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COPYRIGHT
---------
CANONLBP DRIVER PACKAGE AND ITS MANUAL ARE COPYRIGHT ⌐1992 WOLF
FAUST. ALL RIGHTS ARE RESERVED. THIS DOCUMENT AND THE SOFTWARE
MAY NOT, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, BE COPIED WITHOUT PRIOR CONSENT, IN
WRITING, FROM WOLF fAUST. ONLY THE ENTIRE SOFTWARE CAN BE FREELY
DISTRIBUTED VIA BBSs, NETWORKS, OR FISH DISKS (FRED IS MY HERO TOO
:-). THE PROGRAM MAY NOT BE DISTRIBUTED AS PART OF A COMMERCIAL
PRODUCT OR INCLUDED IN ANY PD COLLECTION THAT IS SOLD/DISTRIBUTED
BY A COMMERCIAL ORGANIZATION.
NOTE: This is a full(!) functional demo version. No further
improvements will be made for this Amiga driver without YOUR
support! So let us know, there are Amiga users out there!
Beam them up, Spocky! (couldn't resist)
Trademarks
----------
Amiga is a registered trademark of Commodore-Amiga, Inc.
PostScript is a trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated.
Registration, Support and Upgrades
----------------------------------
Support and distribution in England is handled by Canon (UK) Ltd.
Support and distribution in Germany is handled by Canon Hotline
Service. Outside England and Germany, you can get the latest copy
of the driver from Wolf Faust (current price: $25 includes
shiping). Neither the author nor any other contributor take any
responsibility for the consequences of its use. The author and
Canon (UK) Ltd. takes the support of its products very seriously.
The author continually improves the software and may from time to
time, make these improvements available in form of software
updates. In case an update becomes available, an update notice
will be sent to all registered users by Wolf Faust.
Canon (UK) Ltd. can be reached through:
Canon (UK) Ltd.
Text & Data Products
Canon House
Manor Road
Wallington
Surrey SM6 0AJ
Tel: ++44-81-773-2156 (GMT)
Canon Hotline Service Germany can be reached through:
Canon Hotline Service
Xantener Stra▀e 15
W-4044 Kaarst
Tel: ++49-2131-960440
Fax: ++49-2131-960490
Wolf Faust can be reached through:
Wolf Faust
Am Dorfgarten 10
W-6000 Frankfurt 50
Germany
Tel: ++49-69-5486556 (GMT)
Fido 2:243/43.5 (Wild Cat: ++49-6173-2544 HST,V.32bis)
UUCP/Internet: cbmehq!venus!wfaust@cbmvax.commodore.com
(note: venus is not at yale.edu! So watch out!)
Note: Other Canon subsidiary may follow. So call your Canon
subsidiary first before writing Wolf Faust.
Thanks to
---------
Several people were involved during the writing of the driver and
documentation. To all of them, thank you! Because of their extra
effort, I would like to personaly mention the following persons:
Kieran Magee from Canon (UK) Ltd.
German Canon Hotline Service
Edith Yearley from the German Canon Software Support
Howard Gazes, Brooklyn NY
Darren Greenwald, Commodore, West Chester, PA
Contents
--------
This disk contains a printer driver for use with the Canon CaPSL
language printers and Commodore Amiga computers.
The following files are included on the disk:
"CanonLBP" - The printer driver revision 1
"FontShop" - A KS 2.0 (or higher) font download program
"CanonPref" - A KS 2.0 (or higher) driver preferences program
"Install" - Workbench install program for the CanonLBP driver
"Report" - A report program telling your preferences/driver settings
"Overlay" - A program for generating overlay pages
"Readme" - The documentation file (and/or printed manual)
Highlights of the CanonLBP driver
---------------------------------
- automatic font download to the printer
- builtin support for the arXon electronic centronic switch box
- very fast graphic dumps
- automaticly uses improved code for 68020/30 processors if available
- supports overlay pages
- paper tray selectable
- fully supports WB 1.3, 2.0 and 2.1(!)
- supports landscape printing
- all margins are definable
- number of copys are selectable
- nearly all Amiga CSI/ESC sequences are supported
- paper size is freely definable
- comes with an extra KS 2.0 preferences program for controlling the driver
- default typeface selectable
- install program supplied
- font download program
- full documentation (should be normal, but it's not!)
System requirements
-------------------
The CanonLBP driver is compatible with the entire family of Amiga
computers. These include the A500, A500+, A1000, A2000, A2500,
A2500/30 and A3000 computers. The driver was designed to run
under WorkBench versions 1.3, 2.0 and 2.1. The CanonPref and
FontShop program was designed to run under WorkBench 2.0 and 2.1.
The Canon LBP driver was designed for all CaPSL III printers.
Most of the functions (graphic and text dump) of the driver will
work on a CaPSL II and I printer. So far, only font download and
landscape printing seems to be a problem with the older printers.
The printer should be equiped with at least 0.5 MB RAM for text
dumps. 1.5 MB RAM for graphic or text dumps with downloaded
fonts. 2.0 MB for graphic dumps combined with font download or
huge page overlays.
In case you use the automatic font download ability of the driver,
your Amiga should be equiped with at least 1MB Ram. A hard disk
for saving the font data is strongly recommended.
Installation
------------
1. Setup and connect your Laser printer (for instance Canon LBP 4)
as described in the Users Manual.
2. Set the printer INITIAL values as follows:
lp = Off
autoCR = Off
autoLF = Off
paint = As Appropriate (most likely you should use the partial mode)
paper = As Appropriate
graphic set = ISO_USA
lines = 6 LPI
columns = auto
3. Set the printer COMMAND values as follows:
command = ISO
message = As Appropriate
4. Set the printer LAYOUT values as follows:
orient. = Portrait
autoNL = ON
autoFF = ON
5. Boot your Amiga with your usual System Disk.
6. Insert the Canon-Driver-Disk and select the appropriate
"Drawer" for the printer.
