Fresh Fish 1

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ Fresh Fish 1 / FFMCD01.bin / bbs / libdisks / d600t699 / disk628.lha / APrf / APrfEnglish.doc < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1992-03-22 | 31.2 KB | 922 lines

APrf v5.00 - User's Guide This file describes release 5.00 of the utility APrf. This program is public domain, and permission is granted to freely distribute and copy it, provided no charge or fee is ask for, and no modification is done to this package. APrf is copyright (c)1989-1990-1991-1992 by Denis GOUNELLE, any commercial usage or selling of this program, without written permission, is ABSOLUTLY FORBIDEN. By mutual agreement, Serge HAMMOUCHE is authorized to distribute APrf as he likes. "PowerPacker 2.3b" is (c)1989 by PowerPeak and Nico FRANCOIS. "PowerPacker Pro 3.0b" is (c)1990 by PowerPeak and UGA SoftWare. The "powerpacker.library" library is (c)1990 by Nico FRANCOIS. AREXX is (c)1987 by William Hawes. No warranty is made that there's no errors in APrf. YOU USE THIS PROGRAM AT YOUR OWN RISKS. In no event will I be liable for any damage, direct or indirect, resulting of the use of APrf. Table of contents: ------------------ 1. Introduction. 2. User's guide 2.1 Running APrf from the CLI. 2.2 Running APrf from WorkBench. 2.3 Getting started. 2.4 Gadgets. 2.5 Menus. 2.6 Header and footer. 2.7 The preview function. 2.8 Modifying page selection. 3. Advanced concepts. 3.1 Using "powerpacker.library". 3.2 The "eXpress" mode. 3.3 The AREXX mode. 3.4 The "APrf.Init" file. 4. Memory management 4.1 The file to print. 4.2 The output buffer. 4.3 Memory requirements. 5. Miscellaneous. 1. Introduction. ---------------- APrf is a text file printing utility, developped for the Amiga. This program allows to add an header or a footer in a page, to set up margins, to have a multi-columns output, etc... and uses your Preferences settings. It also have an AREXX-compatible message port, and can load files compressed with "PowerPacker 2.3b" or "PowerPacker Pro 3.0b". You can send me your suggestions and criticism writing to: M. GOUNELLE Denis Boite 71 6, rue des cailloux 92110 CLICHY - FRANCE Many thanks to Jean-Yves PROUX, Michel SCHINZ, Serge HAMMOUCHE, Pierre VITET, and Jean ROUGELIN for tests and ideas. 2. User's guide. ---------------- APrf can be run from Workbench or from the CLI. If you run APrf from the CLI, I suggest to launch it with a "RunBackGround" or "ARun" command to detach it from CLI. To my mind, the best thing to do it is to define an alias in your "S:Shell-Startup" file, like this: Alias APrf C:RunBackGround SYS:Utilities/APrf [] 2.1 Running APrf from the CLI. ------------------------------ From the CLI, APrf is invoked using some arguments to modify the default options. The command line is of the form: APrf [filename][-c#][-f#][-l#][-n#][-oF][-p#][-r#][-s#][-t#] [-x#][-A][-Cseq][-D#][-F{L|C|R}fmt][-H{L|C|R}fmt][-N#] [-Oopts][-P{p|e|f}][-Spages][-X] If you specify the filename argument, the corresponding file will be taken as the file to print. Here's a description of the other arguments: -c# (Columns number) Prints file in # columns. Default value: # = 1 Minimal value: # = 1. Maximal value: # = 999. -f# (page Format) Selects page format. # can be one of: 0 : nothing 1 : header 2 : footer 3 : both header and footer Default value: # = 1. See section 2.6 for more information. -l# (Left margin) Sets a left margin of # characters. Note that the margins set up in Preferences is ALWAYS used. Default value: # = 0 Minimal value: # = 0. Maximal value: # = 999. -n# (line Numbering) Numbers lines with # digits numbers. Default value: # = 0 (no line numbers). Minimal value: # = 0. Maximal value: # = 10. -oF (Output) Printing will be re-directed to file F. -p# (Page length) Sets page length to # lines. Default value: "Paper length" set up in Preferences. Minimal value: # = 5. Maximal value: # = 999. -r# (Right margin) Sets a right margin of # characters. Note that the margins set up in Preferences is ALWAYS used. Default value: # = 0 Minimal value: # = 0. Maximal value: # = 999. -s# (column Spaging) Columns are separated by # spaces. Default value: # = 1 Minimal value: # = 1. Maximal value: # = 999. -t# (Tabulation) Sets tabulation stop positions to #+1, 2#+1, 3#+1, etc.. Default value: # = 8. Minimal value: # = 1. Maximal value: # = 999. -x# (copies) Prints # copies of the file. Default value: # = 1 Minimal value: # = 1. Maximal value: # = 999. -A (Arexx mode) Sets AREXX mode (see section 3.3 for more information). -Cseq (Control sequence) Selects the control sequence "seq" (see section 3.4 for more information). -D# (Date format) Sets date format in header. # can be one of: 0 : AmigaDOS format (dd-mmm-yy) 1 : International format (yy-mm-dd) 2 : American format (mm-dd-yy) 3 : European format (dd-mm-yy) Default value: # = 0. See section 2.6 for more information. -F{L|C|R}fmt (Footer format) Specifies page footer format. See section 2.6 for more information. -H{L|C|R}fmt (Header format) Specifies page header format. See