From brigc@world.std.com Tue Jan 28 10:52:03 1997 Newsgroups: comp.periphs.printers Path: stc06.ctd.ornl.gov!news.he.net!news.dra.com!feed1.news.erols.com!worldnet.att.net!news.mathworks.com!uunet!in2.uu.net!uucp4.uu.net!world!brigc From: brigc@world.std.com (Brig C McCoy) Subject: comp.periphs.printers - FAQ - Part 5 of 11 Version: 3.09 Message-ID: Followup-To: comp.periphs.printers Last-Modified: 1997/01/05 Summary: This posting contains a list of Frequently Asked Questions (and their answers) about printers and should be read by anyone wishing to post to the comp.periphs.printers newsgroup. Sender: brigc@world.std.com (Brig C McCoy) Reply-To: brigc@world.std.com Organization: Southeast Kansas Library System, Iola, KS Posting-Frequency: monthly Date: Sun, 5 Jan 1997 05:26:47 GMT Archive-Name: comp-periphs-printers-faq Expires: Sun, 30 Mar 1997 00:00:00 GMT Lines: 316 Subject: 05 Printer Drivers A printer driver is the software which allows a particular computer or program to make the best of the features a printer might have. It is frequently possible to find a driver for a particular piece of software or operating system on BBS/FTP sites from both the company who developed the software/operating system and the company which manufactured the printer itself. That is, you can find specific drivers for DOS, MS Windows, AutoCad, etc. on a printer company BBS and those same drivers might show up on Microsoft's BBS, or that of the Autocad folks. _______________ Subject: 05.01 Operating System specific _______________ Subject: 05.01.01 Macintosh _______________ Subject: 05.01.02 MS-DOS With MS-DOS you may print a text file by copying it to the special name "prn" (or its synonym "lpt1") such that: COPY ASCII.TXT PRN If your software program lets you "Print to a File", you will probably need to use the /B switch on COPY for the file to print properly to LaserJets and many other printers. For example: COPY OUTPUT.BIN PRN /B For sending a program's output to the printer you may be able to redirect stdout to the printer. For example: PROGRAM ... > PRN All three ways mentioned above perform printing in the foreground. That means that you can't continue to work until printing is (nearly) finished. By using the MS-DOS command PRINT printing is done in the background while you may continue with your work. The system maintains a printing queue that can be manipulated with PRINT. Note that the file to print must contain either plain text or control sequences for the printer connected to the PC. For converting any application specific file format into printable data you need the driver supplied with either the application or the printer. If there isn't one for your printer you're out of luck. With the command MODE you can configure the printer port, and you can redirect printing from the standard parallel port (LPT1) to any serial port (e.g. COM1). Normally this command is issued from the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. _______________ Subject: 05.01.03 MS-Windows, Windows-NT By installing a printer driver with these systems all programs running under Windows or Windows-NT can use the printer without knowing too much about the printer connected to the system. If the print manager is active, a program's printout is stored in a file instead of being sent directly to the printer. When printing is finished the print manager queues this file and sends it to the printer as a background job. Meanwhile the program may continue to interact with the user. _______________ Subject: 05.01.04 OS/2 Thanks to Rod Smith for the following information: Printing from OS/2 involves (potentially) three separate printing systems: OS/2, MS-Windows 3.1, and DOS. Each OS has its own way of handling printing (global drivers for OS/2 and Windows programs, and drivers embedded within specific DOS programs), and OS/2 doesn't attempt to "trick" DOS or Windows programs into thinking one printer is hooked up when another actually is. (One exception to this is the ability of FaxWorks to accept output from DOS or Windows programs for the IBM Proprinter and to convert this into a fax.) OS/2 does, however, provide a common print queue and spooler, so it is possible to start print jobs from several programs at once and not get jumbled output. When installing a printer for OS/2, then, it is necessary to set up separate drivers for OS/2, Windows, and each DOS program which will print. Typically, the Windows printer drivers that come with the printer will work fine from OS/2's Windows subsystem, using either "real" Windows 3.1 with OS/2 "for Windows" or with IBM's