RAW Printing(Last update of this topic: 10-11-2022) |
  
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(Last update of this topic: 10-11-2022)
RAW Printing(Last update of this topic: 10-11-2022) |
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In the context of VPD-based printing, RAW Printing means the "loop-through" of print jobs as-it-is. In this process, depending on the input format and the selected settings, there is usually no change of the print stream which is routed 1:1 to the printer. The use of a manufacturer-specific printer driver on the workstations and terminal servers is still not required.
For printing with VPD, an XPS document is required as input document. This is usually created correctly by using the VPD printer driver. When using special systems, such as SAP, Dedalus Orbis (formerly known as Agfa Orbis), IBM System i (AS/400, eServer iSeries, System i5), Microsoft Navision etc., the input document may be considered invalid by default and thus VPD printing may be cancelled or the printout may not be displayed as desired. In this case, RAW Printing becomes effective. Due to a configuration of RAW Printing, a wide variety of document formats can be recognized and manipulated. This enables a significantly extended area of application for VPD in the corporate environment.
Configuration
By default, RAW Printing is disabled and can be enabled via the performance profiles in the settings of the steadyPRINT Center (File > Settings > Performance-Profiles > [Performance-Profile] > steadyPRINT VPD > Enable extended RAW printer function).
Note |
Restart required |
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After (dis-)enabling RAW-Printing, a restart of the steadyPRINT Server services is required. Moreover, the steadyPRINT Agents of the users must be restarted so the the change is applied to the user. |
For configuring the behavior, the area RAW Print is available in the settings of the Center. The properties available there influence the behavior when processing the input document. In the following there are some common scenarios that use RAW Printing and may require a configuration.
Label Printer
The print stream usually has content that is to be passed through to the label printer 1:1.
Setting: LabelPrinterDriverNames
Description: This property specifies the driver names of label printers. On the server side, it is checked before printing whether the driver name of the target printer matches (a part of the name is sufficient). In case of a match, the printout is unchangedly (as-it-is) forwarded to the printer as a byte stream.
Permissible values: comma-separated list of strings
Example values: CAB, Citizen, Zebra
Fanfold printer
The print stream usually has content that is to be passed through to the label printer 1:1
Setting: ContinuousPaperPrinterDriverNames
Description: This property specifies the driver names of fanfold printers. On the server side, it is checked before printing whether the driver name of the target printer matches (a part of the name is sufficient). In case of a match, the printout is unchangedly (as-it-is) forwarded to the printer as a byte stream.
Permissible values: comma-separated list of strings
Example values: Generic
Document Formats
Depending on the used application, which sends the print job via the VPD printer, a wide variety of document formats can occur as input documents. Usually this is an XPS document (default with VPD). However, these can also be input documents representing e.g. content in PostScript or PDF format. At this point, many other formats are conceivable. Currently, RAW Printing has two ways of identifying the document type in order to be able to process it correctly afterwards.
Identification of the document type by means of a preamble in string representation
Setting: PreambleStrings
Description: This property specifies document preambles. This way, the format of the document is identified and can then be manipulated by further optional processing steps and finally forwarded to the printer.
Permissible values: comma-separated list of strings
Example values: ^XA,%!PS-,%PDF
Identification of the document type by means of a preamble in character representation
Setting: PreambleChars
Description: This property specifies characters that may occur at the beginning of the document in order to identify the printout as a RAW document and forward it to the printer without changes. They serve as a replacement of a preamble as defined for the property "PreambleStrings".
Permissible values: comma-separated list of numbers, the numbers representing the decimal value (NCR) of a character from the ASCII-table.
Example values: 27, 14
Extract ASCII table for value 27: U+001B (Unicode) |  (Hexa NCR) |  (Decimal NCR) | 1B (UTF8) | \u001B (Escaped Unicode) | Escape Character (Description)
Extract ASCII table for value 14: U+000E (Unicode) |  (Hexa NCR) |  (Decimal NCR) | 0E (UTF8) | \u000E (Escaped Unicode) | Shift Out (Description)
IBM System i (AS/400, eServer iSeries, System i5)
The IBM systems have different output formats in order to send a printout to the printer. If the document is displayed as ASCII Extended, it is possible to manipulate the document content before printing. For this purpose, the following properties are available:
Property |
Description |
PdfFontSizePortrait |
This property is to specify the font size for documents aligned in portrait.
Permissible values: float
Example values: 11.5 |
PdfFontSizeLandscape |
This property is to specify the font size for documents aligned in landscape.
Permissible values: float
Example values: 11.5 |
PdfMarginLeft |
This property is to specify a margin in millimeters for the left margin.
Permissible values: float
Example values: 5 |
PdfMarginTop |
This property is to specify a margin in millimeters for the top margin.
Permissible values: float
Example values: 5 |
PdfMarginRight |
This property is to specify a margin in millimeters for the right margin.
Permissible values: float
Example values: 5 |
PdfMarginBottom |
This property is to specify a margin in millimeters for the bottom margin.
Permissible values: float
Example values: 5 |
DynamicBestFitForPortrait |
This property (dis)enables the dynamic adjustment of the content to the document size (A4 portrait). For this purpose, the reference font size from the property "PdfFontSizePortrait" is used. The page content is scaled down until it fits completely on one page.
Permissible values: bool (True, False) |
DynamicBestFitForLandscape |
This property (dis)enables the dynamic adjustment of the content to the document size (A4 landscape). For this purpose, the reference font size from the property "PdfFontSizeLandscape" is used. The page content is scaled down until it fits completely on one page
Permissible values: bool (True, False) |
NumberLettersPerLineToPrintLandscape |
Specifies the number of characters from when a page is treated as landscape. Note: The system cannot provide any information on page orientation.
Permissible value: int
Example values: 121 |
DocumentHeaderSpaceString |
Documents with a bland area (several blank lines) at the beginning of the document are mostly document printouts. This may be too large causing the page content to move to the next page. This area can be identified by this "pattern" and replaced by the content of the property "DocumentNormalizedHeaderSpaceString".
Permissible values: String
Default value: \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n |
DocumentNormalizedHeaderSpaceString |
This property specifies the new content for a replacement of the page content at the beginning of the document identified by means of the property "DocumentHeaderSpaceString".
Permissible values: String
Default value: \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n |
Note: Before printing, documents are partly converted to PDF. The affected properties have the "Pdf" prefix in their names.