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The Metafile printer
drivers are designed for developers and end users to build document
imaging, e-commerce, archiving applications by converting any printable
file into EMF format. The Metafile 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 Metafile
printer driver purchased includes a Free Resource
ToolKit to easily
integrate the Metafile printer driver into the developed application.
Supported operating
systems (terminal services MUST NOT be present):
-
Windows Vista
32bit
-
Windows XP Home and Professional
-
Windows 2000 Professional
-
Windows 2000 Server
-
Windows 2000 Advanced Server
-
Windows NT 4.0
The Metafile printer driver
features are grouped into the following main parts:
Each of the above
feature groups' settings can be changed from the Metafile printer driver's
Printing Preferences dialog.
The Device Settings
Paper Size
The Metafile 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.
Page
Orientation
Besides the traditional
Portrait and Landscape orientations, Black Ice Metafile printers support
the "Rotate landscape image to portrait" option too.
By using this option, the document
will be printed using the landscape orientation and then the image
will be rotated to portrait orientation.
Graphic resolutions
The Black Ice
Metafile 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 Metafile 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 EMF format. The printed documents will be
converted to EMF (Enhanced Metafile) format.
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 Metafile printer driver using the
printer driver's messaging interface.
Write text file
- Extract text output
If the source document
contains text information, the Metafile printer driver can extract and save
the text from the document in a separate text file in addition to
creating the EMF 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 Metafile printer driver, call for details.
Filename Generation
Settings
The Filename generation
settings allow the name of the generated images to be specified.
The Black Ice Metafile printer driver supports seven different filename generation
methods:
These filename generation methods provide
huge flexibility to the application which integrates the Metafile 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 file.
Output
Directory
The
Metafile printer driver will generate the EMF 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 Metafile printer driver creates a
"group file". The group file contains information about
the generated EMF file, including the name of the document, the
full path and file name for each page, color depth, paper size,
orientation, and printing status.
Delete
the group file after printing
- The Metafile
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 Metafile 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 EMF files.
The
order of the parameters passed to the started application can be
changed, and unnecessary parameters can be removed from the parameter
list.
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 Metafile 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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Metafile Printer Drivers for Windows XP/2000/NT/Vista32 |