Bernie ][ The Rescue 2.6

Printing

Registering | Getting Started | Audio/Video | Storage
Communications | Printing | Preferences | Total Integration

Bernie Home | F.E.Systems Home

1. Introduction

2. InkMeister Light™

> 2.1 AppleSoft BASIC

> 2.2 ORCA Shell (GS)

> 2.3 AppleWorks Classic

> 2.4 Form Feed on a Partially Printed Page

> 2.5 Preferences

> > 2.5.1 Force Monospaced

> > 2.5.2 Font and Size

> > 2.5.3 Margins

> > 2.5.4 Line Length

> > 2.5.5 Printer Command Style

> > 2.5.6 Form Feed Timeout

> 2.6 Printer Codes

3. InkDirect™

4. InkMeister Pro™

5. The InkMeister™ Control Center

> > 5.1. Scale Popup

> > 5.2. Double/Halve Scale

> > 5.3. Preferences Button

> > 5.4. Page Setup Button

> > 5.5. Print Button

> > 5.6. Page Flip Buttons

> > 5.7. Form Feed Button

> > 5.8. Clear Queue Button (Trash Can)

> > 5.9. Printing without Preview

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1. Introduction

Since the first incarnation of InkMeister™, other possibilities to print your documents have been continually added. So there are now four technologies:

- InkMeister Light™ translates single characters passed through the GS slot 1 by 8-bit Apple II- and text based GS/OS software into QuickDraw, the Mac's native imaging system. This enables you to see this sort of output in a preview window (the so-called "InkMeister™ Control Center"), and to print it on any MacOS compatible printer.
- InkDirect™, introduced with Bernie v1.3 allows you to send the characters passing through the GS slot 1 directly to a Mac serial port of your choice. This way the 8-bit Apple II- or text based GS/OS software is able to control a printer attached to that Mac serial port.
- InkMeister Pro™, which is not yet finished, allows you to print graphics and text from GS/OS desktop applications. To use this option you install the GS/OS printer driver called "InkMeister" supplied with Bernie in your GS/OS system. This driver passes GS QuickDraw II commands to Bernie, where they are translated into Mac QuickDraw commands for previewing and printing. As of now some features are not yet implemented, among them bitmaps and direct printing (i.e. preview mode is required).
- Cereal Puffs™, introduced with Bernie v1.3, support the GS Serial Ports by connecting them to the Mac serial port(s) of your choice. With this configuration you can print like on a real GS, using the usual printer drivers and cables. Since this solution emulates the chip used for serial communication in a real GS, it uses a bit more CPU power from your PowerMac than the other three technologies. This technology is described in detail in the Communications chapter of this documentation.

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### Getting Help

If you have questions regarding InkMeister™ Light, Pro or InkDirect™, feel free to contact Urs Hochstrasser of F.E.Systems.

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2. InkMeister Light™

InkMeister Light™ is the integrated text printing solution for Bernie ][ the Rescue. For once we departed from the principle of emulating 'metal'. The reasons for this are simple: MacOS compatible printers are page printers (QuickDraw or PostScript devices) rather than text printers. However, most 8-bit Apple // titles, among them the very popular AppleWorks Classic, expect just such a text printer.

That is where InkMeister Light™ comes in. It allows 8-bit or text based GS/OS software (such as the ORCA shell) to print to a virtual text printer. The output is then converted to a format your MacOS compatible printer can understand and print accordingly.

InkMeister Light™ emulates a text printer attached to slot 1, but it doesn't support all the details you can set for the actual Printer Port.

InkMeister Light™ requires Slot 1 to be set to "Your Card" in the Apple IIgs Control Panel. If slot 1 is set to "Printer", do this:

- enter the Control Panel
- open the "Slots" sub-panel
- change slot 1 to "Your Card"
- close the "Slots" screen by hitting the RETURN key, and leave the Control Panel
- reboot the emulated Apple IIgs (changes will not take effect until you reboot)

You can reboot the emulated Apple IIgs by choosing "Reset" from the "Setup" menu.

When you print the first time the 'Preview' option will be enabled (you can check this in the 'InkMeister' submenu in the 'File' menu). Therefore the 'InkMeister Control Center' (a preview window) will appear when the first page is finished. You can invoke this window with the 'Printer' command in the 'Window' menu as well. More on the preview window later.

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### International Characters

InkMeister Light™ supports all foreign character sets you can select in the GS' Control Panel ('Display language'). InkMeister Light™ reads this setting and translates its output accordingly. Due to this mechanism you can't mix foreign characters from different sets on the same printout.

