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1992-09-26
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Trademarks
----------
Amiga is a registered trademark of Commodore-Amiga, Inc.
Kickstart is a registered trademark of Commodore-Amiga, Inc.
Workbench is a registered trademark of Commodore-Amiga, Inc.
PostScript is a trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated.
PageStream is a registered trademark of Soft-Logik Publishing Co.
Professional Page is a trademark of Gold Disk Inc.
AGFA, Compugraphic and Intellifont is a registered trademark of AGFA
All other trademarked product and company names used herein are
used for identification purposes only. No infringement of
trademarks is intended. Trademarks remain property of the
trademark holder.
Warranty, Registration, Support and Upgrades
--------------------------------------------
Copyright © 1992 Wolf Faust. All rights reserved. All
distribution- and marketing rights to the software (driver) are
vested in Canon Europa N.V.
The driver has been provided to you strictly 'as is', without
warranty of any kind. In no event shall Canon and/or Faust be
held liable for any loss or damages arising out of any action,
from whatever source, concerning the use or inability to use the
driver.
For obtaining a copy of the driver, or for more information about
Amiga driver, please contact your local Canon representative.
Following driver revisions have been made:
Preliminary:
Version 99
Version 99a - Formfeed allowed in native mode for CanonStudio/ADPro
Version 99b - TIFF compression now written in assembler
Version 99c - small bug in ink compensation fixed
(caused small color differences)
- CanonPref improved for KS 3.0 compatibility
- CanonPref font independent check now allows size >5 pix.
Version 99d - Supermode added
- CanonPref user interface improved and SuperMode added
FINAL:
03.09.91 Version 1.0
Thanks to
---------
Several people were involved during the writing of the driver and
documentation. To all of them, thank you!
Contents
--------
The CanonBJC package contains a printer driver for use with the
Canon BJC800 and other Epson compatible printers. Note, there are
special driver version available for the BJ130,300,330,10, LBP
printers! Also, the CanonStudio is available for all Canon
printer drivers. CanonStudio allows printing of IFF pictures in
any size from disk (this means: you don't need much memory like
ADPro!). Also CanonStudio offers some enhanced dither routines
and 24/8 Bit accuracy.
The following files are included on the disk:
"CanonBJ-EC" - The printer driver revision 1
"CanonPref" - A KS 2.0 (or higher) driver preferences program
"Install" - Workbench install program for the CanonBJ-EC800 driver
"Report" - A report program telling your preferences/driver settings
"Readme" - The documentation file (and/or printed manual)
"Dither-Settings" - a drawer of predefined dither matrices
"Color-Settings" - a drawer of predefined "color adjustments"
Highlights of the CanonBJC package
----------------------------------
- ink compensation
- color and greyscale adjustment. 256 shades for each color component!
You are able to print a color corrected picture without loosing any
colors. Using the color adjustment you can control gamma correction,
brightness and contrast, or filter colors. Again: this driver is
not limited to max. 4096 colors as usual Amiga drivers!
- free definable dither routines. The driver allows you to enter
any dither matrix for rect. disperesed /clustered dithers. Many dither
routines are included.
- builtin support for the arXon electronic centronic switch box
- very fast graphic dumps
- Seperations are supported by the driver.
- automaticly uses improved code for 68020/30 processors if available
- fully supports WB 1.3, 2.0 and 2.1(!)
- all paper margins are definable
- mirror printing for T-Shirts...
- paper size is freely definable
- comes with an extra KS 2.0 preferences program for controlling the driver
- install program supplied
- full documentation
- free definable tab stops
- job end signal
- text color selectable
- while normal printer drivers are limited to 16 shades of grey,
the CanonBJ-EC driver supports up to 256 shades of grey simultaneously
(SuperMode)!
System requirements
-------------------
The CanonBJ-EC driver is compatible with the entire family of Amiga
computers. These include the A500, A500+, A600, A1000, A2000,
A2500, A2500/30 and A3000 computers. The driver was designed to
run under Workbench versions 1.3, 2.0 and 2.1. The CanonPref
program was designed to run under Workbench 2.0 and 2.1.
The CanonBJ-EC driver was designed for the Canon BJC800 printer.
Installation
------------
1. Setup and connect your BJC-800 as described in the BJC-800 User's
Manual.
2. Also make sure the BJC printer is setup as following:
Function Setting
o Printing Mode As Appropriate. Start trying with Mode A!
o Set Parameter
->Color set by Amiga preferences
->Character Space set by Amiga preferences
->Condensed Mode set by Amiga preferences
->Page Length set by Amiga preferences
->Line Length set by Amiga preferences
->Select Font As Appropriate; May be set by using CanonPref
->Graphic Table Graphics
->International set to USA!; the driver will handle all national
characters automaticly.
->AutoLF set to OFF
->CR Code set to NO PRINT
3. Boot your Amiga with your usual System Disk
4. Insert the Canon Driver Disk and select the appropriate
"Drawer" for the printer.
5. Double Click on the "Install" program. The "Install" program
will copy the driver on to the system disk and saves the default
settings for the driver in env: and if available envarc:.
If there is not enough free disk space to install the
printer driver a requester will pop up saying so. In this
case free up some disk space on your system disk by
deleting unused files.
6. Start Preferences on your system disk (if you own Kickstart
2.0 use the printer preference program). Select the CanonBJ-EC
driver and adjust all other preference parameters to your
environment. See your system manual for more information
about the preference program.
7. In case you use Workbench 2.0 (or higher) use the mouse to drag
the CanonPref, Color-Settings and Dither-Settings icon into your
Workbench prefs drawer. If your Workbench disk does not allow
this because no space is left on disk, you can simply drag the
programs to any other wanted drawer.
