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GoldED2
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HiSpeed
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ManualE
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1993-08-28
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Installation, Hardware/software requirements
--------------------------------------------
o Amiga, OS2.04 or better, PCL printer (DeskJet, Laser, ...)
o the 'reqtools.library' by Nico François (©1991-1993)
o xpk.library (by U. Dominik Müller, Bryan Ford, ...)
HiSpeed is a printing utility for DeskJet/laser printers. It is
quite similar to Matt Melcher's HDPrint programs ("4 pages of
text to one A4 side"): Output is reduced to a few pages by using
small typefaces. It is fast. Speed depends on your DeskJet model;
DeskJet+: about 4 pages/minute if you switch to HiSpeed mode. It
should be a nice utility for people who have to do a lot of
printing.
REQUIREMENTS
------------
Amiga, at least 512K, OS2.04, DeskJet/Laser. You'll need a
softfont cartridge (a RAM expansion card) for your DeskJet if you
want to use all functions of this program - otherwise you are
limited to the printer's ROM fonts.
FEATURES
--------
o easy-to-use workbench interface (but shell interface & ARexx
port are available as well)
o single or double sided printing; stack of paper has to be
turned only once (if at all).
o free layout - e.g. 4*4 blocks of text (= 4 A4-pages) or two
columns, or ... Portrait/landscape printing are available.
o A5 book mode; covers are printed, too
o blocks are seperated by lines (optional)
o important ESC-sequences are supported: Italics, LQ/EDV, Tabs,
Underlines, FF, ... (ANSI sequences, i.e. device independend)
o Linefeed can be set to one of eight values
o you can print more than one file ("job") simultanously - just
set up the job list
o HiSpeed mode: ESC sequences are recognized and removed. Output
is performed as fast as possible.
o Prescan/Preview are available (WYSIWYG)
o several fonts available for output (number depends on your
printer); softfonts are supported
o Sleep mode: HiSpeed's window is replaced by a small AppIcon on
the workbench screen. Drag icons over it to have them printed.
o optional page headers are possible as well as numbering of
lines
o automatic index generation
o appendix generation of marked words
CONFIGURATION
-------------
HiSpeed has to be configured according to your printer - just
choose your model from the list of supported printers. Set the
RAM gadget to 'RAM' if your printer is equipped with a RAM
expansion cartridge (DeskJet) or doesn't require additional RAM
in order to use softfonts. The number of available typefaces
depends on Printer/RAM selection - while a standard DeskJet
without RAM is limited to one typeface, a DeskJet 550C with RAM
will offer 4 portrait fonts and 3 landscape fonts. If you printer
is not supported by HiSpeed so far, you'll have use the SetUp
option to register your printer with HiSpeed (see SetUp manual).
Finally you should select a screen font (project menu/select
font) to be used by HiSpeed since the program doesn't adopt to
the screen font automatically; default is topaz 8.
PRINTING
--------
The files ("jobs") to be printed are displayed as "job list"
(bottom left). Scroll through that list using the arrow gadgets.
Use 'Add' to add new jobs. A file requester will appear. You may
add more than one file at once by holding down the shift key
during selection. There are other methods to add files to the job
list, too: Just drag a file's icon over the HiSpeed window. Or
set up a file via Arexx. Or let a file drop on HiSpeed's sleep
icon (however, if you do so, it will be printed at once but not
included into the job list).
Use job <menu/clear list> to clear the complete list respectively
the 'del' gadget to remove a single file. Select "SORT A" if you
want to have the list sorted alphabetically. Use "sort #" to sort
by size.
Start printing by clicking at the print gadget. Jobs are
processed from top to bottom. If none has been set up so far, you
will be asked for a file. You may stop printing by closing the
progress window (HiSpeed will ask for confirmation). Download
mustn't be interrupted for this would confuse the printer.
It is possible to print single sheets, too, using the 'page'
gadget. This option is useful to reprint some lost passages of a
large job (e.g. if ink cartridge went empty during printing).
If you want a page header (file name, page number), activate
"PAGE HEADER". See 'SetUp' on how to set up the header text (for
example it is possible to have time/date strings or environment
variables inserted). If you print more than one file, you might
want an index: switch to header & index.
SETTINGS & UNITS
----------------
Usually you won't have to change paper dimensions. Default
settings are valid for output to A4. The left border should be
sufficient for perforating. Hit "RESET ALL" go get the defaults.
