TealPrint
is a universal printing system for Palm OS that supports both graphics and
native text. It provides stand-alone printing functionality for screen dumps,
printing from the system text clipboard, and printing data from the system
MemoPad, ToDo List, Datebook, and Address Book applications.
In
addition, it provides an easy but flexible standard interface for printing from
third-party applications who which to add printing functionality to their
programs.
The
TealPrint system supports HotSync printing to any Windows-supported printer through
a desktop PC. This is the preferable solution for most customers. It can also
support direct connections to serial, parallel, and infared printers with
appropriate drivers and/or supported cable adapters. If you require a direct
printing solution, please confirm that your printer is supported and test your
connection before registering TealPrint.
This archive contains the following files:
Program files:
TEALPRNT.PRC
The
TealPrint program file
TP_SPOOL.PRC
Universal spooling printer driver for
HotSync printing
TP_GENE.PRC
Universal text-only direct
serial/IR printer driver
PCSPOOL.EXE
HotSync
printing PC-Spooling Manager
COURI_MD.PRC
Courier medium-sized bitmap printer
font (fixed space)
ARIAL_MD.PRC
Arial medium-sized bitmap printer
font (sans serif)
Document files:
PRNTDOC.PDF
This document in Adobe Acrobat (PDF)
format
PRNTDOC.HTM This
document in HTML format (sans images)
PRNTDOC.PRC This document in TealDoc format
REGISTER.HTM
TealPoint Registration form in HTML
format
REGISTER.TXT
TealPoint Registration form in text format
Use the Pilot installer to install the program file TEALPRNT.PRC.
It will appear on the Palm Computing device after the next HotSync.
This manual is also provided in this archive
as the PalmPilot document PRNTDOC.PRC, which can be installed and
viewed with our other application TealDoc.
Instructions on
how to use the Palm installer are in the Palm Handbook that came with your
Pilot, PalmPilot, Visor or WorkPad.
You will also need to install an appropriate printer
driver for the printer you wish to support. To support printing from your
HotSync cradle to any Windows-supported printer, install TP_SPOOL.PRC. To
use this option, you will also need PCSPOOL.EXE, the PC-side spooling
manager, but it needs no special installation beforehand.
See the section below under Using the
Program for more detailed instructions on how to HotSync print.
If you wish to print directly to a printer through a
cable or IR link, you will need a driver that matches your particular
printer.
You do not need this
additional driver for HotSync printing.
A generic serial/infared printer driver, TP_GENE.PRC, is provided for
universal text-only printing. This driver supports any printer that accepts raw
text for input, printing in that printer’s native default font.
To print graphics, graphic with selectable fonts, or
to print text on printers which do not support raw text, you will need an
appropriate printer driver that matches both your printer and connection (eg,
serial, or infared).
Drivers exist for
Epson-FX compatible printers and HP PCL printers. Visit our website for a full
list of drivers currently available.
Once you have graphic printing working, you may also
wish to install some bitmap print fonts.
These fonts can be fairly large memory-wise, and can only be used when
printing text in graphics mode.
Two
fonts, Arial and Courier, are included in this package in medium sizes.
Further instructions on how to select and
use bitmap text fonts appear later on in this document.
The TealPrint printing system consists of
five major components, the TealPrint Main
Application, Printer Drivers,
Bitmap Print Fonts, HotSync Spooling Manager, and Host Applications.
The TealPrint main
application appears as an icon on your applications launcher screen.
It controls all print operations and
communications with the printer drivers.
It is also offers many built-in printing tools such as screen dumps,
printing from the clipboard, system profiling, and printing data from the four
main Palm applications.
When HotSync
printing, TP-Spool doesn’t actually communicate with your printer, but instead
generates a file which is interpreted by the virtual printer engine in the
HotSync Spooling Manager, PCSPOOL.EXE,
which interprets the file on the PC and translates it into Windows calls and
sends the information to your default Windows printer.
Host Applications.
While TealPrint
offers many built-in printing functions, it really shines when directly
supported by an external application.
TealPhone, TealDoc, and TealPaint already offer direct TealPrint
support.
Other applications will
follow.
Run TealPrint by choosing it's
icon from the Palm applications screen. The TealPrint main display screen shows
the current configuration and offers universal tools for basic printing.
