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The
ColorPlus printer driver is designed for developers
and end users to build document imaging, e-commerce,
archiving, faxing, or raster image capturing applications
by converting any printable file into a supported
image format. The ColorPlus driver is based entirely
on Black Ice Printer Driver technology which has
been in use since 1989, and is not based on Microsoft
Mini-driver technology.
The
Black Ice ColorPlus PDF printer drivers combines
the Black Ice
Color
and Black Ice
PDF printer
drivers into a single document conversion printer
driver which includes the functionality of both
products.
Free
Resource ToolKit is shipped with every printer
driver purchased, to easily integrate the printer
driver into the developed application.
Supported operating
systems:
-
Windows Server 2008
(32 and 64bit)
-
Windows Server 2003
(32 and 64bit)
-
Windows Server 2000
(terminal services MUST be present)
-
Citrix Metaframe
1.8 for Terminal Servers
-
Citrix Metaframe
XP for Terminal Servers
The printer driver features
are grouped into the following main parts.
Each of the above feature
groups' settings can be changed from the printer
driver's Printing Preferences dialog.
The Device Settings
Paper Size
The printer driver supports
a total of 84 different paper sizes.
-
45 standard paper
(page) sizes are supported.
-
36 Advanced paper
sizes are supported, including the A0 Engineering
paper size.
-
3 Black Ice paper
sizes, such as User-selectable variable
(custom) paper size specified in inches
or millimeters, fax paper size and variable
paper size in pixels.
-
Users can add new
paper sizes, customize existing paper sizes,
and remove unwanted paper sizes.
Force Fax Resolution
Select
this option to force the printer driver to generate
faxable images, regardless of the settings of the
printing application. Faxable images must have 204x98
or 204x196 DPI resolution and must have a 1728 pixel
width. The Black Ice Printer will generate the output
image with the required parameters, therefore no
further modification of the image will be necessary
in order to fax the image.
Page Orientation
Besides the traditional
Portrait and Landscape orientations, Black Ice printers
support the "Rotate landscape image to portrait"
option too. This feature is very handy when landscape
oriented documents need to be faxed.
By
using this option, the document will be printed
using the landscape orientation and then the image
will be rotated to portrait orientation and is ready
to be faxed.
Graphic resolutions
The Black Ice Printer
Drivers support for the following resolutions:
-
100 x 100 DPI
-
200 x 200 DPI
-
204 x 98 DPI - the
Standard FAX mode ( Draft )
-
204 x 196 DPI -
the Fine FAX mode ( Low )
-
300 x 300 DPI
-
600 x 600 DPI
-
Custom resolution
- up to 3000x3000 DPI
The
custom resolution can be set to any value ( horizontal
and vertical ) up to 3000 x 3000 DPI and not less
then 50 x 50 DPI
File Formats Settings
Use these settings to
specify the output file format for the printer driver
to generate. The printed documents will be converted
to images which will be stored in the selected format
File Format
Printed documents can
be converted into the following formats:
Create file in memory
By using this option
all images will be created in memory. An application
can receive the image created in the memory by the
printer driver using the printer driver's messaging
interface.
Color Depth
The printer driver can
convert the printed documents into 24 bit (true
color), 8 bit (256 color or grayscale) or 1 bit
(monochrome) images.
Multipage file support
The Black Ice printer
driver can convert multipage documents in one of
two ways: by generating one separate image file
for each page, or by generating one single multipage
TIFF or DCX file. Using the multipage file support,
all pages from the source document will be stored
in the same image file.
Write text file
- Generate text output
If the source document
contains text information, the printer driver can
extract and save the text from the document in a
separate text file in addition to creating the image
file(s). Click Here for additional
text extraction information.
Save position and style
- for text output
This powerful feature
allows exact reconstruction of a document. When
this option is selected, the exact position of the
text and the font information from the source document
will be saved in a text file.
Mail Merge
The mail merge feature
is available in the printer driver, call for details.
Photo Quality (Dithering)
In order to convert
color documents into monochrome (black and white)
or 8 bit (256 color) images, several dithering methods
are available and can be used. The Color printer
driver support seven different dithering methods.
The
size and appearance of the generated image will
vary depending on which dithering method is used.
Filename Generation
Settings
The Filename generation
settings allow the name of the generated images
to be specified. The Black Ice printer driver supports
seven different filename generation methods:
These
filename generation methods provide huge flexibility
to the application which integrates the printer
driver.
-
Use the
prefix and extension:
the output filename will be generated from random
characters. The first three characters will
be the characters specified in the ‘Filename
Prefix’ edit box and random numbers will be
added.
