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File: @(#)$Id: NEWS,v 2.10 2001/08/19 09:05:15 Martin Rel $
Contents: Significant user-visible changes between versions of pcl3/hpdj
Author: Martin Lottermoser, Greifswaldstrasse 28, 38124 Braunschweig,
Germany. E-mail: Martin.Lottermoser@t-online.de.
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* *
* Copyright (C) 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 by Martin Lottermoser *
* All rights reserved *
* *
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Version 3.3 (released 2001-08-19)
=================================
* Options
- There is a new option "-sPJLJob" for declaring the generated file as a
PJL print job.
- I've documented the options "PCLInit1" and "PCLInit2" because I now know of
a situation where one of them is needed.
- The option "-dCUPSMessages" has been split into "-dCUPSMessages" and
"-dCUPSAccounting".
- I have added a new option "-dConfigureEveryPage" which is needed by some
not strictly PCL-3-conforming printers.
* Compilation
- Adaptation to AFPL ghostscript 7.0 (previously only available as a patch
file) and GNU ghostscript 6.51.
* Other
- I've removed the "PageCountFile" configuration parameter for cups-pcl3
because the corresponding device parameter can also be set from PostScript.
- I've corrected a bug which showed itself in wrong colour rendering for
yellow on 64-bit platforms when using Floyd-Steinberg error diffusion.
- If you've been using gs-pcl3-hpdj8xxc.ppd or gs-pcl3-hpdj1120c.ppd in an
environment where you had to explicitly specify values for the options
"*eprnBlackLevels" or "*eprnNonBlackLevels" you'll have to replace these
now with a reference to "*pcl3IntensityLevels".
Version 3.2 (released 2001-03-26)
=================================
This is the first non-beta release of pcl3 after hpdj 2.6.
The main functional extension in this release is support for the Common UNIX
Printing System (CUPS):
- I have added PPD files for the supported subdevices.
- The package now contains a filter for using pcl3 with CUPS.
- The driver has a new option "-dCUPSMessages" to generate messages in the
format demanded by CUPS.
Version 3.1 (released 2001-02-28)
=================================
- After waiting almost 5 years for someone to implement it where it logically
belongs (in the ghostscript core distribution somewhere near the "prn"
device), I have finally dropped a deliberate restriction in hpdj/pcl3 and
have implemented Floyd-Steinberg error diffusion on my own. The resulting
quality is quite good, the performance isn't. There is a new option
"-sIntensityRendering" which selects the rendering method to use.
- I have added support for the RGB colour model. This is mostly of interest to
people writing other ghostscript drivers and wishing to use pcl3's "eprn"
device.
- I have changed the "SendNULs" option to be of integer type instead of a
boolean.
- The option "-dNoHalftoning" has been replaced by the value "printer" for the
new option "-sIntensityRendering".
- I have changed the %N name used by the message catalogues for pcl3opts from
"pcltools" to "pcl3opts". You should delete your old catalogues if you
installed them.
Version 3.0.2 (released 2000-11-09)
===================================
- Because I'm disappointed with the way the FTP server previously used for
distributing hpdj is administered, I've moved pcl3's WWW home page to
http://home.t-online.de/home/Martin.Lottermoser/pcl3.html.
- I've made one change in the generated PCL code (argument value for Start
Raster Graphics) which, according to the HP documentation available to me,
should be equivalent but which is apparently a necessary condition for duplex
printing on the HP DJ 970C.
- The option -dOnlyCRD is now documented.
- Rearrangements in the output of pcl3opts, addition of -dOnlyCRD if needed.
- Clarifications in the reference page.
Version 3.0.1 (released 2000-10-27)
===================================
Bugfix release (-sSubdevice leading to 300 ppi resolution).
Version 3.0 (released 2000-10-22)
=================================
As predicted in hpdj 2.5, the name of this driver has been changed to "pcl3".
I am sorry it took so long for this version to be released, but, apart from
other tasks intervening, the work for this driver expanded in a manner I had
not anticipated. The current version is practically a new implementation, hence
this is only a beta release which should be approached with appropriate care.
* Functionality/behaviour of the driver
+ Removed Functionality
- I have removed the optional source code for generating a device-specific
'InputAttributes' page device parameter. I had misunderstood the purpose
of this parameter in PostScript.
+ Modifications
- The option "Colo[u]rMode" is now called ""Colo[u]rModel" and its default
value is called "Gray" instead of "mono".
- The default for "ManualFeed" is now always "false".
- The "MarginFile" option has been renamed "MediaConfigurationFile" and
media configuration files now expect PPD mediaOption keywords (like "A4")
instead of PCL page size codes ("26" for ISO A4) to identify media sizes.
- The "MediaType" parameter has been renamed "Medium" to prevent a conflict
with PostScript Level 3. There are extensions in the permissible values
as well.
- The "Model" option has been renamed "Subdevice" and the permissible
values have been changed.
- The "PagecountFile" option is now called "PageCountFile" in order to
agree with the spelling of the page device parameter "PageCount".