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### Line Length

Some software doesn't limit the length of printed text lines (e.g. Applesoft BASIC). Therefore you can set the line length in the Preferences.

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2.1 AppleSoft BASIC

In BASIC you can use

> `PR#1`

to redirect output to InkMeister Light™. Accordingly, in the monitor you would use `1`<CTRL-P>. Of course the same rules apply as if you were using a real printer, so when using DOS 3.3 or ProDOS BASIC.SYSTEM you should use

> `PRINT CHR$4;"PR#1"`

in BASIC programs instead. To print listings or other output with lengthy lines you can limit the line length in the Preferences.

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2.2 ORCA Shell (GS)

You need to install the `.PRINTER` driver which came with your ORCA package prior to using InkMeister Light™. After installing you can redirect output to the printer as usual:

> `catalog > .printer`

It might be necessary to disable the 'add LF after CR' feature in the ORCA text printer control panel to avoid double spaced text.

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2.3 AppleWorks Classic

In order to print from AppleWorks you need to create a Custom Printer Driver. Here's how to do it in AppleWorks Classic 3.0:

1. To do this you select 'Other Activities' from the main menu in AppleWorks. There you select 'Select standard settings for AppleWorks', and then 'Specify information about your printer(s)'.
2. Select 'Add a printer' (remove another if necessary), select 'Custom printer' and call it 'InkMeister'.
3. Give 'Slot 1' as access.
4. Set the following options:
   - 'Needs line feed after each return': NO
   - 'Accepts top of page commands': YES
   - 'Stop at end of each page': as you like (recommended NO)
   - 'Platen Width': 8.0 inches (unless you print in landscape orientation)
   - 'Printer codes': see step 5
   - 'Interface cards': select and set 'Current control chars' to 'None' (normally there is 'Control-I 80 N'. Remove it).
5. Set Printer Codes You can set codes for 'Boldface, Subscript and Superscript' and for 'Underlining'. The codes are given in the Printer Codes section below. For underlining use 'Printer has start/stop underline commands'. There are more options (Italics, Outline and Shadow) which you can set with 'Special Codes'.
6. Return to the main menu by pressing the 'Escape' key several times. You are now set to use InkMeister Light™ with AppleWorks Classic.

HINT: | AppleWorks asks you 'How many copies?' before printing. Leave this at '1' since you can set the number of copies in your MacOS Print Dialog. This will be much faster!

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2.4 Form Feed on a Partially Printed Page

A page is only printed (or appears in the preview window) when it is finished, i.e. when the page is full or InkMeister Light™ received a form feed character (Control-L) from the software. If you want to get your page immediately you can invoke the 'Form Feed' command from the 'InkMeister' submenu ('File' menu) or by clicking on the Form Feed Button in the preview window. If Form Feed Timeout is enabled, a form feed is forced after 30 seconds of printing inactivity. This won't be necessary in AppleWorks Classic since it sends a Form Feed automatically.

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2.5 Preferences

You invoke the InkMeister™ specific preferences panel by selecting 'Preferences...' from the 'Setup' menu (and clicking on the printer icon) or by clicking on the 'Preferences' Button in the preview window.

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2.5.1 Force Monospaced

Although the recommended default font for InkMeister Light™, Courier, is a monospaced font, this is not the whole story. When printed in boldface or another more space consuming typeface even a character from the Courier font takes up more space. This is a general problem on the Mac if you want to align monospaced characters.

Therefore InkMeister Light™ offers a solution with this 'Monospaced' mode. If it is enabled, every single character is placed individually and exactly. This yields proper alignment in text screen based word processors like AppleWorks Classic. On the other side this method is very time consuming and printing is slowed down considerably.

HINT: | If available, you can also choose the font Courier New instead of enabling "Force Monospaced". CourierNew is monospaced across all font variations, and it allows you to perfectly align text without having to enable InkMeister™ Light's time & memory-consuming "Force Monospace" option.

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2.5.2 Font and Size

Here you can choose any font installed in your system and a fair amount of different point sizes. There are some important issues about the selection of these parameters.

- If you want your text to align properly stick to Courier or another monospaced font
- Don't use 'Force Monospaced' on a proportional font (such as Helvetica or Times); it just looks awful!
- In the present version of InkMeister Light™ line height is fixed to 12 points. Use bigger font sizes at your own risk.