8. Start the Workbench "PrinterGfx" program and enable
"Order" dither, "Color" with density 7.
9. Start the Workbenh "Printer" preferences program.
Set the Page Length to 250 lines. This enables the
automatic page size setting of the driver.
10. Enter your application program and try printing. Have fun!
Note: the install program will erase any previously
installed CanonBJ-EC drivers and settings without asking you so.
Workbench Preferences
---------------------
While the Workbench preferences program is described in detail in
your system manual, there are three settings which belong to the
driver documentation:
Density:
The driver supported graphic densities:
In mode Epson24:
Density X-DPI Y-DPI X*Y-DPI
1 180 360 64800 (no color corrections...)
2 360 360 129600 (no color corrections...)
3 180 180 32400
4 120 180 21600
5 180 360 64800
6 360 180 64800
7 360 360 129600
In mode Epson48:
Density X-DPI Y-DPI X*Y-DPI
1 180 360 64800 48 pin mode (no color corrections...)
2 360 360 129600 48 pin mode (no color corrections...)
3 180 180 32400
4 120 180 21600
5 180 360 64800 48 pin mode
6 360 180 64800
7 360 360 129600 48 pin mode
In mode CanonBJC:
Density X-DPI Y-DPI X*Y-DPI
1 180 180 32400 (no color corrections...)
2 360 360 129600 (no color corrections...)
3 180 180 32400
4 180 180 32400
5 180 180 32400
6 360 360 129600
7 360 360 129600
The desired density can be selected in Preferences or in case you
use Workbench 2 "PrinterGfx". Most application programs also
allow you to select the density before doing a graphic dump. This
setting overrides temporarily the preferences density setting.
Paper Size:
Under Workbench 2 and 2.1 (or later) this driver supports the new
introduced papersizes. Selecting paper sizes not supported by the
printer device or the driver might need some knowledge. So here a
small list on how to set most common paper sizes on a CanonBJC800
printer. Note: the settings differ for other printers, but you
mights start trying with these settings.
Specialy CanonBJC800 users should note, that the CanonBJC800
printer is a single page printer. The printer does not support
endless paper. Because of this you MUST define a page length! The
way how this must be done depends on what emulation you use:
Epson mode - the page length can be defined by setting CanonForm
to ON and defining the number of lines per page in preferences as
250 or the real page length. Setting page length to 250 is
recommended. In this case the printer driver itself chooses the
optimal page length for your selected paper size. For instance if
you select DIN A4 and a page length of 250 lines, the driver
automaticly chooses 65 lines per page at 6 lines per inch. Note:
the CanonBJ-EC Epson emulation stores the page length in inches.
Because of this, small changes to the page length might not affect
the output.
In CanonBJC mode, the driver automaticly sets the page length
similar to the Epson modes "250" lines mode. In CanonBJC mode,
the printer is able to print on a greater area. Also the page
length can be defined in 1/10 accuracy. Again: use the CanonBJC
mode for graphic dumps.
Note: setting paper size to FANFOLD automaticly defines the
maximal page length of 22inch.
Note: you can define your own page size by using the CanonResY
and CanonResX under any emulation.
PaperType:
A papertype of SINGLE will eject a sheet with a Form Feed after
every print. Form Feed after a graphic dump is sent according to
the SPECIAL_NOFORMFEED flag. You can use the FANFOLD papertype
setting to force several dumps to appear on the same page. Also,
if you need to run InitPrinter often, you may choose the papertype
FANFOLD to avoid printing empty pages. In BJC mode, FANFOLD sets
the page height to the maximum size of 22 inch (55,88cm).
The Driver in detail
--------------------
Now that you have installed and adjusted the driver, printer and
preference setting, there are some details you should know when
using the driver.
This driver automatically checks for the processor in use
(68000,68010 or 68020,68030,68040) and optimizes the print
routines accordingly. Because of this, there is no need for a
special .020 version of the driver in order to get the most out of
your turbo amiga.
Aborting printing may often leave the printer in an unknown
status. This causes erronious printing on the next dump. In case
you abort printing, also switch your printer off and on. Also run
InitPrinter in order to bring back the printer in a known status.
