Download of letterhead to printer

[Jim Asman]

--------------- Original Message ---------------
At 09:25A Wed Jul 26 2006, Rodgers Hemer wrote:

> My client is running filePro 5.0.14 on SCO Enterprise 5.0.7 and has  
> several HP 2430 networked printers.  In addition to standard reports  
> from filePro, several of the outputs are wholly composed of HPGL  
> commands, including bar codes with software and instructions from Jim  
> Asman.  The client would also like to down load his letterhead and  
> logos that are currently being pre-printed on the the printer paper.   
> We do not want to insert any Windows based print servers into the  
> system.  Some of the users run Anzio on their PCs but other users are  
> on Wyse S50 terminal servers with direct SCO Ansi interfaces.
> 
> Specifically,
> 
>                 What format should the letterheads and logos use? (TIFF, 
JPG, etc.)
>                 Once the formats are resident on the server, what commands 
and/or  
> software are used to place them on the filePro reports?
>                 Can the formats be saved on the printer so that they need to 
be  
> downloaded only when the printer is turned on?
> 
> Thanks very much for what ever assistance any one can provide,

Everything needs to be in PCL format.

It sounds as though, you need to do some consolidation of the material
to get a single overlay for the form, including logos etc.

Depending on how the HP-GL/2 is implemented, you might be better off
to just do it over.

Fonts and forms can be downloaded in advance and will survive a printer
reset, but not a power down of the printer. Flash memory can be 
installed to store forms and fonts permanently in the printer. This
requires the memory be added to ALL printers and then ALL printers need
to be updated with any changes.

Really, the overhead of downloading well constructed forms is minimal,
and only needs to be maintained on the computer. If all your users are
are all on the UNIX box, then that is the only place the macros need exist.

Have a look at the macro chapter in the PCL5 Technical Reference. It has
a lot of information. 

Operationally, your form is assigned an ID No. when the macro is created,
and the form is then called by that ID No. on your output, maybe in a
variable on the output format. This means that you could have several
forms resident in the printer and depending on the current data, the
appropriate form or logo or whatever is brought into play.

Any other questions? :-)



Jim 
--
jlasman at telus.net                      Spectra Colour Services Ltd.
Jim Asman                              10221 144a Street            
Phone: (604)584-0977                   Surrey, BC  V3R 3P7   CANADA            
 Cell: (604)619-0977                   www.spectracolorservices.com