TITLE: PNW Printing Conventions and Suggestions DOCUMENT ID: TID1200863 DOCUMENT REVISION: 0 DATE: 19JUN95 ALERT STATUS: Yellow README FOR: NA NOVELL PRODUCT and VERSION: PERSONAL NETWARE V1.0 ABSTRACT: NA --------------------------------------------------------------------- DISCLAIMER: THE ORIGIN OF THIS INFORMATION MAY BE INTERNAL OR EXTERNAL TO NOVELL. NOVELL MAKES EVERY EFFORT WITHIN ITS MEAN TO VERIFY THIS INFORMATION. HOWEVER, THE INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS DOCUMENT IS FOR YOUR INFORMATION ONLY. NOVELL MAKES NO EXPLICIT OR IMPLIED CLAIMS TO THE VALIDITY OF THIS INFORMATION. --------------------------------------------------------------------- ISSUE: PNW PRINTING CONVENTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS Chances are you bought Personal NetWare to share one or more printers. For this reason, give special attention to the following remarks: LOCAL NETWORK PRINTERS When a printer is assigned as a network printer, you should only access that printer through the network. You may have a printer attached to your workstation that has been defined as a Network Printer. In this case, you should capture a port when you wish to print to it. If you print to it directly (not using capture), you may cause print job corruption or not print at all. Network printers are created in the NET ADMIN menu utility. When a printer is created, you can configure the performance of the printer relative to the DOS running on the same machine where the printer is attached. This is done by modifying the "Chars per second" parameter with the "Print buffer size" parameter of the server configuration. PRINT BUFFER SIZE Personal NetWare uses a print buffer to temporarily store information before it is printed. A print job follows the following path to the printer: Application -- DOS -- Client -- || network || -- Server -- Printer When someone prints a job from a client machine to a network printer, the information first goes to DOS. After interpreting that the printer port (LPT1 for example) has been captured to a network printer, DOS sends the print job to the network software on the client machine. The print job is sent across the network cabling to the computer with the printer attached and then taken by the server software and spooled to a directory on the hard drive. The job is spooled as a file then is loaded to an area in memory called the print buffer. From the print buffer, the print job is sent to the printer. The print buffer speeds up the printing, because accessing memory is much faster than accessing a hard disk drive. A large print buffer accesses information from the relatively slow hard drive fewer times and causes faster printing. Print Buffer Configuration Set the print buffer size to the maximum allowed value, unless limited memory is available. You can save memory by setting this to 512 (the lowest allowed setting). If you do not share printers on this server, then the Shared Printers setting should be set to zero. In that case, the printer codes will not load when SERVER.EXE is loaded on the machine, and the Print Buffer Size parameter will be disregarded. CHARACTERS PER SECOND AND PRINT BUFFERS As stated above, the print buffer is an area in memory where characters are stored before being printed. The larger the print buffer size, the less often the server will need to go to disk to read more characters to print. If the "Chars per second" value is high (relatively speaking) and the "Print buffer size" is large (relatively speaking), the printer will be driven faster and the DOS running on that machine will be interrupted more often to send characters to the printer. The converse is also true if the value of "Chars per second" is low and "Print buffer size" is small. These values should also be tuned to the speed or desired speed of the printer. If the printer is physically a "slow" printer, then setting the "Chars per second" parameter to a high number will have no effect. Additionally, if the "Chars per second" is set higher than the "Print buffer size" parameter (on a physically "slow" printer) then this will have little effect, as well. Characters per second sets the maximum rate at which characters will be sent to the printer. Normally, the default of 16384 is sufficient. If set to high, DOS will be unnecessarily interrupted more often to retrieve characters from the print buffer, and slows down the server. There is no magic number that will work for all printer / server configurations. If printing causes the SERVER to slow down, try reducing the "Chars per second." This parameter is a value you may need to experiment with and do some fine tuning. A good rule of thumb for setting "Characters per second" for serial printers is the printer baud rate divided by 10. Example: 9600 baud / 10 = 960 The "Chars per second" parameter is modified in the NET ADMIN utility. While in the NET ADMIN utility, press