- The default compression method depends now on the subdevice chosen.
For "unspec", it is 2 instead of 9 as previously.
+ Extensions
- More printer models are explicitly supported (in particular some of the
series 300 and 600 DeskJets).
- It is now possible to select supported printer models (subdevices)
directly by a "-sDEVICE" option.
- The driver can now also deal with media fed long edge first. This is
needed for envelope sizes on some older DeskJets. The implementation is
actually more general and adds support for the standard
PostScript-Level-3 page device parameter "LeadingEdge".
- The driver now reacts to media positions (numbers identifying input or
output trays) determined by PostScript's media selection process.
- The driver now supports banner printing.
- The driver now supports duplex printing.
- There is a new option "-dNoHalftoning" which turns off ghostscript's
halftoning.
- I've added support for printers (e.g., Olivetti JP 792) which violate PCL
in requiring the black pixel plane to be sent last when printing in
colour.
- You now have direct access to print quality parameters for older DeskJets.
- There are two new options with minor usefulness (SendNULs, PJLLanguage).
* Documentation
- I have rewritten the documentation in SGML, using the DocBook DTD.
The distribution contains derived variants as an nroff/troff manual page
and in HTML format.
- To my dismay I have discovered that the description on how to increase the
halftone screen frequency does not work with current ghostscript versions.
The manual page has been corrected accordingly.
- The support for functionality needing the PCL command "Configure Raster
Data" is no longer marked as unsafe because I have finally obtained some
official HP documentation on it.
- I've added a preliminary version of a TeX document (notes.tex) containing
useful information for other driver implementors.
* Other Changes
- I've added a command "pcl3opts" which parses PCL-3+ files and guesses the
options needed to generate a file with similar settings using pcl3. This
command is intended for people having access to a manufacturer-endorsed
driver for their printer.
- I've added some PostScript files to the package:
- calign.ps for checking the relative alignment of ink cartridges
- dumpppd.ps for dumping the contents of the page device dictionary to
standard output
- levels-test.ps for checking the basic colour capabilities of ghostscript
and the driver
* Compilation/Sources
- I have restructured the driver and split it into three layers.
The top-most one is a new abstract gs device ("eprn") extending
ghostscript's standard "prn" device and dealing with aspects independent of
PCL. The lowest layer is a PCL-3+ generator. Both components are intended
to be usable in other contexts as well. The "pcl3" driver proper is the
intermediate layer connecting the other two.
- The way you have to integrate pcl3's sources in the compilation has
changed. You now have less compilation options to worry about.
Version 2.6 (released 1999-10-16)
=================================
The main purpose of this version is to update the address of hpdj's FTP site
and my e-mail address which have changed. Other changes are:
* Documentation
- I have removed the description of HPDJ_INPUTATTRIBUTES from README.hpdj.
The symbol can still be defined during compilation if you need it, but
because I had misunderstood the purpose of the 'InputAttributes' page
device parameter hpdj's resulting behaviour is not in agreement with the
PostScript language definition.
- README.hpdj now describes a fix for ghostscript's BG/UCR bug which was
previously mentioned only on hpdj's WWW home page.
- I've made numerous small changes in the manual page and README.hpdj.
* Compilation
- The make file parts needed for hpdj are no longer diffs but simply text
segments which can be inserted with an ordinary text editor.
There are almost no changes in the source code.
Version 2.5 (released 1998-11-22)
=================================
This is mainly a release to adapt hpdj to gs 5.50. There are no changes in
functionality.
Unless there arise reasons for quickly issuing a new package, this will be the
last release where the driver is called "hpdj". The new name will probably be
"pcl3" and numbering will start with version 3.0.
* Changes in behaviour
- hpdj will now complain if you specify the option 'BitsPerPixel' unless the
value given happens to be the same as the one chosen by hpdj.
* Compilation
- hpdj should now adapt automatically to the ghostscript version used, i.e.,
you no longer have to set version-specific defines for older gs releases.
- One user encountered and located a bug in Microsoft VC++ 5.0 which
prevented reading margin files. This release works around the bug.
* Documentation
- Numerous small changes.
Version 2.4 (released 1998-04-27)
=================================
Starting with this version, hpdj is released under the terms of the GNU Library
General Public License (LGPL) instead of the GNU GPL.
* Extensions
- This version supports the Color Resolution Enhancement technology (C-REt)
feature of some HP series-800 DeskJets, at least as far as I've been able
to discover how this works without any documentation from HP. See the
description of the new options 'BlackLevels' and 'CMYLevels' in the manual
page.
- There is a new option, "PagecountFile", which can be used to keep track of
the number of pages printed. It is intended for spooler backends.
- As an example of an input filter for a BSD spooler (lpr), I've added a file
'if-hpdj' to the distribution. Read the comments in the file to find out
what it can do.
- I've extended the list of PCL media size codes known to hpdj by some codes
of interest to people with series-1100 DeskJets.
* Modifications
- The DJ 850C/855C/unspec margin information has been modified:
- The margins for the JIS B5 format were demonstrably wrong for the DJ 850C
and have been changed.