It also allows one to set current modes,
adjust basic print settings, and change driver-specific settings.
At
the top of the main TealPrint screen, the following selections are adjustable:
Driver
Lets you set the current active printer
driver, from the list of all currently installed printer drivers.
Paper
Lets you select paper sizes or change the
default margins for all paper sizes supported by your printer. You may need to
change this option when, say, printing an envelope or on odd-sized paper if the
printing application does not provide this option.
Graphics Mode
Lets you select the current graphics
printing mode, as defined by the printer driver. Typically, this setting is
used to change graphic printing resolution or enable a special printing mode
such as transparency or photo printing. This option is not available if the
printer or printer driver does not support graphics, and only affects printing
in graphics mode.
Text Mode
Lets you select the current text printing
mode, as defined by the printer driver. Typically, this is used to support
printing with different internal printer fonts or for landscape text printing,
if supported. If the current printer or printer driver does not support
printing in a raw text mode, this option is not available. This option does not
affect text printed in graphics mode.
Lower on the
main screen, other configuration and print options are available.
About
Displays information about the active
version of TealPrint.
Settings
Adjusts the current default graphic and
text printing settings
Driver Info
Displays information about the active
driver, if available.
Driver Settings
Allows setting of driver-specific options,
like communications mode and speed.
Text
Brings up a text-editing screen that lets
you enter, edit, and print some short text. Perfect for a quick note or label.
Clipboard
Prints any text "Copied" or
"Cut" to the Palm text clipboard. Useful to print text from any
program that supports cut and paste.
Screen-Grab
Allows dumping the PalmPilot display to
the printer from within another program. Requires a printer and printer driver
that supports graphics.
Data
Accesses controls for printing data from
the Standard PalmPilot Datebook, Address Book, MemoPad, and To-Do List,
applications and for printing several internal test images.
The settings screen allows you
to set various default options for printing text and graphics. These options
affect the basic printing tools in TealPrint and apply to most other programs
as well who print through the TealPrint interface. Programs that perform more
task-specific printing tasks may choose to override some or all of these options
with its own preferences or options.
Print
As Txt/Print as Gfx
This setting allows you to select whether
the printer prints the incoming page in graphics mode or as native printer
text. The latter is much faster for printing basic text documents, takes much
less memory when printing, but limits you to the standard printer font and does
not support graphics or most effects.
Print
Size (X Y W H)
Lets you scale an image down from its
default print size. Normally, TealPrint considers the full region on the paper
within the margins to be printable. You can shrink this printable region, and
any printed imagery or text will be resized to fit the new space. Note that
when printing in graphics mode, the text will shrink to fit the new smaller
space, remapping fonts if necessary. When printing as Text, the text will
re-wrap to fit the smaller space but cannot scale down.
Gfx
Options
The following special options are available when printing
in graphics mode.
Print Sideways
Prints the image in Landscape mode
(sideways) rather than portrait
Eject Paper
Sends a command to eject paper out of the
printer after printing, if optional. Some printers, however, always
automatically eject a page after printing.
Invert Colors
Prints the page as a black and white
negative
Smooth Jaggies
Rounds the corners of line drawings or text to get rid of
graphic "jaggies". This options slows printing considerably, however,
and will darken or distort images with shading or dithering.
Horizontally Center
Centers a image or block of text
horizontally on the page. To have an effect, the printable area has to be set
to less than a full page width.
Vertically Center
Centers a image or block of text
vertically on the page. To have an effect, the printable area has to be set to
less than a full page height.
Keep Aspect
Normally, bitmap images are scaled
vertically and horizontally to keep proper proportions. Without this option
checked, the image will be stretched to fill all available space even if the
image is stretched out of proportion.
Integer Scale
When this option is set, images are scaled
to maintain constant pixel sizes, improving the look of line drawings and
detailed images, even if images may print smaller than the total available
area.
Word Break
When printing graphic text, this option
forces line breaks to occur only on word boundaries. When this option is not
checked, lines may wrap anywhere.
Word Wrap
When printing graphic text, this option
allows long lines to wrap to the next line. When not checked, long lines are
truncated.
Justify
Centers or left or right-justifies graphic
text.
Font
When printing text in graphics mode, TealPrint allows
you to choose which bitmap font to use. Click on the drop-down triangle next to
the font name to bring up the font selection screen.