The driver supports the unique Amiga commands shown below:
Name Escape sequence Function Defined By
aRIS ESCc reset ISO
aRIN ESC#1 initialize Amiga
aIND ESCD lf ISO
aNEL ESCE return,lf ISO
aSGR0 ESC[0m normal char set ISO
aSGR3 ESC[3m italics on ISO
aSGR23 ESC[23m italics off ISO
aSGR4 ESC[4m underline on ISO
aSGR24 ESC[24m underline off ISO
aSGR1 ESC[1m boldface on ISO
aSGR22 ESC[22m boldface off ISO
aSFC SGR30-39 set foreground color ISO
aSHORP0 ESC[0w normal pitch DEC
aSHORP2 ESC[2w elite on DEC
aSHORP1 ESC[1w elite off DEC
aSHORP4 ESC[4w condensed fine on DEC
aSHORP3 ESC[3w condensed off DEC
aSHORP6 ESC[6w enlarged on DEC
aSHORP5 ESC[5w enlarged off DEC
aDEN6 ESC[6"z shadow print on DEC
aDEN5 ESC[5"z shadow print off DEC
aDEN4 ESC[4"z doublestrike on DEC
aDEN3 ESC[3"z doublestrike off DEC
aDEN2 ESC[2"z NLQ on DEC
aDEN1 ESC[1"z NLQ off DEC
aSUS2 ESC[2v superscript on Amiga
aSUS1 ESC[1v superscript off Amiga
aSUS4 ESC[4v subscript on Amiga
aSUS3 ESC[3v subscript off Amiga
aSUS0 ESC[0v normalize the line Amiga
aPLU ESCL partial line up ISO
aPLD ESCK partial line down ISO
aFNT0 ESC(B Typeface 0 (default): Courier DEC
aFNT1 ESC(R Typeface 1 Sans Serif DEC
aFNT2 ESC(K Typeface 2 Roman DEC
aFNT3 ESC(A Typeface 3 DEC
aFNT4 ESC(E Typeface 4 DEC
aFNT5 ESC(H Typeface 5 DEC
aFNT6 ESC(Y Typeface 6 DEC
aFNT7 ESC(Z Typeface 7 DEC
aFNT8 ESC(J Typeface 8 DEC
aFNT9 ESC(6 Typeface 9 DEC
aFNT10 ESC(C Typeface 10 DEC
aPROP2 ESC[2p proportional on Amiga
aPROP1 ESC[1p proportional off Amiga
aJFY5 ESC[5 F auto left justify ISO
aJFY7 ESC[7 F auto right justify ISO
aJFY6 ESC[6 F auto full justify ISO
aJFY0 ESC[0 F auto justify off ISO
aJFY1 ESC[1 F word fill(auto center) ISO
aVERP0 ESC[0z 1/8" line spacing +++
aVERP1 ESC[1z 1/6" line spacing +++
aSLPP ESC[nt set form length n DEC
aPERF ESC[nq perf skip n (n>0) Amiga
aPERF0 ESC[0q perf skip off Amiga
aSLRM ESC[Pn1;Pn2s L&R margin DEC
aCAM ESC#3 Clear margins Amiga
aTBC3 ESC[3g Clear all h tabs ISO
aTBC4 ESC[4g Clr all v tabs ISO
aTBCALL ESC#4 Clr all h & v tabs Amiga
aTBSALL ESC#5 Set default tabs Amiga
aRAW ESC[Pn"r Next 'Pn' chars are raw Amiga
The CanonPref Program
---------------------
Beside all the functions mentioned in the chapter "The Driver in
detail", there are some more options unique to the CanonBJ-EC
driver. These options are controlled using commodore's standard
environment variables. Those variables can be set by using the
CLI setenv command, or by using the CanonPref preferences program.
CanonPref provides a nice and intuitive user interface and needs
at least Workbench 2 to run. In case you don't use Workbench 2
(V37 and above), see the chapter "Environment options" on how to
control the special options with a Kickstart 1.3 system. If you
don't use these options, default values will be used. The driver
will read the arguments set by CanonPref on opening.
Note: changes to the options may not take place immediatly!!!!
The options take place with the next send aRIN or aRIS command.
You can send an aRIN command by using Initprinter or flushing the
driver out of memory (WShell users may use "Flush"; Commodore
users may use the "Stack 40000000" command in order to do this).
CanonPref automatically flushes the driver out of memory for you.
So this note is specialy importent for CLI users not using
CanonPref.
CanonPref can be controlled by the mouse and/or keyboard. Each
gadget of the main program corresponds to the underscored letter.
Pressing that letter is equivalent to clicking on the gadget. In
the case of a cycle gadget, you can use the upper or lower case
letter to cycle back and forth between them. See your system
manual on how to control the file- and fontrequester by keyboard
or mouse.
All windows are opened directly under your mouse pointer, so you
don't have to move or scroll the screen to control the program.
Also, all windows are opened on the default public screen. You
may specify a special public screen by setting the Tool Type
"PUBSCREEN=<screenname>" (name is case sensitive!) and the
CanonPref program will open it's windows on your application
programs screen. You can specify a screen from CLI with the
PUBSCREEN option:
CanonPref PUBSCREEN <screenname>
For instance, if you use the ASDG text editor "CygnusEd" you may
specify "CanonPref PUBSCREEN CygnusEdScreen1" and CanonPref will
open up its windows on the CEDPro screen. Make sure the CEDPro
screen is public before running the example.
After starting, the main window will contain several gadgets,
described in detail. All those gadgets represent an environment
variable which can also be controlled using the CLI setenv
command. I strongly recommend using CanonPref because it is user
friendly and more secure.
CanonPref is font independent. It uses any system font for
displaying the gadgets and windows. You can force CanonPref to
use the topaz 8 font under any circumstand by defining a "TOPAZ"
Tool Type. This is equal to using a "TOPAZ" CLI argument.
Handling CanonPref is not described in this readme file. I feel
there is simply nothing to describe. This program is very easy to
handle and to understand. In case you have problems, read your
system manuals. These manuals cover nearly every aspect required
to control the CanonPref program. There are some basic things
about this driver, that should be explained in extra chapters and
subsections. These chapters/subsection will now follow...
The basics of printing
----------------------
This chapter describes the basic things needed for understanding
the way this driver works. There are several main steps in
processing a color picture for printing. Let's have a look at the
processing steps:
Picture
||
\/
Color Adjustment
||
\/
Ink compensation
||
\/
UCR / GCR
||
\/
Dithering
||
\/
Printer
Each step will now be described in an extra subsection:
I.
Color Adjustment
----------------
Most Amiga drivers simply use a linear tone scale adjustment
function for every picture. This means the amount of printed dots
on your printer is directly proportional to the tone scale of your
picture. The brightness of printed picture using a linear
adjustment function is often not satisfying. There are two main
reasons for this:
- the tone scales shown on your monitor are not linear. For
instance, the difference between two neighboring dark greyscale
levels is not as big as between to brighter levels.
