Konica Minolta CROWN II, PAGEPRO 9100, MAGICOLOR 2200, MAGICOLOR 3100 User Manual
Crown Book 1—
Crown II Operating
System Features
1800732-001A
Copyright Notice
Copyright © 2003 KONICA MINOLTA BUSINESS TECHNOLOGIES, INC., Marunouchi Center Building,
1-6-1 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 100-0005, Japan. All Rights Reserved. This document may not be
copied, in whole or part, nor transferred to any other media or language, without written permission of
KONICA MINOLTA BUSINESS TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or
by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy ing, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of KONICA MINOLTA BUSINESS TECHNOLOGIES, INC. The information contained in this
book is intended for use with Crown II printers only.
Trademarks
KONICA MINOLTA and the KONICA MINOLTA logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of
KONICA MINOLTA HOLDINGS, INC.
Crown, CrownNet, CrownAdmin, CrownView, magicolor, and QCOLOR are trademarks or registered
trademarks of KONICA MINOLTA PRINTING SOLUTIONS U.S.A., INC.
PagePro is a trademark or registered trademark of KONICA MINOLTA BUSINESS TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Manual Notice
KONICA MINOLTA BUSINESS TECHNOLOGIES, INC. reserves the right to make changes to this manual
and to the equipment described herein without notice. Considerable effort has been made to ensure that
this manual is free of inaccuracies and omissions. However, KONICA MINOLTA BUSINESS
TECHNOLOGIES, INC. makes no warranty of any kind including, but not limited to, any implied warranties
of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose with regard to this manual. KONICA MINOLTA
BUSINESS TECHNOLOGIES, INC. assumes no responsibility for, or liability for, errors contained in this
manual or for incidental, special, or consequential damages arising out of the furnishing of this manual, or
the use of this manual in operating the equipment, or in connection with the performance of the equipment
when so operated.
This book provides an introduction to the powerful features of Crown II printers. It shows typical examples
of how the Crown II Operating System features can help optimize your printing needs. By using these
recommendations, you will experience the way Crown II technology provides the best price/performance
of any printer available today.
Although this book discusses Crown II printers in general, we predominantly discuss the Crown II
features. Crown II is a technological extension of earlier Crown products. Crown II technology is
implemented into the following printers:
magicolor 2200
magicolor 2210
magicolor 3100
magicolor 3300
magicolor 6100
magicolor 6110
PagePro 9100
Earlier Crown products, therefore, may not have all features discussed here.
Contents
1. Crown II Technology ........................................................................................................ 1
CROWN II CONFIGURATION ...................................................................................................................................................2
CROWN II FIRMWARE ............................................................................................................................................................3
SPOOLI NG ............................................................................................................................................................................5
INTERPRETATION .................................................................................................................................................................6
RASTERIZATION ...................................................................................................................................................................8
PRINTING ...........................................................................................................................................................................10
2. Crown II Features ........................................................................................................... 11
IMPORTANT NOTES .............................................................................................................................................................11
SERVERLESS PRINTING .......................................................................................................................................................14
AUTOMATIC JAM RECOVERY...............................................................................................................................................14
ELECTRONIC DOCUMENT COLLATION ..................................................................................................................................15
EMULATION CONTEXT SWITCHING ......................................................................................................................................16
OVERLAY PRINTING............................................................................................................................................................17
NUMBER-UP PRINTING (N-UP PRINTING)..............................................................................................................................19
BOOKLET PRINTING ............................................................................................................................................................20
PRINTER-BASED ACCOUNTING ............................................................................................................................................21
NETWORK CONNECTIVITY...................................................................................................................................................23
COLOR MANAGEMENT ........................................................................................................................................................28
PROOF-THEN-PRINT............................................................................................................................................................35
PRINTER MANAGEMENT -- CROWNVIEW.............................................................................................................................36
3. Crown II Memory Management .................................................................................... 54
KINDS OF MEMORY ............................................................................................................................................................54
V
IRTUAL MEMORY.............................................................................................................................................................55
E
VALUATION FOR OPTIMIZATION .......................................................................................................................................56
4. Crown II Configuration.................................................................................................. 61
USING THE CONTROL PANEL BUTTONS ................................................................................................................................61
ENTERING THE CONFIGURATION MODE................................................................................................................................62
5. Installation Menus........................................................................................................... 63
INSTALLATION MENU USING THE SECURITY KEY .................................................................................................................63
INSTALLATION MENU (WITH SOFTWARE-ENABLED SECURITY) .............................................................................................65
