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Printing An Overview

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Windows 3.1 introduced Truetype fonts. Colour Arrives ... Probably best to supply paper (free or charged for) since cheap paper can damage ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Printing An Overview


1
Printing (An Overview)
  • File and print services were one of the major
    benefits of Windows for Workgroups
  • The most common early PC networks used Novell
    Netware 3 for printing
  • Dot-matrix printers were the normal standard,
    often using continuous stationery
  • The most common nuisances were noise and having
    to re-align the paper

2
Printer Technology
  • Dot-matrix printers were solid, if clunky and had
    the ability to survive an earthquake,
    particularly the Epsons
  • Decent printers were very expensive and often
    beyond the reach of small organizations
  • Colour printing was almost always professionally
    done

3
The decline of the dot-matrix
  • Dot-matrix PC printers were controlled by
    relatively simple DOS-based control characters
  • People wanted more sophisticated printing,
    particularly more variety in fonts and size
  • There were improvements in ink technology and in
    printer hardware

4
Printing Protocols
  • The old gold standard of printing was PostScript,
    developed by Adobe and used by Apple
    (Laserwriters). See http//www.gkss.de/W3/PS/posts
    cript.html
  • HP used PCL (Program Control Language) for their
    laser printers and then began to use it for
    inkjets and bubblejets.
  • Windows 3.1 introduced Truetype fonts

5
Colour Arrives
  • Early HP deskjets were black-and-white only
  • Colour deskjets started appearing in 1993-94. The
    resolution (300 dpi dots per inch) was not very
    good and cartridges were expensive
  • Currently interpolated dpi ( up to 1400 etc) is
    probably higher than the human eye can distinguish

6
Personal Printers and PCs
  • Under Windows 3.1 you simply opened Control
    Panel/Printers and used Add Printer. You might
    have to use Have Disk if there were no old
    Windows 3.1 drivers for it
  • This is still the way in which you manually add a
    printer under Windows 2000
  • The great change was in Windows 95 with the
    introduction of Plug-and-Pray

7
Printer Woes
  • Windows 95 stamped printers were supposed to be
    able to be detected by PnP
  • Windows NT 3.5 and 4 is not a PnP system so
    printers have to be added manually
  • Windows NT uses GDI (Graphics Device Interface)
    to render the job in the language of the device
    it is talking to.

8
Windows 9X v NT Printers
  • Manufacturers like HP assumed (wrongly!) that
    people wouldnt want small cheap printers for
    Windows NT
  • Sites running NT were expected to use NT server
    as a print server and to run large laserjets
  • HP also assumed that nobody would keep a deskjet
    for much more than a year...

9
Windows 9X v NT Printers
  • Very few deskjets (ie the ordinary personal
    printers) were NT-compatible between 1996-1998
  • Belatedly HP did provide NT-compatible drivers
    for most of them. Check http//www.hp.com/cposuppo
    rt/eschome.html
  • Mostly because Epson and Lexmark re-entered the
    market

10
What do I look for in a personal printer?
  • Speed
    - measured in
    pages-per-minute.
    If the user is administrative, this can
    be crucial
  • Horizontal feeding if possible
    - pages are less likely to get jammed
  • Noise - a shared office or library?

    There will be complaints!

11
Dos and Donts
  • NT 4 does not support USB. So no USB printers
  • Decent paper. Too light and it may jam/misfeed in
    the printer - and damage it!
  • Dont buy a cheap printer for heavy usage. -
    Black-and-white laser printers are relatively
    cheap
  • Dont use recycled cartridges too often -
    they do the printer no good and may shorten its
    life

12
What about Photo-Realistic printers?
  • Fine if you want to print out your homesnaps
  • Because the interpolation is very high, colour
    printing is slow
  • Black-and-white printing may also be extremely
    slow
  • They eat ink, particularly colour cartridges
    (expensive)

13
Running Costs
  • Depends on usage. Colour cartridges can be up to
    40, and these go very quickly
  • If you put printers in a public area, expect to
    get through at least three cartridges a year
  • Probably best to supply paper (free or charged
    for) since cheap paper can damage printers
  • CS charges 4p a sheet, 50p colour

14
Network Printing
  • NT server happily works with Windows 3.1, Windows
    9X and NT workstations
  • It renders printing jobs as EMF (enhanced
    Metafile) or RAW (if Postscript)
  • You do not have to install individual printer
    drivers on these machines
  • An NT print server can talk to Apple Macs but
    there are sometimes zone problems