All settings are written to HiSpeed's configuration file by
<project menu/save config>. Be careful as far as the dimensions
setup is concerned - wrong values (especially insufficient
borders) will confuse HiSpeed.
HiSpeed v5.0 or better does write its configuration file to
"ENVARC:HISPEED" unless a different directory is specified.
Former releases used to write to 's:' or directly to 'envarc:'.
Those files should be removed.
Units are 'mm' with exeption of the block size display - which
uses [characters] to display text block dimensions. The block
size depends on border/paper settings as well as font selection
(font width).
LAYOUT
------
Layout definition (the number/arrangement of text blocks on a
page) is of great importance for a pleasing result: The more
block columns you order, the less characters will fit into a
block line. If the block with is too small, lines have to be
splitted.
Block width depends on the selected font, too. If you select
Courier 6 (this is the only font offered by the standard
DeskJet), no more than 75 characters will fit into a single line
provided you use a layout of two columns. In generally 75
characters is not enough. You might use the Adjust-LF option in
this case: It will remove LF (line feed) codes. However, don't
use this option with formatted data (tables or source codes).
Edit contents of the dx/dy gadgets to set the distance between
columns/rows. Enable the 'separate' option if you want to have a
line drawn between two block rows. Blocks are linked from left to
right and from top to bottom.
PREVIEW
-------
HiSpeed offers two ways of quality/volume precalculation without
having to waste a single page of paper: Use 'preview' to order a
WYSIWYG preview. Or use 'scan' to get some statistics ( e.g.
required number of sheets). While scanning is faster than a
preview, the latter is more useful to get a general impression of
the output. Use the cursor keys to flip through pages in preview
mode. Use the help key to open the statistics requester.
The distortions value of the statistics display is related to
text lines that were to long to fint into a single block line
(i.e. lines that had to be splitted). Possible values are from 0%
to 100%. This value should be as low as possible since splitted
lines don't look that well. Decide for a smaller font, use less
columns or decrease margins to avoid distortions.
FILES
-----
HiSpeed has been designed to process ASCII files with or without
ANSI codes. Lines have to be terminated by LF codes. Additional
CR codes (used by MS-DOS software) are recogized and removed.
Turn the MS-DOS option ON if you want to print MS-DOS files
(maybe recieved from a BBS system) - HiSpeed will use a different
character set to cope with these files. Softfonts are not
available in MS-DOS mode because they have been developed with
the Amiga chacaracter set (ecma latin) in mind.
ESC-SEQUENCES
-------------
Switch to HiSpeed mode or turn PERFORM ESC off if you want to
have ESC-Sequences ignored (and thus speed up output). If you
enable FFs (form feeds), every detected FF-code (12 dez) results
in a new text block. You better have a prescan to estimate paper
needs - some files (especially library manuals using the AutoDoc
format) send FF codes after each paragraphe.
HiSpeed mode does imply draft printing/normal stroke. Other modes
use LQ printing, EDV printing or bold printing. These settings
stay valid until they are turned off by approbiate ANSI ESC
sequences being part of the file(s) to print. The are not
affected by ESC sequences if 'perform ESC' is off.
CHARACTER HEIGHT
----------------
Several fonts are available (number depends on your printer
model), e.g. LinePrinter-5, LinePrinter-6, Courier-6 and
LetterGothic-5. You should use LinePrinter-5 or LGothic-6, if the
average line width of your text files is greater than 80
characters. LinePrinter-6 looks better but block width might
become too small (e.g. 80 characters if you choose a layout of
two columns). Courier-6 is the worst choice: no more than about
75 characters will fit into a line if you decide for a layout of
two columns.
PORTRAIT / LANDSCAPE
--------------------
All DeskJet models apart from the original DeskJet do support
landscape printing. The number of fonts available in landscape
mode depends on your printer model.
BOOK
----
If you enable book mode output is sorted in a way to support
manual creation: simply fold printed sheets to get A5 manuals.
HiSpeed relies on the user's settings: if you set the block width
to 120 columns but the actual (average) line width of a text is
60 chacaters, output won't look good (columns are not centered).
Simply run the AdjustBook macro after switching to book mode to
have the layout adjusted automatically. Since book mode usually
implies landscape printing (not supported by the original
DeskJet), this mode should only be used with a DeskJet+ or
better.
