Hqn025-RTL dev plug-in.pdf - Xitron

0Harlequin RIPThe RTLdev pluginTechnical Note Hqn025June 2001

A plugin to drive output devices which use the RTL language designed byHewlett-Packard for their range of plotters is available for use with theHarlequin RIP under Windows 3.1 and NT. Such printers include the HP750from Hewlett Packard themselves, and the NovaJet range from Encad.1 Installing the pluginHarlequin RIP 3.3: Two files must be copied into place for the plugin to operatecorrectly. Both should be copied to SW\Devices (or SW\DEVICES when shortfile names are being used).For Intel-based PCs:For DEC Alpha:RTLDEV.I32RTLDEV.AXPAll platforms also need the file RTLDEV.PS.The plugin will now appear in the Page Setup dialog as HP 650C.Harlequin RIP 4.1: Copy the rtldev directory to SW\Devices (or SW\DEVICESwhen short file names are being used).Directory structure should be as follows:rtldevrtldev.axp (alpha) or rtldev.i32 (intel)rtldev.map- PROFILES- HP650C650-50A750-55A- SETUPSSETUP- TARGETSTARGET1 Commercial in Confidence Technical Note Hqn025: v1.3 June 2001

2 Configuring the plugin2 Configuring the pluginAt first glance the Device Configuration dialog accessed from the Page Setupdialog may look a little complex, but it can be separated into several distinctsections:Technical Note Hqn025: v1.3 June 2001 Commercial in Confidence 2

Color format of job: This option tells the plugin how the PostScript languagedescription of the page(s) to be output has been created. You shouldselect Color if you are supplying composite color PostScript, Monochromeif your pages are only black and white, and CMYK Pre-separatedif you wish to produce color output from PostScript files whichhave already been separated by your DTP application.Send Output to: The RTL data can either be sent directly to the printer (OutputPort), or to a file on disk (File).Calibration suffix. This text box, taken in conjunction with the pop-up list ofcalibration sets in the main Page Setup dialog, allows you to set theRIP up to calibrate each channel of a color page independently.To produce uncalibrated output, select None as a calibration set in thePage Setup dialog.To calibrate each channel separately:• Create four calibration sets in the calibration manager – one for each ofthe process color channels. Each should be named ,where is one of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black, and is a name of your own choosing which is used to associate1the four files with each other.• Select any calibration set apart from None in the pop-up menu in thePage Setup dialog.• Type the same string that you used when naming the calibrationsets into the Calibration suffix box on the device configurationdialog.e.g. You could create four calibration sets named “Cyan for RTL”,“Magenta for RTL”, “Yellow for RTL”, and “Black for RTL”.You would then enter “for RTL” in the Calibration suffix box.To calibrate all four channels using the same calibration set, you can usethe Copy button on the Calibration Manager dialog to create four cali-1.Notethat the suffix used in each case must be exactly the same, including whetherit is upper or lower case.3 Commercial in Confidence Technical Note Hqn025: v1.3 June 2001

2 Configuring the pluginbration sets which are identical apart from their names, which mustfollow the guidelines given above.Unprintable Margins. HP plotters have a unprintable margin on the left sideand top of the page. In order to compensate for this margin, measurethe left margin and top margin from the calibration page printed bythe HP plotter. Default values of 5.0mm and 17.00mm has been specifiedby the manual however each plotter maybe different. Also enterthe exact size of the page in the page layout dialog in Page Setup. Ifthis is not entered the plugin will not be able to output the page correctly.Output Port Selection. If you are sending the RTL data produced by theplugin directly to the printer (see Send Output to above), you can definewhich port the printer is attached to here. Use lpt1 or lpt2 for parallelports 1 and 2, and com1 or com2 for serial ports.Filename Setup. If you wish to save the RTL data in a file on disk this sectiondefines where it will be saved, and under what name.If Use Job Name is selected then the name of the file created will be based onthe jobname set in the PostScript language file which describes the page, otherwisethe name entered in the Name field will be used. It’s possible to constructvery complex output file names using flags in the Name field – see theAdvanced Features section below.If Unique File Name is selected then numbers will be appended to the file namein order to create a unique name for each file produced.If 8.3 Name is checked the files will be created using DOS-compatible short filenames, otherwise long file names will be used.The Extension set in the text box by the same name will be appended to the filename.The Output Folder button allows you to set the directory in which files will besaved. If the text box is left empty then files will be created in the RIP’s SWdirectory.If a new file would have the same name as an existing file, a warning messagewill be displayed in the RIP Monitor, and the file will be overwritten.Technical Note Hqn025: v1.3 June 2001 Commercial in Confidence 4