- the Canon BJ printers have a precise printerhead movement. This
gives you the possibility to print 360 dots per inch (dpi). But
there is one drawback, which most printers have: a 1/360 inch
huge dot can not be printed. The dot is a bit greater, which
causes the dots to overlap each other. This causes a dark printed
picture and a loss of contrast.
To compensate these affects, the CanonBJ-EC driver allows you to
customize and adjust the tone scale adjustment function. You can
also do some art work (for instance pseudo colors) by using this
function.
The Amiga printer.device supports up to 16 color levels. These
levels are represented by values from 0 (no ink of black for
greyscale pictures) to 255 (full ink or white for greyscale
pictures). Now let's have a look at the default linear conversion
function:
full ink or|white 230
| 214
208| <- <- <- <- <- <- <- <- 208
O | 192^
| 176 |
U | 160
| 144 ^
T | 128 |
| 112
P | 96 ^
| 80 |
U | 64
| 48 ^
T | 32 |
| 16
no ink/black|0 ^
--+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
no ink/black 208 full ink or white
I N P U T
As you can easily see, every tone level is unchanged by the
adjustment function. For instance, a value of 208 is unchanged.
Now we could simply increase the brightness of the output, by
simply adding 16 to each value:
bright|
| 214+230
214| <- <- <- <- <- <- <- <- 208
O | 192^
| 176 |
U | 160
| 144 ^
T | 128 |
| 112
P | 96 ^
| 80 |
U | 64
| 48 ^
T | 32 |
| 16
|0 ^
no ink/black| |
--+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
no ink/black 208 full ink or white
I N P U T
Now the value of 208 would be printed as 214. A drawback for
brightening up a picture this way is the value 214 and 230. Both
levels would be printed with the same value of 230 which means
white. A better method to brighten up a picture is a gamma
correction function. The "gamma" function provides a way to
significantly brighten an image without losing much detail.
You can control gamma correction, brightness and contrast by using
the sliders at the left side of the color adjustment window of the
CanonPref program. Adjust them and press the "Set" buttom.
You can also individually adjust each of the 16 color sliders
instead.
Using the color adjustment function, you are also able to
filter out parts of a picture with a special color. Just try and
I'm sure you'll be satisfied.
IMPORTANT: while each of the 16 sliders can be adjusted to 256
shades, it depends on the used dither routines wether you are able
to print 256 shades or not. Please, have a look at the "dither
routines" subsection for more information. The number of
printable colors depends on the colors supported by the dither
matrix. Normal Workbench printer drivers only support 16 shades
for each color (16*16*16 = max. 4096 colors).
To make sure your color adjustment and dither routines do not
result in a loss of colors, print the supplied "TEST.PIC" from
your usual application program. Each color component should be
printed with 16 distinguishable color shades.
II.
Ink compensation
----------------
This driver also offers the user complete control over its ink
compensation function. Printer's inks are not completely pure
materials. For example, there is some amount of yellow mixed into
the magenta ink. And, there is some amount of magenta which
unavoidably is found in the cyan ink. The ink compensation values
will correct for these impurities. With Magenta Compensation you
define the amount of magenta in the cyan ink in percent. With
Yellow Compensation you define the amount of yellow in the magenta
ink in percent.
In general, set the ink compensation value of magenta 31% and
yellow to 40% for best results with Inkum Inks.
PS: on my experience 15% gives better violet shades with the
original Canon BJC800 inks, but again... it's best you ask the
manufacturor of the ink for the right values.
NOTE: The ink compensation function can be completely disabled by
turning it ``off'' using density 1 or 2 for printing (or define
0%) You will notice that without the ink compensation function, a
blue sky will print as purple. With the ink compensation function
set at 31%, blue skies are blue again.
CanonStudio, ADPro and TruePrint users should use density 1 or 2
for printing graphics.
III.
UCR/GCR
-------
UCR/GCR is used to replace colors with a black component, giving
you better greyshades and more contrast. You have no direct
control over the UCR/GCR function of the printer driver. Though,
using the black component of the color adjustment and dither
routines, you have some control on the UCR/GCR function. The
Halftone-B matrices are a nice examples of how to handle UCR/GCR
when developing a dither matrix.
IV.
Dither Routines
---------------
Many dithering methods are supplied with the CanonBJ-EC package.
These are described below. In each case a larger dither mask size
produces a print which can represent a wider range of colors but
will produce less spatial information per unit area of paper.
Conversely, a smaller dither mask size can reproduce fewer colors
(or shades) but more closely approximates the true resolution of
your printer.
Another way of expressing this is the following: There is a
tradeoff between printing ``lots'' of colors and printing in high
resolution. Given a specific printer with a specific DPI
capability, asking for ``lots'' of colors means using a larger
dither mask size. A larger dither mask size cuts down on your
effective resolution. For instance, using a dither mask of 16*16
on your 360dpi printer will result in 360/16 = 22.5 dpi with full
color information.
Note that this can work to your advantage when blowing a picture
up in size. Blowing up a picture means that there are more dots
to work with which offsets the loss in resolution caused by a
larger dither mask size. This added to the benefits to be had by
being able to reproduce more colors (or shades) means that your
enlarged posters will look quite good.
Also note that many printers including most laser printers and dot
matrix printers have considerable dot gain. For example, a 360
DPI laser printer does not actually print dots which are 1/360 of
an inch in size. Rather, its dots will be much larger. This
causes some dithers, such as the Floyd-Steinberg and Ordered
dithers, to produce intensely over-saturated or muddy prints.
Other dithers such as the two halftone dithers overcome this
problem with low-end printers.
NOTE: The amount of printable colors is usualy directly related
to the size of the dither matrix. The dither routines described
below usualy exists in several sizes. You can distinguish the
dither routines by their filenames. For instance a filename of
"Halftone-A-4" means: Halftone A dither routine, 4 shades. While
"Halftone-A-256" means: Halftone A dither routine, 256 shades.
