#RenderPrint Ships!
23 messages in this thread
News Release
CONTACT: Steve Haber. President
Insight Development Corporation
(510) 244-2000
For Immediate Release
March 31, 1994
Insight Development Introduces RenderPrint
Software That Prints Photo-Realistic 3D Images
On Any Printer… In Minutes.
Powerful New Software Includes AutoCAD ADI Driver
Supports Popular Graphic File Formats,
and Over 1,200 Printers.
San Ramon, CA, Insight Development has shipped its powerful new
RenderPrint software. RenderPrint produces fast, true-to-life, photo-
realistic 3D images on any printer at full printer resolution, from any
graphics application. RenderPrint will convert to and from most popular
file formats including BMP, GIF, JPEG, PCX, TIFF, TGA, and others.
RenderPrint works in either ADI protected mode within AutoCAD and other
ADI supported applications including AutoVision and 3D Studio, or as a
TSR that pops up inside CADKEY, MicroStation and any other graphics
program and finally can be run as a standalone application.
Pop up utilities make it simple to select images, file format, size,
placement, dithering method and to control brightness, contrast and
gamma for truly professional image quality and detail. Even ray-traced
renderings that simulate real lighting conditions will have that picture
perfect finished look. Images can be printed in sizes ranging from small
"thumbnail" up to large format poster size output, using (multi-page)
tiling. Images, including tiles, can be viewed before printing using the
"image preview" feature. Batch files can be easily set up for unattended
printing on a local printer or Novell NetWare print queue. Setting
sheets (image templates) are provided that enable users to customize and
save specific image formats and styles without having to remember all
the individual image settings.
RenderPrint is easy to use. Users can simply save or import the
rendered, scanned or other type of image to or from any of the supported
file formats, pop up RenderPrint, select the image file, paper size,
image size, contrast setting and any of the other available options and
print. RenderPrint's graphics printer drivers have been uniquely
optimized for speed and resolution to produce the best possible image
from the specific printer in use. More than 1,200 laser, ink jet,
thermal and dot matrix printers and raster plotters are supported. No
additional printer memory, PostScript or file conversion software is
needed.
RenderPrint is portable. Images can be saved, changed and printed on any
system without using the application that created the images. This
represents substantial savings on disk storage and memory. RenderPrint
and the image files can be loaded on any system and connected to any
printer. Users can pop up the easy-to-use menus and print.
RenderPrint for DOS shipped on March 31, 1994. RenderPrint for Windows
is expected to ship in the second quarter of 1994.
Founded in 1985, Insight Development Corporation is a leading provider
of printing enhancement software products including PrintAPlot and
PrintAPlot Pro, the software that turns any printer into a high
performance plotter, with over 500,000 user's world wide.
Insight Development
2420 Camino Ramon, Suite 205
San Ramon, California 94583.
Telephone: 510-244-2000
Fax: 510-244-2020.
RenderPrint, PrintAPlot Pro and Insight are trademarks and PrintAPlot
is a registered trademark of Insight Development Corporation. AutoCAD
and 3D Studio are registered trademarks and AutoVision is a trademark of
Autodesk, Inc. All other brand names are trademarks or registered
trademarks of their respective holders.
Russ, your product sounds terrific, especially if the drivers work better than
the ones that came with my HP 550C for Windows. Having direct support through
3DS is going to be most excellent.
-JE
John,
Thanks for the response to our new product. RenderPrint has been very well
received by the press, the printer manufacturers and most importantly the end
users like yourself.
In Windoze we currently run in a DOS box. The Windoze version will be out
later this summer. Our drivers are optimized for printing graphics not text.
Windoze drivers are optimized for printing text.
<<direct support>> Depending on the size and complexity of the image you may
find that imaging to disk is still preferable. If you have an image that takes
hours to render to screen it will take MORE hours to render to printer. A
medium resolution image on screen 1024 x 768 is going to be 3000 x 3000 going
to a 300 dpi printer.
Call 1-800-825-4115 and have them send you a spec sheet on RenderPrint and our
other CAD related printing software.
Russ
Insight Development
Russ,
I hadn't thought that direct support would mean rendering directly to the
printer but of course it does. <g> I figured that like video you could render
to disk and then just call up the image to print.
I'll call you 1-800-825-4115 for a spec sheet.
