Amiga Developer CD 2.1

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Text File | 1999-10-27 | 16.8 KB | 411 lines

(c) Copyright 1989-1999 Amiga, Inc. All rights reserved. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice, and is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied. The entire risk as to the use of this information is assumed by the user. Programmer Notes on Calling the V1.3 Printer Device --------------------------------------------------- by David Berezowski The printer device has been exetensively revised under V1.3 of the Amiga system software. The following programmer's notes are presented to help you take full advantage of those changes in your application software. These notes assume that you are already familiar with how the printer device works - for more information, see the ROM Kernel manual. Arguments to DumpRPort ---------------------- io_Command PRD_DUMPRPORT. io_RastPort pointer to a RastPort - could be in fastmem. io_ColorMap pointer to a ColorMap - could be your own custom one. io_Modes the 'modes' flag from a ViewPort structure (you can fake it but the upper word is reserved and should be zero). io_SrcX x offset into the RastPort to start printing from. io_SrcY y offset into the RastPort to start printing from. io_SrcWidth width of the RastPort to print from io_SrcX. io_SrcHeight height of the RastPort to print from io_SrcY. io_DestCols width of the printout in printer pixels. io_DestRows height of the printout in printer pixels. io_Special flag bits - these are explained below. The Old Special Flags --------------------- SPECIAL_MILROWS and SPECIAL_MILCOLS - the associated parameter is specified in thousandths of an inch on the printer; ie. if DestCols = 8000, and DestRows = 10500 then the printout would be 8.000 x 10.500 inches. SPECIAL_FULLROWS and SPECIAL_FULLCOLS - the specific dimension is set to the maximum possible as determined by the printer limits or the configuration limits, whichever is less. SPECIAL_FRACROWS and SPECIAL_FRACCOLS - the associated parameter is taken to be a longword binary fraction of the maximum for that dimension; ie. if SPECIAL_FRACCOLS is set and DestCols = 0x8000 then the width of the dumped picture would be 1/2 (0x8000 / 0xffff) the width of the paper. SPECIAL_CENTER - the image will be automatically centered. SPECIAL_ASPECT - one of the dimensions may be reduced or expanded to preserve the aspect-ratio of the print. SPECIAL_DENSITY (1-4) - see SPECIAL_DENSITY under the new flags section below. SPECIAL_TRUSTME - the printer specific driver is instructed to not issue a reset command before and after the dump. If this flag is NOT checked by the printer specific driver then setting this flag has no effect. Since we now recommend that printer driver writers no longer issue a reset command (ever) it is probably a good idea to always set this flag when calling for a dump. The New Special Flags --------------------- SPECIAL_DENSITY1 to SPECIAL_DENSITY7 - These were originally designed to allow a program to specify up to 7 print densities. However, these flags are now obselete as they are overridden by the density setting in Preferences. If you want to change the density, refer to the section on changing the printer device's copy of Preferences. The actual density in use can be determined by a program using the SPECIAL_NOPRINT flag described below. SPECIAL_NOFORMFEED - Allows for the mixing of text and graphics or multiple graphic dumps on page oriented printers (usually laser jet printers). When this flag is set the page will not be ejected after a graphic dump. If you perform another graphic dump without this flag set OR close the printer device after printing text after a graphic dump, the page will be ejected. This flag MUST be set if you are doing strip printing (covered later on in this article). SPECIAL_NOPRINT - Performs internal calculations, doesn't print and exits. This gives the calling program a chance to see what the printer specific values are for any given density. This is useful for determine the dot density and the maximum dots the printer has for any given density. This option also computes the final print size, and sets 'io_DestCols' and 'io_DestRows' in the calling program's 'IODRPReq' structure. This allows the calling program to see what the final print size would be in printer pixels. Note that it modifies the 'io_DestCols' and 'io_DestRows' fields of your 'IODRPReq' structure. Data Structures --------------- The printer data structures can be read once you have opened the printer device. Below is a code fragment to show how to do this. #include <exec/types.h> #include <devices/printer.h> #include <devices/prtbase.h> struct IODRPReq PReq; struct PrinterData *PD; struct PrinterExtendedData *PED; /* open the printer device if it opened... */ if (OpenDevice("printer.device", 0, &PReq, 0) == NULL) { /* get pointer to printer data */ PD = (struct PrinterData *)PReq.io_Device; /* get pointer to printer extended data */ PED = &PD->pd_SegmentData->ps_PED; /* let's see what's there */ printf("PrinterName = '%s', Version=%u, Revision=%u", PED->ped_PrinterName, PD->pd_SegmentData->ps_Version, PD->pd_SegmentData->ps_Revision,); printf("PrinterClass=%u, ColorClass=%u", PED->ped_PrinterClass, PED->ped_ColorClass); printf("MaxColumns=%u, NumCharSets=%u, NumRows=%u", PED->ped_MaxColumns, PED->ped_NumCharSets, PED->ped_NumRows); printf("MaxXDots=%lu, MaxYDots=%lu, XDotsInch=%u,YDotsInch=%u", PED->ped_MaxXDots, PED->ped_MaxYDots, PED->ped_XDotsInch, PED->ped_YDotsInch); CloseDevice(&PReq); /* close