NOTE: The dither routines can be completely disabled by turning
it ``off'' using density 1 or 2 for printing. Also note, that the
custom dither routines are only active when Workbench preferences
is set to "ordered" dither!!!!!!!!
ADPro, CanonStudio or TruePrint users should use density 1 or 2
for printing graphics with ADPro.
To make sure your color adjustment and dither routines do not
result in a loss of colors, print the supplied "TEST.PIC" from
your usual application program. Each color component should be
printed with 16 distinguishable color shades. We strongly
recommend the use of a 64 color dither matrix. This matrix allows
the driver to do ink compensation, color adjustment with nearly no
limitations.
Also, if you want to read more about dither routines and digital
halftoning, here is a very good book to go for:
Robert Ulichney
"Digital Halftoning"
MIT Press
ISBN 0-262-21009-6
The book is easy to understand and does come with lot's of
samples. Most of the dither routines described below are handled
in detail in this book. Surely one of the best books when it
comes to digital halftoning.
Now let's take a look at the supplied dither routines.
Halftone-A - <number of colors>
Halftone-B - <number of colors>
The halftone dithers (Halftone-A and Halftone-B) differ in how
they place a halftone matrix.
This is the classical clustered halftone method used by most book
publishers. To improve the dither output, the halftone matrix is
rotated by 45 degree. Halftone-A causes the halftone matrix for
each of the primary colors to be centered about the same point.
This means that the primary colors will overlap completely,
leaving a lot of white paper showing through. This may be
appropriate for some better dye sublimation type printers or other
color printers with good registration where the inks mix well.
Halftone-B, on the other hand, staggers the halftone matrix of
each primary color so that they do not overlap. This is similar
in concept to traditional color offset printing. Halftone-B may
produce better results on printers whose inks do not mix well, and
on printers with less than perfect registration.
The halftone dithers can produce some extremely good results and
compensate for the dot gain problems outlined above. Try both
halftone dithers to see which one is better for your particular
intention.
Also, in case you xerox your printing, using Halftone results in a
much better copy.
To use Halftone-B is somehow different to the other dither
matrices. You have a special dither matrix for each color.
Because of this, each dither filename includes the abbreviation of
the color (C = cyan, Y = yellow, M = magenta, K = black or
greyscale). In case you use Halftone-B you also have to increase
the brightness of the black color component by 50%. Use the
bright+ gadget in the CanonPref program for increasing brightness.
Halftone-B is a nice example for the relationship between color
adjustment and dither routines. You have to consider both setting
up your driver.
PrtDevice-Halftone-16
PrtDevice-Ordered-16
This dither matrix is the one used by the printer devices
"Halftone" or "Ordered" dither.
Ordered-A - <number of colors>
The ordered dither produces a regular repeating pattern which is
often used for printing computer graphics. The ordered dither is
particularly susceptible to over-saturation due to dot gain in
high resolutions. Though, you surely get nice outputs in 180DPI.
Ordered-B - <number of colors>
This dither is a mixture of a dispersed dither like Order and a
clustered dither like Halftone. The dither is specialy addressed
to the high resolution printers with dot gain problems. For
instance, if you print a picture with 360*360 dpi using
Ordered-Rect-B-64, you get a picture that seems to be printed with
180*180 dpi. Now while graphics are printed emulating 180*180
dpi, all black parts of the picture are printed using 360*360.
Don't be confused, the printed picture is still better than
a picture in real 180*180dpi resolution. The
Ordered-Rectangular-B is specialy usefull for color DTP. You get
nice color pictures with fine high quality text.
Spiral-Dot-Screen - <number of colors>
A wide range of special effects clustered dither matrices are
available in the graphic arts industry and all are easily
simulated digitally. Spiral-Dot is such a dither.
The spirol-dot dither is essentially half of the classical screen,
with dark squares growing to fill the plane without the
laternating light squares. Spiral-Dot looks quiet similar to the
Halftone-A matrix 0 degree rotated.
Horizontal - <number of colors>
Vertical - <number of colors>
FwdDiagonal - <number of colors>
BckDiagonal - <number of colors>
A wide range of special effects clustered dither matrices are
available in the graphic arts industry and all are easily
simulated digitally. The Line dithers are such dithers.
The horizontal (as well as the vertical, forward diagonal and
backward diagonal) dither overcome much of the dot gain problems
that the Floyd and Ordered dithers have with inexpensive printers.
These dithers (especialy the diagonal dithers) are especialy
good for large printings.
SuperMode
---------
SuperMode? With SuperMode enabled, every color picture will be
printed as greyscale picture in case you select color instead of
greyscale as output mode. So, what's the difference between
SuperMode's printed greyscale pictures and normal greyscale mode
pictures? In SuperMode it's the printer drivers task to
convert color data into greyscale data. While this can also be
done by the printer device instead of the driver (like normal
Workbench drivers do), the CanonBJ-EC printer driver
color->greyscale converting routines are more precise and because
of this you can print a 4096 color HAM picture with up to 256
greyshades instead of the normal 16 shades. Again: in case you
want to print more than 16 shades (and that's what SuperMode is
all about) you MUST define a custom dither matrix in CanonPref
that allows to print more than 16 shades.
With SuperMode enabled you simply print from your normal
application but instead of selecting Greyscale or B/W output mode
you select Color. The Color->Greyscale conversion will be done by
the driver.
Environment Options
-------------------
You can set options for the driver by using the "setenv" CLI
command instead of the CanonPref program. This command saves your
option in the "ENV:" directory using a file. See your system
manual for a complete description of the "setenv" and "getenv"
command. The driver will read in the arguments on opening the
printer device. In case you don't have enough memory, the driver
refuses to open.
