Conference hydra::amiga_v1

352.0. "New Printer Driver Generator" by CGFSV1::DREW (Steve Drew) Wed Feb 25 1987 13:21

 I'd picked up this printer driver genrator about a week ago.
 But have'nt had any time to try it out. Maybe one of you will?
 And post your results. It sounds very interesting allows great 
 flexibility and use of extra features of your printer that are'nt
 used with the current drivers: like different graphic  modes.
 
   Heres just some of the special features from the doc file.   
    
	The files are in CGFSV1::disk$73G:[DREW.AMIGA]PRTGEN_*.SHAR
            
   Special features:

   - each paper size (USLetter etc.) may have individually defined width,
     length, perforation skip length and printer initialization sequence.
     Allows you through Preferences to select several combinations of
     character sets, justification, proportional spacing etc.

   - definable size of Pica, Elite and Fine types for printers supporting
     other character sizes than 10, 12, 15 CPI

   - insert internal parameters as binary or decimal numbers into escape
     sequences specific for your printer

*  - graphics dumps may be scaled to any size and positioned on the paper
     according to most recent margins and print pitch settings by user.
     This provides better support for mixing text and graphics

*  - supports up to four graphics modes, if your printer does the same.
     Specify by combination of Draft/Letter and 6/8 LPI.

*  - printing of blank lines in graphics dumps optimized. No more idle
     passes of the print head across the paper.

   - definable pixel width/height ratio to get you true round circles and
     square squares with e.g. DPaint

   - definable print sequence of colors to get the best colors for your
     printer or match the sequence of data required for your printer

   - for printers supporting fore/background colors it is possible to
     define the printer specific color values

   - pixel bits stored in the print buffer according to specified parameters
     in order to accomodate different brands of printers

   - adaptive double buffering (if memory not available for two buffers,
     then use only one) and allocation of small buffers for b/w and grey
     scale pictures (compensates for the larger code size of this driver)

    I just uploaded a new (V2.2), much improved version of the printer
    driver generator.  This one provides a *lot* more control over how
    it talks to the printer so you should be able to creating a usable
    driver for even the most odd-ball printer.  I've included the file
    for a working driver I defined for my Radio Shack CGP-220 printer.
    I don't know whether these drivers will work with Workbench 1.3,
    but I'm very impressed with their capabilities on 1.2 so far!
    
    I got it from Plink, uploaded to PAULY"AMIGA"::PRTGEN22.ARC using
    Kermit.  It's shareware - for about $15 he'll send you the Modula2
    source.

    Hmmm .. thought I had that directory protected ....