-
Prefix and
extension from the registry:
The file name prefix and the extension will
be read from the specified registry key.
-
Prefix and
extension from the INI file:
In this case the filename and the prefix will
be read from the specified INI file. The driver
will search in the INI file for a printer name
section. Use the “File Name Prefix" key for
the file prefix and the “File Name extension"
key for the extension.
-
Exact filename:
The printed file will be generated with the
exact name as specified in the ‘Enter the filename’
edit box.
-
Exact filename
from the registry:
The filename will be read from the specified
registry key.
-
Exact filename
from the INI file:
In this case the filename will be read from
the specified INI file.
-
Use the
document name:
The driver will use the document name which
the application passes to the driver when generating
the name of the output image.
Output Directory
The printer driver will
generate the image file(s) in the specified folder.
This folder can be on the local hard drive, can
be a mapped network drive, or it can be a folder
on another computer.
On Terminal Servers
the user can specify an environment variable which
contains a directory path. The environment variable
name must be between “<<" and “>>" marks. I.e.:
<<TEMP>>. The printer driver will use the value
from the environment variable as the output directory.
This environment variable should be specified for
each user by the system administrator. The system
administrator can add to the autoexec.bat the a
SET command which uses the %USER% environment variable
so this path will be unique for each user. I.e.:
SET
TEMP=C:\Temp\%USER%
I.e.
to specify the TEMP environment variable as output
directory enter in this field: <<TEMP>>
Note:
If the specified environment variable is not found
the printer driver will use by default the temp
directory of the actual user to generate the image
files.
Group File Options
For every print job
(printed document) the printer driver creates a
"group file". The group file contains information
about the generated image, including the name of
the document, the full path and file name for each
page, the image format, color depth, paper size,
orientation, and printing status.
Delete the group
file after printing - The printer driver
will automatically delete the group file at the
end of the printing. Applications can still use
the information from the group file during printing.
Disable group file generation -
If it is not needed, the group file generation can
be turned off.
Start Application
Settings
One of the features
of the Black Ice printer drivers is that the printer
driver can start an application before or after
printing. If the application is started before the
printing starts, the applications can wait for the
messages sent by the printer driver. When the application
is started after the printing has finished, a custom
application can read the command line parameters
of the generated group file, which will contain
all of the necessary information about the generated
images.
The order of the parameters
passed to the started application can be changed,
and unnecessary parameters can be removed from the
parameter list.
Watermark
Settings
Add a watermark image
to every printed document using the Print Watermark
feature of the Black Ice printer drivers. The selected
image (your company logo, signature, etc.) will
show up automatically on the generated images.
-
Watermark
image file: If needed, two different
watermark images can be specified for portrait
and landscape orientation images.
-
Position:
The watermark can be placed on the document
using four options:
-
Brightness:
controls the visibility of the watermark image
on the original document.
The
watermark is always in the background, so the document's
text and images are clearly visible.
Embedded Annotation
Settings
It is possible to define
a custom annotation text that will be placed on
every printed page. The annotation text can also
contain the current date and/or the time. The format
of the date and time, the position of the annotation
text on the page, and the font used to print the
annotation can be fully customized. The Black
Ice printer drivers can also add user specific annotations
such as the printing user name, computer name, IP
Address, etc. which can be specified using predefined
fields and environment variables.
Profile Manager
A printer driver profile
stores every printer setting at a given moment.
This means that one can have separate profiles for
different applications and switching from one application
to another means that another printer driver profile
should be loaded. Users do not have to know what
settings the application requires and they do not
have to make printer settings changes manually.
They simply select another profile from the profile
list and the printer driver will make all the necessary
changes automatically.
Bates Numbering
Bates numbering
is a unified way to refer to and track documents
and pages by number rather than name. Bates number
is normally a series of letters followed by sequential
numbers which are incremented for each printed page.
Bates Numbering is mostly used by law firms to aid
in the referencing of documents.
The Bates
Numbering provided by Black Ice Software is composed
of two components: prefix and number. The prefix
can be any string including letters and numbers,
such as a case number, client name, etc. The second
part of the Bates Number, the actual number, will
be incremented for each printed page. The user can
specify a starting number that will be incremented
by the driver automatically for each printed page.
Advanced features
and technologies
Black Ice ColorPlus
printer drivers support several features and technologies
that no other printer driver vendor supports. In
order to make use of these technologies, there are
several applications included in the
Resource Toolkit that demonstrate these features.
The following list enumerates
these Black Ice specific technologies. Please click
on the links below to get more information about
these features.
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ColorPlus Printer Drivers >
ColorPlus Printer
Drivers for Windows 2003, Citrix and Terminal Servers
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