7. Double Click on the Install program. The Install program
will copy the driver on to the system disk.
If there is not enough free disk space to install the printer
driver a requester will pop up saying so. In this case free up
some disk space on your system disk by deleting unused files.
If you are a CLI user, simply copy the driver into your
"devs:printers" directory.
8. In case you use WorkBench 2.0 (or higher) use the mouse to drag
the FontShop and CanonPref icon into your WorkBench prefs
drawer. In case your WorkBench disk does not allow this because
no space is left on disk, you can simply drag the programs
to any other wanted drawer.
9. Start "Preferences" on your system disk (if you own WorkBench 2.0
use the "Printer" and "PrinterGfx" preference program). Select
the CanonLBP driver and adjust all other preference parameters
to your environment. See your system manual for more information
about the Preferences program. See also "WorkBench Preferences" for
more information about setting preferences.
10. Start the CanonPref program if you are using WorkBench 2.0 (or
higher). Adjust all parameters to your wanted environment.
WorkBench Preferences
---------------------
While the WorkBench preferences program is described in detail in
your system manual, there are three settings wich belong to the
driver documentation:
Density:
The driver supported graphic densities:
Density X-DPI Y-DPI X*Y-DPI
1 300 300 90000
2 75 75 5625
3 100 100 10000
4 150 150 22500
5 300 300 90000
6 300 300 90000
7 300 300 90000
The desired density can be selected in Preferences or in case you
use WorkBench 2.0 "PrinterGfx". Most application programs also
allow you to select the density before doing a graphic dump. This
setting overrides temporarily the preferences density setting.
Paper Size:
Under WorkBench 2 and 2.1 (or later) this driver supports the new
introduced papersizes. For instance, if you select DIN A4 size,
the printer will bring up an error if your printers cassette is
US-Letter. You can avoid forcing a paper size by selecting
CUSTOM. In this case your printers current paper size gets used.
PaperType:
A papertype of SINGLE will eject a sheet with a Form Feed after
every print. Form Feed after a graphic dump is sent according to
the SPECIAL_NOFORMFEED flag. You can use the FANFOLD papertype
setting to force several dumps to appear on the same page. Also,
if you need to run InitPrinter often, you may choose the papertype
FANFOLD to avoid printing empty pages.
Note: if an aRIN (initialize) or an aRIS (reset) command gets
sent, the printer will eject the printed page even if your
PaperType is FANFOLD. Also note, aRIN is automaticly sent after
loading the driver into memory the first time.
The Driver in detail
--------------------
Now that you have installed and adjusted the driver, printer and
preference setting, there are some details you should know when
using the driver.
This driver automatically checks for the processor in use
(68000,68010 or 68020,68030,68040) and optimizes the print
routines accordingly. Because of this, there is no need for a
special .020 version of the driver in order to get the most out of
your turbo amiga.
The driver will bring up messages on the right half of the printer
display for your information:
"JobT" : This means, text data is being transfered to the printer.
"Font<num>": This means, font data is being transfered to the printer.
<num> is the font number (0-10) currently transfered.
"OverPg" : This means, an overlay page is being transfered to the printer.
"JobG" : This means, graphic data is being transfered to the printer.
"Idle" : This means, the print job is finished and the
printer/driver is ready for another job.
Aborting printing may often leave the printer in an unknown
status. This causes erronious printing on the next dump. In case
you abort printing, it is most likely that the printer display is
not showing Idle and data is not transfered. This is because the
printer was left in an unknown status. Please run InitPrinter in
order to bring back the printer in a known status.
Note: printers like the Canon LBP A1 or A2 don't support
displaying text messages. In this case you MUST force the driver
to disable text display commands. For more information see
CANONNODISP var and CanonPref description.
The driver supports the unique Amiga commands shown below:
Name Escape sequence Function Defined By
aRIS ESCc reset ISO
aRIN ESC#1 initialize Amiga
aIND ESCD lf ISO
aNEL ESCE return,lf ISO
aRI ESCM reverse lf ISO
aSGR0 ESC[0m normal char set ISO
aSGR3 ESC[3m italics on ISO
aSGR23 ESC[23m italics off ISO
aSGR4 ESC[4m underline on ISO
aSGR24 ESC[24m underline off ISO
aSGR1 ESC[1m boldface on ISO
aSGR22 ESC[22m boldface off ISO
aSHORP0 ESC[0w normal pitch DEC
aSHORP2 ESC[2w elite on DEC
aSHORP1 ESC[1w elite off DEC
aSHORP4 ESC[4w condensed fine on DEC
aSHORP3 ESC[3w condensed off DEC
aSHORP6 ESC[6w enlarged on DEC
aSHORP5 ESC[5w enlarged off DEC
aDEN6 ESC[6"z shadow print on DEC
aDEN5 ESC[5"z shadow print off DEC
aDEN4 ESC[4"z doublestrike on DEC
aDEN3 ESC[3"z doublestrike off DEC
aDEN2 ESC[2"z NLQ on DEC
aDEN1 ESC[1"z NLQ off DEC
aSUS2 ESC[2v superscript on Amiga
aSUS1 ESC[1v superscript off Amiga
aSUS4 ESC[4v subscript on Amiga
aSUS3 ESC[3v subscript off Amiga
aSUS0 ESC[0v normalize the line Amiga
aPLU ESCL partial line up ISO
aPLD ESCK partial line down ISO
aFNT0 ESC(B Typeface 0 (default): Courier DEC
aFNT1 ESC(R Typeface 1: Line Printer DEC
aFNT2 ESC(K Typeface 2: Pica DEC
aFNT3 ESC(A Typeface 3: Elite DEC
aFNT4 ESC(E Typeface 4: Swiss 721 DEC
aFNT5 ESC(H Typeface 5: Dutch 801 DEC
aFNT6 ESC(Y Typeface 6: Garland DEC
aFNT7 ESC(Z Typeface 7: Humanist 801 DEC
aFNT8 ESC(J Typeface 8: Century 702 Amiga
aFNT9 ESC(6 Typeface 9: Symbol DEC
aFNT10 ESC(C Typeface 10: User Amiga
aPROP2 ESC[2p proportional on Amiga
aPROP1 ESC[1p proportional off Amiga
aPROP0 ESC[0p proportional clear Amiga
aTSS ESC[n E set proportional offset ISO
aVERP0 ESC[0z 1/8" line spacing Amiga
aVERP1 ESC[1z 1/6" line spacing Amiga
aSTBM ESC[Pn1;Pn2r T&B margins DEC
aSLRM ESC[Pn1;Pn2s L&R margin DEC
aCAM ESC#3 Clear margins Amiga
aHTS ESCH Set horiz tab ISO
aVTS ESCJ Set vertical tabs ISO
aTBC3 ESC[3g Clear all h tabs ISO
aTBC4 ESC[4g Clr all v tabs ISO
aTBCALL ESC#4 Clr all h & v tabs Amiga
aTBSALL ESC#5 Set default tabs Amiga
aRAW ESC[Pn"r Next 'Pn' chars are raw Amiga
Aborting printing may often leave the printer in an unknown
status. This may cause erronious printing on the next dump. If
you abort printing, make sure you call InitPrinter before the next
dump. See your WorkBench disks for InitPrinter.