COVER
-----
Select 'cover' to order printing of A5 covers. Several templates
are available. Quality of cover printing depends on the LQ/NLQ
gadget. This function requires the XPK library. Coverfiles
actually are PCL files (i.e. files ususally sent to a printer).
They have been chrunched using xDrop of the XPK package.
Recommended file extension for color files is *.CYM (DeskJet
500C) or *.CYMK (DeskJet 550C). Have a look at the templates
directory if you are looking for the PageStream documents used to
create the original HS cover files.
SINGLE/DOUBLESIDED
-------------------
Single sided as well as double sided printing is available. Don't
get confused if HiSpeed appears to eject empty pages in double
sided mode - those pages are required by the second pass of
printing.
*****************************************************************
Take care of HiSpeed's advice if the program asks you to reinsert
ejected pages in order to print the backsides. Handling depends
on printing mode !
*****************************************************************
PERFORATE
---------
Enable 'perforate' if you want to have perforation considerd
during double-sided output, i.e. to make HiSpeed swap left/right
borders if necessary to ensure a sufficient left margin.
OUTPUT DEVICE
-------------
Use the port gadget to select desired output device respectively
output file. If output goes to a file, HiSpeed will create two
files (even/odd pages) using file extension 1 respectively 2.
File 1 has to be sent to your printer before file 2 later on
since (only) this file will keep softfont data.
SHELL INTERFACE
---------------
HiSpeed can be usewd from a shell. Or by any program providing a
shell startup like Stefan Becker's ToolManager. Supported
arguments are (according to the template scheme used by the
AmigaDos manual):
FILE/M, S=SLEEP/S, D=DOUBLE/K, H=HEADER/K, N=NUMBER/K,
H=HISPEED/K, P=PREVIEW/S, C=SCAN/S, L=LANDSCAPE/K, B=BOOK/K,
F=FEED/N, I=INDEX/S, LQ/S, EDV/S, BOLD/S, ADJUSTLF/K,
SORTNAME/S, SORTSIZE/S, ASL/S, SCREEN/K, PERFORATE/K,
CMDFILE/K, MSDOS/K, UNI/K, ANSI/K, PARSEFF/K, FILTER/K,
PAR:/S, SER:/S, RESET/S:
Characters after a slash describe the option's type (e.g. /S
would mean 'switch'). Characters followed by '=' are shortcuts
(e.g. H is a shortcut of HEADER). The following option types are
available:
K .... Keyword asssignment. Example: HISPEED DOUBLE=TRUE. The '='
may be omitted. Valid argumets are ON or OFF.
S .... Switch. These Options set a special mode/perform some
action *IF* they are specified. No argument (like ON)
expected. Example: HISPEED RESET
N .... These options introduce numerical values; example:
HISPEED FEED=3. The '=' may be omitted.
M .... Introduces list of files. The option name itself (FILE)
may be omitted. Example usage:
'HiSpeed FILE s:user-startup s:startup-sequence'.
Since all options mentioned above do perform more or less the same
action as the gadgets of HiSpeed's GUI, I'm not going to describe
them once more.
AREXX PORT
----------
HiSpeed's ARexx interface is described in the file ARexxEDoc. By
using ARexx it is possible to add headers to files before
printing them, to format a text, to generate an appendix, to move
HiSpeed to a different (public) screen, ....
MACROS
------
ARexx macros found within the HISPEED/AREXX directory during
startup are gathered as MACRO menu. Please read the 'ARexxEDoc'
manual for more details about ARexx.
FILTER
------
Toggle 'FILTER' ON if you want the '@' character to be regarded
as keyword qualifier. It will be removed before output. Have a
look at the MakeAppendix macro.
SLEEP-ICON
----------
Use the 'Zzz' gadget to iconify HiSpeed. You may drag files over
the icon to have them printed - it's an AppIcon. Doubleclick the
icon to wake HiSpeed up again. Since the Amiga OS does not
support reading AppIcon coordinates, HiSpeed won't be able to
remember the icon position after you have moved it to another
location. Nevertheless it is possible to snapshot the preferred
position: Open the 'prefs/env-archive/hispeed' directory. Move
the 'AppIcon' icon from within that directory to desired
location, than snapshot it (icon menu of workbench). Finally move
the icon back to its drawer. HiSpeed will read the new position
the next time it is evoked.
SETUP
-----
It is possible to adjust HiSpeed to almost any PCL printer (many
ink printers, many laser printers). Have a look at the 'Setup'
text for details.