6. Operator Control Menu ................................................................................................. 67
COPIES ...............................................................................................................................................................................68
DUPLEX .............................................................................................................................................................................68
COLLATION ........................................................................................................................................................................68
ORIENTATION.....................................................................................................................................................................68
INPUTBIN ...........................................................................................................................................................................69
OUTPUTBIN ........................................................................................................................................................................69
MULTIPURPOSE SIZE ...........................................................................................................................................................69
CHAIN INPUTBINS ...............................................................................................................................................................69
CHAIN MAIL BIN OR CHAIN OUTPUT BINS .............................................................................................................................70
COLOR SEPARATION ...........................................................................................................................................................70
COLOR MODE L ...................................................................................................................................................................70
MEDIA MODE......................................................................................................................................................................70
COLOR MATCHING..............................................................................................................................................................71
MEDIA ...............................................................................................................................................................................73
ACCOUNTING .....................................................................................................................................................................73
PROOF-THEN-PRINT............................................................................................................................................................75
CONSUMABLES...................................................................................................................................................................76
7. Administration Menu...................................................................................................... 78
COMMUNICATIONS .............................................................................................................................................................79
EMULATIONS....................................................................................................................................................................106
SPECIAL PAGES.................................................................................................................................................................114
Crown Book Part 1 i
STARTUP OPTIONS ............................................................................................................................................................117
MEMORY..........................................................................................................................................................................119
ENGINE ............................................................................................................................................................................125
CONSUMABLES.................................................................................................................................................................129
MISCELLANEOUS ..............................................................................................................................................................130
DISK OPERATIONS ............................................................................................................................................................132
OWNLOAD ING SYSTEM SOF TWARE ................................................................................................................................136
D
Appendix A - Standard Interfaces..................................................................................... 141
A.1 PARALLEL INTERFACE .............................................................................................................................................141
A.2 S
ERIAL INTERFACE ..................................................................................................................................................142
THERNET INTERFACE .............................................................................................................................................143
A.3 E
A.4 USB........................................................................................................................................................................143
Appendix B - Crown Accounting....................................................................................... 144
B.1 ACCOUNTING FILES ..................................................................................................................................................144
B.2 A
CCOUNTING FILE FORMAT DESCRIPTION................................................................................................................145
B.3 J
OB ACCOUNTING FILE RECORDS .............................................................................................................................146
B.4 P
APER ACCOUNTING FILE RECORDS.........................................................................................................................150
B.5 S
TATUS ACCOUNTING FILE RECORDS.......................................................................................................................151
ii Part 1 Crown Book
1. CROWN II TECHNOLOGY
Crown II is a printer document-processing technology that provides advanced multitasking
and networking capabilities across a full range of print systems. Crown II technology takes
advantage of multitasking to receive, interpret, and process multiple documents while another
document is printing. Crown II printer technology is divided into four major segments:
• Spooling
• Interpretation
• Rasterization
• Printing
The illustration shows the internal structure of the Crown II printer. In this chapter we discuss
the function of these segments.
A serial interface may be an option. Refer to your Crown II printer documentation for
the actual interfaces available.
Crown Book Part 1 1
CROWN II CONFIGURATION
Direct communication with a Crown II printer is
MENU
possible by means of the control panel menu.
To get an overall impression, the illustration
shows an example menu for a Crown II printer.
