Suzy B Software 2/Suzy B Software CD-ROM 2 (1994).iso/prntutil/jetdrive/read.me

Text File | 1995-04-25 | 11.1 KB | 249 lines

JetDrive 1.40



(c) 1991/93 by Peter Kienle & B'Brox Productions


This program and its support files are free to be copied and used.
Distribution MUST contained all files in this folder. All rights to
the code are with:

Peter Kienle & Monika Herzig
1502 S. Olive Street
Bloomington, IN 47401
[phone]
GEnie:M.HERZIG

Even if we use this program on our own machines extensively,
we cannot be made responsible for any damage resulting from its use!


General Description
===================


When I bought my HP DeskJet 500 I was ready to see some good printing
results. And, in fact, it worked better than expected with all programs
which had something like a DeskJet printer driver. However, my still
favourite all-day wordprocessor WORDPLUS didn't have one of those. Text -
yeah; bold, italics and other attributes - neah; graphics - tell me about
it!



It seemed to be easier (and less expensive) to come up with some sort of
printer driver than to transfer all my WORDPLUS .DOC files into another
format and buy a new wordprocessor.



WORDPLUS is really easy to adapt to different printers because of its
printer driver which uses the PRINTER.CFG configuration file. The DeskJet
manual and some testing finally helped me to print out text with different
attributes such as bold, italics etc. It didn't take me too long, though,
to realize that graphics and the combination of text attributes needed more
than a new PRINTER.CFG.



The problem with the graphics is that dot matrix printers expect their
graphic data in a totally different format than any of the 'Jets'. If you
don't have the EPSON Emulation Cartridge for the DeskJet your printer will
not be able to understand matrix graphics and therefore print a lot of
garbage.



Also, most text attributes are set in a different way on the DeskJet than
on a matrix printer. I couldn't find an easy way to have the printer
driver print combined attributes such as bold+italics.



That's what JetDrive.ACC is here for. It is sitting right there in the
memory of your ST after it has been booted and is waiting. It's waiting
until your ST wants to send something to the printer using the BCONOUT
BIOS function: this data is collected in JetDrive's own buffer. Here
is a chance to catch the graphic data and the attribute stuff and
translate it into DeskJet compatible data. This is done in two steps:


1) Our very own PRINTER.CFG, custom made for JetDrive.ACC, contains 'hooks'
for all the stuff that needs to be translated.


2) JetDrive.ACC intercepts all BIOS printer data and stores them into
its own buffer. As soon as it recognizes a 'hook' it starts translating.



This is why you can't use this PRINTER.CFG with any other printer or other
program than WORDPLUS. There's also no way to make JetDrive.ACC work
together with WORDPLUS without the special PRINTER.CFG.



From JetDrive's buffer the altered printer data is picked up using
an evnt_timer call and sent to the printer, or a disk file.




Installing JetDrive
-------------------



In order to use JetDrive, carry out these two steps:



1) Copy the file JetDrive.ACC into the root directory of your boot disk or
boot partition of your harddrive. (To get at the root directory of a drive
or partition just double click (or OPEN) the respective drive letter from
the desktop. That's it! Usually there will already be an assortment of desk
ACCessories)



Important note about installing:

If you use 'MULTIDESK' or something the like make sure that JetDrive is
kept resident!


2) Copy the file PRINTER.CFG into the same folder or path from where you
usually start WORDPLUS.PRG. WORDPLUS will load any 'valid' printer driver
from the same directory which is named PRINTER.CFG when it starts up.
WORDPLUS will not accept any invalid printer driver (even if the name IS
PRINTER.CFG). If you don't want to lose your old PRINTER.CFG rename it, you
can still load it into WORDPLUS later on if you need it. In order to work
correctly the HP Desk Jet driver must be installed! You know that the
correct driver is installed if the driver installation line in WORDPLUS
just above the character table reads: 'HP DeskJet'.





Working with JetDrive
=====================


If you followed the installation part correctly JetDrive.ACC should be
present the next time after you boot your WORDPLUS workdisk up. Does its
name show up in the first menu slot with your other ACCessories?
Now load WORDPLUS. If PRINTER.CFG was installed correctly you'll see
'HP DeskJet' in the information above the character table.



That's it already. Now you are ready to print and work with WORDPLUS like
you are used to. (not before reading through this manual, though!)





Some notes:
----------


1) In WORDPLUS you can mix any text and graphics in the same line. However,
as soon as you print using a different graphic resolution than 75dpi the
vertical spacing of text within the vertical graphics area is also affected
(The space between two lines of text gets smaller because the linefeed is
not done by the text but by the graphics - and the height of graphic lines
depends on the resolution). This may require some experiments if you plan
to label pictures with regular text or something like this.