The CanonPref Program
---------------------
Beside all those function mentioned in the chapter "The Driver in
detail", there are some more options unique to the CanonLBP
driver. These option are controlled using commodore standard
environment variables. Those variables can be set by using the
CLI setenv command, or by using the CanonPref preferences program.
CanonPref provides a nice and intuitive user interface and needs
at least WorkBench 2 to run. In case you don't use WorkBench 2
(V37 and above), see the chapter "Environment options". If you
don't use these options, default values will be used. The driver
will read the arguments set by CanonPref on following events:
- The driver gets loaded into memory.
- The first time an aRIN command is sent after opening the
driver. This is automaticly done in most cases you print text
the first time after loading the driver.
- The first time an aRIS command is sent after opening the
driver.
- Before graphic dumps, but only once after opening the device.
You may invoke the InitPrinter program before a dump. Initprinter
(ie. sending aRIN) is the safest way to let the printer driver
know about changes made with CanonPref.
CanonPref can be controled by the mouse and/or keyboard. Each
gadget of the main program corresponds to the underscored letter.
Pressing that letter is equivalent to clicking on the gadget. In
the case of a cycle gadget, you can use the upper or lower case
letter to cycle back and forth between them. See your system
manual on how to control the file- and fontrequester by keyboard
or mouse.
All windows are opened directly under your mouse pointer, so you
don't have to move or scroll the screen to control the program.
Also, all windows are opened on the default public screen. You
may specify a special public screen by setting the Tool Type
"PUBSCREEN=<screenname>" and the FontShop program will open it's
windows on your application programs screen. You can specify a
screen from CLI with the PUBSCREEN option:
CanonPref PUBSCREEN <screenname>
For instance, if you use the ASDG texteditor "CygnusEd" you may
specify "CanonPref PUBSCREEN CygnusEdScreen1" and FontShop will
open up its windows on the CEDPro screen. Make sure the CEDPro
screen is public before running the example.
After starting, the main window will contain several gadgets,
described in detail. All those gadget represent an environment
variable wich can also be controlled using the CLI setenv command.
I strongly recommend using CanonPref.
Orientation: Portrait (default)
Landscape
With this option you can force the printer to print in landscape
or portrait mode. Printing text in landspace mode requires a
printer wich is able to generate landscape fonts. While most
modern LBP printers (for instance LBP 4) automaticly generate a
landscape font out of a portait font, some don't and because of
this require a font cartridge with landscape fonts.
Note: if your application program allows you to print in
landscape mode, don't assume the output will be equal to the
printers landscape mode printing.
Display: On (default)
Off
The driver normaly will bring up messages on the printers panel
display for your knowledge. These are:
"JobT" : This means, text data is being transfered to the printer.
"Font<num>": This means, font data is being transfered to the printer.
<num> is the font number (0-10) currently transfered.
"OverPg" : This means, an overlay page is being transfered to the printer.
"JobG" : This means, graphic data is being transfered to the printer.
"Idle" : This means, the print job is finished and the
printer/driver is ready for another job.
In case you own a printer wich is unable to display text messages
(for instance Canon LBP A1 or Canon LBP A2), you must set this
option to "OFF" to avoid such messages.
End Signal: No Signal (default)
Beep
Flash
Beep&Flash
If the printer device gets closed after a dump, you can tell the
CanonLBP driver to signal you the end of the print job. This is
especialy usefull on huge graphic dumps wich might require some
time. There are two kinds of signals. You can cause a beep
(CTRL-G) on the printer, a Flash (DisplayBeep) on the Amiga or
both.
Note: some application print graphics in stripes. If the
application program closes the printer.device after every stripe,
you will get a signal after each stripe. So far, I havn't found
an application program with such a bad behaviour.
Port: Disabled (default)
Port 1
Port 2
Port 3
The CanonLBP driver supports the arXon parallel switch box. The
arXon switch box is an external 1 to 3 centronics switch
controlable by software. You can ask the CanonLBP driver to
automaticly switch to a wanted port for printing and switch back
to the previously used port after printing. This enables you to
use a scanner, digitizer and printer from your Amiga's centronics
port without switching between the devices "by hand". Specify the
wanted printer port in "sbox_printer" and the default port (wich
should be set up after printing) in "sbox_active". If you specify
0 (default) as the port, no switching will take place.