Thanks,
-JE
John,
Yeah, the render to disk is what we reccommend because of the time it takes to
do the render. It also allows you to 'test print' before you waste alot of
paper, ink, time, etc,. Render to disk is already supported via the ACAD
export functions. We have a driver called RHPRINT.EXP that 'talks' to our
RenderPrint software via protected mode calls. The user gets the impression
that ACAD is doing the printing 'cause of the ACAD message lines, spinning
cursors, etc, but RenderPrint is actually doing the printing as it accepts the
render from ACAD. The extra piece we add to mix is that unlike the ACAD export
function which is limited to screen resolutions like 1024 x 768 or something
called custom, we read the settings you have made in RenderPrint and tell ACAD
to render to those specifications, I.E. 4 plane graphics (CMYK), for a DeskJet
550c, at 300 x 300 dpi, a final image size of 6 x 8 inches, placed on the
center of the page, and with a light blue border.
Anyhow, you get the idea …(g)…
Russ
Insight Development
Russ,
Even though I have ACAD, I mostly just model in it. However 3DS is another
story as I have to render the image and then bring it in to Windows and an app
like Photostyler or Corel Draw to print. Print is not my strong suit so
anything that helps with picture quality and ease of use for proofs etc. is a
big plus, not to mention that I really like the fact that its a DOS app. I'm
sure I would install the Windows version when it becomes available, but don't
lose the DOS version.
BTW I called and someone is sending me the literature.
Thanks,
-JE
John,
You should end up with all the controls you would expect from a Windoze
graphics program but from DOS RenderPrint. You can resize, adjust brightness,
contrast, gamma, number of copies, tiling, batch print, etc., all from a menu
driven DOS program. The image quality is directly proportional to the original
image quality, but in all cases will print 'better' than other methods
including PostScript and or Windoze.
Thanks again for the interest.
Russ
Insight Development
Thanks much Russ.
-JE
Very cool! If you've got a driver for my HP IIp printer, I need it… How much
is RenderPrint?
– G
Yost Group,
Thanks for your inquiry, please call 1-800-825-4115 and have them send you a
spec sheet on RenderPrint and our other CAD related printing software. They
can give you pricing and availability info.
Russ
Insight Development
Thanks! I'll call them now.
– G
Sounds Great!
Price?
-RT
Robert,
As I just said to the Yost Group, please call 1-800-825-4115 and have them send
you a spec sheet on RenderPrint and our other CAD related printing software.
They can give you pricing and availability info.
I'm involved in engineering and testing so the 'salesy' stuff is best done by
them …(g)…
Thanks for inquiry,
Russ
Insight Development
Russ,
Does this program support the HP 1200C/PS? The HP 1200C/PS is a page
printer meaning that the printer wants all of the data before it can start
printing, Have you found a way to disable or side this limitation? My
HP1200C/PS only has 4 meg installed. If It does I would be very interested.
Also does your program have a calabration feature?
Richard Petersen
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
Russ,
Does it support the Fargo Premera w/ dye sub? What does it go for? If
the answer to the first question is yes, then whats the phone # for info again?
Thanks,
David
David,
<<Fargo>> We think so. We believe that the Fargo takes PostScript if it does
then yes we support it. We have been in touch with the Fargo folks so we can
get one in for testing. We really want to support it in native mode as that
would be much much faster and with PostScript out of the way the print out
would be better as well.
The price is $249 and is available from your local software dealer, regular
computer stores and mail order houses. You can also pay retail and order it
from us …(g)… The phone number for information is 1-800-825-4115.
Russ
Insight Development
Russ,
The Fargo Primera only uses a Windows driver, and is driven as a raster
printer. I take it though that you support color PostScript sufficiently to
make any of the Tektronix printers a valid choice?
Kevin Krell – Computer Support Associates
Kevin,
<<support color PostScript>> We certainly hope so…(g)… I have received
several messages regarding the Fargo as NOT being a PostScript printer. I can
see now why we have generated this much interest. As I have stated before we
are just waiting for the printer to arrive from Fargo so we can generate a
driver for our products.
Russ
Insight Development
Russ,
The premera is not a PostScript printer. I hope you can support it
directly soon, and I'll wait until then before checking into it. Thanks.
David
David,
I have received several messages regarding the Fargo as NOT being a PostScript
printer. I can see now why we have generated this much interest. As I have
stated before we are just waiting for the printer to arrive from Fargo so we
can generate a driver for our products.
Russ
Insight Development
This sounds like a geat program. I will give the number a call.
Richard,
We'll look forward to the call.
Russ
Insight Development