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Printer Defaults 1.1.1
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Printer Defaults ReadMe
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1993-11-18
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Printer Defaults 1.1.1
----------------------
Printer Defaults is an application to modify the default settings in
printer drivers. It has been tested on various machines running systems
7.0.1.and 7.1 with a large number of different printer drivers including
LaserWriter 8.0 and 8.1.1. If you want a more substantial range of
patches for laser printers then get hold of Don Markuson's
dmm-laserwriter collection available, for example, by anonymous ftp from
sumex-aim.stanford.edu and mirrors in the directory info-mac/util.
WARNING!!!
----------
YOU SHOULD ONLY MODIFY A COPY OF THE PRINTER DRIVER, NEVER THE ORIGINAL.
Printer Defaults works by reading in the default settings for the TPrint
Record stored in the resource of type 'PREC' with ID 0 in the driver and
then doing a Page Setup. Any changes are written back to the driver
become its new defaults.
BUT, once a Page Setup has been done, any application may save a copy of
PREC 0 in its own resource fork, or preferences file, or settings
document or each individual document and use this in preference to the
defaults in the driver for future calls to Page Setup. Many word
processors do this for each document. TeachText always fetches the PREC
0 afresh so is a good way to test if changes have stuck. There's lots of
this sort of cacheing going on which can appear to defeat setting the
defaults in the driver.
Usage
-----
Double click Printer Defaults and use the Standard File dialog to select
a printer driver to configure (or drop one or more drivers onto Printer
Defaults' icon under System 7). This will bring up a Page Setup dialog
which you can use to select the new defaults. Clicking OK will save
these back to the driver, Cancel will go on
without saving.
A Print... dialog will then appear so that any changes already made which
affect its appearance can be seen, and, in the case of some drivers, any
settings in the Print dialog which can be written to PREC 0 can be
altered. This varies with the driver, and in any case may be ignored at
print time (according to Inside Mac). Just try it and see.
For some printer drivers, there are some additional options which cannot
be accessed from either of these two standard printer dialogs. If any
are applicable to the driver you are modifying an additional dialog will
appear in between the above dialogs.
LaserWriter 5.x, 6.0, 6.0.1
---------------------------
The Print dialog of LaserWriter 5.x, 6.0, 6.0.1 contains a hidden
checkbox to allow printing of PostScript output to a disk file rather
than a printer. Printer Defaults can make this checkbox visible.
LaserWriter 8.x
---------------
There is a possible problem with LaserWriter 8.x (and Adobe's PSPrinter):
If there is no LaserWriter 8 Preferences (or LaserWriter 8.0
Preferences) file in the Preferences folder of the active system file
will get an error message announcing this. The solution is to put the
driver in the Extensions folder and select it with the Chooser. This
will create a valid Preferences file and allow Printer Defaults to open
the driver.
For LaserWriter 8.x a second dialog of options will also be displayed.
Some are additional options from Don Markuson's collection of
LaserWriter patches which allow the use of the Setup button in the
Chooser at all times, and add the n-up printing menu to the Print
dialog. A final option allows the LaserWriter driver to be used without
AppleTalk. This is useful for PS File generation as it removes the
driver's ability to actually connect to a printer. LaserWriter 8.1.1
contains a PRFS -8192 resource, many of whose meanings are unknown to me
- I simply read the titles of the check boxes from the TMPL supplied and
allow the user to turn any of them on or off.
Thanks
------
Thanks to Don Markuson for all those useful LaserWriter patches and
allowing me to include some in Printer Defaults. He was also kind enough
to comment on an early version of Printer Defaults and suggest several
improvements. Thanks also to Ian Harries for bringing Don's LaserWriter
8 patches to my attention and giving me the initial stimulus to write
Printer Defaults.
Legalese
--------
Printer Defaults is © 1993 by John Rawnsley but may be used freely. You
use it at your own risk. Always work on a COPY of the printer driver,
never the orginal.
Contacts
--------
Internet: jhr@maths.warwick.ac.uk
CompuServe: 100015,632
Mail: John Rawnsley
Mathematics Institute
University of Warwick
Coventry
CV4 7Al
United Kingdom
Version history
---------------
Version 1.1.1 fixes a memory problem bug and has an improved
interface.
Version 1.1 added some of Don Markuson's patches for LaserWriter
8.
Version 1.0 was the first public release and allowed the user
to save the Page Setup settings as defaults. It allowed the
LaserWriter 8.1.1 PRFS resource to be edited.