Font Faces
Four
standard Palm fonts are available (only three on Pre-III PalmPilots). However,
these fonts are designed for the Palm screen and are small when printed.
Installed TealPrint font files expand the choice of available fonts with higher
resolution fonts designed for printing.
Font Size
Graphic fonts can be printed at some
multiple of its minimum size, where each pixel of the font corresponds to a
pixel of the printer output.
Thus, when
printed at its smallest size, a font appears at its highest resolution; the
full resolution of the printer. When text is printed at a multiple of this base
size it appears larger, but will show pixel "jaggies" when blown up
too large. The "Smooth Jaggies" option can be used to reduce this
effect, but looks better with some fonts than others.
Text
Options
The following special options are available when printing
in text mode.
Horizontally Center text
Centers a image or block of text
horizontally on the page. To have an effect, the printable area has to be set
to less than a full page width.
Vertically Center text
Centers a image or block of text
vertically on the page. To have an effect, the printable area has to be set to
less than a full page height.
Eject Paper after printing
Sends a command to eject paper out of the
printer after printing, if optional. Some printers, however, always
automatically eject a page after printing.
Wrap Long Lines
When printing graphic text, this option
allows long lines to wrap to the next line. When not checked, long lines are
truncated.
Break lines on word bounds
When printing graphic text, this option
forces line breaks to occur only on word boundaries. When this option is not
checked, lines may wrap anywhere.
Justify
Centers or left or right-justifies graphic
text.
Printer
driver options can vary from driver to driver. In general, here are some
settings that tend to be present in drivers we offer:
Baud Rate
Set the speed and type of communication to
the printer. Rates may be for serial or IrDA (Infared) communication.
Send Slow
Slows the output of data through the
serial port in discrete packets to avoid data loss associated with some
serial-to-parallel adapter cables.
RTS/CTS handshaking
Enables hardware handshaking for serial
communication
XON/XOFF handshaking
Enables software handshaking for serial
communication
EVEN/ODD parity
Set bit parity for serial communication
Show status
Shows printing communication status at the
top of the current display. This may not be desirable running with program
which dump the unbuffered contents of the current screen, as the status may
appear in the printed image.
Beep status
Plays in intermittent "click"
while printing to indicate printing is in progress
HotSync
printing allows one to print to any Windows-supported graphics printer by
buffering printed information in the PalmPilot’s memory, and sending it to the
TealPrint Spooling Manager after a HotSync operation.
Most printing operations happen immediately when
selected. HotSync printing is the exception. Similar to the way the standard
'mail' app that comes on the PalmPilot works, HotSync printing lets you print
your pages on the PalmPilot first, sending them to the printer later only when
you HotSync.
To
print an image or document through the HotSync cradle:
1) Run Spooling Manager
First
run the included program PCSPOOL.EXE. This program monitors the system HotSync
folders and sends any incoming spooled print jobs to your Windows default
printer. You can start this program before every print session, or even drag it
to your Windows startup folder so that it's ready whenever you need to print.
The program starts minimized on your task bar, and comes up automatically when
it's time to print. It also features an optional "Print to Screen"
mode that allows previewing of incoming print jobs without sending them to the
printer.
2) Select the Spooling Print Driver on the Palm
On
the Palm side, you will need to install the SPOOLING printer driver
TP-SPOOL.PRC and select it as your current printer driver from within
TealPrint. It supports a number of options including resolution and status
display.
3) Print to Data Queue
With
the spooling driver activated, run text and graphics print tasks. The driver
saves the generated printed data in an internal buffer, or "queue".
4) HotSync
To
send a queued print job to the printer, simply HotSync your palm device
afterwards with PCSPOOL.EXE already running. Make sure that the Palm desktop
settings are set backup Palm database files.
By default, the spooling
driver clears the print queue before every print job. This means that you must
HotSync after every print operation to send the last job to the printer. You
can override this option by turning off the automatic "flush" option
under TP-SPOOL's driver settings. Note that when you do this, you must remember
to manually flush the queue when you are done to prevent reprinting the jobs
left in the queue the next time you go to print a page. If you want to print
another copy of our last print job, you can use the "Reprint Queue"
button to tell the system to send last job in the queue to the printer again at
the next HotSync.
