NAME
min12xxw - Convert pbmraw streams to Minolta PagePro 12xxW languages
SYNOPSIS
min12xxw [options]
DESCRIPTION
Min12xxw is a filter which converts pbmraw streams (produced by
ghostscript, for example) to the printer language of Minolta PagePro
1[234]xxW printers.
COMMAND-LINE OPTIONS
-h, --help
Gives usage information (help)
-v, --version
Displays the version number and exit
-e, --ecomode
Enables economic mode which saves toner by leaving every other
scanline blank. This degrades the printout's resolution a little,
the effect is most easily seen (and looks particularly bad) when
printing in 300 dpi mode.
-s, --status
Query the printer status, page counter and whatever information
can be retrieved. The printer status is basically an unprocessed
dump of what the printer sends, so unexpected things may happen if
the printer sends funny data because it got confused somehow...
This might however still be useful. The page counter and other
information is heavily processed and should be more reliable. Note
that for queries to be made, the printer must (of course) be
switched on, with all cables connected, and not be busy printing
(or your print job may be truncated). See the -d option below
which sets the device file to use. This has so far only been
tested on 1200W, 1350W and 1400W printers. Send mail if it works
for others as well.
-d dev, --device dev
Sets the device file to use for queries. The default is /dev/lp0.
Please note that this option is only meaningful with the "-s" or
"--status" option. If you intend to send a document to the
printer, you have to redirect min12xxw's standard output to the
device file in question. See the documentation that came with your
shell on how to do that.
-n, --nomargins
Disables the enforcement of the 0.17 inch margins on all sides of
the paper. The converter discards the equivalent of this length of
its input because ghostscript outputs a full page with margins. If
you arranged in some way for the input to be marginless, or have
slightly larger paper, you can give this option to include the
full input with margins. Please note that for very small page
dimensions, min12xxw might need to disable enforcing the page
margins for all pages following the offending page to make the job
printable. In that case, a warning message will be printed on the
standard error stream to inform the user.
-m model, --model model
Sets which printer model to produce output for. Currently, no
checks for features only available to specific models are made
(available paper trays differ from model to model, for example).
Let me know if this causes problems. Available models are: 1200W,
1250W, 1300W, 1350W, 1400W. 1200W is the default. As an
alternative, you can also symlink, link or rename your executable
to min1200w, min1250w, min1300w, min1350w or min1400w, thus making
the model specified in the filename the default model. This saves
you from typing the model selection option again and again and
again... Please note that you must supply the model option
correctly if you drive any other model than what is the default.
If you fail to do so, your printer will not produce any output or
react to status queries from the host.
-r resolution, --res resolution
Sets the resolution to either 300, 600 or 1200 dpi (600 dpi is the
default). Keep in mind that you need to produce your output
accordingly. It is also possible to specify the resolution as
(horizontal)x(vertical) resolution (e.g. -r 1200x600) where
horizontal resolution may be once or twice the vertical
resolution. The maximum resolution is 1200 dpi in both vertical
and horizontal direction. The minimum vertical resolution for
mixed resolution printing seems to be 600 dpi. 300 dpi printing
has only been tested on 1200W, 1350W and 1400W models. Mixed
resolution printing was seen for 13xxW and 1400W models only, but
tests show that the 1200W is capable of handling it as well, so
chances are that 1250W printers won't have trouble, either.
-t tray, --tray tray
Sets the paper tray to be used. Valid values for tray are "auto",
"tray1", "tray2" and "manual", with "auto" being the default. Not
all printer models have all sorts of paper trays. "auto" should be
safe on all of them, I think. In fact, the PagePro 1400W seems to
have only this kind of paper tray.
-p type, --papertype type
Sets the type of paper used. Type can be one of "normal", "thick",
"transparency", "envelope" or "postcard". "normal" is the default.
