Amiga Format CD 6/Amiga Format AFCD06 (Nov 1996, Issue 90).iso/serious/commercial/studio_pgs_imagefx/pagestream30i readme

Text File | 1996-08-14 | 21KB | 464 lines

                        PageStream 3.0i
                              &
                  PageStream 3.1 beta 1,2,3

                       STUDIO DRIVER

This  Update  contains  a  Studio  driver for PageStream 3.x.  The
driver  allows  direct  printing  from PageStream using the Studio
printing program with all it's features.

Note:   This  driver  is  not made by your PageStream manufacturer
Soft-Logik.   So  don't ask them for help with this driver.  Flame
me,  not  them.   And  if  it  turns out to be a problem of you or
PageStream, you can bet flames are forwarded/returned :-) Email to

CompuServe: Wolf Faust 100116,1070
Internet:   [e-mail]


Thanks
------

First  a big thanks to Soft Logik (Michael Loader and Gary Knight)
for  making  this driver possible.  Without knowing the PageStream
application  library and driver interface, this and future drivers
are not possible.

Introduction:
-------------

This  PageStream  3.x  driver allows printing using the Studio or
CanonStudio  print program.  Studio and CanonStudio offer printing
24  Bit using a color management to a Workbench driver.  Using the
Studio  color  management  you  can adjust all output colors.  For
instance,  you  can  generate a profile giving you Pantone colors.
So  using this Studio driver with PageStream 3.x, you are able to
get  high  quality  output basicly from any printer.  The software
also adds a spooling and many other functions to PageStream.  More
about the added features laters...


Requirements:
-------------

 + PageStream 3.0i or PageStream 3.1 beta 1,2 or 3

                     ATTENTION!!!
                     ============

   Note that you need different Studio drivers whenever the
   PageStream printer driver interface get's changed by
   Soft-Logik. For instance, the Studio driver for 3.0i
   causes PageStream 3.1 beta 1,2,3 to crash.
   The next update version released (beta 4?) might work
   fine with the 3.1 beta 1,2,3 driver as the driver interface
   of PageStream is not changed that often. But this depends
   on Soft-Logik.

 + Studio 2.11 (or higher) or registered CanonStudio
   (all Studio explanations below also apply to CanonStudio).
   A list of all Studio distributors are listed at the end.
 + an additional 1-2 MBytes RAM for the Studio printing program.
 + as much free disk space as possible for the included spooler.


Installation:
-------------

           FOLLOW THIS INSTALLATION INSTRUCTION

- Click on the install icon using the Workbench.

- Follow the installation guides given by the install program.
  The installation program will first update your printing
  program. It will than search for a possible PageStream
  installation and install the printer driver accordingly.

- After succesfully installing the Studio PageStream 3 driver,
  start PageStream.

- Select the "Printing..." menu item in the "Settings" menu.

- Select "Studio" as driver type.

- Click on the "Edit Print Presets" gadget. The known Studio user
  interface should appear on the PageStream 3 screen.
  If the user interface doesn't appear, see the comments
  in the "Problems & Fixes" section below.

- The print settings in the Studio program reflect
  the default settings for your printer after installing
  the program. If you want your personal settings get used, use
  the Settings/Open menu item to load your default Studio.prefs
  settings file. More on the settings issue later.

- Select the Config/Max Page&Print Size menu item. This will
  make the print area use the maximum page size allowed.
  This area will be used by Studio for printing from PageStream.

- Save your Studio settings permanently using the
  "Save Settings" gadget in the main Studio window.

- Confirm your Studio settings by clicking on the
  "Print" gadget in the main Studio  window.
  Don't get confused because the gadget is labeled "Print"
  instead of "Use".

- After clicking on the "Print" gadget, you get back to the
  PageStream "Printing..." window. Now select a temporary
  drawer using the "Temp Files" string gadget (or click on the
  drawer icon to the right in order to get a standard Amiga
  requester.

  The given drawer should point to a fast hard disk. Because the
  Studio driver uses the drawer for spooling, the disk should offer
  a large amount of free disk space. How much free space is needed
  greatly depends on the print size, print resolution and the
  document being printed. So here is a recommendation that gives
  you the minimum amount you should have for a trouble free
  print:

     2  MBytes for a 360dpi greyscale printer
     15 MBytes for a 360dpi color printer
     30 MBytes for a 720dpi color printer

  As said, these are recommended minimum values - not necessities.
  The driver might work with less, but it will run faster
  and without trouble with more free disk space (3 times more is
  a good starting point). Depending on the user response to this
  driver, we might lower the disk space requirements in a future
  driver version.

- Now you have done the basic setup. Click on "Save" or "Use"
  to make your settings active. Than simply print.