15
Further References
  • http//www.lebarge.com/clark/winnt4/NTPrinting/ntp
    rint1.htm gives a full and detailed description
    of NT network printing
  • http//support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q
    209/4/83.ASP for a general problem with HP
    drivers (install the latest!)
  • NT Resource Kit has some useful tips on printers

16
Network Printing Dos and Donts
  • Do buy at least three years on-site maintenance
    with your network printer - it saves the
    hassle factor
  • Do make sure that your printer is up to the job
    (try and estimate print output and look at the
    printer specifications)
    - no deskjets!
  • Do make sure that someone is responsible for
    paper supply if you are away...

17
Network Printing Problems
  • NT 3.5(1) Server and NT 4 workstations have
    problems - upgrade to NT4 server
  • Make sure that users cant reset the printers
    properties (changing default from EMFgtRAW) can be
    catastrophic
  • Set a limit where possible on the size/length of
    files users can send to the printer
  • Make sure that users defaults are set to A4, not
    letter!

18
Non-NT Printer Server Setups
  • If you are a small group and only have one
    printer then it can normally be shared
    successfully (assuming Win 9X or NT)
  • You will need local accounts on the machine which
    is attached to the printer
  • You will need to install the printer driver on
    every machine which needs to access it
  • Dont use a machine with confidential data on it
    (eg CAPSA) to share the printer from!

19
Who needs personal printers?
  • Everyone believes that they need a personal
    printer (My work is very important) -
    This is not necessarily true
  • Staff who standardly print confidential documents
    probably do need one (for obvious reasons)
  • Heads of Departments and other VIPs dont
    necessarily need one but may have to have one

20
Printing v Photocopying
  • The two technologies have recently begun to
    converge which can be confusing
  • Some deskjets now offer double-sided printing eg
    HP Deskjet 895CXI
  • Be a little wary - this substantially slows down
    printing and you must let the ink dry
  • Deskjet colour fades very quickly (three months)
    and is really not suitable for documents which
    need to be kept!

21
Printing v Photocopying
  • For good quality print masters (black-and-white)
    on a laser and then photocopy to
    double-sided/multiple
  • For best quality (especially for colour graphics)
    use a colour laserjet (3000)
  • If you dont have access to one then try
    http//www.cam.ac.uk/CS/PIS/

22
Printer Troubleshooting It Doesnt
Work
  • Check that the printer is still set as the
    default (there may be more than one listed)
  • Try and print a testpage on the printer
  • Ask the user if theyve changed anything recently
  • Re-install the drivers and/or try downloading the
    most recent drivers from the manufacturers website

23
Printer Troubleshooting
  • Try the clean/align print head options most
    printers have nowadays if the printer keeps
    complaining
  • Check that the user is using decent paper and
    that it is actually being picked up by the
    printer
  • Check that the printer will work on another
    machine

24
Printer Troubleshooting It never worked!
  • Try installing/using a generic driver instead of
    the specific one for the printer eg HP
    Deskjet/Laserwriter
  • WordPerfect 5.1 or 6 have their own printer
    drivers- use the nearest to the printer you can
    see on whats offered
  • Old printers - the printer may have run out of
    buffer memory

25
Font Problems
  • Printers often have their own fonts installed -
    If you are using a non-standard font like Sabon
    you should probably download it to the printer
  • Times Roman on a Mac is not necessarily the same
    as Times Roman on a PC - beware!
  • Non-interpretable characters. If you have foreign
    scripts in a document you may need the font(s)
    they use as well!

26
Print to File
  • If you dont have a local printer or one with you
    you can use Print to File
  • Print to File uses whatever you have installed as
    your default printer
  • Therefore if your normal printer is a Laserjet 4
    elsewhere install the Laserjet 4 drivers on your
    portable!
  • Dont be surprised if things look different on a
    different printer

27
Time for a New Printer?
  • A local firm charges 50.00 for an initial
    callout for printer problems - a new printer will
    probably cost 150.00-200.00 pounds
  • Printer parts (especially inkjets) are
    increasingly hard to come by, so you may be
    waiting a long time
  • Complicated graphics may take up to three times
    as long on an old printer (buffer limitations)

28
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