2) You should not try to print WORDPLUS documents with a page length of
more that 65 lines. This is no bad behaviour of JetDrive. The DeskJet just
puts a maximum of 65 lines on one regular page (unless you use longer
sheets). If you try to print more than 65 lines there will be a form feed
after 65 lines and the rest will be printed on the next page.



3) Instead of sending data to the printer you can also write it into a disk
file. To do this you have to open the JetDrive box and select PRINT TO DISK.
This will bring up a file selector. Enter the name of the file you intend to
create. If you don't enter a file extension JetDrive will append the
default (.DCP). If you add an extension to the filename this will be used.


4) Graphics can be printed in four different sizes which can even be mixed
in a document, if you want to go through very little extra work.

5) There may be problems when mixing text and graphics in the same vertical
area. Especially if there are some blank lines of data in your image and
text is in this vertical area. Usually if you insert images it will move
the text out of the way (inserting linefeeds).

6) There's still no way yet, to print multiple images side by side. This
results in a sort of venetian blind effect.




Handling of the Acceesory

-------------------------

INTERCEPT

    ON
        This toggles with the OFF button. If selected, JetDrive intercepts
        printer data coming from BIOS BCONOUT.

    OFF
        If this is on, (then ON is OFF...) and JetDrive doesn't intercept
        anything. This should be used when printing with anything else than
        WordPlus.

    BYPASS
        When Intercept is ON usually all printer data is passed on to the
        JetDrive translation subroutine. If the BYPASS button is selected
        the printer data passed on to JetDrive's buffer is NOT altered.
        The only useful purpose for that might be to intercept printer
        data from a program (other than WordPlus) and using JetDrive to
        write it to a disk file. Usually you'll want to keep this button un-
        selected.

SPOOL
    PRINT TO DISK
        Click this button BEFORE you start printing, if you want to send
        your data to a disk file instead to the printer. Enter the filename
        and start printing after EXITing JetDrive. Note that clicking this
        button opens a write file and will keep it open until JetDrive
        receives the printer reset command (which WordPlus sends at the end
        of a document). You'll see an alert box and hear a bell when the
        file is closed. As long as the write file is open this button is
        not selectable. In case anything goes wrong (or you want to abort
        the operation) you can...

    CLOSE FILE
        This button is only available when a file has been opened earlier.

    SUFFIX:DCP
        When printing to disk the fileselector asks you for a filename. If
        you enter a full filename that includes a suffix, the full name
        will be used. However, in case you don't add a suffix JetDrive will
        append the suffix contained in this text field. You can edit this
        default suffix.

GRAPHIC SIZE
    These four buttons control the size of the printed graphics. Note
    that if there are graphics on the same line with text the distance
    of linefeeds will depend on the selected graphics size.

    300dpi 1/4
        Graphics contained in your document are printed in 1/4 of it's
        original size. Linefeeds side by side with such an image will
        also only be 1/4 of their regular height.

    150dpi 1/2
        dito with 1/2

    100dpi 1/3
        dito with 1/3

    75dpi 1/1
        Looks like on a 9pin dot matrix printer and uses lots of ink.
        And linefeeds are 1/1.

    Individual:~
        You can also use individual graphic sizes for each image. If you
        select this button JetDrive will interpret each occurence of the
        character contained in the text field as control character. In
        our case if JetDrive sees the '~' it will read the following
        THREE characters as new graphic size. Note that:
        a)  Neither the '~' nor the THREE characters following it will
            be printed.
        b)  Only use one of these sizes: 300, 150, 100, 075!
        c)  Each '~'-sequence stays in effect until a new resolution is
            requested.
        d)  Example:~150 will set all following graphics to 150dpi.
        e)  This is rather cryptic. If the control character is NOT
            followed by one of the size descriptions you will get wild
            results.
        f)  You can use a different control character. In fact all
            characters available from within Wordplus can be used.

V-Align
    When including graphics in your files you will find that printing
    them in anything else but '75dpi 1/1' resolution, all text/graphics
    following below the image will move closer towards the top of the page.
    This stems from the fact that on lines with graphic data all linefeeds
    are done by the graphic image. And 300dpi linefeeds are just 1/4 of
    regular linefeeds. If V-Align is selected JetDrive tries to compensate
    for this by increasing the numbers of linefeeds. There will still be
    problems with footers and stuff so some experimenting is necessary.

Save Settings
    Once you made changes in the JetDrive box you can save the current
    settings by clicking this button. The status is saved directly into the
    JetDrive.Acc on the boot drive. To omit any problems with that, DO
    NOT REMOVE the JetDrive.Acc from the boot directory  while it's running!

EXIT
    Exits the control box and takes over all buttons settings.

Bloomington, March 6th, 1993