Note: reading the options does not always mean they take place
immediately. So if you make changes by using "setenv", flush the
driver out of memory in order to let the driver know about your
changes. CanonPref will do this for you automatically.
Remember that environment vars (they are stored in the "ENV:"
directory) are normaly erased by booting. If you don't want to
set the environment vars every time you boot, you can place them
in "ENVARC:" (Workbench 2.0/2.1) or assign "ENV:" to a non
volatile disk (KS 1.3). Make sure you use the commodore "setenv"
command to set the environment vars! Under KS 2 (or higher), the
driver supports local and global environment vars! Here is a list
of the possible options and their meaning. As usual, everything
is case insensitve:
SetEnv sbox_printer <0|1|2|3> (Default: 0)
The driver supports the arXon parallel switch box. The arXon
switch box is an external 1 to 3 centronics switch controlable by
software. You can ask the driver to automaticly switch to a
wanted port for printing and switch back to the previously used
port after printing. This enables you to use a scanner, digitizer
and printer from your Amigas centronics port without switching
between the devices "by hand". Specify the wanted printer port in
"sbox_printer" and the default port (which should be set up after
printing) in "sbox_active". If you specify 0 (default) as the
port, no switching will take place.
Note: "sbox_active" MUST be specified before using the driver in
order to enable the "sbox_printer" command. This is because
"sbox_active" is used to determine weather a switch box is
installed or not. Information about the switch box can be
obtained from:
arXon GmbH
Assenheimer Str. 17
D-W-6000 Frankfurt
Germany
Tel: (++49)-69-7896891
Fax: (++49)-69-7896878
SetEnv CanonBeep 0|1|2|3 (Default: 0)
If the printer device gets closed after a dump, you can tell the
driver to signal you the end of the print job. This is especialy
usefull on huge graphic dumps which might require some time. There
are two kinds of signals. You can cause a beep (CTRL-G) on the
printer, a DisplayBeep on the Amiga or both. When the printer is
set to CanonBJC mode, a printer beep is not possible and ignored.
0 = No Action (default)
1 = Printer beep (CTRL-G)
2 = DisplayBeep
3 = Printer beep + DisplayBeep
Note: some application print graphics striped. If the
application program closes the printer.device after every stripe,
you will get a signal for each stripe. So far, I havn't found an
application program with such bad behaviour.
SetEnv CanonResX <num> (Default: 0 dots)
If the preferences papersize is CUSTOM, this option allows you to
specify the horizontal resolution for graphic dumps. For
instance, if you use Workbench 1.3, you can specify a resolution
of 2804 dots, which is equal to the DIN A4 size. If you specify 0
(default) as resolution, the US-LETTER resolution of 2880 dots
will be used. The allowed range for <num> is 0 to 65535 dots.
SetEnv CanonResY <num> (Default: 0 dots)
If the papersize is CUSTOM, this option allows you to specify the
vertical size of a page for graphic dumps. For instance, if you
use Workbench 1.3, you can specify a resolution of 3950 (BJC mode:
4212) dots, which is equal to the DIN A4 size. Do not misinterpret
this setting! The CanonResY value is only used for grapihc dumps
and does not necessarily mean, your picture will be of the size
you specified here. Sometimes CanonResY is only used to calculate
the aspect of the final picture.
The CanonResY setting is not necessarily importent under Epson
mode, though under CanonBJC the value becomes an importent
meaning. The printer must know the physical page size in CanonBJC
mode to print graphics. Under CanonBJC mode CanonResY reflects
the physical page size, not the maximum printable area of the page
(logical page size). The maximum allowed size for CanonBJC mode
is 7920 dots. A value of 0 is equal to 11 inch (3960 dots). If
you want to set the physical page size in Epson mode, see the
CanonForm description.
For more information see the "Paper Size" and CanonEmu
description.
SetEnv CanonTime <num> (Default: 0 seconds)
In case huge amounts of data are transfered to the printer,
rendering a picture by the device is much faster than the transfer
of the picture to the printer. A requester may appear on the
screen, saying "Printer trouble...". The requester appears
because the printer device thinks no data got transfered because
of a hard- or software failure. With "CanonTime" you can specify
a timeout until the printer device brings up the error requester.
The "CanonTime" var is especialy usefull when printing multiple
pages or downloading huge fonts, using the drivers automatic font
download abilty. If you specify 0 (default) as timeout, a timeout
of 30 seconds will be used. A value from 1 to 999 seconds is
allowed. Instead of defining a huge timeout, there is another
solution available: use the "CMD" program (see you Workbench
disk) to redirect the parallel/serial output to a file on disk.
After this, use the copy command or a printer spooler to copy the
file to "par:". Using this technique, you can safely specify a
small number of seconds before a timeout.
SetEnv CanonType <num> (Default: 0)
Specifies the typeface to be selected on aRIS, aRIN and aFNT0. If
you select 0 (default) as typeface, the internal typeface will be
selected. If an external font cartridge is selected without font
cartridge installation, the printer is set to offline and the
specified font indicator blinks. At the time of this writing, the
typefaces in table below are supported by the CanonBJC800 printer.
<num> Meaning
0 printer default internal typeface
1 Roman
2 Sans Serif
3 Courier
<num> may be in range of 0 to 255. Because of this, you may set
any wanted type supported by your printers ESC-k-<num-1> command.
SetEnv CanonTab <num1-32> (Default: 9, 17, 25,...)