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2.5.3 Margins

You can set InkMeister™ Light's margins manually (in 1/4 inch increments) or automatically to the printable area of the page. If you need exact alignment in relation to the paper, specify zero margins ('None').

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2.5.4 Line Length

Some software doesn't limit the length of printed text lines (e.g. Applesoft BASIC). Therefore you can set the line length (Unlimited, 30, 72, 80 or 132 characters). When printing from AppleWorks Classic, set this option to 'Unlimited'.

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2.5.5 Printer Command Style

As explained in 'Printer Codes' below you can specify printer commands with Esc or additionally with <...> brackets. Since the latter method prevents you to print a '<', it is an option.

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2.5.6 Form Feed Timeout

This feature frees you from the burden of giving manual form feeds. After 30 seconds of printing inactivity it forces a form feed.

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2.6. Printer Codes

Printer codes can be given in two different styles. The first method uses the 'Escape' Character (ASCII 27) to tell InkMeister Light™: here's a command! This method is useful in most cases, especially in word processors like AppleWorks Classic, where you can define 'Escape' codes in a printer driver.

However, if you want to format your text just using a text editor (as the ORCA editor for example) you can't put 'Escape' into the text. Therefore there is a second method using '< >' brackets to tag a command. This mode is normally disabled since it prevents you from printing these brackets altogether! You can set the option in the Preferences panel (invoked with 'Preferences' from the 'Setup' menu and clicking on the printer icon, or directly in the preview window button bar).

Examples for both command styles: Esc BB equals <BB> (Boldface Begin).

| Begin | End
Boldface | BB | BE
Underline | UB | UE
Subscript | -B | -E
Superscript | +B | +E
Italics | IB | IE
Outline | OB | OE
Shadow | SB | SE

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3. InkDirect™

Introduced with Bernie v1.3, this technology allows you to send the characters passing through the GS slot 1 directly to a Mac serial port of your choice. This way the 8-bit Apple II- or text based GS/OS software is able to control a printer attached to that Mac serial port directly.

Since InkDirect™ gets its data by the same mechanism as InkMeister Light™, it requires Slot 1 to be set to "Your Card" in the Apple IIgs Control Panel. If slot 1 is set to "Printer", do this:

- enter the Control Panel
- open the "Slots" sub-panel
- change slot 1 to "Your Card"
- close the "Slots" screen by hitting the RETURN key, and leave the Control Panel
- reboot the emulated Apple IIgs (changes will not take effect until you reboot)

You can reboot the emulated Apple IIgs by choosing "Reset" from the "Setup" menu.

To enable InkDirect™, you open the 'Preferences' dialog from the 'Setup' menu. Then you select the 'Serial' preference panel:

In the 'InkDirect' part of this panel you can enable InkDirect by selecting a Mac serial port in the 'Port' popup menu.

A port can be dimmed when

- The port was in use by some other program or the system software when Bernie was launched. In this case it will stay dimmed until you quit Bernie. If the port had been left open by some haywire program you need to reboot your Mac to get the port back.
- The port is in use by one of the GS ports (by the CerealPuffs™). When you disable that port, the corresponding Mac port will be available again.

If no ports are displayed in the popup menu, there might be something wrong with your registration...

The 'File' menu item is dimmed on purpose: this feature is not yet implemented.

The remaining popup menus are used to configure the selected serial port. They are modeled after the 'Apple Serial Tool' from the 'Communications Toolbox' and implement the typical Macintosh serial architecture. This seems to be a bit different from the GS. If you need an exact copy of the GS serial ports, use CerealPuffs™ instead.

The check boxes have the following meaning:

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Add LF after CR | Some printers require a LF (line feed character) after a CR (carriage return). If the software you are using doesn't support this, you can enable it here.
Strip MSB | Some Apple II text based software sets the MSB (most significant bit) of each character to 1 for normal text, even when printing (e.g. Applesoft BASIC). Most printers don't like this, because the standard ASCII code doesn't use the MSB at all. By enabling this option you can reset that bit to zero to make your printer happy.

The instructions in the InkMeister Light™ chapter concerning Applesoft BASIC, ORCA Shell (GS) and AppleWorks Classic apply with the following exceptions:

- The 'Line length' popup in the 'InkMeister' preferences panel doesn't apply to InkDirect™.
- In AppleWorks Classic you must select the appropriate printer driver for your printer. Interface init strings must be disabled (the infamous Control-I 80 N).
- If your printer needs an LF after CR, enable it only once (either in the printer driver or in the InkDirect™ preferences).