re-compiled Win-OS/2 that comes with OS/2 "fullpack" versions. Simply install these drivers according to the instructions, and you'll be set. Similarly, drivers that come with the printer or the program should be used for DOS programs. There are a few tricks and caveats, however, in DOS and Windows printing from OS/2. First, OS/2 implements some "virtual" printer ports, such as LPT1.OS2:, which should be used whenever possible. Doing so will allow OS/2 to handle printer output more effectively than if the program attempted to print directly to the equivalent "real" port (LPT1:, for instance). Similarly, it's best to turn off any "direct port access" options that Windows or the program may offer. Windows' Print Manager should also be disabled, since OS/2 includes its own print spooler, and this will typically function more effectively than the Windows 3.1 spooler. In fact, printing with the typical Windows settings (Print Manager active and to LPT1:) will result in MUCH worse performance than when doing this from DOS/Windows, whereas printing as suggested above may result in BETTER printing performance than from DOS/Windows. OS/2 will typically reset the printer between print jobs, and this can cause problems with some (usually DOS) programs. Specifically, some DOS programs may send codes to the printer to enable some special feature, print a page, then close the printer file and open it again for the next page but not send the codes again. OS/2 will interpret this as two print jobs, and will reset the printer to the default mode between jobs, resulting in correct printing of the first page and incorrect printing of subsequent pages. If the program offers a "print to file" option, using this and then sending the file to the printer (either via a PRINT command from an OS/2 command prompt or by a WPS drag-and-drop operation, selecting "printer specific codes" from the prompt that pops up) may offer a workaround. When OS/2 installs, it often sets up a generic text printer as the default Windows printer driver. This results in some applications being unable to use TrueType fonts. Changing the default Windows printer back to whatever it had been before fixes this problem. For OS/2 native use, a few applications send text directly to the printer; for instance, issuing a PRINT command from the OS/2 command line will do this. Most OS/2 applications, however, use a printer driver which is much like a Windows printer driver in concept; the application sends standardized codes to OS/2, and the driver handles the formatting for a specific printer. OS/2 native drivers exist for most printers, but there are some caveats. Many color inkjet drivers for OS/2 are reportedly of much lower quality than the equivalent Windows drivers. Using a PostScript driver along with the freeware GhostScript interpreter reportedly helps with many of these printers. The drivers that come with OS/2 for certain non-Hewlett Packard 600 dpi laser printers only support up to 300 dpi printing. If the printer uses the PCL 5e language, using drivers for the HP LaserJet 4P or some other PCL 5e HP printer may actually produce better results than using the driver identified for that printer, though some of the driver options (for instance, toner saving mode or downloadable fonts) may not work, so some experimentation may be needed to get an optimal setup. Because of this, OS/2 users looking for a 600 dpi laser would be well advised to restrict their search to models which are capable of handling PCL 5e. If satisfactory drivers for a given printer don't come with OS/2, check the printer manufacturer's BBS or ftp or web site. Also check these sources for compatible printers (e.g., HP for most laser printers). For sending output to a parallel port, OS/2 uses a driver called PRINT01.SYS. (This driver operates on a lower level than the specific printer drivers.) On installation, OS/2 configures this driver to use a "polling" I/O method, the same as DOS uses. Adding the parameter "/IRQ" to the PRINT01.SYS reference in OS/2's CONFIG.SYS file switches this driver to use an interrupt-driven method. In theory, interrupt-driven printing provides lower CPU overhead and should therefore work better in a multitasking system such as OS/2. Some hardware, however (including printer ports in computers, cables, and even printers) doesn't work well with OS/2's interrupt-driven mode. Similarly, sound cards are sometimes configured to use the same IRQ as the printer port, thus causing problems with interrupt-driven printing. Thus, OS/2 users may want to try both methods and see which works best; simply change