the printer device */ } If you want the user to be able to access printer preferences without actually having to run Preferences (like DPAINT II's printer requester does), then use the code fragment above to examine the current settings. This can be done by refering to 'PD->pd_Preferences'. Note that the printer device must already be opened at this point. Next, put up a requester and allow the user to change whatever parameters they choose. Remember, you are responsible for range checking these selections. Listed below are the printer preferences items and their valid ranges. Text Preferences ---------------- PrintPitch - PICA, ELITE, FINE. PrintQuality - DRAFT, LETTER. PrintSpacing - SIX_LPI, EIGHT_LPI. PrintLeftMargin - 1 to PrintRightMargin. PrintRightMargin - PrintLeftMargin to 999. PaperLength - 1 to 999. Graphic Preferences ------------------- PrintImage - IMAGE_POSITIVE, IMAGE_NEGATIVE. PrintAspect - ASPECT_HORIZ, ASPECT_VERT. PrintShade - SHADE_BW, SHADE_GREYSCALE, SHADE_COLOR. PrintThreshold - 1 to 15. PrintFlags - CORRECT_RED, CORRECT_GREEN, CORRECT_BLUE, CENTER_IMAGE, IGNORE_DIMENSIONS, BOUNDED_DIMENSIONS, ABSOLUTE_DIMENSIONS, PIXEL_DIMENSIONS, MULTIPLY_DIMENSIONS, INTEGER_SCALING, ORDERED_DITHERING, HALFTONE_DITHERING, FLOYD_DITHERING, ANTI_ALIAS, GREY_SCALE2. PrintMaxWidth - 0 to 65535. PrintMaxHeight - 0 to 65535. PrintDensity - 1 to 7. PrintXOffset - 0 to 255. Asynchronous IO --------------- We recommend that you use asynchronous IO for printing in your programs and give the user a way of aborting all requests. Here are the notes on the recommended way to do this. To send requests for IO: struct IORequest *ioreq; struct MsgPort *port; UBYTE signal; port = ioreq->io_Message.mn_ReplyPort; signal = port->mp_SigBit; SendIO(ioreq); /* send request */ Wait(signal); /* wait for completion (go to sleep) */ while ((Msg = GetMsg(port)) != NULL) { /* get ALL messages */ } To abort a previous request for IO use: struct IORequest *ioreq; AbortIO(ioreq); /* abort request */ WaitIO(ioreq); /* wait for reply */ /* at this point you can re-use 'ioreq'. */ In the code fragments above 'ioreq' could be any one of: a) struct IOStdReq /* a standard i/o request */ b) struct IODRPReq /* a dumprport i/i request */ c) struct IOPrtCmdReq /* a printer command i/o request */ Strip Printing -------------- Strip printing is a technique which allows you to print a picture that normally requires lots of memory when you only have a little to spare. This trick works by creating a temporary rastport as wide as your source rastport but not as high. You then render a horizontal strip of your source rastport into the temporary rastport and dump it, moving down your rastport for each dump. The height of the strip must be an integer multiple of the printer's NumRows if you are doing a non-aspect-ratio-corrected picture. You can find NumRows by checking PED->ped_NumRows with the code fragment shown above. If you are doing an aspect-ratio-corrected picture then you'll have to use the SPECIAL_NOPRINT flag to find a DestRows that is an integer multiple of NumRows. You do this by varying your source height and asking for a SPECIAL_NOPRINT dump until DestRows comes back with a number that is an integer multiple of NumRows. Another consideration to keep in mind is that DestRows should also be evenly divisible by 4 since the printer device uses a 4x4 dither matrix. You only need to worry about this if you are doing a grey-scale or color dump as b&w dumps do not do any dithering. Fortunately most printers have a NumRows that is evenly divisible by 4. If you are going to do strip printing and you want SMOOTHING to work across strip boundaries, you must add a raster line above and below the actual area that you are printing. The line above should be the last line from the previous strip. The line below should be the first line from the next strip. Don't forget to omit the line above on the first strip, and the line below on the last strip. So if your source data is 200 lines high and you are printing in strips of 50 lines (ie. 4 separate dumps), your strip rastport will need to be 52 lines high. Below is one scenario for doing the dump: 1st strip - copy source line 0 thru 50 (51 lines) to strip rastport lines 0 thru 50 (51 lines). - io_SrcY = 0, io_Height = 50. - here the printer device can see that there is no line above the first line to dump (since SrcY = 0) and that there is a line below the last line to dump (since we have a 52 line rastport and are only dumping 51 lines). 2nd strip - copy source line 49 thru 100 (52 lines) to strip rastport lines 0 thru 51 (52 lines). - io_SrcY = 1, io_Height = 50. - here the printer device can see that there is a line above the first line to dump (since SrcY = 1) and that there is a line below the last line to dump (since we have a 52 line rastport and are only dumping 50 lines). 3rd strip - copy source line 99 thru 150 (52 lines) to strip rastport lines 0 thru 51 (52 lines). - io_SrcY = 1, io_Height = 50. - here the printer device can see that there is a line above the first line to dump (since SrcY = 1) and that there is a line below the last line to dump (since we have a 52 line rastport and are only dumping 50 lines). 