Note: "sbox_active" MUST be specified before using the driver in
order to enable the "sbox_printer" command. This is because
"sbox_active" is used to determine whether a switch box is
installed or not. Information about the switch box can be
obtained from:
arXon GmbH
Assenheimer Str. 17
D-W-6000 Frankfurt
Germany
Tel: (++49)-69-7896891
Fax: (++49)-69-7896878
Typeface: printer default (default)
Line Printer
Pica
Elite
Courier
Swiss 721
Dutch 801
Garland
Humanist 801
Century 702
Symbol
User defined Typefaces
This cycle gadget specifies the typeface to be selected on aRIS,
aRIN and aFNT0 (i.e. your normal typeface). The selected
typeface gets disabled when you download a default font using the
FontShop program. In this case, the typeface of the downloaded
font gets used. If you select "printer default" as typeface, no
typeface will be selected and the printers current typeface will
be used by the driver.
Paper feed: printer default (default)
Cass/Auto
Manual
Upper Cassette
Lower Cassette
Envelope
The CanonLBP driver allows you to select a special paper feed.
The LBP series printers are available as either single or double
cassette models. With single cassette models only one paper
cassette can be installed in the printer (LBP 4, LBP 8 A1/A2, II,
Mark III). Double cassette models allow two paper cassettes (LBP
8 D, A1/A2, IIT, IIR, Mark IIIT, Mark IIIR). How the paper feed
mode is set depends on the model and not all modes are allowed on
a single cassette model
Single cassette
Printer default = Off (printer setting)
Cass/Auto = Cassette feed
Manual = Manual feed
Double cassette
Printer default = Off (printer setting)
Cass/Auto = Cassette feed
Manual = Manual feed
Upper cassette = Upper cassette feed
Lower cassette = Lower cassette feed
Envelope = Envelope feeder
Custom Res-X: 0-65535 dots (default 0)
If the selected papersize in preferences (WorkBench 2.0:
"Printer") is CUSTOM, this option allows you to specify the
horizontal resolution for graphic dumps. For instance, if you use
WorkBench 1.3, you can specify a X-resolution of 2337 dots, wich
is equal to the DIN A4 size. If you specify 0 (default) as
X-resolution, the US-LETTER resolution of 2407 dots will be used.
The allowed range is 0 to 65535 dots.
Custom Res-Y: 0-65535 dots (default 0)
If the papersize is CUSTOM, this option allows you to specify the
vertical resolution for graphic dumps. For instance, if you use
WorkBench 1.3, you can specify a resolution of 3300 dots, wich is
equal to the DIN A4 size. If you specify 0 (default) as
resolution, the US-LETTER resolution of 3100 dots will be used.
The allowed range is 0 to 65535 dots.
Top Margin: 1 - <page length-1> (default 1)
Specifies the upper top margin of the page in lines, using the
line space set in preferences. If you use a font with a baseline
greater 63 dots, you must use this option in order to print with
the font on the first line of the page. For instance if you use a
font with a baseline of 100, use 2 (printing starts at the second
line) for "CanonTMarg". This makes sure the font fits on the
first line of the defined page. Chars that don't fit simply won't
be printed. Using this option together with the preference
settings for left, right margin and page length, you are totaly
free in defining the margins of a page.
Timeout: 1 - 999 (default 30)
In case huge amounts of data are transfered to the printer,
rendering a picture by the device is much faster than the transfer
of the picture to the printer. If this happens, a requester may
appear on the screen, saying "Check printer cable". The requester
appears because the printer device thinks no data got transfered
because of a hard- or software failure. With CanonTime you can
specify a timeout before the printer device brings up the error
requester. The CanonTime var is especialy usefull when printing
multiple pages or downloading huge fonts using the drivers
automatic font download abilty. A value of 1 to 999 seconds is
allowed. Setting a high timeout value also has it's drawbacks:
in case a real error appears, you also have to wait the given time
before you really can cancel the print job.
Instead of defining a huge timeout, there is another solution
available: use the CMD program (see you workbench disk) to
redirect the parallel/serial output to a file on disk. After
this, use the copy command or a printer spooler to copy the file
to "par:". Using this technique, you can safely specify a small
amount of seconds before a timeout.
Copys 1-99 (default 1)
With this var you can set the number of pages to print. The
number of copies can range from 1 to 99. This option is
especially usefull when printing one page several times. It may
reduce printing time dramaticly. Even if your application program
provides an equal possibility: use this option, because an
application allways must send the data for each page to print.
Font Download: checked (default)
not checked
If you set this option (checkmark on), the printer driver will
automatically download fonts created by you or the FontShop
program. In case you don't need the download feature, you can
disable this feature without deleting or moving the font files.
Cancel:
You may leave the CanonPref program by clicking on the "Cancel"
gadget. Changes made to the settings will not be saved.
Use:
You may leave the CanonPref program by clicking on the "Use"
gadget. Changes made to the settings will be saved to the ENV:
directory. Note: on normal WorkBench 2.0/2.1 environments, all
vars in the ENV: directory are temporary and will be erased the
next time you boot the machine. In case you want to make the
settings permanent, use the "Save" gadget.
Save
You may leave the CanonPref program by clicking on the "Save"
gadget. Changes made to the settings will be saved to the
ENVARC: and ENV: directory for temporary and permanent use.
Environment Options
-------------------
You can set options for the CanonLBP driver by using the "setenv"
CLI command instead of the CanonPref program. This command saves
your option in the "ENV:" directory using a file. See you system
manual for a complete description of the setenv and "getenv"
command. The driver will read in the arguments on following
events:
- The driver gets loaded into memory.