This environment let you customize the horizontal tab stops
settings of your printer. This is usefull for printing program
listings and tables. For instance: you can change the default
tab stops settings:
1 2 3 4 5
12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890
T T T T T T
with 'Setenv CanonTab "3 6 9 12 15 18" ' to:
1 2 3 4 5
12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890
T T T T T T
Up to 32 tab stops may be defined. All tab stops above the limit
of 32 are ignored. All previous tabulators are cleared.
Horizontal tabs are selected and stored internally in character
spaces, not inches. Thus, any change in the character spacing can
change the physical locations of horizontal tabs on the line, but
the logical positions remain unchanged. With PS fonts, a column
is defined as the width of the current space character at ASCII 32
($20).
SetEnv CanonPerf <0-form length-1> (Default: 0 lines)
If CanonForm is set to ON, CanonPerf specifies the number of lines
that the printer skips at the end of each page. This causes the
printer to skip the perforation between pages of continuous forms.
If 0 lines are specified, perforation skip will be disabled. If
the specified CanonPerf value is greater than or equal to the form
length (as defined in the WB preferences program), the skip
perforation is cancelled and the top and bottom margins become
inactive. This setting is not supported by the CanonBJC800 printer.
SetEnv CanonForm ON|OFF (Default: OFF)
If CanonForm is set to ON, page length (as set in preferences),
and perforation skip (defined by CanonPerf) will be defined by the
driver.
SetEnv CanonMirror ON|OFF (Default: OFF)
If set to on, graphics will be mirrored. This is specialy usefull
if you want to print pictures intend for T-Shirt art.
SetEnv CanonEmu 24|48|800 (Default: 24)
This driver supports up to 3 different emulations:
I. if set to 24 (default), the printer driver will use the normal
Epson 24 pin graphic command as most Epson compatible printers do.
This emulation is slow and does have some quailty problems,
because 360ydpi graphics are printed in two passes causing "wet"
muddy printings. For instance, this emulation may be used on a
BJ10ex, BJ20, BJ300 and BJ330 in Epson mode.
II. if set to 48, the driver supports additional 48 pin graphic
commands. In most cases these 48 pin commands (for instance
ESC-*-72...) are only supported by new 48 or 64 pin printers (like
the BJC800). The commands offer a faster and better graphic dump,
because 48 pins are printed on each pass. Also, line gaps are
creatly reduced. The driver will use the printers 48 pin mode
only density 1,5 (180*360dpi) and 2,7 (360*360dpi). On all other
density settings the driver behaves like the 24 pin emulation
above.
III. If set to 800, the driver will print graphics using the
native mode of the BJC 8xx printer. This setting is STRONGLY
recommended for all BJC users. This emulation (native mode) does
offer some special things:
Data send to the printer is compressed, resulting in much less
data. The time saved by sending less data through the slow
centronics port may be huge. So it decrease the print time
significantly (usualy 2-4 times compared to the 48 mode, which also
does some sort of compression).
In the 800 mode the printer uses a "halfline" modus, causing no
gaps between printing lines to appear.
In the 800 mode you are also able to control the printers mode
through the driver using the CanonMode option.
In the 800 emulation you have a smaller top margin, allowing you
to print in a bigger sized pictures.
In the 800 emulation, the printer must be set to a specific page
height by the driver. You are not able to print on endless paper.
!!!!!! WARNING !!!!!
Beside all those nice things from the 800 mode, there is an
importent drawback: you are not allowed to print text after you
have printed graphics. Also no text and graphics may appear on
the same page. So you can use the driver for normal text prints,
but as soon as you have dumped a graphic, you must switch
emulation to print text or flush the driver out of memory by using
AVAIL FLUSH from CLI/Shell (WShell users may simply use FLUSH).
This limitation shouldn't be a huge problem for anybody, as you
can switch back to the Epson 48 pin mode everytime you want.
This mode is mainly for nice and fast graphic dumps and this is
what the BJC printers are build for.
Note: CanonForm is automaticly OFF in the 800 mode. The page
size may be altered by using the CanonResX and CanonResY options
instead. Also a "Beep" as job end signal (see CanonBeep) is
ignored in 800 mode.
SetEnv CanonColor <color> (Default: <color> = 0)
With CanonColor you may choose the default text color of the
printer. Here are the allowed values:
<color> BJC800 Color Epson definition
0 Black Black
1 Magenta Magenta
2 Cyan Cyan
3 Blue Blue
4 Yellow Yellow
5 Red Red
6 Green Green
SetEnv CanonMode <mode> (Default: 0)
In 800 mode (see CanonEmu option), you can set the printer mode
with CanonMode. Following options are allowed:
<mode> Meaning
0 printer default mode
1 Mode A: Color 100%, Black 100% (two scan printing)
2 Mode B: Color 100% (two scan), Black 200% (four scan)
3 Mode C: Same as B
4 Mode D: Color 100%, Black 100% (two scan with 8 sec delay)
5 Mode E: Color 100%, Black 100% (single scan printing)
See you BJC user manual on how to choose a mode for a special
purpose.
SetEnv CanonSep C|M|Y|K (Default: CMYK)
With this option you can print a CYMK color component of a
picture. For instance, if you want to print the cyan component of
a picture, set CanonSep to "C". The combination of following
keywords are allowed:
C = Cyan
M = Magenta
Y = Yellow
K = Black
Using CanonSep you can print color pictures on a b/w printer using
color ribbons/ink. Here's what to do:
1. Get yourself a cyan, magenta, yellow and black color ribbon/ink.
2. Set CanonSep to C and start printing your color picture
3. reinsert the paper sheet with the printed graphics
4. Repeat step 2-3 with M,Y, and K
Because of the adjustment problems caused by using the same sheet
of paper several times, you shouldn't use the high resolution
360*360 dpi mode, or define a special dither matrix.