-f fmt, --paperformat fmt
This sets the paper format to be used for the print job. The
default value for fmt is "a4". Valid values are given below.
a4
A4 paper (210 mm x 297 mm)
b5
B5 envelope (176 mm x 250 mm)
a5
A5 paper (148 mm x 210 mm)
jpost
Post card (100 mm x 148 mm)
corpost
Correspondence Postcard (148 mm x 200 mm)
jisy6
JIS Yokei 6-gou paper (98 mm x 190 mm)
jisy0
JIS Yokei 0-gou paper (120 mm x 235 mm)
chinese16k
Chinese 16K paper (185 mm x 260 mm)
chinese32k
Chinese 32K paper (130 mm x 185 mm)
legal
Legal paper (8.5" x 14")
glegal
G. Legal paper (8.5" x 13")
letter
Letter paper (8.5" x 11")
gletter
G. Letter paper (8.5" x 10.5")
executive
Executive paper (7.25" x 10.5")
halfletter
Halfletter paper (5.5" x 8.5")
envmonarch
Envelope Monarch (3.875" x 7.5")
env10
Envelope COM-10 (8.125" x 9.5")
envdl
Envelope DL (110 mm x 220 mm)
envc5
Envelope C5 (162 mm x 229 mm)
envc6
Envelope C6 (114 mm x 162 mm)
envb5
Envelope B5 (176 mm x 250 mm)
Choukei-3Gou
Choukei-3Gou paper (120mm x 235 mm)
Choukei-4Gou
Choukei-4Gou paper (90 mm x 205 mm)
custom
Custom paper size
envb6
Envelope 6 3/4 (3.625" x 6.5")
folio
F4/Folio paper (210 mm x 330 mm)
jisy1
JIS Yokei 1-gou (120 mm x 176 mm)
jisy2
JIS Yokei 2-gou (105 mm x 235 mm)
quadpost
Quad postcard (200 mm x 296 mm)
EXAMPLES
gs -q -dBATCH -dSAFER -dQUIET -dNOPAUSE -sPAPERSIZE=a4 -r1200
-sDEVICE=pbmraw -sOutputFile=- - < test.ps | min12xxw -r 1200 >
test.min
This would convert a postscript file test.ps to a file test.min
which could be sent directly to the printer, a 1200W to be exact.
The output is rendered at 1200 dpi. If you have to drive some
other model, see the model selection option (-m) above.
PORTABILITY
Min12xxw should run on most *nix-like workstations without major
problems. Library functions which are known to be missing on non-Linux
systems such as getline or getopt_long may have to be replaced by an
appropriate substitute. In case of getline and getopt_long this has
already been done. The query options may or may not work on other
systems, depending on the characteristics of the printer driver and the
interface used (USB, very old style parallel port or a more recent
one...).
BUGS/LIMITATIONS/CONTRIBUTORS
Min12xxw was written without any documentation from the manufacturer.
The description of the printer language may be inaccurate or even wrong
because it was obtained by looking at the output of the windoof driver
only. The code dealing with the compression of raster data is in its
spirit heavily based on an initial driver by Adam Bocim
<beetman@seznam.cz> who managed to find out how things are done
(thanks, Adam, you did a great job!). This new version is considerably
faster, implemented more cleanly and (hopefully) well documented.
It also features querying the printer status and page counter, a
suggestion made by Bruno Schoedlbauer <bruno.schoedlbauer@gmx.de>, who
also pointed me to a nice USB sniffer by Benoit Papillault for Windoof
98 and up, see http://benoit.papillault.free.fr/usbsnoop. (That little
program may prove very helpful on similar occasions. Happy USB
sniffing...)
David Hamilton <dhamilto@angel.homeip.net> has helped a lot in testing
and developing the support for the PagePro 1350W.
Even though this program has been designed with care and much thought,
no-one can guarantee that this program will not damage your printer,
computer or even your neighbour's car, because it was built without
knowing exactly how things work, it's only a (hopefully) reasonable
guess. (However, my printer does still work, even after the testing
phase when a lot of wrong stuff was sent to it. And my neighbour hasn't
complained either...)
Most of the available paper sizes have not actually been verified to
work as advertised - reports about successes or problems are welcome.
Also the code for querying the printer is not heavily tested. If you
have comments to make or know more about the format than I do, please
share your thoughts and your knowledge.
13xxW series support seems to be relatively well tested by now. Send
mail with feedback if you have such a printer and you experience
problems.
1400W support is pretty new - please send e-mail if it works or if you
run into problems. Feedback on models for which support has just been
completed is very important to improve and stabilise this support.
Bugs and problems reports are generally welcome because I just don't
have the time to test everything out. I needed a filter and here it is.
If it does not work - complain ;-)
AUTHOR
Min12xxw was written by Manuel Tobias Schiller (mala@hinterbergen.de).