The rest of the InkMeister Light™ chapter doesn't apply to InkDirect™, neither does the 'InkMeister' preferences panel.

NOTE: | As soon as InkDirect™ is enabled, InkMeister Light™ won't be able to print, until you disable InkDirect™ again. InkMeister Pro™ is not affected.

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4. InkMeister Pro™

InkMeister Pro™ allows you to print graphics and text from GS/OS desktop applications. To use this option you install the GS/OS printer driver called InkMeister, supplied with Bernie in your GS/OS system. This driver passes GS QuickDraw II commands to Bernie, where they are translated into Mac QuickDraw commands for previewing and printing. Some features are not yet implemented. This release handles:

- basic graphic objects (circles, rectangles, lines, points)
- fill and frame patterns and colors for these objects
- in 640 mode: blend dithered colors or print pure colors
- text

It does not support yet:

- long text
- pixmaps
- regions
- direct printing (i.e. preview mode is required).

InkMeister Pro™ is software shipping in two parts. One part is integrated into Bernie, the other half is a custom printer driver that comes on a tiny disk image (InkMeister Pro Driver). To install InkMeister Pro™, follow these steps:

- launch Bernie
- mount the "InkMeister Pro Driver" image
- copy the InkMeister Pro driver to the folder *:System:Drivers: on your GS/OS startup disk
- now open the control panels from the Apple menu (in the emulated IIgs, not on your Mac)
- open the "DC Printer" panel
- select "InkMeister" in the "Printer Type" list. (You can ignore the upper list.)

Congratulations, now you can print from within GS/OS desktop applications!!

Please keep in mind:

- always enter a valid page range when printing. Most applications do deal properly with partially specified printer records, but for example AppleWorks GS makes quite a mess if you leave these fields blank.
- almost all controls in the InkMeister Pro 'Page Setup' and 'Print' dialogs are not wired yet. They simply do nothing. Exceptions: the Color Blend check box and the Page Range do work.
- In this version you can only print to the preview window (and from this onto paper), thus direct printing without preview is not yet implemented.

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5. The InkMeister™ Control Center

This window is also called the preview window. Any time something is printed to InkMeister Light™ or InkMeister Pro™, and preview mode is enabled (in the 'InkMeister' submenu in the 'File' menu), this window pops up and displays the output. You can also invoke this window by selecting 'Printer' in the 'Windows' menu.

In this window you always see a gray outline, even if there is nothing printed yet. The gray area indicates the non-printable area of your printer to help you adjust the margins if necessary (see section Preferences for details).

NOTE: | If you don't see a gray outline, please check whether you have selected a printer in the Chooser or as desktop printer. If you select a printer, you need to do a Page Setup prior to printing.

There are several controls at the bottom of the window which are described here in more detail:

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5.1. Scale Popup

You can look at your output in several magnifications, from 400% to 25%. Moreover there are two special display modes: 'Fit' fits the whole page, whatever the size and shape of the window. 'Shady' fits the page to the width of the window. Users with large screens might like that feature...

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5.2. Double/Halve Scale

These buttons double or halve the view scale of your output. Disabled when in 'Fit' or 'Shady' mode.

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5.3. Preferences Button

Go directly to the InkMeister™-related panel of the 'Preferences' dialog. This might take a while if you invoke it for the first time and have a lot of fonts installed on your Mac.

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5.4. Page Setup Button

Invokes the Mac's Page Setup dialog. Same as selecting 'Page Setup...' from the 'File' menu.

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5.5. Print Button

Invokes the Mac's 'Print...' dialog and prints the contents of the print queue (the pages in the preview window). It clears the queue afterwards.

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5.6. Page Flip Buttons

If there are more than one page in the preview buffer you can flip pages (browse the queue) with these buttons. The current page number is displayed between the two buttons.

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5.7. Form Feed Button

Forces a form feed on an unfinished page. Same as 'Form Feed' from the 'InkMeister' submenu in the 'File' menu.

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5.8. Clear Queue Button (Trash Can)

Clear the print queue and get rid of the preview window's content. Same as 'Clear Queue' from the 'InkMeister' submenu in the 'File' menu.

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5.9. Printing without Preview

If preview mode is disabled, InkMeister™ prints directly, without putting up a 'Print' dialog. Instead it takes the settings from the last print job or creates a new one with default values.

NOTE: | Printing without preview is not yet implemented for InkMeister Pro™.

Registering | Getting Started | Audio/Video | Storage
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