|
The
Color 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 Color printer 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.
Every
Color printer driver purchased includes a Free
Resource ToolKit to easily integrate the Color
printer driver into the developed application.
Supported operating
systems (terminal services MUST NOT be present):
-
Windows Vista (32
and 64bit)
-
Windows XP Home
and Professional (32 and 64bit)
-
Windows 2000 Professional
The Color 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 Color printer drivers
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 Color printer drivers 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 Color
printer drivers 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 Color
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
-
Cutom 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 Color printer
drivers 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:
Add PDF support using the ColorPlus printer driver!
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 Color printer drivers
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 Color
printer drivers 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
- Extract text output
If the source document
contains text information, the color 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 color 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
drivers 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 Color printer drivers
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 Color printer drivers
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.
Group File Options
For every print job
(printed document) the color 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 Color 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 color 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 Color 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.
Home >
Printer Drivers
> Color
Printer Drivers >
Color Printer Drivers
for Windows XP/2000/NT/Vista32
|
