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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 7 (32
and 64bit)
-
Windows Vista (32
and 64bit)
-
Windows XP Home
and Professional (32 and 64bit)
-
Windows 2000 Professional
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.
Extract text to file
- Generate 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.
SharePoint®
Enabling the "upload
to SharePoint®" checkbox will cause the generated output to be automatically uploaded to a designated SharePoint Server.
Optionally the upload can be configured to run
in the background by selecting silent mode. Read
more about uploading files to SharePoint®...
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.
Besides the starting an application after printing, there are two other post-printing options: Open output folder opens the folder which contains the output file. Open printed document using the default viewer will open the output file in the default viewer,
e.g. a PDF file will be opened immediately after
the conversion is finished by the default PDF
viewer.
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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Printer Drivers
> Metafile
Printer Drivers >
Metafile Printer Drivers
for Windows XP/2000/NT/Vista32
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