, highlight the network printer and press . Change "Chars per second" to the desired setting. The Print Buffers parameter is also modified in the NET ADMIN utility. While in the NET ADMIN utility press , highlight the server to which the printer is attached and press , select Configure..., then select Advanced settings... .Change the Print buffers size to the desired setting. SETUP STRINGS One of the options available on network printers is setup strings. In short, a setup string is a series of characters that put the printer into a particular mode (such as landscape mode or large characters mode). By default, the DEFAULT setup string is set to nothing. The DEFAULT setup string should be set to a sequence of values that reset the printer. Many printers use the string "1E 45" (E) to reset the printer (Check the documentation for your printer to find out what sequence resets the printer). The manual that came with the printer should describe the values that place the printer into different modes. Setup strings are always entered using two-character hexadecimal numbers representing bytes, separated by spaces. By defining more than one setup string for a Network Printer, it is possible to submit jobs that will print in different printer modes. Setup strings can be used as part of the NET CAPTURE command or in the View Printers section of the NET utility. An example of its use with NET CAPTURE is provided below. CAPTURE SETTINGS The term "capturing ports" refers to redirecting print jobs from the normal printing device to someplace else; in this case, a network printer. To capture a port, you must first load VLM and log in to the network. You can then access network printers by capturing ports with the NET CAPTURE command. Several options that are available with this command are discussed on page 8-9 in the Personal NetWare User Guide, as well as in the on-line help in the NET utility, and at the command-line when NET CAPTURE HELP is typed. A sample command-line might look like the following: NET CAPTURE LPT1 LASERJET B=N D=Y S=LANDSCAPE This example specifies that all jobs sent to LPT1 of the local machine will be redirected to the network printer LASERJET. It also specifies that for all print jobs sent to LPT1 (LASERJET), NO banner should be printed and each job should start printing before the job has been completely submitted (direct printing). Finally, this job is printed using the LANDSCAPE setup string (created previously on printer LASERJET). The LANDSCAPE setup string values are sent to the printer just before the data of each print job sent to LPT1. The DEFAULT setup string values are sent to the printer after each print job is printed (thus resetting the printer for the next job sent to this printer). CAPTURING COM PORTS The COM1 and COM2 ports can only be used by a server. A network printer can be assigned to the COM1 or COM2 port. Clients can then capture LPT1, LPT2, or LPT3 to a network printer that has been created and assigned to COM1 or COM2. This redirection, from the logical port (captured LPT1) to the physical COM port (where printer is physically attached) is handled automatically by the network. Some applications require printing to a COM port, LPTx is not an port option within the application. Personal NetWare does not allow capturing to a COM port, only LPTx. As a work around, if the application allows printing to a file, print to file LPTx.DOS. POSTSCRIPT PRINTING Because of the nature of postscript printers, special care must be taken when sending print jobs. You should make sure your capture has the following set: BANNER=No TABS=0 FORMFEED=No You may also want to set the WAIT parameter to a value higher than 10 seconds. If your print job gets split to multiple jobs when printing to a postscript printer, you will want to increase the WAIT value. Increase it until your print job comes out all in one job. USING WAIT=0 The WAIT=0 should only be used if the application you are using will close the print job. If the application does not close the print job, using WAIT=0 will keep the print job open until it is closed explicitly. A print job on LPT1 can be closed manually from the DOS command-line by sending a formfeed or +L, displayed ^L (press and hold the key while pressing the key, then release the key and key). Type ECHO ^L > LPT1. This sends a form feed character to LPT1 and closes the job. Generally, using a WAIT value of 10 or so is adequate. CAUTION: If you use WAIT=0 and DIRECT=Y, you will hold the printer until the print job is explicitly closed. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Any trademarks referenced in this document are the property of their respective owners. Consult your product manuals for complete trademark information. ---------------------------------------------------------------------