Full control over the generated file name - Black Ice Printer Drivers

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The Black Ice printer drivers provide developers with complete control over the names of the file generated when printing. Seven different filename generation methods are available, which can be grouped into the following categories:

Use the document name

Custom file naming

Exact filename

Prefix and extension

File

Developers also have full control over the output directory that the Black Ice printer driver generates files in

1. Use the document name:

The driver will use the document name supplied by the printing application exactly as it is passed to the printer driver.

Each of the file name generation methods can be used to programmatically control the generated file name in one form or another. Depending on the environment and scope of usage for the Black Ice printer driver, it may be more suitable to write to the registry as opposed to an INI file, or just write to the devmode directly. By including seven file name generation methods, Black Ice allows developers/users to choose the method which best meets their particular needs.

2. Custom File Naming:

The custom file naming option lets you build up a custom file naming scheme from predefined tags. File names can even contain dynamic information, for example:

  • time of conversion
  • date of conversion
  • user or computer names
  • page number
  • custom text string

Custom file naming is especially useful the conversion results in multiple documents. The ‘Custom File Naming’ option is available in every Black Ice Printer Driver from version 13.20.

The custom file name scheme is built through the Custom File Name dialog:

For more detailed description, please visit the Custom File Naming webpage

3. Exact filename:

The printed file will be generated with a specific name and extension. The extension can be any series of characters, allowing developers to hide the true file format used, if desired.

Benefits – The name of the file to be generated can be explicitly controlled by the developer or printing user. Additionally, using an “Exact Filename” option in conjunction with the “Combine/Merge multiple documents into a single file” checkbox allows multiple print jobs (documents) to be merged together. When the "Combine/Merge multiple documents into a single file” option is turned on, the printer driver will append the new pages to the existing file, instead of overwriting the file. The file format used must be a multi page format such as TIFF, PCX or PDF.

  • Exact filename: The filename will be read from the ‘Enter the filename’ edit box. and can be set through either the BlackIceDEVMODE controls or via the user interface.
  • Exact filename from the registry: The filename will be read from the specified registry key. The registry path must be under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE root key. The value name containing the filename must be "File Name". The file name can be specified with or without the path.
  • Exact filename from the INI file: In this case the filename will be read from the INI file specified. The driver will search the INI file for a section with the printer’s name. Use the “File Name” key for the Filename. The file name can be specified with the path or without, for example:
[Black Ice Color Printer] File name =C:\Output\page.tiff

4. Prefix and extension:

The output filename will be generated from random characters. The first three characters of the file name will be the characters specified in the ‘Filename Prefix’ edit box followed by random numbers. The file extension will either be the default format extension or can be a custom extension.

Benefits – The filename will be random and unique for each print job. This method is best used when the developer wants to ensure that files are not overwritten

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