Queued
print jobs can take a fair amount of available free memory, particularly when
printing graphics. Higher resolutions will require more memory as well. The
TP-SPOOL print driver supports a number of different resolutions.
For
best results, set the Graphics Mode resolution to an even fraction of your
printer's actual resolution. For instance, if your printer prints at 360 dpi,
printing graphics at 90 or 180 dpi is recommended. For a 300 dpi printer, try
the 75 or 150 dpi settings on the driver. For text, you can get the fastest and
best-looking results with a minimum of memory usage by printing in raw text
mode.
1) The PC Spooler monitoring program must
be running the first time you HotSync after printing for the queued data to be
sent to the printer. (If you forget to run the program, you can always print
again by choosing the 'Reprint Queue' button under the driver settings page of
the TP-Spool printer driver, and then HotSyncing again, this time with the
monitoring program running in the background on the PC.)
2) Note that the TP-Spool driver defaults to clearing
the queue before each printing operation. If you want to perform multiple
printing operations before HotSyncing, flush the queue manually and then turn
off the automatic 'flush' setting in the TP-Spool print driver settings before
printing. You should manually flush the queue after printing to free up the
memory used and prevent the queued data from printing again later the next time
you print.
To
use TealPrint directly with a printer, you’ll need a proper adapter or cable to
connect your PalmPilot to your printer if it does not support infared
communication.
Note:
Please don't experiment with your own cables or adapters unless you know what
you're doing. While creating your own cables may be pretty straightforward to
someone with a technical background, don't rely solely on the information below
if you're at all unsure about what will or will not work.
Printers
that have a built-in IrDA port do not require any cabling.
They do require a printer driver with an
option to output signals from the Palm's IR port, and one than speaks a
language the printer can understand. The generic text printer driver supports
IR in three different connection speeds, and communicates with IR printers
designed to be connected to Laptop PCs. Custom IR printers designed for
specific devices like digital cameras may not work with the generic IrDA
driver.
For
printers without built-in IrDA support, you may be able to purchase an IR
adapter. See "PC Parallel Printers" below for more information.
Serial
printers are generally easier to connect to your PalmPilot than Parallel
printers, as the PalmPilot has a serial port in its base. As long as the serial
printer can operate at a baud rate supported by your organizer, connection
simply involves connecting the proper signals together.
As
PalmPilot HotSync connectors are not generally available, your best bet is to
run a cable between your HotSync cradle and your printer, and simply print with
your PalmPilot in the cradle.
To do
this, you need a converter that will connect the DB9-Female connector to your
printer, routing the signals correctly. The exact wiring depends entirely on
the printer.
You
can also take advantage of an existing serial cable for your printer, which is
designed to plug into the DB25-Male or DB9-Male serial cable at the back of
your PC. If you have one of these, then all you need is a short DB9-to-DB9 Null
modem cable to go in between the HotSync cradle and the printer cable. The null
modem cable is necessary to swap the send a receive lines along the way, so
that the PalmPilot looks like a PC, rather than a peripheral that plugs into a
PC.
If
you're lucky, you can find a null modem cable with two DB9 Male connectors. If
not, you might need to also get one or two DB9 gender changers and/or
DB9-to-DB25 serial adapters in addition to a null modem cable with different
connectors. You probably won't find the complete cable at your local software store,
but you can probably find it online at somewhere like www.cablewholesale.com,
or you can make one yourself with about $5 in parts. If you purchase a cable,
be sure to check a wiring diagram for the cable first before purchasing it or
hooking it up to your Palm.
Once
you have a DB9M to DB9M null modem cable, plug in your HotSync cradle on one
end and the cable that goes to your printer on the other.
In
our tests with the DYMO EL60 Labelwriter, we've found that the following cable
adapter pinout worked for us:
DB9M
DB9M
RX
2
-----
3 TX
TX
3
-----
2 RX
GND 5
-----
5 GND
DSR 6
-----
6 DSR
RTS 7
-----
8 CTS
CTS 8
-----
7 RTS
Note
that most null modem cables cross over DSR and DTR instead of connecting them
straight across the way we have this cable wired up. As serial printers are not
all that common, we check our website for up to date compatibility information
as we get it. Other printers may be able to work with off-the-shelf null modem
cables.