- The first time an aRIN command is sent after opening the driver.
This is automaticly done in most cases where you print text
the first time after loading the driver.
- The first time an aRIS command is sent after opening the driver.
- Before graphic dumps, but only once after opening the device.
Note: reading the options does not always mean they take place
immeaditly. So if you make changes by using "setenv", flush the
driver out of memory or run "Initprinter" in order to let the
driver know about your changes.
Remember that environment vars (they are stored in the "ENV:"
directory) are normaly erased by booting. If you don't want to
set the environment vars every time you boot, you can place them
in "ENVARC:" (WorkBench 2.0/2.1) or assign "ENV:" to a non
volatile disk (KS 1.3). Make sure you use the commodore "setenv"
command to set the environment vars! Under KS 2 (or higher), the
driver supports local and global environment vars! Here is a list
of the possible options and their meaning. As usual, everything
is case insensitve:
SetEnv CANONNODISP ON|OFF (Default: OFF)
In case you own a printer wich is unable to display text messages
(for instance Canon LBP A1 or Canon LBP A2), you must set this
option to "ON" to avoid such messages.
SetEnv CANONCOPY <Num> (Default: 0)
With this var you can set the number of pages to print. <Num> can
range from 0 to 99. A value of 0 is equal to 1.
SetEnv CANONFEED <Num> (Default: 0)
With this var you can set the paper feed mode. <Num> can range
from 0 to 5. The LBP series printers are available as either
single or double cassette models. Single cassette model: only
one paper cassette can be installed in the printer (LBP 8 A1/A2,
II, Mark III). Double cassette model: two paper cassettes can be
installed in the printer (LBP 8 D A1/A2, IIT, IIR, Mark IIIT, Mark
IIIR). How the paper feed mode is set depends on the model:
Single cassette
0 = Off (printer setting)
1 = Cassette feed
2 = Manual feed
Double cassette
0 = Off (printer setting)
1 = Cassette feed
2 = Manual feed
3 = Upper cassette feed
4 = Lower cassette feed
5 = Envelope feeder
If you set "CanonFeed" to "0" (ie. "OFF"), you must setup the
right feed mode at the printer or you will likely get the printer
error message, "11 Tray Paper". Note: the paper feed command
gets sent by the driver before graphic dumps and on aRIS/aRIN.
Very fiew application programs do not use these commands at the
first dump after booting the amiga, in this case you MUST use the
"Initprinter" program to do so by yourself. A program wich does
not send these commands is very unfriendly and should be reported
to the manufactor.
SetEnv CanonOrient PORT|LAND (default: PORT)
The CanonLBP driver allows you to print text and graphics in
landscape and or portait modes. You can use this option to enable
landscape printing after the next aRIN or aRIS command sent to the
printer. Note: if your application program does not use aRIN
once, you most likely have to run "Initprinter" (see your
WorkBench Disk for the "InitPrinter" program) for getting the
desired orientation. This is especialy true for graphic printing
programs (for instance DPaint) which often fail to do a aRIN
before dumping a graphic.
SetEnv CANONBEEP 0|1|2|3 (Default: 0)
If the printer device gets closed after a dump, you can tell the
CanonLBP driver to signal you the end of the print job. This is
especialy usefull on huge graphic dumps wich might require some
time. There are two kinds of signals. You can cause a beep
(CTRL-G) on the printer, a DisplayBeep on the Amiga or both.
0 = No Action (default)
1 = Printer beep (CTRL-G)
2 = DisplayBeep
3 = Printer beep + DisplayBeep
Note: some application print graphics striped. If the
application program closes the printer.device after every stripe,
you will get a signal for each stripe. So far, I havn't found an
application program with such bad behaviour.
SetEnv CanonResX <num> (Default: 0 dots)
If the papersize is CUSTOM, this option allows you to specify the
horizontal resolution for graphic dumps. For instance, if you use
WorkBench 1.3, you can specify a resolution of 2337 dots, wich is
equal to the DIN A4 size. If you specify 0 (default) as
resolution, the US-LETTER resolution of 2407 dots will be used.
The allowed range for <num> is 0 to 65535 dots.
SetEnv CanonResY <num> (Default: 0 dots)
If the papersize is CUSTOM, this option allows you to specify the
vertical resolution for graphic dumps. For instance, if you use
WorkBench 1.3, you can specify a resolution of 3300 dots, wich is
equal to the DIN A4 size. If you specify 0 (default) as
resolution, the US-LETTER resolution of 3100 dots will be used.
The allowed range for <num> is 0 to 65535 dots.
SetEnv CanonTime <num> (Default: 0 seconds)
In case huge amounts of data are transfered to the printer,
rendering a picture by the device is much faster than the transfer
of the picture to the printer. A requester may appear on the
screen, saying "Check printer cable". The requester appears
because the printer device thinks no data got transfered because
of a hard- or software failure. With "CanonTime" you can specify
a timeout until the printer device brings up the error requester.
The "CanonTime" var is especialy usefull when printing multiple
pages or downloading huge fonts, using the drivers automatic font
download abilty. If you specify 0 (default) as timeout, a timeout
of 30 seconds will be used. A value from 1 to 999 seconds is
allowed. Instead of defining a huge timeout, there is another
solution available: use the "CMD" program (see you WorkBench
disk) to redirect the parallel/serial output to a file on disk.
After this, use the copy command or a printer spooler to copy the
file to "par:". Using this technique, you can safely specify a
small number of seconds before a timeout.
SetEnv CanonTMarg <num> (Default: 1)
Specifies the upper top margin of the page in lines using the line
space set in preferences. If you use a font with a baseline
greater than 63 dots, you must use this option in order to print
with the font on the first line of the page. For instance if you
use a font with a baseline of 100, use 2 (printing starts at the
second line) for "CanonTMarg". This make sure the font fits on
the first line of the defined page. Chars that don't fit simply
won't be printed.