section 2.6 for more information. -N# (page Numbers) Sets first page number to #. Default value: # = 1. Minimal value: # = 1. Maximal value: # = 899. -Oopts (Options) Allows you to modify several options. opts can be any combination of : l letter quality d draft quality 8 8 LPI spacing 6 6 LPI spacing F fanfold paper S single sheet paper t truncate too long lines f control characters filter a ANSI sequences filter k output buffer size of 1 Kbytes s don't send "Form Feed" u underline header See the description of "Options" menu, at section 2.5, for further informations. -P{p|e|f} (print Pitch) Selects print pitch : -Pp for "pica" pitch -Pe for "elite" pitch -Pf for "fine" pitch Default value : "Pitch" set up in Preferences. -Spages (Selection) Selects the pages to print. pages can be one of : x : only page x x-y : from page x to y x,y,z,... : pages x,y,z,... (up to 16 pages) You can also use the two last forms together, as in "-S1,3,5-8". CAUTION: the page numbers that you specify for page selection must depend of the first page number (see -N option) -X (eXpress) Sets "eXpress" mode (see section 3.2 for further information). If you make an error in your command line, a window will appear on the Workbench screen, with the message "Bad arguments". Click into the window (or press any key) to make it disappear, and correct your command line. Then, run APrf once more. The "Tools" menu has a command that gives the command line corresponding to the current option settings (see section 2.5 for further information). 2.2 Running APrf from Workbench. -------------------------------- There's three ways to run APrf from Workbench, if you want to specify the files that hare to be printed: - by double-clicking on a "Project" icon whose "Default tool" is APrf - by clicking on one or more file icons, holding down the SHIFT key, and double-clicking on APrf icon - by clicking on APrf icon (and if required on some file icons), holding down the SHIFT key, and double-clicking on a file icon In any case, the selected files are transmitted to APrf. The program will display the first filename in the "File to print" gadget (see section 2.4). The "Next file" command in the "Project" menu allows you to skip to the next file (see section 2.5), and the "Default options" command in the "Tools" menu allows to go back to the first file in the files list (see section 2.5). As when you run APrf from the CLI, you can give some arguments to modify default options. To do this, click on a file icon and select "Info" in the "Workbench" menu (on Workbench screen). Then click on the "ADD" gadget in the "TOOL TYPES" field, and add the arguments according to the following syntax: APRF=[-c#][-f#][-l#][-n#][-oF][-p#][-r#][-s#][-t#][-x#] [-Cseq][-D#][-F{L|C|R}fmt][-H{L|C|R}fmt][-N#] [-Oopts][-P{p|e|f}][-Spages] These arguments are described in section 2.1. Please notice that -A (AREXX mode) and -X (eXpress mode) options can't be specified. 2.3 Getting started. -------------------- If all goes well, a new screen will be opened, and you'll see several gadgets. Otherwise, a window will appear on Workbench screen with a message telling you what a problem occurred. Click into the window (or press any key) to make it disappear, APrf stops and returns a value of 10 (ERROR, see "If" command of AmigaDOS). APrf can return a value of 10 without displaying any message, in only four situations: a) APrf couldn't open "intuition.library" b) APrf couldn't open "graphics.library" c) APrf couldn't open the error window d) APrf couldn't open the Workbench screen However, I don't think these things will occur very often... Now, I will suppose that APrf is running well. The two following sections are going describe the gadgets and menus of APrf. If you are using APrf for the first time I suggest to run the program, in order to understand these explanations. 2.4 Gadgets. ------------ This section describes all the gadgets displayed on the screen, from the left top corner to the right bottom one: File to print: This gadget shows the name of the file to print. To modify its value just click on it: a file requester will appear. If you click on the CANCEL gadget of this requester, or on the OK gadget without giving a file name, the previous name won't be modified. A '*' character will appear on the right of the file name, when the file is loaded in memory (see section 4.1). Output file: This gadget shows where a file will be printed. Default value is "PRT:", but can be changed with -o option (see section 2.1). To modify its value just click on it: a file requester will appear. If you click on the CANCEL gadget of this requester the output file will become "PRT:". Page selection: This gadget shows which pages will be printed. Default value is "*" (all the pages), but can be changed with -S option (see section 2.1). Please refert to section 2.8 to see how to modify the selection. The nine next gadgets allow to specify respectively: the left margin size, the right margin size, the tabulation size, the number of lines per page, the