Using the Printer Interface

Print Setup

Printer Settings

Printer Tab

Printer ----

Displays and sets information about the Windows printer on which the host print jobs will be printed.

• Device Name: Displays the name of the currently defined Windows printer. (display only field)

• Output Port: Displays the port that is being used by the above printer. (display only field)

• Always use Windows Default Printer on Startup: If checked, BlueZone will automatically use the Windows default printer upon startup.

• Change Printer: Use this button to change the current printer shown in the Device Name window above.

• Printer Info: This button will display detailed information about the currently selected printer.

Method of Printing ----

• Windows API (Application Program Interface): When this option is selected, the settings on the Page tab, Layout tab, Fonts tab and Options tab are the settings that will control print output.  In other words, the BlueZone application interfaces with the Windows print driver to control the print output.  This option gives you complete control over print output.

• Passthrough - Send All Data Directly to the Printer: If enabled, BlueZone by-passes the Windows print driver and sends the data directly to the printer.  Note that selecting this option will cause the Page tab, Layout tab, Fonts tab and Options tab to disappear, reason being that all printer controls are contained in the data steam of the print job.

• Passthrough using Printer Definition - Convert Host Commands to Escapes: Selecting this option, allows direct control of the printer by the printer emulator.  Host SCS printer control information is converted to ASCII printer escape sequences contained in the supplied Printer Definition File.  Note that selecting this option will cause the Fonts tab to disappear.

• Printer Definition List Box: Displays the currently selected printer definition.  This is automatically selected using the closest match to the name of the selected Windows printer.  If necessary, select a printer or printer family that is close to the target printer.  A small subset of ASCII escape sequences are supported because only a limited set of functions are available in the SCS data stream.

• Print to File - Redirect Print output to File: Check to enable the print to file feature.  Note that selecting this option will cause only the Print to File tab to appear.

• Suppress Form Feed at End of Job: If enabled, BlueZone eliminates the form feed sent by the host to prevent the printing of an extra blank page at the end of the print job.

• AFP Support: This option is only available when Passthrough - Send All Data Directly to the Printer is enabled.  If you are having a problem with print jobs not being formatted correctly, try enabling this option.  This option will force BlueZone to ignore all printer control sequences in the spool file.

TIP  When using the "Always Use Default Windows Printer on Startup" feature, edit printer names in the Printer Definition File for the known target printers to automatically match the printer definition file to the printer.

TIP  When printing preprinted forms or specially formatted print jobs, use Passthrough printing and a printer definition file.  This will ensure that font selections which are not scaled, but are exactly the proper pitch and line density.