What is the "Temp Files" setting for?
-------------------------------------

So  how  does the Studio PageStream driver print?  The driver will
act  as a link between the Studio printing program and PageStream.
The  Studio  printing  program  can  print  images  to basicly any
Workbench  driver in 24 bit precission.  Studio also offers custom
drivers  wich  are  not  limited by the Amiga printer.device.  The
PageStream  driver  will  safe  the  output as an image in a spool
drawer.  Once written, the spool file containing the wanted output
image will be forwarded to Studio for printing.

The  Studio  PageStream  driver needs your print sizes in order to
tell  PageStream the output resolution and more.  So if you select
"Print"  in PageStream, the status window of Studio will appear in
the  top  left  screen border.  The status window will stay on the
PageStream screen until you either close it or quit PageStream.

Once printing has started, PageStream generates the print data and
safes  it  to  the  spool  drawer.   The print performance greatly
depends  on  the speed of the disk as the spool files can get very
big.   Both, PageStream driver and the Studio printing program, do
access  the  spool  file  using  double buffered asynchronous file
read/write routines.

The  PageStream  Studio  driver  forwards  the print job to Studio
after generating the spool data.  After doing so, you can continue
working  with  PageStream  while  Studio  prints  the  spool  file
containing  the  output image in background.  However, you have to
wait until printing is finished if your spool drawer doesn't offer
enough  disk  space for complex pages.  This should explain why it
is  so  important to assign the "Temp Files" drawer to a fast hard
disk with lot's of free space.

The "Edit Print Presets" gadget:
--------------------------------

Clicking  on  the  "Edit  Print  Presets" of the Studio PageStream
driver  will  pop-up  the  known  Studio  user  interface  on  the
PageStream  screen.   Please note that Studio needs a small amount
of  chip  and fast ram to do so.  If you are running low on memory
after starting PageStream, you might easily run into problems with
getting the Studio server started.

You  can  adjust  all  print  parameters  using  the  Studio  user
interface.   Please note that the print dimension defined reflects
the  used  print  area  of  your  printer.   So  make it as big as
possible.   This  can  easily  be  done  by  using  the Config/Max
Page&Print  Size  menu item.  Depending on the output driver, this
menu  item might have problems adjusting the maximum height of the
print area as no maximum page height is given.

There are some things to note:

- The user interface of Studio might feel a bit slower than usual.
This is mainly a result of the Studio user interface showing up on
the  PageStream  screen.   Sorry,  there  is  nothing  I can do to
improve this.

-   Landscape  printing  is  currently  done  by  PageStream.   So
PageStream  is  rotating  the  image  for  you.   You  can  select
LandScape   printing   using   the  Studio  user  interface.   The
orientation   setting   of  the  PageStream  driver  will  be  set
accordingly automaticly.

-  The  "Print  Priority"  setting  in  the Studio menu can become
pretty  importand  on the way you print using Studio.  If you want
Studio  to  print  in  background,  it  is  recommended to set the
priority  to the default "Low" value.  This means, PageStream will
generate  the print data as fast as possible and once done, Studio
will  pick start printing in background.  You can continue working
with  PageStream  and  Studio  will use the remaining CPU time for
printing  in background.  Note, printing in background only works,
if  your  "Temp  Files"  drawer  offers  enough  free  disk space.
Otherwise  you  have  to wait for Studio to finish printing before
continue working with PageStream.

The  "Average"  print  priority  is  usefull if you want Studio to
compete for CPU time with PageStream.

-  The  "Memory  Usage" setting in the Studio menu is important if
you  don't  have  enough  memory  in  your  computer to have both,
PageStream  and Studio, running at the same time.  Set the item to
"Low" if you are run out of memory.  Because of the way PageStream
generates  the  print  data,  it might be a good idea to lower the
memory  requirements  of  Studio  in order to give PageStream more
memory  to generate the print data faster.  But before doing so, I
would  recommend  doing  a real test using your printer and a stop
watch.   Use  your usual print jobs for the test.  Simply check if
the  low  memory  usage  setting does improve print speed.  People
with  enough  free  RAM  usualy  don't  have  to worry and use the
Average memory usage setting for maximum speed.

-  The  PageStream  Studio  driver accesses the Studio/CanonStudio
printing  program using the Studio server interface.  All settings
made   withing   the  Studio  user  interface  after  clicking  on
"Edit Print Presets"   are   safed   in   a  settings  file  named
"PageStreamStudioPrt.prefs"  in  the Studio_Prefs drawer.  So your
usual  Studio  settings  safed  in Studio.prefs are not altered by
your  PageStream  adjustments.  This way you can have to different
adjustments  without having to switch manually.  For instance, you
can  usualy  print  images  to  an expensive dye sub printer using
Studio.   But when printing using PageStream, you can setup Studio
to print to another printer wich fits your DTP needs better.