first page number, the line numbers size, the number of columns, the column spacing, and the number of copies that have to be printed. Each gadget shows the current value of its corresponding parameter. To increase its value click on the plus sign, and to decrease it click on the minus sign. If a value doesn't change, you have reached the lower or the higher limit ! As long as you keep the left mouse button down, the value will be increased or decreased. Left margin: (see -l option in section 2.1) Default value: 0 Lowest value : 0 Highest value: 999 Right margin: (see -r option in section 2.1) Default value: 0 Lowest value : 0 Highest value: 999 Tabulation: (see -t option in section 2.1) Default value: 8 Lowest value : 1 Highest value: 999 Page length: (see -p option in section 2.1) Default value: "Paper length" set up in Preferences Lowest value : 5 Highest value: 999 First page number : (see -N option in section 2.1) Default value: 1 Lowest value : 1 Highest value: 899 NOTE : page selection will be lost each time you will change the first page number. Line numbers : (see -n option in section 2.1) Default value: 0 (no line numbers) Lowest value : 0 (no line numbers) Highest value: 10 Columns: (see -c option in section 2.1) Default value: 1 Lowest value : 1 Highest value: 999 Col. Spacing: (see -s option in section 2.1) Default value: 1 Lowest value : 1 Highest value: 999 Copies : (see -x option in section 2.1) Default value : 1 Lowest value : 1 Highest value : 999 The three next gadgets are used to choose a value between severals one. Use the arrow-like gadget at the right of the value to change it. Page format: This gadget shows the selected page format (see section 2.6). By default, the format is "header", but this can be changed with -f option (see section 2.1). To modify its value just click on it. Date format: This gadget shows the date format in the header (see section 2.6). By default, the format is the AmigaDOS format, but this can be changed with -D option (see section 2.1). To modify its value just click on it. Print pitch: This gadget indicates print pitch. Default value is taken from "Pitch" set up in Preferences, but can be changed with -P option (see section 2.1). To modify its value just click on it. The next gadgets allows you to personnalize the header and the footer. Header: This gadget shows the format of the three parts of the header : the left part, the central part, and the right part. Default value of each part can be changed with -H option (see section 2.1). To modify the value of any part just click on it : a window with a string gadget will appear. Press Amiga-X to erase current value, RETURN to validate, or click on the window close gadget to abort. For more information, see section 2.6 Footer: Same as header gadgets, but for the footer. Default value of each part can be changed with -F option (see section 2.1). For more information, see section 2.6 The two diamond-shaped gadgets on the bottom of the screen allows you to start printing (left gadget) or previewing (right gadget) without having to play with the menus. 2.5 Menus. ---------- APrf has three menus: "Project", "Tools" and "Options". Each command can be selected by mouse or by a keyboard shortcut, but "Options" menu items must be selected by mouse. Here are the options of the Project" menu: "Next file" command (Amiga-N): If you have run APrf from Workbench and selected several icons, this command allows you to skip to the next file in the list of selected files. The "File to print" gadget is updated (see section 2.4), and the old file is removed from memory (if it had been loaded, see section 4.1). "Print" command (Amiga-P): Start printing. "AREXX mode" command (Amiga-A): APrf goes in AREXX mode (see below section 3.3). A requester will apear: click on "YES" (or press RETURN) to confirm, or click on "NO" (or press ESCAPE) to abort. "About..." command (Amiga-?): Displays some informations about APrf. To close the window, click inside it or press any key. "Iconify" command (Amiga-I): APrf goes sleeping, freeing at least 32 Kb of CHIP memory and some other workspace (the current file is removed from memory if it had been loaded). The screen is closed and a small window (which title is "APrf v5.00") will appear on the top left corner of the Workbench's screen. To awake APrf, you must activate this window and click then on the right mouse button. You can quit APrf without having to awake it by clicking on the close gadget of the small window. "Quit" command (Amiga-Q or ESCAPE): Quit APrf. A requester will apear: click on "YES" (or press RETURN) to confirm, or click on "NO" (or press ESCAPE) to abort. Here are the commands of the "Tools" menu: "Default Options" command (Amiga-D): Restores the default options (first it loads Preferences then it scans the command line). If you have run APrf from Workbench and selected several icons, the first file of the list becomes the file that will be printed. This command may be useful, for example, if you modify the Preferences settings and