SetEnv CanonGAdj <num0-255> (Default: 0,16,32,48,64,80,96,112,128,144,160,
176,192,208,224,255)
SetEnv CanonKAdj <num0-255> (Default: 0,16,32,48,64,80,96,112,128,144,160,
176,192,208,224,255)
SetEnv CanonKAdj <num0-255> (Default: 0,16,32,48,64,80,96,112,128,144,160,
176,192,208,224,255)
SetEnv CanonCAdj <num0-255> (Default: 0,16,32,48,64,80,96,112,128,144,160,
176,192,208,224,255)
SetEnv CanonYAdj <num0-255> (Default: 0,16,32,48,64,80,96,112,128,144,160,
176,192,208,224,255)
SetEnv CanonMAdj <num0-255> (Default: 0,16,32,48,64,80,96,112,128,144,160,
176,192,208,224,255)
You can define various color adjustments for the graphic dump of
the driver. This allows you to make a picture brighter (which is
specialy usefull in high density modes), darker, increase or
decrease contrast level, and do gamma correction. Now using this
feature is easy, understanding might not. Simply try it after
reading the documentation! You'll be extremly satisfied with the
results. Also note: you can correct the colors of your picture
with this feature and in conjunction with a customized dither
matrix you DON'T LOOSE ANY COLOR. For instance, a 4096 can be
brighten up with this feature and you still get 4096 different
colors.
For general information see the "color adjustment" chapter!!!
You must define exactly 16 values for Canon<color>Adj vars. Each
value must be in range from 0 to 255, were 0 means no color and
255 full color. The order of the 16 values goes from "no ink" to
"full ink". For example, you want to define following function
(which is the default linear color adjustment of the driver):
full ink or|white 230
| 214
208| <- <- <- <- <- <- <- <- 208
O | 192^
| 176 |
U | 160
| 144 ^
T | 128 |
| 112
P | 96 ^
| 80 |
U | 64
| 48 ^
T | 32 |
| 16
no ink|0 ^
--+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
no ink 208 full ink or white
I N P U T
As you can easily see, a value of 208 is printed by the driver as
208. So no change. To define this linear color adjustment
conversion, you must enter in CLI:
SetEnv CanonConv "0 16 32 48 64 80 96 112 128 144 160 176 192 208 214 230"
Next time you print graphics, the new adjustment function is used.
Defining and editing a greyscale conversion function using the
setenv command is uncomfortable. You can use the CanonPref for
editing and defining a function. When finished with defining, you
can get the values set in CanonPref by using the "getenv
CanonPref" CLI command.
SetEnv CanonGDit <x-size> <y-size> a11, a12, ..., amn
SetEnv CanonKDit <x-size> <y-size> a11, a12, ..., amn
SetEnv CanonCDit <x-size> <y-size> a11, a12, ..., amn
SetEnv CanonYDit <x-size> <y-size> a11, a12, ..., amn
SetEnv CanonMDit <x-size> <y-size> a11, a12, ..., amn
You can define a dither matrices. It will replace the dispersed
ordered dither matrices of the printer device. To enable the
dither matrice you must print using the Workbench "ordered" dither
mode. Also, all color dither matrices must be of same size. It's
not allowed to define only one color dither matrix. The allowed
<x-size> and <y-size> range must be between 1 and 64. Also only
up to 512 matrix elements are allowed for each matrix.
SetEnv CanonMagenta <percent> (Default: 0%)
This driver also offers the user complete control over its ink
compensation function. Printer's inks are not completely pure
materials. For example, there is some amount of yellow mixed into
the magenta ink. And, there is some amount of magenta which
unavoidably is found in the cyan ink. The ink compensation values
will correct for these impurities. With CanonMagenta you define
the amount of magenta in the cyan ink in percent.
In general, set this ink compensation value to 31% for best
results with Inkum Inks. The ink compensation function can be
completely disabled by turning it ``off'' using density 1 or 2 for
printing (or define 0%) You will notice that without the ink
compensation function, a blue sky will print as purple. With the
ink compensation function set at 31%, blue skies are blue again.
PS: on my experience 15% gives better violet shades with the
original Canon BJC800 inks, but again... it's best you ask the
manufacturor of the ink for the right values.
SetEnv CanonYellow <percent> (Default: 0%)
This driver also offers the user complete control over its ink
compensation function. Printer's inks are not completely pure
materials. For example, there is some amount of yellow mixed into
the magenta ink. And, there is some amount of magenta which
unavoidably is found in the cyan ink. The ink compensation values
will correct for these impurities. With CanonYellow you define
the amount of yellow in the magenta ink in percent.
In general, set this ink compensation value to 40% for Inkum Inks.
The ink compensation function can be completely disabled by
turning it ``off'' using density 1 or 2 for printing (or define
0%) You will notice that without the ink compensation function,
blood wouldn't be printed attractiv enough for vampires. With the
ink compensation function set at 40%, vampires will eat up your
dumps.
NOTE: ADPro users should use density 1 or 2 for printing graphics
with ADPro. Density 1 and 2 will turn off the color adjustment,
ink compensation, and dither routines used by the driver. Instead
the ADPro dither, ink compensation and color adjustment routines
will be used.
NOTE: the BJC800 printer is a single page orientated printer.
Because of this, a page height must be defined by the driver. In
CanonBJC mode the height defined is the one you have set in
preferences (for instance DIN A4 or US Letter). If preferences
page sizes don't match you needs, use the CUSTOM paper size and
set the ResY to the needed size (in n/360 dpi). The maximum page
height is 22 inch (or 55,8cm), which can also be used by setting
the paper type to FANFOLD.