the line in CONFIG.SYS and reboot. Note that this change will affect printing from OS/2, Windows, and DOS programs under OS/2, but will not affect printing when rebooting to another OS. OS/2 includes a built-in spooling mechanism. When printing very large files, it's possible to actually overrun the available disk space with these spool files. If you get a message about lack of disk space when printing a large document, try printing it in smaller sub-sections. If this is impossible or if this happens repeatedly, and if you have several partitions, it may be possible to change the location of the OS/2 spool file. This is controlled by an entry in OS/2's .INI files, however, and so requires use of a special .INI file editing program, and this is potentially dangerous, and so is not recommended for novices. _______________ Subject: 05.01.05 UNIX In nearly all UNIX systems printing is done by the built-in spooler system. In rare cases you may print directly by sending a file or any program's output to the device where the printer is attached. Since UNIX is a multiuser system, someone else may do the same thing at about the same time resulting in garbage output. So you should always use the system's spooler command. Not to mention the fact that printer device files are often accessible only with root privileges. The two most common spooler systems are the Berkeley Spooler (lpr) and the AT&T Spooler (lp). The spooler command queues the print job and informs the spooler daemon about it. The spooler daemon eventually starts the backend program associated with the printer (if the printer is idle at that moment). The backend program performs some initial setup for the device (stty or the like) and then it sends the print job to the printer (some backends programs scan the data during printing and convert single linefeeds into carriage return linefeed pairs - this may also do the device driver itself). Note that the file to print must contain either plain text or control sequences for the printer in question. For converting any application specific file format into printable data you need the driver supplied with either the application or the printer. If there isn't one for your printer you're probably out of luck. _______________ Subject: 05.01.06 NeXTStep/OpenStep See the Vendor Section under Subject: 10.48 for information on GS Corporation "a NEXTSTEP/OpenStep software developer focusing on input/output and publishing/web tools and solutions." _______________ Subject: 05.01.07 Others _______________ Subject: 05.02 Program specific _______________ Subject: 05.02.01 AutoCad AutoCad is written and supplied by AutoDesk (which has offices in several countries). They have various Internet and CompuServe addresses, and have a hot-line telephone support service for people who buy the software. Most AutoDesk outlets are distributors, and they have many representative retailers who on-sell their software. Even in Perth, Western Australia there are at least three Authorized AutoDesk resellers (not bad for a total population of just over 1,000,000 with I guess about 10,000 users!). The newer AutoCad packages have very rigidly defined interface protocols and if you are a printer or plotter manufacturer you can obtain a developer's kit from AutoDesk which explains EXACTLY how to write driver software to be compatible with AutoCad. Many bigger manufacturers are supported directly by AutoDesk (mostly plotters, eg OCI, Ioline, etc), but there are hundreds of manufacturers who have written AutoDesk drivers for their printers/plotters/whatever. AutoDesk also manufactures a "small-user" cad package called AutoSketch. It has a similarly rigidly defined (but much simpler) interface protocol, and I think it directly supported Epson 9-pin printers, but don't quote me on that! | The AutoDesk Web Site has a nice | search tool that points to several documents when you query | "printer driver". _______________ Subject: 05.02.02 GRAFSMAN For information on drivers for GRAFSMAN from Soft-tek | International, try their web site , | or Technical Support at or 316 838-7200. _______________ Subject: 05.02.03 Lotus 1-2-3 _______________ Subject: 05.02.04 WordPerfect | With the sale to Novell and then Corel, I suspect the phone | numbers have also changed, but I haven't had a chance to check. BBS: 801 225-4444 801 222-4325/4369 - US Robotics/HST Modem CompuServe: WPFILES or WPUSERS forums. FAX: 800 228-9960 or 801 228-9920 | FTP: FTP site previously listed failed 03 Jan 1997. | World Wide Web: _______________ Subject: 05.02.05 Others _______________ ===== End of Part 5 of 11