want APrf to know about it, without having to quit the program. "Load file" command (Amiga-L): Loads immediately the file to print in memory. If the file was already in memory, yet this command reload it (see section 4.1). "Unload file" command (Amiga-U): Removes the file to print from memory. (see section 4.1). "Preview" command (Amiga-V): Activates the preview function (see section 2.7). "Command line" command (Amiga-K): Displays the argument list that you have to give in order to make the current options beeing the default options. To close the window, click inside it or press any key. "Doc Info" command (Amiga-X): Displays the page, line and character counts of the output file. Please notice that the character count will always be an approximation. To close the window, click inside it or press any key. Here are the items of the "Options" menu: "Letter" item: Selects the printing quality: "letter" or "draft". Default value is taken from "Print Quality" set up in Preferences, but can be changed with -O option (see section 2.1). "8 LPI" item: Selects line spacing: "8LPI" or "6PLI" Default value is taken from "Spacing" set up in Preferences, but can be changed with -O option (see section 2.1). "Fanfold" item: Selects paper type: "fanfold" or "single" Default value is taken from "Pitch" set up in Preferences, but can be changed with -O option (see section 2.1). "Truncate" item: If active, too long lines are truncated instead of being wrapped on several lines. By default, it is not active, but this can be changed with -O option (see section 2.1). "CTRL filter" item: If active, the control characters (ASCII code lower than 32 or greated than 126) found in the file to print are not send to the printer. By default, it is not active, but this can be changed with -O option (see section 2.1). "ANSI filter" item: If active, the ANSI sequences described in section 6 are not send to the printer. By default, it is not active, but this can be changed with -O option (see section 2.1). "Buffer 1Kb" item: If active, the output buffer size will be 1 Kb (instead of one page) By default, it is not active, but this can be changed with -O option (see section 2.1). See section 4.2 for more information. "Send FF" item: If active, a "Form Feed" character is send each time the bottom of the page is reached. By default, it is active, but this can be changed with -O option (see section 2.1). "Underline hdr" item: If active, the header will be underlined. By default, it is not active, but this can be changed with -O option (see section 2.1). 2.6 Header and footer. ---------------------- APrf can add a header, a footer, or both, on your documents. The choice can be made when calling APrf (-f option, see section 2.1) or with the "Page format" gadget (see section 2.4). A header or a footer takes to line on the page. When you ask for a header (and/or a footer) format, APrf uses the values of the "Header" (and/or "Footer") gadgets to build this header (and/or footer). The left gadget shows what will be on the left, the central gadget what will be centered, and the right gadget what will be on the right. Format specifications can include the following sequences : %a name of the day (e.g. "Monday") %b name of the month (full, e.g. "September") %B name of the month (short, e.g. "Sep") %d day of the month (01 to 31) %D date as shown by the "Date format" gadget %f basename of the file (e.g. "foo") %F full name of the file (e.g. "RAM:Test/foo") %h hour (00 to 11) %H hour (00 to 23) %m month of the year (01 to 12) %M minutes (00 to 59) %n page number %p period of the day (AM or PM) %s file size in bytes %S seconds (00 to 59) %v program release (e.g. "APrf v4.10") %w day of the week (0 to 6) %x copy number %y year of the century (00 to 99) %% % (not guaranted to always work...) Default value for header is "%f" for the left part, "Page %n" for the central part, and "%D" for the right part. Default value for footer is "Page %n" for the central part, and nothing for the other parts. You can also specify your own header (and/or footer) format, by clicking on the gadget corresponding to the part you want to modify, or (when starting APrf) with -H (and/or -F) option : "-HLformat" modifies left part of the header, "-HCformat" modifies central part, and "-HRformat" modifies right part. 2.7 The preview function. ------------------------- This function allows you to see how will look the final aspect of a text, depending upon the current option settings. To use it, first set up your printing settings, then choose the "Preview" command from the "Tools" menu. A window will appear in the middle of your screen, and shows how will look the first selected page (window size is shaped by the page size). To look the next page, click inside the window or press RETURN. To stop, click on the window's close gadget or press ESCAPE. Please notice that APrf won't be able to open the preview window if page length value is very high : highest value for page length is 93 lines in NTSC mode (122 in PAL mode). 