Post Processing. This section can be used to configure an external applicationto run another process after the output is completed. If you are printingdirect to a printer, this could send further commands to the printer.If your RTL output was directed to a disk file, the post-processing commandscould be used to convert to a different format or to send thedata to a printer via a channel which is not directly supported by theplugin etc.The Enable checkbox turns this functionality on and off. The post-processoritself will be invoked using the Command entered, as if it had been typed at acommand prompt. If Create Window is checked then a command promptwindow will be opened for the post-processor.If the command to be invoked is an .EXE file, and can be found on the currentpath then a full path name is not required. If it is not in the current path, or a.BAT or .COM file is to be run, then a full path name, and the executable file’sextension must be entered.e.g.munge-itwould be fine if you want to run MUNGE-IT.EXE and that file can be found onthe current path, but if you wanted to start MUNGE-IT.BAT, you must enter:C:\bin\munge-it.batThe current working directory is set to point to the directory specified as theOutput Folder above before the command is executed.The command line entered can also include flags for complex processing – seeAdvanced features below for more details.Resolution should be set on the main Page Setup dialog as usual. The pluginsupports a list of resolutions which is designed to address the needs ofthe vast majority of RTL printers. Many of those printers will not supportall, or even most of the resolutions listed by the plugin. In order toobtain correctly scaled output you must be sure to select the correct resolutionfor your particular printer.5 Commercial in Confidence Technical Note Hqn025: v1.3 June 2001

3 Advanced Features3 Advanced FeaturesIt’s possible to create a wide variety of file name structures by using flags inthe Name text box in the plugin’s Device Configuration dialog. The same flagscan be used in the Command field to configure post processing details.Each of these flags comprises a ‘%’ (percent) character, followed by anoptional integer, and then a letter code taken from the following list:c the current separation color [default length = 1]d the current date YYMMDD [default length = 6]efjnoprsthe job exposurethe output file name*the current job namethe current Harlequin RIP job numberthe full output file path*the current page number within jobthe job resolutionthe sanitized current jobname (i.e. with characters which would beillegal in a file name removed)t the current time HHMMSS [default length = 6]u a unique, automatically incremented number [default length = 2]xzthe current file name suffixthe current file name stemThe integer preceding these codes indicates the maximum number of characterswhich will appear in the result string. The actual number of charactersmay be less if the expanded string or digit contains fewer characters.The flags marked * above can be used to specify a post processing Command,but not in the file Name field.Some substitution codes may be entered in upper case, in which case thereplacement text is converted to upper case; these are %C, %F, %J, %O, %S,%X and %Z,.Technical Note Hqn025: v1.3 June 2001 Commercial in Confidence 6

e.g.%d would evaluate to 951213 on December 13th, 1995, and %2d to 95 in 1995.%8S-%C.%4u would generate a file name based on the first 8 characters of thejob name after characters which would be illegal in a file name have beenremoved (uppercased), with the separation color appended and then anumerical extension up to 4 characters long generated automatically to ensureunique file names. Thus the Magenta separation of a job called “This is anExample” could generate a file called THISISANEX-M.7121.4 TroubleshootingIn most cases any problems which arise during output can be cleared byaborting the output from the RIP and switching the printer off and on. Thenotes below cover situations which cannot be cleared in this way:• RIP shows Could not set port timeout to 30, job aborted -cleaning upThis is almost always caused by the RIP failing to obtain control of theparallel port because some other process is using it. Check that you don’thave any printer instances in Windows Print Manager associated withthe port you are using to connect to the plotter.• Output frequently becomes garbled mid-way through some plots fromWindows NT.Check that you have version 5.1 of the Sentinel driver installed (selectthe file \WinNT\System32\Drivers\Sentinel.sys in the file managerand choose Properties from the file menu.) Version 5.1 has been shippedwith Harlequin RIP from version 3.3 revision 7b4 and version 4.0revision 2b onwards. If you have earlier revisions of the Sentinel driveryou may see garbled plots, especially on large pages.• No output is created while printing.Make sure that the exact size of the page in the page layout dialog inPage Setup. If this is not entered the plugin will not be able to output thepage correctly.7 Commercial in Confidence Technical Note Hqn025: v1.3 June 2001