If  you want to use your usual Studio settings with the PageStream
driver,  use  the  Settings/Open  menu  item  to load your default
settings in the Studio.prefs file.

-  After  adjusting  all settings using the Studio user interface,
you  can  click  on  the "Print" gadget in the main Studio window.
Actually,  the "Print" gadget should be labelled "Use" gadget.  We
will  fix  this  minor user interface problem in a future version.
If  you  want  the settings permanently saved, use the usual "Safe
Settings" gadget.


The "Unprintable Margins" setting:
----------------------------------

Once  you  adjusted  the print area using the "Edit Print Presets"
gadget,  PageStream  knows  the print resolution and print size of
your  printer.   However,  PageStream doesn't know the unprintable
margin  of  your  printer.   In order to make the PageStream ruler
match your printed page, adjust the unprintable margin until ruler
matches your printers output.



Problems & Fixes:
-----------------

There are many things that can go wrong when it comes to printing.
You also might get confused by some things happening when printing
using the Studio PageStream driver. This section describes things
to note:

- Printing takes forever....

After  PageStream  completes  safing  the  spool  data, the Studio
status  window will become big and display the print job forwarded
from  PageStream.   Depending  on  the  print  priority defined in
Studio,  the  print  progess  made by Studio can be very very slow
during  the  first  minutes as PageStream might still be busy with
the  next  print  page  at  a higher priority.  Don't get nervous.
Once  PageStream  has  finished  generating the print data, Studio
will  pick  up  the  free CPU time and thus printing will get real
fast.  In other words:  don't count on the remaining time shown in
the Studio status window while PageStream is still rendering print
data.   The remaining print time will greatly decrease once Studio
gets more CPU time.  Because of the optimizations done by Studio,
the remaining print time displayed can vary greatly even without
PageStream taking all free CPU time.

- The Print Server can't get started or you don't get a response?

The  Studio  PageStream  driver  needs  to know where to find your
Studio  printing  program  in  order  to  start  it.  The path and
filename of your Studio printing program is stored at installation
time  in the STUDIOPATH environment variable in ENV:  and ENVARC:.
The  PageStream  driver  will  be  unable  to  locate the printing
program,   if  you  remove  the  environment  var  or  change  the
path/filename of Studio/CanonStudio.

If you change things, you can update the STUDIOPATH enviroment var
by hand or by installing this update again. The install program
will make sure STUDIOPATH is defined correctly.

Another  reason  might  be  lack  of  memory,  either fast or chip
memory.   Both,  Studio  and PageStream, have to be running on the
same screen at the same time.  If you don't have enough memory for
doing so, forget using this driver (or better, get more memory).

- Your system crashes when clicking on the "Edit Print Presets" or
select "Print" in PageStream?

While this never happened during the testing of the driver, I just
want  to  make  sure you know this shouldn't happen if both Studio
and  PageStream  have enough stack.  Usualy the default stack size
given  is  enough.   You  can  increase  the  stack size using the
Workbench Tool/Information menu item.

- Incorrect output

Please note that Studio uses the PageStream rendering routines.
If something in your output seems to be not correct, try a native
PageStream driver (Workbench driver?).  If the problem appears
with both, Studio and PageStreams Workbench driver, the problem is
most likely caused by a problem of the PageStream rendering
routine.

- Random dots in solid colored areas of your output?

Please  note  that  the Studio color management tries to match you
output  colors  to  the  screen  colors.  This sometimes can cause
problems  if  you  want  a  specific appearance in the output.  An
example:  let's assume you want a yellow filled boy with the color
RGB  values  255/250/0.  On your screen, the rectangle will appear
as  pure  yellow.   But  in  the  output this box will appear as a
yellow  rectangle  with very disturbing red dots.  This is correct
and  not  a  fault  of  the  software.   Your  original  RGB color
255/250/0  does  contain a small amoung of red and thus the output
will  have  red  dots.

So  if  you  make  business  graphics  with pie charts and similar
things,  you might be better off disabling the color managament of
Studio  and  increase  the  gamma/brightness  slider  in the color
adjustment   window   until   the  brightness  of  the  output  is
acceptable.   This usualy gives you more solid colored areas.  The
output  color  is  most  likely  not correct this way, but this is
often unimportant for business graphics.