- I've removed the entry for US A2 envelopes because contrary to what I
believed previously this size is not supported.
* Documentation
- The FILES section in the manual page has been restructured and extended as
a CONFIGURATION section. In particular, for those not familiar with
PostScript, I've added much more on configuration with PostScript commands.
* Compilation
- I have added a missing "#include <errno.h>" directive to hpdjprn.c.
- I have added an include directive for Aladdin's header "std.h" where
appropriate in order to avoid some name clashes with non-standard system
types like 'uint' on some operating systems (e.g., FreeBSD).
Version 2.3 (released 1997-12-16)
=================================
This is a release to fix a bug preventing linking when HPDJ_MARGIN_FILE was
defined during compilation.
Version 2.2 (released 1997-12-08)
=================================
Most of the changes in this version are either in the documentation or internal.
So far, only one bug has been reported for hpdj 2.1 and it is concerned with
compilation and not with the generated PCL code (see below).
* Changes in behaviour
- Printing with a series-500 DeskJet on envelope sizes now assumes manual
feed unless overridden by the new 'ManualFeed' option.
- I have finally managed to see how to support automatic rotation for pages
in landscape orientation without help from 'setpagedevice'. The rule is
now: put media into the input tray short edge first and let hpdj worry
about the rest.
In particular, it is now possible to use setpagedevice to declare landscape
orientation in default user space and thus obtain a file which can be
viewed on the screen in its proper orientation and which will, without
modifications, print correctly if processed by hpdj.
- hpdj can now also install its own 'InputAttributes' dictionary in its page
device dictionary. (And if you don't know what that can be used for you
should skip this paragraph.) There will be one entry for each page size
supported by the printer model chosen. This has the disadvantage that
unsupported page sizes no longer produce readable messages like
? Device hpdj: This document requests a page size of 210 x 297 pt.
This exceeds the custom page size limits for the DeskJet 850C.
from hpdj but instead slightly cryptic messages like
Error: /configurationerror in --setpagedevice--
Additional information: [/PageSize [210 297]]
from the setpagedevice operator (some ghostscript versions, e.g. gs 4.03,
even omit the second of these lines). The advantage is that setpagedevice
can now perform the usual media size matching.
This feature is not active by default because it generates the wrong
initial CTM if the printer model supports custom page sizes and the media
size requested could be matched as a custom page size. This is due to a bug
in make_adjustment_matrix() (file zmedia2.c) which is present in at least
gs 3.53, gs 4.03 and gs 5.10. The hpdj distribution contains a patch file
for zmedia2.c based on gs 5.10 which fixes this problem.
Compile hpdj with -DHPDJ_INPUTATTRIBUTES to activate this feature.
* Command line options:
- New options (see the manual page for descriptions):
- DryTime
- ManualFeed
- Changes in option interfaces (no change in functionality):
- ColourMode and ColorMode accept "monochrome" as a synonym for "mono".
- MediaType now recognizes the string "photo paper".
- PrintQuality accepts "best" as a synonym for "presentation".
* Manual page:
- I have made the nroff/troff syntax more acceptable to man commands of
limited intelligence and faulty man macros. In particular, man is now more
likely to discover that preprocessing by tbl is needed, and nroff should
no longer get confused what the "previous" font is after CW has been used.
(The Linux system on which I developed hpdj 2.1 did not have these faults,
but since then I have switched distributions...)
- The man page now contains a reference to hpdj's FTP site.
- The list of printers known to work with hpdj has been extended.
- I have rewritten most of the "LIMITATIONS" section.
* Additional files in the distribution:
- This file :-).
- A copy of the hpdj home page, hpdj.html, giving a short introduction to
ghostscript and hpdj, together with instructions on where to get them.
- Patch files for devs.mak in Aladdin ghostscript 3.53 and 5.10.
- Patch file for zmedia2.c (bug in make_adjustment_matrix()) based on Aladdin
ghostscript 5.10.
- Margin test files in landscape orientation for ISO A4 and US Letter.
* Compilation:
- In two places, I had used dynamic initializers for structs. This is not
required to be supported by ISO/ANSI C and gave error messages from at
least one compiler. This bug has been fixed.
- A user reported problems with the interpretation of return values of
fprintf() on his non-ISO/ANSI-C-conforming system. This lead to hpdj
erroneously assuming that an error had occurred. The code has been changed
to circumvent this problem.
- Based on user feedback, I have rewritten parts of README.hpdj.
- There is a new printer model, "none", intended only as a compile-time value
for HPDJ_DEFAULT_MODEL. Using this model leads to an error message telling
the user that s/he should explicitly specify -sModel. I have introduced this
value for the benefit of persons distributing binary versions of ghostscript
and wishing to force their users to deliberately choose the printer model.
This is the default value for HPDJ_DEFAULT_MODEL now.
- The source code for the driver is now distributed over 7 files instead of
3 as before.
Version 2.1 (released 1997-06-08)
=================================
This was the first widely-released version of hpdj.