Category : Printer + Display Graphics
Archive   : CSHOW873.ZIP
Filename : PRINTER.DOC

Printing overview
-----------------

Printing of all graphics to a wide variety of printers is a feature of the
enhanced/registered version of CompuShow (this standard/ShareWare version does
not print graphics).

The following is a list of the supported printers, along with a few questions
and answers related to printing graphics.

Printer Drivers
---------------

All printer drivers (except the IBM Compact Printer) support both a "fast"
print mode and a "quality" mode. All drivers support printing in black and
white and "negative" (black and white negated, which is good for any maps or
charts which are basically white lines on a black background). Color printer
drivers also print color graphics (in color).

Most "IBM compatible" 8 pin printers (such as Epson, Citizen, Panasonic, Star,
Toshiba, etc.) can use one of the "IBM/Epson 8pin" drivers.

If your 8 pin printer supports 72 and 144 dpi printing, try the Citizen MSP
10/15/20/25 driver.

IBM or Epson compatible 24 pin printers should be able to use one of the two
KX-P2624 drivers.

Select the "Color 24 pin" driver for a 24-pin color printer, and one of the
two "Color 8 pin" drivers should work for any 8-pin color printer.

The drivers are listed in 2 groups:

Color printer drivers
Monochrome printer drivers

____Color printer drivers___________________________________

Color 8 pin (EX-800)
A GENERIC 8 pin color driver for 24/216" graphics line spacing. Tested on a
Star NX-1000 Rainbow and Citizen MSP-50. Similar to EX-800, LX-800, FX-86e,
LX-86, LX-80.

Color 8 pin (JX-80)
A GENERIC 8 pin color driver for 20/180" graphics line spacing. Similar to JX-
80, LQ-1500, ALPS ALQ200.

Color 24 pin (LQ-2550)
A GENERIC 24 pin color printer for 24/216" graphics line spacing. Similar to
LQ-2550.

Okidata 290 series color
Tested on a model 292.

IBM Color Printer
Vertical dot spacing is 84 dpi.


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Hewlett Packard PaintJet.
Ink colors are different from the color DeskJets.

____Monochrome printer drivers______________________________

IBM/EPSON 8pin (n/216")
A GENERIC driver for 8 pin printers that specify line spacing in multiples of
1/216"

IBM/EPSON 8pin (n/180")
A GENERIC driver for 8 pin printers that specify line spacing in multiples of
1/180"

Citizen MSP 10/15/20/25
A GENERIC driver for 8 pin printers that support 72 and 144 dpi.

KX-P2624 (24 pin: LQ1050)
A GENERIC driver for 24 pin printers.

KX-P2624 (ProPrntr XL24E)
For the IBM Pro Printer XL24E and compatibles (including some Canon Bubble-
Jets?).

HP DeskJet 75/300 dpi
Prints slightly darker than the LaserJet driver.

HP LaserJet 75/150 dpi
For Laser Jets with limited memory installed.

HP LaserJet 75/300 dpi
For Laser Jets with adequate memory installed.

HP Thinkjet [MDL 2225C]
Supports 96 and 192 dpi.

IBM Compact
Has one graphics mode, at 70 dpi

NEC 8023
May also work with the C.Itoh Prowriter.

Okidata ML92/ML93

Prints 7 pin graphics.

Printer Questions and Answers
-----------------------------

I JUST GOT AN HP DESKJET 500C (OR 550C). DO YOU HAVE A DRIVER FOR IT?

We've tried for MONTHS to get ink color information through the HP Peripherals
Developers Program, and a number of DeskJet owners have called HP to complain
to them and attempt to get the technical information. We're still trying to
track down the specifications we need, but at this point it looks like HP will
never provide the information we need.




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WHEN I PRINT IN QUALITY MODE, I ONLY GET A PARTIAL PAGE

You're out of (computer) memory. Printing in quality mode on most color
printers and laser printers above 150dpi requires more than 640k of memory (in
other words, at least 1meg of either EMS or XMS). The program must expand,
rescale and dither the entire image to 'virtual screen' memory (see Shift-F1
box) before it starts to print. If you don't have enough memory, the program
prints as much of the image as possible, starting at the top. If you've only
got 640k (or less) memory, you'll be limited to printing in fast mode. If you
have more memory, but haven't allocated EMS or XMS, check your DOS manual for
HIMEM.SYS, EMM386.SYS or similar extended/expanded memory managers. If you
have both EMS and XMS, use the SETUP program "Memory options" function to
control which type (and how much) is used.

WHY DO SOME PICTURES PRINT SIDEWAYS?

Graphics that are 2 colors and are "taller" than they are "wide" are printed
in 'portrait' orientation, at 8x10". Other graphics are printed in 'landscape'
orientation, at 7.5x10" (the same 4:3 aspect ratio as the screen).

THE LIGHTS ON MY HP LASER PRINTER BLINK FOR A FEW SECONDS AND THEN IT EJECTS A
BLANK (OR PARTIALLY PRINTED) PAGE.

The printer may not have enough internal memory to store BOTH soft fonts and
the graphics data. You need to remove soft fonts from printer memory to print
graphics. With minimum memory installed, you may only be able to print at 75
dpi in Fast mode.

PRINTING TO MY LASERJET IS VERY SLOW!

If you're printing to a LaserJet, DeskJet, PaintJet, or any printer that
prints ONE ROW OF DOTS AT A TIME, use EMS memory, not XMS! In Windows, create
a PIF with XMS=0k and EMS=1280k. In DOS, use an EMM386.SYS statement in
CONFIG.SYS (following HIMEM.SYS, if you have it). Note the following
comparison of EMS vs. XMS times (in minutes and seconds) on a 386/SX-16.

24-pin 8-pin LaserJet 300dpi
1800x900 900x720 3000x2250
(ems) (xms) (ems) (xms) (ems) (xms)
expand: 0:09 0:09 0:09 0:09 0:09 0:09
dither: 2:53 2:53 1:12 1:12 11:30 11:30
print: 0:40 0:55 0:18 0:42 5:50 55:30 <--- !!!

So printing to a LaserJet at 300dpi takes FIFTY MINUTES LONGER WITH XMS memory
than with EMS memory!













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