Newnes PC Printer's Pocket Book

The weakest link in any computer system is undoubtedly the connection between the computer and the printer. Although there is an increasing level of compatibility between computers the same cannot be said of printers. As a result users spend a great deal of time in the frustrating business of trying to get their printer to work. The situation for laser printers is eased to a certain extent by the adoption of Postscript, a universal printer language that provides all the features needed to create any form of text or graphics. this provides compatibility over a wide range of printers, but is very complex and requires careful use. The aim of this book is to provide the tools that programmers need to write their own printer drivers. The book would contain all the necessary background information to cover the theory of printer drivers and would include the shell of a printer driver, written in several languages, that could be adapted for most applications. All of the common printers now available would be covered and there would be a complete specification of the printer codes for all printers on sale today.
For each printer there would also be a description of the dip switches and other features that affect output. Perhaps most importantly, there would be complete coverage of Postscript, showing how it may be used to send any form of output to a laser printer. Finally, there would be a discussion on how a stand-alone programme may be created to take text from any programme and translate it into a form suitable for any particular printer. This book is aimed at anyone who is involved in programming, who requires their programme to produce results on more than one type of printer. It would also be of interest to the more enthusiastic user who is having printer problems and anyone (such as an Xchange) who has a programme that requires the user to set up their own printer codes.
 
The weakest link in any computer system is undoubtedly the connection between the computer and the printer. Although there is an increasing level of compatibility between computers the same cannot be said of printers. As a result users spend a great deal of time in the frustrating business of trying to get their printer to work. The situation for laser printers is eased to a certain extent by the adoption of Postscript, a universal printer language that provides all the features needed to create any form of text or graphics. this provides compatibility over a wide range of printers, but is very complex and requires careful use. The aim of this book is to provide the tools that programmers need to write their own printer drivers. The book would contain all the necessary background information to cover the theory of printer drivers and would include the shell of a printer driver, written in several languages, that could be adapted for most applications. All of the common printers now available would be covered and there would be a complete specification of the printer codes for all printers on sale today.
For each printer there would also be a description of the dip switches and other features that affect output. Perhaps most importantly, there would be complete coverage of Postscript, showing how it may be used to send any form of output to a laser printer. Finally, there would be a discussion on how a stand-alone programme may be created to take text from any programme and translate it into a form suitable for any particular printer. This book is aimed at anyone who is involved in programming, who requires their programme to produce results on more than one type of printer. It would also be of interest to the more enthusiastic user who is having printer problems and anyone (such as an Xchange) who has a programme that requires the user to set up their own printer codes.