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The
Monochrome printer drivers are designed for developers
and end users to build faxing, document imaging,
e-commerce, archiving, or raster image capturing
applications by converting any printable file into
a supported image format. The Monochrome 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
Monochrome printer driver includes a Free
Resource ToolKit to easily integrate the Monochrome
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 Monochrome printer
driver features are grouped into the following main
parts:
Each of the above feature
groups' settings can be changed from the Monochrome
printer driver's Printing Preferences dialog.
The Device Settings
Paper Size
The Monochrome 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 Monochrome 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 Monochrome printer driver
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, the Monochrome
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 Monochrome 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 Monochrome
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:
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
Monochrome printer drivers using the printer driver's
messaging interface.
Multipage file support
The Monochrome 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 Monochrome 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 Monochrome printer
drivers support mail merge features, call for details.
Photo Quality (Dithering)
In order to convert
color documents into monochrome (black and white)
images, several dithering methods are available
and can be used. The Monochrome 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 Monochrome 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 Monochrome 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.
Group File Options
For every print job
(printed document) the Monochrome 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 Monochrome 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 Monochrome 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 Monochrome 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 Monochrome
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 Monochrome
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
> Monochrome
Printer Drivers >
Monochrome Printer Drivers
for Windows XP/2000/NT/Vista32
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