Most
PC printers have parallel ports on them with a 36-pin Centronics connector. For
these printers, your best bet is to buy an off-the-shelf serial-to-parallel
adapter cable, such as the Greenwich Instruments GA945PP ($49 at www.NWT.com),
which will connect any PalmPilot except the Palm V, and Visor directly to a
parallel printer.
Note
that several similar adapters exist and will work. The Greenwich cable is nice
in that it's both affordable and runs at 57600 baud. Some other cables are
slower, operating at 38400 instead.
A
fancier, but more expensive solution is to get an Infared adapter like the
ActiSys ACT-IR 100M Printer Adapter ($110 at www.cyberguys.com). Designed to
add an IR port to any Parallel printer, this device is compatible with any
PalmPilot with beaming capability, and even adds a pass-through so you can keep
your PC connected at the same time. Note that at this time, the JetEye IR
adapter does not work with TealPrint.
TealPrint
supports printing from the four basic applications. You can access these tools
from the "Data" button on the main screen.
Allows you to print an agenda
of items for any specified range of days. You can optionally hide untimed
events, repeating events, or days without any events.
Prints the full contents of any single
address book entry.
Prints all To-Do items, or all items
within a selected category.
Prints the full contents of a selected
memo
Prints detailed system information
including User, Processor, Operating system, memory heaps, and all installed
files
Prints four various sequences designed to
test special effects and features in the TealPrint's graphics and graphic-text
subsystem.
The
exact interface for printing from a TealPrint-friendly program can vary from
program to program, but typically it goes something like this:
1. For
direct printing, connect the Palm cable or bring its infared port in range of
the printer
2. Choose
a 'Print' Option from the app's menu or control screen
3. Configure
options in the TealPrint settings screen, including setting text/graphics print
mode
4. Click
'Print'.
5. Keep
the Palm connected until printing is complete
The contents of the settings screens may vary from app
to app. For most apps, you can vary the size, rotation, and appearance of the
output when printing in text mode, but programs may override some settings if
they have specific formatting needs, such as printing labels for established
label sheets. Also, when printing in text mode, formatting and sizing are more
restricted and may vary from printer to printer.
When programs have not been designed specifically with
TealPrint in mind, printing may still be possible using some of TealPrint's
print options.
For printing graphics, use the 'Print Screen' option
in TealPrint. Functioning like a camera's timer feature, this lets you set an
elapsed time to start. Once you set it in TealPrint, you have time to go to the
other app and go to the screen you wish to print. This option dumps the screen
to the printer as a graphic page.
To print other data, you can often use the 'Print
Clipboard' option instead. Most programs typically have the ability to
drag-select text and copy it to the system clipboard using a 'copy' menu item.
Once you do this, you can either print it directly using the 'Print Clipboard'
option in TealPrint, or paste it in the 'Print Text' screen first to allow you
to do some editing first.
To abort a print operation from a properly-written
driver, press and hold down any physical "hardware" button on the
PalmPilot, such as the PAGE-UP scrolling button.
When printing text in graphics mode, TealPrint has the
ability to map the text to different fonts. Since the four built-in Palm fonts
are designed for the small Palm screen, they lack resolution to print nicely
smooth text when sent to the printer.
Fortunately, TealPrint supports installation of
external fonts for graphics printing. Two medium-sized fonts, Arial and
Courier, are included for this purpose. Install these .PRC files using the Palm
Install Tool. Check the TealPoint website for font packs for other fonts and a
full selection of font sizes. Actual printed font sizes are dependant on the
resolution (DPI) of the graphics print mode being used.
Since bitmap fonts can take a large amount of memory,
only one font size (measured in pixels) is included in each PRC file. This font
will print in different measured sizes (measured in inches) depending on the
resolution of your printer. The included fonts are designed to print at a
reasonable size when printed at 200-360 dpi. TealPrint can scale up fonts to
print at larger sizes, but when scaled up too high they tend to exhibit
'jaggies'.
Once you have installed an external bitmap font, you
can select it as your preferred default font under the graphics settings page.
Note that this font style and size only applies when it is not overridden by
the printing application, and that the system may remap to a smaller font if
you print a page at a scaled-down size.
Other font faces and sizes will be made available for
download on our web site, subject to availability and our customer's needs.
