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The Datafile PD-CD 1 Issue 2
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PDCD-1 - Issue 02.iso
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_printapps
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printapps
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1994-02-17
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7KB
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183 lines
RISC OS 3 Applications Upgrade Disc #1
======================================
Copyright ⌐ Acorn Computers Limited, 1994.
This disc contains the following:
Å !Printers, version 1.22, containing
Å MakePSFont 1.06
Å PDriver 3.20
Å PDriverDP 4.15
Å PDriverPS 4.13
Å PDumperSpt 1.09
Å RemPrnMsgs 1.00
Å RemPrnSpt 0.17
Å PDumperDM 0.35
Å PDumperIW 0.34
Å PDumperLJ 1.04
Å !Scrap
Å !SysMerge
Å !System, containing
Å ColourTrans 1.57
Å Printers
Distribution
------------
This disc may be freely distributed only for use with RISC OS 3 and only in
its complete form.
Any person or organisation wishing to make this disc available on any public
access on-line system or via public domain, careware or shareware service
should contact Customer Services at Acorn in writing at the address at the
bottom of this file for licensing details. The contents of this disc remain
copyright of Acorn Computers Ltd.
Enhanced RISC OS 3 printer manager
----------------------------------
The enhanced printer manager is designed to run on RISC OS 3.10 or later, and
requires at least 2Mbytes of RAM.
This new version comes out of many discussions with Acorn Education Dealers
and Acorn Education Centres. We have taken into account many of the comments
and we hope that the facilities provided by this new version will answer most
of the points made.
Installation
------------
To support the modifications and extra functionality in !Printers it is
necessary to provide some updated modules on the new disc. !System contains
an updated version of the ColourTrans module. Use the !SysMerge application
to update your current version of !System. A new version of PDumperSupport
and the associated printer driver modules are loaded automatically by
!Printers when needed.
What's new?
-----------
The following changes have been made to !Printers:
1. 'background' printing.
This very useful feature has been added to the printer manager. In effect,
this causes printing to be directed to a spool file for files in the
queue, after which the spool file is then sent to the printer as a
background activity. Since not all applications support queueing of
printing, this feature will not work with all applications. Background
printing is an option selectable in the 'Connection' dialogue box.
2. Improved colour printing support.
Acorn has been working in conjunction with third parties to design and
develop new ColourTrans and PDumperSupport modules. In addition to better
colour rendition at the 256 colour level, the drivers now provide support
for 24bpp colour rendition through the use of a three pass system. This is
done transparently to the application and the user. Applications which can
make use of this include Draw and Artworks. !Paint, and other similar
sprite-based packages, will not print correctly in colour using 16 million
colours option. Sprites can be printed from !Draw if you want to print
using this option.
3. New and improved printer definition files.
We have a number of new printer definition files for colour and black &
white printers. Drivers for the Hewlett Packard Deskjet 500C, 550C and
1200C have been included; the 550C driver will also work correctly for the
Deskjet 310 colour. The BJC600 has been included as an additional PDF. New
black and white dot matrix PDF's have been included for various printers.
The Epson Stylus 800 has been included with its own PDF which will also
support the other printers in the Stylus range. The original PDF's
supplied have been improved to provide higher resolution colour printing
options. The lists of supported printers supplied within each manufacturer
directory have been significantly updated with information supplied or
verified in most cases by the manufacturers to include nearly 300 printers
in total.
4. Reduced disc swapping.
Single floppy drive users have suffered in the past from the overlaying
system employed in previous versions of the printer manager. For users of
dot matrix or Laserjet class printers, the necessity to re-insert the
printer driver disc has been removed. This should alleviate a lot of
problems for the floppy disc system users within schools. When printing to
PostScript printers it will, however, still be necessary to insert the
original printer driver disc.
5. Sensible default options.
The PDFs will now load with more popular default options selected.
Printers that print in colour will now select colour and sensible
resolution options when they are loaded thus reducing the amount of
configuration required when the printer manager is first set up.
6. PostScript printing.
Various changes have been made to PostScript printing, including
standardising the PostScript output.
7. Printing with Acorn Access.
!Printers has been updated for use with the new Acorn Access package. A
new option from the Printer Control menu allows the 'Shared' option to be
selected if Acorn Access is installed. Please refer to the Acorn Access
notes for further information.
8. New templates.
Both 2D and 3D templates are provided. Selection is dependant on the
setting of bit 1 of byte &8C in CMOS RAM. There is therefore no
requirement for the application to be updated with the sprites and
template provided by !NewLook.
9. File Output.
It is now possible, when printing to file, for subsequent output to be
appended to previous output sent to the same file.
10. Printing 'Output' files.
When printing 'Output' files created by printing with a dp class
printer, the problem whereby an address exception could occur at the end
of the print cycle has now been fixed.
11. Paper size editing.
The 'Edit Paper Size' option now selects the paper type that is
configured for that particular printer driver.
12. Cancelling a print job.
When the Escape key is used to stop a print job the printer manager will
now send a reset to the printer. It is therefore necessary to ensure that
the printer is online when escape is pressed.
13. Loading PDFs.
New PDFs loaded into the printer manager will now be automatically
installed onto the icon bar so the user does not have to specifically
make them active.
14. Look and feel.
Various changes have been made to the printer manager to make it more
Style Guide compliant, eg the removal of dbox close buttons and the
addition of 'Cancel' buttons.
Feedback
--------
If you experience any problems contact us, preferably in writing, at the
address below with the following details:
Å Printer being used.
Å Version of firmware fitted to the printer.
Å If the printer is Laserjet or PostScript, how much memory is installed in
the printer.
Å Which Acorn computer system is being used.
Å Full description of the problem including, preferably, a copy of the
!Printer application, on disc, that is causing the problems.
The address is:
'Printers'
Customer Services
Acorn Computers Ltd
Acorn House
Vision Park
Histon
Cambridge, CB4 4AE