HP DeskWriter C printer driver development - development of Macintosh driver for HP color ink-jet printer - Technical

Hewlett-Packard Journal, August, 1992 by William J. Allen, Toni D. Courville, Steven O. Miller

Features accessed through the Print dialog box are print quality, copies, page range, page order, and print method. Most of these printing features are common to other Apple drivers. Print Method: Use installed print cartridge only is a feature designed specifically for this product. When this checkbox is on, the alert messages prompting the user to exchange the print cartridge, which normally display when there is a discrepancy between the document content and the installed print cartridge, will not appear. This function is explained in further detail later in this section.

The Page Setup dialog box features are consistent with other Apple printers in that they allow the user to choose media type, print orientation, and a scaling value. The distinct features offered by the HP DeskWriter C are the HP Special Paper and the Save as Default checkboxes. The HP Special Paper checkbox is selected when printing on special paper. This causes the driver to adjust the way ink is put on the page so it is optimized for HP special paper. Save as Default offers the user the ability to save item states permanently in the Page Setup, Options, and Colors dialog boxes. For example, a user who always prints on U.S. legal-size paper need only select the paper size once, then check the Save as Default box, and click OK to exit the dialog box. US Legal will then be the new default, instead of the factory default, US Letter. This saves the user time by eliminating the need to enter the Page Setup dialog box for each document.

The Options dialog box, accessed by clicking the Options button in the Page Setup box, contains printing preferences and a Clean Print Cartridge button. This button, when selected, attempts to restore print quality if print becomes faint or dots are missing. This is done by activating a print cartridge priming algorithm in the printer.

Users who want more color capability can find it by clicking the Colors button. The color blending selections determine how dots of the three colors (cyan, magenta, yellow) are arranged on the page to create blended colors. Each of these selections produces slightly different results. Pattern produces faster output than Scatter and is recommended for simple solid-color graphics. Scatter takes longer to print and should be used for sophisticated color graphics, such as scanned images and photographs. Fixed 8 allows applications that support color on the Macintosh Plus, SE, Portable, and Classic computers to print the basic eight colors (red, blue, green, cyan, magenta, yellow, black and white). Fixed 8 is the only color blending setting available for these machines.

When the Complex Color Printing checkbox is on, the driver adjusts the printed colors to provide the best match in appearance to the screen. This capability is recommended for complex color graphics such as scanned images, photographs, and complex computer-generated artwork.

The Intensity slider allows the user to select the amount of color ink that is printed on the page. More ink increases the intensity of the images. Users in high-humidity environments may need to move the slider to the right to decrease the amount of ink on the page, since ink bleeding can occur with increased moisture in the air and on the paper. To assist the user in deciding which slider bar location creates the most desirable output, a color test was created. When the user clicks the ColorTest button, a one-page printout is provided that shows the effects of the intensity settings on text, simple graphics, and a complex color image. The ColorTest feature is designed to save the user time by eliminating the need for numerous experimental printouts to determine the best intensity setting.