WARNING: Don't forget this option when using huge fonts!
SetEnv CanonType <num> (Default: 0)
Specifies the typeface to be selected on aRIS, aRIN and aFNT0.
The "CanonType" var is disabled when you download a default font
using the FontShop program. If you specify 0 (default) as
typeface, no typeface will be selected and the printers current
typeface will be used. Because a typeface of 0 is used by the
line printer font, you must subtract one from "CanonType" to get
the final printer typeface number recognized by the printer. A
value from 0 to 65535 is allowed. At the time of this writing,
the typefaces in table below are supported. For FontShop's USER
typeface use 201.
CanonType Meaning
0 printer default typeface
1 Line Printer
2 Pica
3 Elite
4 Courier
5 Swiss 721
6 Dutch 801
17 Garland
18 Humanist 801
24 Century 702
138 Symbol
201-256 User defined Typefaces
SetEnv CanonFont ON!OFF (Default: ON)
Using this switch, you can enable or disable font download without
actually deleting the download fonts in your ENV: and/or ENVARC:
directory. Set this var to "OFF" if you don't want any fonts to
be downloaded.
SetEnv CanonFont0 <generic> (Default: not used)
If you generate fonts with the FontShop program for automatic font
download, the fonts will be saved in the ENV: and, if "Prefs
(save)" was selected, ENVARC: directory. The names of the fonts
will be named according to the Printer Font setting in the
FontShop program. "CanonFont0" is the filename for the default
font "CanonFont1" is the filename for font 1 and so on.
Instead of font download, you can use the "CanonFont<n>" vars to
customize the printer driver. Because it's not required to save a
font file as a "CanonFont<n>" var, you may save text or any other
CaPSL command. "CanonFont0" is somehow special. as opposed to
the other "CanonFont<n>" vars, the text will be printed with the
preference selected attributes. During aRIN or aRIS fonts are
downloaded in following way:
1. Initialise initial values.
2. Download "CanonOverPage".
3. Download "CanonFont(10-1)".
4. Select the font specified by preferences.
5. Download and select "CanonFont0" if font was downloaded.
For instance, you can create an overlay page and save it as
"ENV:CanonFont0". The overlay page will be download on every
"aRIN" and "aRIS" command. Using an overlay page through any of
the "ENV:CanonFont<n>" vars is possible, but different to the
normal "CanonOverPage" var, it won't be download for graphics.
Also, you can join (see your "c:" directory for join) font files
and/or overlay pages with each other. As an example for using
"CanonFont0" enter in CLI:
setenv CanonFont0 "aRIN or aRIS was executed!"
This command will cause the sentence to be printed on every aRIN
or aRIS command. Also, the data downloaded through the
"CanonFont0" is raw, ie. you must send CaPSL commands not Amiga
CSI/ESC sequences. You can use the CMD program (see your
WorkBench disk for the CMD program) to translate Amiga sequences
to CaPSL commands.
Note: before printing text the first time after loading the
driver, a aRIN command is automicly sent. This automaticly makes
sure everthing is set up right and you don't need to start
"InitPrinter" to do so.
SetEnv CanonOver ON|OFF (Default: ON)
Using this switch, you can enable or disable overlay page download
without actually deleting the overlay page in your ENV: and/or
ENVARC: directory. Set this var to "OFF" if you don't want any
overlay page to be downloaded.
SetEnv CanonOverPage <generic> (Default: not used)
You can save an overlay page as "CanonOverPage". For more
information about creating overlay pages see chapter "Overlay
Pages".
SetEnv sbox_printer <0|1|2|3> (Default: 0)
The CanonLBP driver supports the arXon parallel switch box. The
arXon switch box is an external 1 to 3 centronics switch
controlable by software. You can ask the CanonLBP driver to
automaticly switch to a wanted port for printing and switch back
to the previously used port after printing. This enables you to
use a scanner, digitizer and printer from your Amigas centronics
port without switching between the devices "by hand". Specify the
wanted printer port in "sbox_printer" and the default port (wich
should be set up after printing) in "sbox_active". If you specify
0 (default) as the port, no switching will take place.
Note: "sbox_active" MUST be specified before using the driver in
order to enable the "sbox_printer" command. This is because
"sbox_active" is used to determine weather a switch box is
installed or not.
LBP-FontShop
------------
The FontShop program allows you to generate and download fonts
from your Amiga to the LBP printer. As a font source it uses
standard Amiga fonts. In case you use a font with a high
resolution (ie. size) you can get the best print quality out of
your printer using an unlimited pool of fonts.
FontShop provides a nice and intuitive user interface and needs at
least WorkBench 2 to run. In case you don't use WorkBench 2 (V37
and above), you may generate download font files on a WorkBench
2.0/2.1 machine and copy them.
FontShop can be controled by mouse and/or keyboard. Each gadget
of the main program corresponds to the underscored letter.
Pressing that letter is equal to clicking on the gadget. In the
case of a cycle gadget you can use the upper and lower case letter
to cycle back and forth. See your system manual on how to control
the file- and fontrequester by keyboard or mouse.
Each window is opened directly under your mouse pointer. So you
don't have to move or scroll the screen to control the program.
Also, all windows are opened on the default public screen. You
may specify a special public screen by setting the Tool Type
"PUBSCREEN=<screenname>" and the FontShop program will open it's
windows on your application programs screen. You can specify a
screen from CLI with the "PUBSCREEN" option:
FontShop PUBSCREEN <screenname>
For instance, if you use the ASDG texteditor "CygnusEd" you may
specify "CanonPref PUBSCREEN CygnusEdScreen1" and FontShop will
open up its windows on the CEDPro screen. Make sure the CEDPro
screen is public before running the example.
