Print Wizard 3.0 released

[Bob Rasmussen]

Finally! It's out the door! See
   http://www.anzio.com/pub/printwiz30/pw30setup.exe

The rest of the website is being updated.

For a snapshot of what's new, see below.

Regards,
....Bob Rasmussen,   President,   Rasmussen Software, Inc.

personal e-mail: ras at anzio.com
 company e-mail: rsi at anzio.com
          voice: (US) 503-624-0360 (9:00-6:00 Pacific Time)
            fax: (US) 503-624-0760
            web: http://www.anzio.com
=======================================================
What's New in Print Wizard 3
(taken from the file "whatsnew.txt" included in the download)

1. Printwiz.exe now GUI

   In prior versions, the main program, Printwiz.exe, was a Windows
   console program -- a character-based program that looks like a DOS
   program. Now Printwiz.exe is a graphical program, although its
   graphical needs are minimal.

2. Command Line Parameter Enhancements

   As in prior versions, Printwiz.exe is controlled entirely by
   command line parameters. The number and scope of these has been
   expanded. See the manual for details.

3. PWUI - Print Wizard User Interface

   A new program called PWUI (in the file pwui.exe) acts as a
   graphical front end to most of Print Wizard's operations. It is the
   starting point of most of what you will want to do. It can launch
   individual print operations, configure various services (explained
   below), build and configure services (explained below), accept
   drag-and-drop operation, and more. PWUI is also used to configure
   global parameters, such as what kind of fax and email you will use.

4. Profiles

   Profiles are simply collections of configuration settings. One
   profile might print on the default printer, in landscape, with PCL
   Translation on. Another might generate a fax in portrait mode.

   Profiles are built in PWUI, and used by various programs that are
   part of Print Wizard.

   A "master profile" can be be created (in PWUI) which establishes
   default settings to be used for all print jobs. A "user profile"
   can be specified for a particular print job, and its settings will
   override the master profile settings.

5. Print Wizard Services and Windows Services

   Various tasks that Print Wizard does in which some component
   program continues to run, waiting for something to print or
   process, are called "services". Examples are "listen", LPD, and
   various kinds of despool.

   Services are built, configured, started, and stopped in PWUI. There
   are two kinds of services, "Print Wizard services" and "Windows
   services".

   Print Wizard services are tasks run by standard Windows programs.
   These programs show on the task bar, can be switched to with
   Alt-tab, and can have their own user interface. Print Wizard
   services can be run only by a user that is logged in to Windows.

   Windows services are processes that are tightly tied to the Windows
   operating system. They are "in the background", and can be running
   even when no user is logged in to the Windows system. Windows
   services typically have no user interface.

6. Service Rules

   Services now have a basic set of rules that can be applied when
   using a pre-defined "service". These rules can prevent overly large
   files from printing, they can prevent unauthorized users from
   printing on this printer or through this copy of Print Wizard, and
   they can prevent jobs from being sent by unauthorized host systems.

7. Smart Print

   Print Wizard can be configured to hand off files of types that it
   can not handle natively to other Windows programs, as indicated by
   their file type association. For instance, if you tell Print Wizard
   to print a ".txt" file, it will do so. But if you tell it to print
   a ".doc" file, it will know pass it off to Windows, which will
   (typically) have Microsoft Word print it.

8. Email Improvements

   Print Wizard can now email files using any of four methods. You
   might, for instance, generate a PDF file from a print job and then
   email it to a customer. You can optionally attach other files to
   the email. Or you can email only other files.

9. Fax Improvements

   Print Wizard can generate faxes from print jobs it is given, and
   send them using one of three methods. You can combine this
   generated fax data with other data on your system, or fax only
   other data.

10. Scanner Support Improvements

   A scanner can now be used in more ways, and with more control. Some
   features include:

   + Scanning multiple pages as an input document or a multi-page
     overlay.
   + Support 2-sided scanners, or manual duplexing with page
     rearrangement.
   + Scan and fax

   + Scan and email

   + Scan and print

   + Scan to PDF (and email it)

   + Control color format, density, etc., with no user intervention.

   + Scan from a specified rectangle of the page.

11. PWML enhancements

   Improvements in Print Wizard Markup Language (PWML) include:

   + Row-format labels - Specify the vertical spacing of labels on a
     sheet.

   + Label reuse - In Print Preview, specify starting point of label
     printing, allowing reuse of partial label pages.

   + Align - specify Left, Center, Right, and Fill (Justify) for text
     alignment.

   + Wrap - specify treatment of text that won't fit between margins.
     One unique option is "squeeze", or shrink-to-fit.

   + Cellsize - A font's vertical size can be specified in terms of
     the cell that it must fit within, as opposed to its nominal point
     size.

   + Symbol fonts - Support fonts marked as having the "symbol"
     character set.

12. TIF support

   Print Wizard now can handle TIF/TIFF files as primary input,
   overlays (including multi-page overlays), and inserted graphics.

13. Improvements in PCL translation

   Print Wizard has the ability to print PCL files (primary files
   and/or overlay files) on non-PCL printers as well as when
   generating faxes and PDFs. This support is greatly improved in 3.0,
   with support for color PCL and embedded TrueType fonts. This means
   that more PCL files can be translated successfully.

14. Improvements in builtin PDF generation

   + Non-standard fonts - Any Windows font that does not map directly
     to a standard Acrobat font is now included in the generated PDF
     as a series of bitmaps. This includes Symbol fonts, diacritics,
     non-Roman fonts, etc.

   + Encryption - PDF files can have owner and user passwords and
     usage restrictions.

   + Compression - PDFs are now compressed.

   + Overlay efficiency - Overlays included in PDF files are stored
     only once, then referenced for each page. This greatly reduces
     the size of the generated PDF file for documents containing many
     pages.

   + Unique output names - Names for created PDF files will be unique,
     so as not to overwrite other files.

16. HTTP compression

   When files are fetched from an HTTP or HTTPS server, Print Wizard
   will indicate that it can accept and process compressed downloads.

17. New Bang Commands

   Print Wizard can process a file containing a series of processing
   commands, all of which start with "!". These are known as "bang
   commands". New bang
   commands include:

   + !PRINT - Print text (on a specified printer)

   + !PREVIEW - Use Print Preview, then print text (on a specified
     printer)

   + !PDF - Generate a PDF using the builtin generator

   + !FAX - Generate a fax using the previously configured default fax
     mechanism

   + !EMAIL - Generate an email using the previously configured
     default email mechanism

   + !RUN START - Do the equivalent of a "start" or "open" on a
     specified file