newsletter archives - January, 2004

Volume 9. Issue 1.

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Combining multiple print jobs into a single image file Sometimes when using the Black Ice printer drivers, a situation arises where an individual may want to combine multiple documents/files into a single image file. The Black Ice printer drivers have a built in mechanism which makes this possible without requiring developers to perform post processing on the generated images. The "Keep existing files" option can be used when multipage output is supported (TIFF, DCX). When the filename generation method creates output files with the same name for each document (any of the “Exact Filename" file name generation methods), using the "Keep existing files" option will append the printed pages to the existing images files instead of overwriting the file at the beginning of every new print job. Using this option, the Black Ice printer drivers can be used to combine multiple print jobs into one file. Developers can programmatically turn this option on and off, allowing their applications to control when print jobs are combined into a single output file. Printer Driver Tips: Multiple Printer Settings Developers who integrate the Black Ice printer drivers into their application often need two or more different sets of settings for the printer driver. Ideally the end user shouldn’t have to know which printer settings to change when another type of output is needed, for example if the application needs TIFF images for faxing using (204x196) DPI and uses JPEG images using 600x600 DPI, a few printer settings must be changed and that could be confusing for an end user and also can introduce possible error if the user doesn’t select the correct settings. To simplify this process the developer can try one of the following : 1. Install more than one Black Ice Printer on the same PC 2. Use the “Profile Manager", new in the Black Ice printer drivers Programmatically change the printer settings. 1. Install more than one Black Ice Printer on the same PC The developer can use two copies of the same printer driver on the same PC. Installing different versions of the same driver currently is not supported but will be in the near future. One of the printers (Printer A) will use TIFF Group3D1 for output using 204x196 DPI and Fax Paper Size for faxing. The other printer (Printer B) will create JPEG output using Letter paper size and 600x600 DPI. Once both printers are installed, the end user simply has to print to Printer A to produce faxable files and print to Printer B to create JPEG files. The user doesn’t have to change (or know how to change) the printer settings; he just simply selects the appropriate printer. Installing multiple copies of the printer must follow the rules of installing one printer, with the following differences: 1. Rename all driver files, so when a printer is uninstalled the other one can still work. Files that cannot be renamed such as (BiCAppNT.exe, BiImg.dll) must be installed as shared files on the system. 2. Change the name of the printer, the printer driver, printer port and the print processor. 3. The new name of the resource dll (BiCResNT.dll) can be specified in the INI file (BiCIniNT.Ini) 4. The INI file should be also renamed and each one should contain the printer specific settings. This way both printers will be installed with different settings. Coming up in the next issue: “Using the “Profile Manager" in the Black Ice printer drivers and “Programmatically changing the printer settings." Extracting Text with the Black Ice Printer Drivers The Black Ice Printer Drivers include an often overlooked feature which allows the extraction of text from any printed document. The text can be saved by itself, or can include style and position information which can later be used for form reconstruction. The Resource Toolkit included with the printer drivers includes a form reconstruction sample that can be used as a starting point. Extracting text from printed documents is an inexpensive alternative to OCR. For applications such as document archiving applications, not only can the document image be filed away in the system, but the extracted text can be saved with the image, allowing users to search for documents by typing in text strings, and the application can then return a list of resulting documents by searching the extracted text files for the text strings and returning the associated files. The text extraction feature could also be useful for fax applications. When a document is converted to a TIFF file, the extracted text can be searched for key words such as order number, invoice number, etc, and the resultant TIFF can be filed away for company records

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