For  Experts:   But the best solution to fix the problem completly
is  using  the  Studio color management.  Instead of disabling the
color  management, you should adjust the color profile used.  This
can  be  done  using  CMSEdit.   There is pretty nothing you can't
adjust using the CMSEdit program.  Using CMSEdit you can assign an
output  color  to  a  screen color.  This way, you can control the
amount of color fault in the output while still having solid areas
printed   without   to  much  disturbing  dots.   But  a  warning:
adjusting  a  profile in this manner can take much time.  The main
problem  is,  that  all  adjustments must be made by eye/hand.  No
device can really help you as only you know what looks best in the
output.   A  solution  that  often  gives you satisfactory results
without too much work is, to load a greyscale profile into CMSEdit
and  convert  it  to a color profile.  This can be done by CMSEdit
for  you.   Once  done,  simply check all colors with a disturbing
amount  of  small  colors  in  the output.  Remove or increase the
amount to get a solid area.  Got the idea?

- Random dots and lines in the output?

When  printing  using error diffusion dithers, dots can be printed
that appear in as "lines" or "worms".  This can be very disturbing
and  is  a  result  of  the  error diffusion dithers.  Why do they
appear?   The  lines  that  look like worms appear when printing a
small  amount of a primary color on a binary printer.  An example:
your  printer  can  only  print  black or white dots.  The printer
can't  print  greyscales.   Now  in order to print greyscales, you
selected  the  error  diffussion  dithers.   Let's assume the grey
printed  is 2%.  Studio doesn't print any dot in the first line as
it  can't  print  2% grey.  Instead it prints nothing and notes an
error  of  2%  (thus  the name error diffussion dithers).  So your
output  is  2%  brighter than it should be.  The next line will be
printed white again and the error increases to 4%.  This continues
until  the  error  reaches  50%.   Now the error diffusion dithers
print a line of black and an error of 50% is noted.  But this time
your  output  is  50% to black.  This scheme continues and after a
while a line is printed.

These  printed  lines,  that  often  look  like  worms  -  can  be
disturbing  when  printing  solid  colored areas.  The problem can
(partly)  be  solved  by using applying the error diffusion dither
using a serpentine raster scheme.  Another, much better method, is
to  add  some  white  noise  to the dithering.  Such a solution is
performed by the Blue Noise dithering.

Note:   the  lines  don't  appear when printing using order dither
algorithems.   If  they  do appear, than they are not cause by the
problem described above.  As said, it's a general problem of error
diffusion dithering.


Driver History:
---------------

09.06.96   - V1 First release
24.06.96   - V1.1 "Unprintable Margin" could not get altered.
             Fixed.


                    COPYRIGHT/DISCLAIMER
                    ====================

Copyright   ©1996   Wolf   Faust.    All   rights  reserved.   All
distribution-  and  marketing rights to the software (drivers) are
vested  in  Wolf  Faust.   The  software  has been provided to you
strictly 'as is', without warranty of any kind.  In no event shall
the  distributor  and/or  Faust  be  held  liable  for any loss or
damages   arising   out  of  any  action,  from  whatever  source,
concerning  the use or inability to use the software.  YOU MAY NOT
USE,  COPY,  OR  TRANSFER  THE  PRODUCT,  OR  ANY COPY OR PORTION,
WITHOUT PRIOR CONSENT IN WRITING FROM WOLF FAUST.

Installer   and  Installer  project  icon  (c)  Copyright  1991-93
Commodore-Amiga,   Inc.   All  Rights  Reserved.   Reproduced  and
distributed  under  license  from  Commodore.   More (c) 1986-1993
Commodore-Amiga,   Inc.   All  Rights  Reserved.   Reproduced  and
distributed under license from Commodore.

And here is the list of the latest Studio distributors:

Germany:                            Australia & New Zealand
Deutschland:                        GSoft Australia Pty Ltd.
arXon GmbH                          PO Box 59
Assenheimer Str. 17                 Elizabeth SA
D-60489 Frankfurt                   Australia 5114
Germany                             Tel: [phone]
Tel:  [phone]                 Fax: [phone]
Fax:  [phone]                 (English Version)
(German Version)

The Netherlands:                    North America:
MacroSystem NL                      Safe Harbor Computers
Tromplaan 1                         W226 N900 Eastmound Drive
3951 CL-Maarn                       Waukesha
Tel: [phone]                     WI 53186
     023-296166                     Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]                     Fax: [phone]
(English Version)                   (English Version)

United Kingdom:                     Belgium:
HiSoft                              Click! b.v.b.a.
The Old School, Greenfield          Boomsesteenweg 468
Bedford MK45 5DE                    2610 Wilrijk
Tel: [phone]                    Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]                    Fax: [phone]
(English Version)                   (English Version)

France:                             Spain:
Phoenix-DP Almathera                TU Amiga Ordinadors
BP 801                              C/Progreso No 6  Local3
64008 Pau Cedex                     08120 La Liagosta
Tel/Fax: [phone]                  Barcelona
                                    Tel: [phone]
                                    Fax: [phone]