4th strip - copy source line 149 thru 199 (51 lines) to strip rastport lines 1 thru 51 (51 lines). - io_SrcY = 2, io_Height = 50. - here the printer device can see that there is a line above the first line to dump (since SrcY = 2) and that there is no line below the last line to dump (since we have a 52 line rastport and are dumping only 50 lines). Error Codes ----------- If an error comes back to you please try and relay this back to the user instead of simply not printing. Current errors and descriptions are: PDERR_NOERR /* clean exit, no errors */ PDERR_CANCEL /* user canceled print */ PDERR_NOTGRAPHICS /* printer cannot output graphics */ PDERR_INVERTHAM /* OBSOLETE */ PDERR_BADDIMENSION /* print dimensions illegal */ PDERR_DIMENSIONOVFLOW /* OBSOLETE */ PDERR_INTERNALMEMORY /* no memory for internal variables */ PDERR_BUFFERMEMORY /* no memory for print buffer */ 12 Bit Planes ------------- The V1.3 printer device can dump up to 12 bit planes of data from either chip or fast memory; use this to your advantage. Assume we are using a package called YAD (Yet Another Digitizer) that captures data as 24-bit RGB files and displays them on the Amiga in HAM mode. When YAD goes to print it simply does a screen dump of the HAM image. Well we all know that the HAM image is only an approximation of the real colors. Wouldn't it be nice if YAD had an option whereby it would build a 12-bit plane image in fastmem and dump that to the printer. This would produce much better looking output as each pixel could be any 1 of 4096 colors - with none of the HAM limitations! Large Bit Maps -------------- Another new feature you can exploit is the ability of the V1.3 printer device to dump very large bitmaps from either chip or fast memory. Suppose we have an application called YART (Yet Another Ray Tracer) that ray traces images to the screen in 320x400 resolution. When YART goes to print it simply does a screen dump of the low res 320x400 screen. We could expand the printed image to a size of 1280x1600 but then each single screen pixel is expanded to a (rather chunky) 4x4 block of printer pixels. Wouldn't it be nice if YART had an option that would allow us to create a 1280x1600 image in fastmem or on disk and then dump that. This would produce a very impressive picture as 1 source pixel would correspond to 1 printer pixel (ie. no jaggies)! Aspect Ratio ------------ When dumping a non-displayed rastport you have two choices for aspect-ratio correction. You can either do it yourself or let the printer device do it for you. Doing it Yourself a) You must look at the printer's XDotsInch and YDotsInch and account for the fact that the printer may not have square pixels. You can then ask for a non-aspect-ratio-corrected dump; probably a 1:1 dump. Letting the Printer Device Do It a) You could build your rastport such that the dimensions are an integer multiple of one the Amiga's normal display resolutions and then set the io_Modes argument to an appropriate value. For example, if your rasport dimensions were 1280 x 800 (an even multiple of 640 x 400) you would want to set io_Modes to 'LACE | HIRES'. Now the normal aspect-ratio correction code of the printer device will work correctly (if you turn it on). b) You could build an arbitrary sized rastport and set GfxBase->NormalDPMX and GfxBaseNormalDPYM to the dimensions of your rastport. You would then ask for a aspect-ratio-corrected dump and the printer device will figure it all out. If you use this option you must restore GfxBase->NormalDPMX and GfxBaseNormalDPYM to their previous values after the dump. I know that math scholars among you are probably saying, 'Hey, if I have a square rastport, can't I just set DPMX and DPMY both to 1?'. Mathematically this is correct BUT for mysterious reasons DPMX and DPMY must always be >= 182. So if you have a a square rastport you can set DPMX and DPMY to 182. 12 Bit Planes and Large Bit Maps -------------------------------- Obviously the above two techniques require that the system have quite a bit of memory floating around; but they do have their uses. Large bit maps can be utilized by paint, desktop publishing, CAD and ray tracing programs to produce printed output to the resolution of the output device. Remember that the printer's resolution can be determined programatically by looking at the PED structure discussed earlier. Twelve bit plane rastports can be used to produce printed output which exceeds the Amiga's HAM display limitation. Combining these two techniques can give amazingly good printed output. Miscellaneous Items ------------------- There are two final items to consider when writing applications that use the new V1.3 printer device. The first is, whenever the printer device is opened it grabs a copy of Preferences. For this reason, we recommend that when you want to print you open the printer device, print, and close the printer device. If you leave the printer device open you'll never know about user changes to Preferences. And finally, if your application is working in one bit plane (black&white) it is recommended that you perform a b&w (vs a grey-scale or color) dump as they are the fastest. Don't forget to set the threshold value.