2.8 Modifying page selection. ----------------------------- To modify page selection, click on the "Selected pages" gadget: a window will appear in the midle of the screen, showing a grid with one hundred numbers, each number corresponding to a page number. These numbers are written on a white background if the corresponding page is selected, or on a blue background if not. If you click on a number, you will change the selection for the corresponding page. You can also use the following gadgets: ALL select all pages INVERT reverse selection NONE no page selected OK accept new selection (or RETURN) UNDO undo all changes (takes back old selection) CANCEL abort modification (or ESCAPE) There's also a string gadget, in which you can enter a selection specification. This new selection will be added to the current one. Licits values for the string are: * all the pages x page x only x-y from page x to y x,y,z,... pages x,y,z,... You can also use the two last forms together, e.g. "1,3,5-8". Don't forget that page selection depends of the first page number, and that you won't be allowed to enter an empty selection (that is, with no page selected). 3. Advanced concepts. --------------------- This section deals with some powerful features of APrf, that allows it to be fully integrated in your working environment. 3.1 Using "powerpacker.library". -------------------------------- APrf can use "powerpacker.library" according you have installed it in the "LIBS:" directory of your hard disk or Workbench disk. This allows you to print any files compressed with "PowerPacker 2.3b" or "PowerPacker Pro 3.0b": the file will be decompressed automatically at loading. If data file has been encrypted, APrf will ask for a password. 3.2 The "eXpress" mode. ----------------------- It can happen that you want to print a file quickly, without using the Intuition interface (if your Preferences are correctly set, it should be frequent). If you specify -X option when calling APrf, once the command line has been parsed, printing starts immediatly. APrf doesn't open any screen, and stops when printing is done. Error messages are displayed in a special window, on WorkBench's screen. 3.3 The AREXX mode. ------------------- If you specify -A option when calling APrf, it will go in AREXX mode: an AREXX-compatible port (named "APrf_rexx") will be open and the program will wait for messages on this port. This option make also APrf go in "eXpress" mode, as if -X option was specified (see section 3.2). The valid messages are : quit : APrf closes the message port and terminates. wakeup : APrf closes the message port and open its screen. reset : APrf loads Preferences and sets all options to their default values load : APrf loads the file to print print : APrf starts printing Any other message will be considered as a command line, and scaned as described in section 2.1. If any error occurs, APrf will display a message on the WorkBench's screen, and terminates. If you send a "load" message and APrf don't know which file is to load, your command won't have any effect. Here is an exemple of AREXX program, which print the "S:Startup- Sequence" file with a left margin of 10 characters, and terminates APrf : /* Print S:Startup-Sequence */ address "APrf_rexx" "S:Startup-Sequence -l10" "print" "quit" Please note the " characters arround commands ! From the Intuition interface you can go in AREXX mode by selecting the "AREXX mode" command in the "Project" menu (see section 2.5). 3.4 The "APrf.Init" file. ------------------------- When starting, APrf tries to load the "S:APrf.Init" file. If it can be loaded, the eight first lines of the file are used to build a new menu: the "Control" menu. The format of the lines MUST be : name:options:sequence where "name" and "options" are strings of characteres ("name" shouldn't be longer than 8 characters), and "sequence" is a list of decimal codes separated by spaces. Here are two examples of lines : my8lpi:-p90 -O8: landscap:-p80:27 48 108 72 Each name you gave will appear in this new "Control" menu. If you select one of these names, the "options" string will immediatly be parsed as a CLI command line. Also, at printing time, the characters whose ASCII code is given in the corresponding sequence will be send to the printer (after the initialisation sequences, but before the text itself). You can select several names at the same time. Take notice that the sequences will be written with a PRD_RAWWRITE command, so they won't be interpreted by the printer device. The "S:APrf.Init" file will be loaded again (and the "Control" menu be updated) each time you select the "Default options" command in the "Tools" menu. When calling APrf from the CLI or from the WorkBench, the -C option allows you to select a sequence at startup time. The "option" string will be parsed after the other calling options. If the sequence you specified in the -C option doesn't exist, the option will be ignored. In "eXpress" mode (see section 3.2), the file "S:APrf.Init" will be loaded only if required (i.e. if you specified a -C option). 