Handling FontShop normaly doesn't require any complex settings.
Simply select the font and download it. Here a first quick start:
With "Select a font..." you can invoke the system font requester
and choose a font with it's styles and attributes for download.
After selecting the font you get back to the main window with OK.
Now you save the font as download font by clicking on the Download
gadget. There are several things you can alter in the main
window. These are, in most cases, only for experienced users and
will be discussed in the following list of possibilities:
Fonts:
This is a readonly field and shows you the currently selected
font.
CPI:
This is a readonly field and shows you the characters per inch of
the selected font. The cpi number depends on your selected font,
font width, InterSpace and font mode (Proportional or Mono Spaced
characters. Please note: the calculated number in proportional
mode is based on the width of the space character.
Select a font...
This gadget will bring up the systems font requester. Select a
wanted font, size, style and type for download. The printer can
fully understand all fonts with up to 4200 dots height and width.
Though, most fonts are not designed for such huge sizes nor can
the amiga system handle them. At the time of this writing there
is no given maximum font size from the Amiga system software, but
you shouldn't select sizes higher 127 or (for some fonts) 255
dots. In case you select a font with a baseline higher than 63
dots, you must increase the top margin in order to print text with
the font on the first line of a page (the font simply won't fit!).
You should enable the "Adjust Line Spacing" option for huge fonts
sizes or the font will trash any previously printed text because
of its size.
There are several commercial and public domain font collections
available, offering you a large base of fonts. Also, you may use
Intellifonts (CompuGraphic) from Agfa-Gevaert AG if you have
installed the right diskfont library (see your WorkBench 2 manual
for more information). For using PostScript or MetaFont fonts,
you must render them first at the wanted size. Also, if you want
to make your own download chars or alter existing chars, there are
several nice and easy to use font editors available on the amiga.
Ask your dealer about them! Such font editors enable you to use
your personal fonts with signs and all that stuff...
-->To
This is a cycle gadget. If "Prefs (Use)" is selected, the font
gets downloaded directly to ENV: directory. The printer driver
will download the saved font the next time you send an aRIN or
aRIS command. If you want save the font permanently instead of
temporary, use "Prefs (Save)". This will save the font in the non
volatile ENVARC: directory. You may also download the font
directly to the printer by selecting "Printer". This is specialy
usefull if your amiga is low on memory. Also, you can create
download font files by selecting "File". Such font files can be
quickly downloaded from your application program or batch file in
huge quantities. If "File" is selected and the download gets
started, a file requester will ask you for a filename. Note: the
font files must be copied to "par:" not "prt:"!
Download
After clicking on this gadget, the download gets started. Please
be patient, the download may take some time. During download, all
gadgets are ghosted.
Quit
Clicking on this gadget (or the CloseWindow gadget) quits the
program.
Printer Font
This is a cycle gadget. You may download up to 11 fonts at the
same time to your printer. The only existing limitation might be
your printers download RAM. Each font has it's own ID and may be
selected by using the amiga standard escape sequence aFNT0-10.
If you generate fonts with FontShop program for automatic font
download, the fonts will be saved in the ENV: and, if "Prefs
(save)" was selected, ENVARC: directory. The names of the font
files will be named according to the above listed environment
names.
"CanonFont0" is somehow special. Instead of a font download, you
can use the var to customize the printer driver. See "Environment
Options" for more information. All font downloads are done during
an aRIN or aRIS command. The aRIN or aRIS command can be divided
in four seperate steps:
1. Initialise initial values.
2. Download "CanonOverPage".
3. Download "CanonFont(10-1)".
4. Select the font specified by preferences.
5. Download and select "CanonFont0" if available.
So if you download fonts with ID's in the range from 10 to 1, they
may get selected in step 3 because they best fit the requested
font attribute. The font with ID 0 will always be selected after
aRIN or aRIS until you request an font attribute were an other
font is better suited.
Memory
FontShop downloads all country specific ISO character sets with
all its characters. For high font sizes this requires huge
amounts of printer RAM. For this purpose you can set the Memory
gadget to "Economy". This will force the FontShop program to
download only those chars of a character set, wich are really
needed by the driver and not the full character set. You can save
a lot of printer RAM because of this. The memory gadget doesn't
have any effect on the time needed for downloading a character
set.
Space Mode
This is a cycle gadget. You may download a font to the printer in
a fixed width (Mono Space) given in the "Char Width" gadget. Or
download the font with proportional spaced chars (or kerned mono
spaced fonts). You may define a special space (InterSpace)
between two proportional/kerned chars giving you a lighter font
impression. Note, the given mode reflects the downloaded font
mode, not the Amiga font mode. You may download a mono spaced
Amiga font as proportional printer font (ie. kerning is used).
Even if the downloaded font is mono spaced, the printer regards
the font as a proportional spaced font (even though it isn't).
After selecting a new font with "Select a font..." this gadget is
altered to the mode of the new selected font.
Adjust Line Spacing
With this checkmark gadget you can specify, whether the line
spacing will be adjusted to the font size or not. With the
preference given line spacing of 1/8" or 1/6" you run into
problems when printing with huge or very small fonts. For
instance a 100 dots high font with 1/8" line spacing will
overprint the contents of the previous line. If you checkmark
this gadget, the line space will be adjusted to the font size
whenever you select the downloaded font.
Char Width
This integer gadget can only be activated, if "Mono Space" mode is
active. With this gadget you may define the width of all
characters in dots. After selecting a new font, the value of the
gadget will be set to the default width of the selected font. In
case you selected a proportional font, the gadget reflects the
width of the widest character of that proportional font.