I'm trying to HotSync print, but nothing happens when I
HotSync
Make sure that you're
running the PC-Spool monitoring program before you HotSync. If not, run it,
choose "Reprint Queue" from the driver settings menu in TealPrint,
and HotSync again.
I did that, and it still isn't doing anything.
Set your
"custom" options to "System: Palm overrides Desktop". Then
hotsync. If it still does nothing, un-minimize the spooling program and look at
the file path where it's looking for your spooling file. Look for the file
"TealPrint_Spool_File.PDB" in one of the backup folders and make sure
it's getting copied back to your PC correctly by the Hotsync system.
I'm using a direct connection. I can't print at all
Make sure your printer is
on and properly connected and that your printer driver settings match your
cable and connection. If this still does not work, run the printer driver
directly from the applications menu, and print a test page directly from the
driver to check the connection and settings. If you are using a parallel
printer converter cable, your serial settings must match what the cable was
designed for.
It printed before. Now it doesn't
If you're running a
paralled converter cable, try disconnecting the cable temporarily from both the
printer AND the Palm and waiting a few seconds to let the converter circuitry
reset.
Graphics are not showing up
Make sure you have your
settings set to "Print as Graphics" and that your printer and printer
driver both support graphics and are correct for each other.
All I get is graphic junk when sending graphics
Make sure your printer
driver is correct for your printer, that your transfer speed set in the driver
is correct.
When trying to hotsync print I run out of memory
When hotsync printing,
the buffered data is dumped to a temporary file for transfer at the next
hotsync. This file can be quite sizeable, especially for graphics printing. If
printing text, try printing in text mode, which takes less space. Otherwise,
you'll need to decrease the size of the page being printed, lower the
resolution, or delete files and data off the Palm to free up more memory.
When printing raw text, most of the text is fine, but
European characters are coming up as funny symbols.
Your printer may use a
different character set for European characters. Check your printer driver
settings. If it support different character sets, try switching to another
character set. For example, PCL printers default to using the PC-8 font set,
which contains most European characters, but some only in lower case.
I sometimes get junk or missing/wrong characters when
printing through a serial or parallel connection.
Try printing using a
"Send Slow" and/or hardware (CTS) handshaking driver options, if
available.
When I try printing to an IR printer, the connection just
times out
Make sure the printer
driver is set up to communicate in Infared rather than serial. Turn on status
display in the driver settings, if available, to further diagnose the problem.
Version 1.22 5/29/00
·
Added support for
installation into Flash RAM
·
Added About and Register
drop down menus
Version 1.20 5/22/00 Initial Release
Manual by Vince
Lee, Tex Tennison, and Diane Dybalski
TealPrint by
TealPoint Software
©1999-2000 All Rights Reserved.
TealPoint
Software
454 Las Gallinas
Ave #318
San Rafael, CA
94903-3618
Please visit us
at www.tealpoint.com, or email us at contact@tealpoint.com.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Currently, you
may register by snail mail, electronically through our website at www.tealpoint.com with a credit card and a
secured server, or through PalmGear HQ at 1-800-741-9070. For the first option,
the enclosed registration form is provided for your convenience. You may use
this form or simply send the following to the address above.
§
Product Name
§
E-Mail Address
§
HotSync User ID
(Pilot Name Required for Passkey generation. It can be found on the main screen
of the HotSync application on the Pilot as "Welcome ________" or in
the corner on a PalmIII or higher)
§
Check (drawn off
a US Bank) or Money Order for $19.95 US to TealPoint Software
We at TealPoint
Software are committed to providing quality, easy-to-use software. However,
this product is provided without warranty and the user accepts full
responsibility for any damages, consequential or otherwise, resulting from its
use.
This archive is
freely redistributable, provided it is made available only in its complete,
unmodified form with no additional files and for noncommercial purposes only.
Any other use must have prior written authorization from TealPoint Software.
Unauthorized
commercial use includes, but is not limited to:
§
A product for
sale.
§
Accompanying a
product for sale.
§
Accompanying a
magazine, book or other publication for sale.
§
Distribution
with "Media", "Copying" or other incidental costs.
§
Available for
download with access or download fees.
This program may
be used on a trial basis for 30 days. The program will continue to function
afterwards. However, if after this time you wish to continue using it, please
register with us for the nominal fee listed in the program.
Thank you.