4 TroubleshootingChange historyv 1.0 95.12.15 Initial releasev1.1 96.08.16 Added trouble shooting sectionv1.2 96.11.01 Updated version of plugin. Added HP750 support. Added 4.1 plugin support.Added unprintable region to configuringthe plugin. Addedtroubleshooting tip.v 1.3 2001.06.13 Updated cover page and copyrightpage.Removed references to ScriptWorksand replaced with Harlequin RIP.No other changes made to text.Technical Note Hqn025: v1.3 June 2001 Commercial in Confidence 8

9 Commercial in Confidence Technical Note Hqn025: v1.3 June 2001

4 TroubleshootingCopyright © 1992–2001 Global Graphics Software Limited.All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording,or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Global Graphics Software Limited.The information in this publication is provided for information only and is subject to changewithout notice. Global Graphics Software Limited and its affiliates assume no responsibility orliability for any loss or damage that may arise from the use of any information in this publication.The software described in this book is furnished under license and may only be used orcopied in accordance with the terms of that license.ScriptWorks is a registered trademark and Harlequin, the Global Graphics Software logo,EasyTrap, FireWorks, FlatOut, Harlequin Color Management System, HCMS, Harlequin RIP,Harlequin Color Production Solutions, HCPS, Harlequin Color Proofing, HCP, Harlequin FullColor System, HFCS, Harlequin ICC Profile Processor, HIPP, Harlequin Standard Color System,HSCS, Harlequin Chain Screening, HCS, Harlequin Dispersed Screening, HDS, HarlequinMicro Screening, HMS, Harlequin Precision Screening, HPS, Harlequin Screening Library, HSL,Harpoon, RipFlow, ScriptWorks MicroRIP, ScriptProof, ProofReady, SetGold, Scalable OpenArchitecture RIP, SOAR, TrapMaster, TrapWorks, PDF Creator and RIPFlow are all trademarksof Global Graphics Software Limited.Portions licensed under U.S. Patents: Nos. 4,500,919, 4,941,038 and 5,212,546. EasyTrap islicensed under one or more of the following U.S. Patents: Nos. 5,113,249, 5,323,248, 5,420,702,5,481,379.Adobe, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Type Manager, Acrobat, Display PostScript, Adobe Illustrator,PostScript, Distiller and PostScript 3 are either registered trademarks or trademarks ofAdobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries which may be registeredin certain jurisdictions.®Global Graphics Software Limited is a licensee of Pantone, Inc. PANTONE Colors generated byScriptWorks are four-color process simulations and may not match PANTONE-identified solidcolor standards. Consult current PANTONE Color Publications for accurate color. PANTONE®,Hexachrome®, and PANTONE CALIBRATED are trademarks of Pantone, Inc. © Pantone, Inc.,1991.Other brand or product names are the registered trademarks or trademarks of their respectiveholders.US Government UseThe ScriptWorks software is a computer software program developed at private expense and is subject to the followingRestricted Rights Legend: “Use, duplication, or disclosure by the United States Government is subject to restrictions as setforth in (i) FAR 52.227-14 Alt III or (ii) FAR 52.227-19, as applicable. Use by agencies of the Department of Defense (DOD) issubject to Global Graphics Software’s customary commercial license as contained in the accompanying license agreement,in accordance with DFAR 227.7202-1(a). For purposes of the FAR, the Software shall be deemed to be `unpublished’ andlicensed with disclosure prohibitions, rights reserved under the copyright laws of the United States. Global Graphics SoftwareIncorporated, 95 Sawyer Road, Waltham, Massachusetts 02453.”Technical Note Hqn025: v1.3 June 2001 Commercial in Confidence 10

11 Commercial in Confidence Technical Note Hqn025: v1.3 June 2001