InterSpace
This integer gadget can only be activated, if "Proportional" mode
is active. With this gadget you may define a microspace between
downloaded proportional spaced characters.
Baseline
With this integer gadget you specify the number of dots between
the baseline and the top boarder. After selecting a new font, the
Baseline will automatically be set to the system baseline of that
font.
Overlay Pages
-------------
The driver supports the use of overlay pages. Fixed forms such as
invoices are a frequently used example. It is recommended that
such forms be registered in the printer instead of preparing the
data for individual pages. The desired forms can be specified
when needed. The form is then overlaid on the pages. This
function is called Overlay Printing.
Use of overlay printing eliminates the necessity of transferring
print data such as box lines for tables and shading patterns for
the individual pages. This reduces the quantity of print data,
and improves the efficiency of processing. Also, more complex
data can easily be prepared.
An overlay page can be created with nearly every Amiga
application. Here is an example on how to create an overlay page:
1. It's not necessary to disable the printer display messages, but it's
recommended for creating an overlay page. Whether you disable the
the display function or not, the "OverPg" message will not be
displayed.
2. Start your application program intended for creating the overlay page.
3. Run InitPrinter. This loads the driver into memory and causes
an aRIN to be sent.
4. Use the CMD program to redirect the printer output to a file.
5. Now print your overlay page. Because of CMD the program will
print to a file instead to the printer. You MUST print the page
without a Form Feed, aRIN or aRIS command. In most cases aRIN and
aRIS can be avoided by starting InitPrinter before printing from
the application program (see item above). Form Feed can be
controled from most applications (for instance PPage or DPaint IV)
or from preferences by choosing the FANFOLD papertype.
6. Now start the supplied Overlay program. Overlay needs as
argument path and name of the file generated by CMD. Overlay will
save the final overlay page as "ENV:CanonOverPage". Next time an
aRIN or aRIS command is sent, the overlay page will be
downloaded and used.
You can disable the overlay page printing by setting
"ENV:CanonOver" to "OFF" or deleting "ENV:CanonOverPage" and
sending another aRIN or aRIS command.
The sizes of the overlay page paper and the paper used for
printing must be the same. Overlay printing is not performed if
the sizes are different.
Tips
----
Using the downloaded fonts from application programs is not
allways as easy as it seems. For instance you download a font as
the default font and expect that the application program will use
this font but it doesn't. This is most likely caused by the
application program asking for a different font attribute after
initializing the printer (using aRIN or aRIS). This is because a
charcter set is selected by character attribute. The priority
sequence is as follows:
1. Font orientation (FontShop allways download in portrait mode)
2. Graphic set (the driver allways uses ISO_USA as default)
3. Character pitch (for mono spaced fonts)
4. Character size (for proportional spaced fonts)
5. Character style
6. Strokeweight
7. Typeface
Lets study this with an example: Assume you use ProWrite V3.2.2
as a word processor with a Canon LBP 4 printer. After typing some
text in lettergothic (plain, size 15) you want ProWrite to print
normal text (NLQ output) with the printer using a downloaded
lettergothic font. Now assume ProWrite prints the text with an
12cpi, mono spaced portrait font. Because the normal LBP 4
printer doesn't have a 12 cpi font nor scaleable mono spaced
fonts, the text will be printed in an 15 cpi mono spaced font.
Now download a LetterGothic mono spaced, plain, 12 cpi font as
Font 1. Next time you print, the Canon LBP driver will download
the font and the printer will select that font because it fits the
wanted attributes most.
You can delete all settings made with CanonPref and FontShop by
entering "delete env:canon\#?" in CLI.
Trouble Shooting
----------------
1. In case you run some of the special futures of the driver,
note, not all changes to the environment option take affect
immediately. This occasion is very rare and during testing the
driver it never happened. But I assume there are some badly
written programs that may run into problems. Anyway, it's
definitly not a fault of the driver, but here is a workarround
that might help: Start Initprinter or flush the driver out of
memory (WShell users may use "Flush"; Commodore users may use the
"Stack 40000000" command in order to do this) causing a aRIN or
aRIS command to be sent to the printer driver. CanonPref and
FontShop automatically flush the driver out of memory in case the
driver is not used by any other program. So use the CanonPref and
FontShop program if the printer.device is closed and you won't
experience any problems with changing options.
2. Data should be sent to the printer only via parallel.device /
serial.device (par:/ser:) or printer.device (prt:) and not both
together as this may confuse the printer.
3. In case your printer prints "1yJobG", "1yJobT", "1yIdle",
"1yOverPg" or "Font <n>", you must disable the Display option of
the driver because you printer does not support the display
comment command needed by the driver.
4. Out of memory? There are some things that may help you out of
this trouble:
- In case your printer is not equiped with much memory and you
download fonts, use FontShops "Economy" mode.
- In case your printer yells "No Memory", check your printers
paint mode!
- If the Amiga runs out of memory, then check your ENV:
directory. If ENV: is assigned to ram: and contains huge font
files, move ENV: to a non volatile disk. FontShops font files may
be huge and because of this, require much memory.
- In case your Amiga runs out of memory, the drivers special
features will be disabled! In this case free some memory by
quiting unneeded applications. Also flush the driver out of
memory (WShell users may use "Flush"; Commodore shell users may
use the "Stack 40000000" command in order to do this). After this
retry printing.
5. In case you found a problem with the driver, please send a description
wich makes it possible to reproduce the problem. For this purpose,
you should provide following information:
- The disk contains a Report program. Allways include the
output of this program.
- Which application program are you using and which version.
- Which WorkBench revision are you using?
- Include a dump of the program as file (use the CMD program from the
WorkBench disk for this) and in printed form.
- In case of problems with the FontShop program, also include
the font.
6. In case you get the message "11 Tray Paper" from your printer, check
the "CanonFeed" setting.