4. Memory management. --------------------- This section describes how APrf manages the memory space. 4.1 The file to print. ---------------------- Before printing or previewing a file, APrf loads it in memory. Once the file has been printed or previewed, it is kept in memory in prevision of another print or preview operation. The great advantage is that APrf has not to load a file each time you ask for previewing it, or when you ask for printing it after a preview. A file is removed automatically from memory either if you iconify APrf (see section 2.5), or if you choose to print another file (see section 2.4), or if you select the "Next file" command from the "Project" menu (see section 2.5). It can be removed too (but not always) if you select the "Default options" command from the "Tools" menu. In addition, the "Load file" command from the "Tools" menu enforces APrf to load a file (this will be reloaded even if it was already in memory), while the "Unload file" command in the "Tools" menu makes APrf to unload a file from memory. Now, to let you know if a file is or isn't loaded in memory, APrf displays a "*" character on the right of the file name when this file is actually loaded in memory. This behaviour can present two inconvenients. First of all, a file occupies memory even if you don't need it anymore. A solution is to iconify APrf (see section 2.5) or to select the "Unload file" command from the "Tools" menu. The second inconvenient is that if you modify a file on your disk, any changes will be ignored (because APrf won't load this file again). The solution is here to select the "Load file" command from the "Tools" menu. 4.2 The output buffer. ---------------------- APrf uses an output buffer in order to make less "write" commands. With a 1 Kb buffer, printing to a file is twice faster than with the first releases of APrf whose buffer contained only one line. Even if printing to printer doesn't seem to be faster, the number of "write" commands is divided at least by 5 (at most by 14 or 15). Tests have shown that system charge was greatly reduced, and though that THE OTHER TASKS WERE LESS SLOWED DOWN. By default, APrf uses an output buffer of one page (see section 2.5, "Buffer" option from the "Options" menu). When you change your page size, the output buffer is automatically re-allocated in order to store a whole page. If there's not enough memory to allocate this one page buffer, APrf will try to allocate a 1 Kbytes buffer (a message will inform you about this). If there's still not enough memory, APrf will stop with an error message "Not enough memory". 4.3. Memory requirements. ------------------------- When you run APrf, you need a bit more than 100 Kbytes of memory for code, data and Intuition interface. Any operation on the file to print (printing, previewing, etc...) will cause this file to be load into memory, and a working buffer of (PageLength * LineLength) bytes to be allocated. Printing will also require an output buffer of one page, or one Kbytes. 5. Miscellaneous. ----------------- This section is a bric-a-brac of some informations that didn't find a place in previous sections. It deals with some importants points concerning how APrf works. I strongly advise you to read it once at least and to remind to read it again if you think APrf is working oddly. If "Fanfold" option is not activated, here is the behaviour of APrf: before printing a page, the program displays a requester asking you to insert a new sheet of paper in your printer. When you're ready, click on "YES" (or press RETURN) to print the page. If you click on "NO" (or press ESCAPE) printing will be aborted. You can abort printing at any time, by clicking in the box where the current copy and page numbers are displayed. A requester will appear, asking you confirmation: click on "YES" (or press RETURN) to stop printing and click on "NO" (or press ESCAPE) to resume printing. If you abort printing, APrf will immediatly stop to send data to the printer, and wait for the last write request to be finished (this can be quite long !). To make your files have a better looking, you can include the following ANSI sequences: ESC[0m Normal character set ESC[3m Italics on ESC[23m Italics off ESC[4m Underline on ESC[24m Underline off ESC[1m Boldface on ESC[22m Boldface off ESC[1"z Draft quality ESC[2"z NLQ quality All these sequences will be sent to your printer, but the characters that compose them will neither be retained, nor be displayed when APrf is in preview mode. Any other sequences will be not recognized and will be considered as part of text to be printed. You can filter these sequences if you don't want them to be send to the printer (see section 2.5, "ANSI filter" item in "Options" menu). The size of these sequences is limited to 32 characters by OUTPUT line (not input line !), i.e. to 6 or 8 sequences, which should be sufficient in most case. If there's too much sequences on an output line, the error message "Lines too long, printing aborted" will be displayed.