Interpreting the remote print control file

 

The control file is an ASCII file containing all pertinent settings for a print job. The control file name and location is passed to the external print application as the first command line parameter. The external print program must read the control file and act accordingly.

Printing with a remote printer creates two types of files:

· raster files of the images being printed, with a .tmp extension (for example, 340ec2e0.tmp)

· a control file with a .job extension (for example, 340ec2e0.job). The control file lists the names of all the .tmp files produced.

The control file contains single keywords followed by one space, followed by a parameter.

Keyword

Parameter Content

BANNER

String from the Banner setting in the [printer-name] section of the Image.ini file

COPIES

Number of copies, from 1 to 99

FORMAT

File format name

TIMESTAMP

Y or N to turn timestamps on or off

SCALE

Name of paper selected by user

DEVICE

Name of printer, from the [PlotDevices] section of the Image.ini file

ID

Name of the document being printed, with the file extension enclosed in parenthesis

ORIENTATION

0 = Imagenation rotated the image before the temp file was created. (This value is set automatically when the Printer Can Rotate keyname is used.) The external application will behave the same way it would with a value of 1 selected.

1 = portrait

2 = landscape

FIT MODE

1 = one-to-one fit. If the image is too large for the selected paper size, then the image may be scaled down to fit the page.

DELETE

Always contains Y, indicating that temporary files should be deleted by the print processing command on completion

FILE

Complete path and name of the file being printed

Example

If a multiple page document is printed, then the last two items of the control file are repeated for each page.

See also

Creating a remote printing program

Setting up remote printing