as the maximum value allowed for the right margin). If you can't find it there then try 160 for 20 CPI, 136 for 17 CPI, 120 for 15 CPI, 96 for 12 CPI, and 80 for 10 CPI. Arithmetically inclined individuals will be able to discern a pattern here. These values are for narrow carriage printers. If you are using a wide carriage model you probably can add a character or two to them. Length (optional) On the next line you may enter a number equal to the maximum column length possible with this font (up to 125). This optional entry is useful if the font's definition includes a line spacing (say 8 lines per inch), if your printer can fit more or cannot reliably get as many lines in a column as the default (72 lines), or if you will be using something other than 11 inch paper. Like all entries, it must be followed by a comma and remarks may follow the comma. Maximum Column Length How do you know exactly how many lines long that columns can be with YOUR printer? This depends on two things. 1) Line spacing, and 2) How close to the top and bottom of the page your printer can print. Included in Release 5 is a test file (LPC_TEST) that can help you determine this. You can set any column length up to 125 with this file no matter what limits are defined in your driver. You must select the "Unequal-Column-Length" print option for the test to work. You also must use the version of LPC_TEST that comes with Release 5. You'll probably find that you can't get quite as many lines on cut sheets as on continuous form paper since your printer will loose its grip near the end of a cut sheet. The last sheet in a two sided printout will be a cut sheet so the smaller value may be the best choice. IMPORTANT: If your printer will not allow its paper-out sensor to be deactivated (like the HP Deskjet and Epson LQ-850/1050 series) then you MUST choose a value one less than the maximum column length indicated by this test. If a new sheet of paper loads after printing LPC_TEST, your columns are too long. If you don't want to do this test, use the following values: For the program standard line spacing of 7 lines per inch; use 72 lines (this is the default). For fonts that use an 8 line per inch spacing; use 82 or 83 lines. MERGING PRINTER CODES WITH 2COLUMNS.PRG Whenever you load a printer driver from disk you'll get a chance to merge it with 2COLUMNS.PRG. 2COLUMNS.PRG loads more quickly after this is done and you can then move your printer driver to your archives. You can always load alternative drivers from disk and merger other drivers later. The copy of 2COLUMN.PRG that you merge codes with must be in its original form. It can't have been "squished" or "packed". It will run OK after having been magically shrunk this way, you just can't merge printer codes with a copy that is not full sized. Printer drivers that use the decimal ASCII values 237, 238, or 240 for codes WILL NOT work properly after they have been merged. I don't think this will be a problem for anyone, but let me know if I'm wrong. I can supply a version that will work with them.