
      !Printers 1.64a (2nd Public Release) 19/07/01
      =============================================

!Printers allow you to transfer RISC OS documents to paper
using a suitable printer.

See the RISC OS User Guide for detailed
information about how to set up and use !Printers.

Contents:
=========
    * End User License Agreement
    * Release Notes
    * Updating !Printers
    * Turbodrivers
    * Laser Direct

End User License Agreement
--------------------------

This version of !Printers is supplied by RISCOS Ltd "as is".
RISCOS Ltd makes no warranty, express or implied, of the
functionality of this software or its fitness for any
particular purpose. In no circumstances shall RISCOS Ltd
be liable for any damage, loss of profits, or any indirect
or consequential loss arising out of the use of this software
or inability to use this software, even if RISCOS Ltd has
been advised of the possibility of such loss.

This software may not be sold or included with any
software package without the written consent of RISCOS Ltd.

Applications for a Commercial Binary Distribution License for this
and other versions of !Printers should be made to:-

RISCOS Ltd
3 Clarendon Road
Cardiff
CF23 9JD
mailto:admin@riscos.com

RISCOS Ltd reserves the right to charge for any version of
!Printers at any time and to supply new versions of !Printers
with improved or enhanced features.

If you have been charged for the supply of this software by
anyone other than RISCOS Ltd then please contact RISCOS Ltd at
the above address with full details.


Release Notes
-------------
!Printers 1.64a has the following enhancements over previous versions:

 * Choices are now stored within the Choices: system, rather than internally to !Printers. This means that one copy of !Printers can be shared easily between many computers (say on a read-only server) without all the machines automatically getting the same configuration. A !Choices application has been made available to provide a Choices: structure on machines not running the new boot sequence.

 * Previous versions of the PDriver and PDumper modules have had a fundamental limit to the combined length of the printer data strings (supposedly 256 characters, but actually smaller than this). As printers have grown in complexity and required more data to be sent to set them up, this limit has become restrictive. The internals of the printing system has now been changed to allow a much greater limit (around 64K).

 * One trend in recent years has been for printers to rely on 'clever' software on the host computer to do things like head cleaning and nozzle alignment. Building this functionality into !Printers is not feasible due to the fact that every printer offers a different range of options, controlled in completely different ways. We have therefore added support for 'external config apps'. These can register themselves at boot time and can be invoked from !Printers - the user should see a seamless system. If you are a third party developer and would like to use these features please contact us for further details.

 * 'Long' printout problems have now been solved (we think); printouts over 2.5 metres or so were causing problems - limited testing has been done on this (as we don't often need to print over that length).

 * Long standing bug in PDumperDM where multiple passes on JX class printers (such as Citizen Swift) can cause address exceptions.

 * "Enhanced Justification" in Ovation Pro triggered a bug in the font manager that resulted in incorrect rendering. Now worked around.

Spurious characters at top of page
---------------------------------
This version of !Printers has a number of changes which means
that the use of some older Printer Definition Files (PDF's) may cause the printing of a spurious character at the top of each page.

If this occurs then you will need to edit the PDF using !PrintEdit.

In the Graphics modes settings box double click on the
resolution from the pop up menu box at the end of the line.

This will then bring up a new Graphics Mode window.

In the "Dump strings" section delete any commands in the
"Set lines" command line. A typical entry will be 27,"C".
This should be deleted and then the new setting saved.
This will need to be repeated for any other resolutions used.

Use with some Hewlett Packard Printers such as the 2100
-------------------------------------------------------
In the file !Boot.Choices.Boot.PreDesk.ModPatch.!Load

the line below needs to be un-commented by deleting the | character
at the start of the line and the file saved in order to prevent very
slow printing with some types of Hewlett Packard printers. 

|RMEnsure ParallelDeviceDriver  0.48 RMLoad <Boot$ModPatchDir>.ParallelSA


Updating !Printers
------------------

It will sometimes be necessary to update !Printers, either to incorporate upgrades or to modify some support information to drive a new printer. You should refer in the first instance to any release notes with the update.

Previous releases of !Printers have suggested adding files within !Printers as required. This is now STRONGLY
discouraged. There should be no reason whatsoever for any file within !Printers to be changed by anyone except RISCOS Ltd.

Given that this is the case it should be possible to upgrade !Printers just by renaming the old one away (for safety) and then copying the new !Printers in.

If you feel you have to add a file into the search path for !Printers then add it into the appropriate directory within the "Choices:" structure (typically !Boot.Choices.Printers).


Turbodrivers
------------
Even though it is now unsupported some users want to continue to use Computer Concepts Turbodriver software.

Turbodrivers used to require small changes to be made to
the !Printers.!RunImage file on installation - this is
no longer necessary as we have incorporated these changes
into !Printers itself. However since no new releases of
Turbodrivers have been made the installer does not understand
recent versions of !Printers. We therefore recommend that you
install into a previous version of !Printers, and then copy the
"td" folder from inside !Printers into the new RO4 !Printers:

1) Locate an old, disc based !Printers

2) Install Turbodriver into this

3) Shift-double click on old !Printers to open it

4) Copy "td" folder into new !Printers

5) Delete old !Printers

You can now install the TD definitions as before.


LaserDirect
-----------
For similar reasons to the Turbo Drivers in order
to use Laser Direct with RO4, you must install into a
previous version of !Printers, and the copy the "ld" folder
from inside !Printers into the new RO4 !Printers:

1) Locate an old, disc based !Printers

2) Install Laser Direct into this

3) Shift-double click on old !Printers to open it

4) Copy "ld" folder into new !Printers

5) Delete old !Printers

You can now install the LD definitions as before.

Alternatively they can be manually copied from inside
!Install.Core_ld on the LaserDirect Install disc.

eof

