CompuServe Messages

Richard, Yep, and it does two ways. The first way is of course in the PS format which is PostScript which is slow and doesn't print as well. The second and preferred way is to print using PCL which is much faster and gives RenderPrint control of the printer to make the image much better. The PCL method uses much less printer memory and drives the printer at its best speed in graphics mode. In the PS mode the printer has to receive the PS file, then rasterize it, and then print it. In the PCL mode the printer has to print it (RenderPrint does the rasterizing and the printer is printing as it is receiving the image). The way RenderPrint does calibration is similar to the way some other graphics programs do a feature called test strips, RenderPrint does a 'test print'. The test print prints out thumbnails of the original image with each thumbnail being produced with different contrast/gamma settings. The user can set the number of these thumbnails (2 x 2, 3 x 3, 5 x5, etc.,) and the beginning and endding threshold values for each item to varied. At the bottom edge of each thumbnail is listed the settings used to product that thumbnail. You can also alter the 'dot saturation' so that printers like inkjets that sometimes have larger dots that their 'resolution' can actually print better. For example on some inkjets and some papers the ink dot of a single dot is larger than say 1/300th. It could be as a large as 1/200th. By altering the 'dot saturation' setting to match your image, paper, printer, and personal tastes you can get some very nice results. Renderprint also has all the favorite oldies for dithers like Burkes, Floyd, Stuki, and several pattern dithers just to make your printing decisions interesting …(g)… What ever you have selected will be used for the 'test print'. We have found that images can generally be grouped so that you don't need to do test prints of every image before printing. Scanned images can be grouped as light or dark for example and rendered images can also be grouped. If you save these test prints the next time you get ready to print you can pull out an old test print and use that selection as your settings. RenderPrint also supports setting sheets (like style sheets in a word processor) so that you can recall them at a later time. Have fun and I hope I didn't ramble on to much… Russ Insight Development