Crown II printers build the control panel menu
dynamically at power on time, according to the
configuration (model, options installed, etc.).
This means that your Crown II printer may not
show all the menus discussed here.
Refer to your Crown II printer
documentation for the actual configuration
menu.
There are three main menus:
1. Installation (or Security) Menu—Use this
menu to protect printer settings by means of
passwords (security). If passwords were
Installation
Operator Passwrd
Use Operator
Password
Admin Password
Use Administrator
Password
Operator Control
Copies
Duplex
Offset Stacking
Collation
Orientation
Inputbin
Outputbin
Multipurpose size
Chain Inputbins
Color Separation
Color Model
Color Matching
Media
Accounting
Consumables
Administration
Communications
Emulations
Special Pages
Startup Options
Memory
Engine
Consumables
Miscellaneous
Disk Operations
assigned, you may access the Operator
Control and/or Administration menu only
after entering the correct password(s).
Accessing the Installation Menu may require the use of an optional security key.
2. Operator Control Menu—Use this menu to select default document processing options
such as the copy count, input and output media bins, chain input bins, and duplex (if a
duplex unit is available and installed). The submenus of the Operator Control menu may
vary according to the specifications of the particular Crown II printer.
3. Administration Menu—Use this menu to configure default settings for printer
emulations and printer interfaces, configure special pages, calibrate the print engine, and
configure hard disks (if installed).
2 Part 1 Crown Book
CROWN II FIRMWARE
Crown II Operating System software resides inside the Crown II
printer and is referred to as printer firmware. The Crown II
firmware is stored either in flash ROM or on the internal hard
disk.
Flash ROM is nonvolatile memory. When the power is
switched off, this kind of memory holds the data previously
stored.
Updating new Crown II firmware is performed via one of its
MEMORY
interfaces. The illustration shows an example using a PC
connected to a Crown II printer by means of an interface. The
Crown II firmware is downloaded to the printer. The printer
recognizes the nature of the code and replaces the older
firmware with the new one that is downloaded. After
downloading, the printer restarts with the new firmware resident and active.
When your Crown II printer is switched on, by default it prints a startup page. This page is
generated internally by the Crown II Operating System. Below is a list of the Crown II
information pages that may be printed by the Crown II Operating System.
CROWN II
INFORMATION PAGES
Startup
Each time your Crown II printer is switched on, it prints a
REMARK(S)
startup page. This is particularly important to verify the
functionality of your printer and installed options.
You may disable printing a startup page by means of the
control panel.
Status
There are two kinds of status pages:
Standard: A one-page overview of the most common printer
settings. This page shows the current Crown II Operating
System, the memory configurations and the CrownNet
network firmware version installed.
Advanced: The Advanced Status Page gives information
about printer parameter settings, fonts, and emulations
available. The document may have many pages, depending on
the fonts installed.
Statistics Page
This page gives statistical information about the usage of the
printer and the current status of the consumables.
Crown Book Part 1 3
Network Configuration
Registration
(Color printers only)
Calibration
CMM Profile
(Color printers only)
Header
Trailer
The network configuration page gives full information of the
network interface setup. Up to two network interfaces may be
installed (one is standard and one is optional) in a Crown II
Print System and each network interface has its own network
configuration page.
This page shows the registration of the four colors of a Crown
II color printer in respect to each other.
This page is used to verify the adjustment for the amount of
toner (density) of the engine for calibration purposes.
CMM (Color Management Module) – This page gives
information about all ICC profiles and color device links.
A header page is a job separator page that can be enabled to
print prior to a print job. It may give information about the
printer language, the user, the document name, the interface,
and the start print time. It is possible to specify the media bin
for the header page, so you may use a different media type
than is used for the rest of the print job.
A trailer page is similar to a header page, but it prints after a
print job and gives information, such as total number of pages
in the print job (including a header page but excluding the
trailer page) and how long the job took to print. Also the
media bin for this page can be specified, as with the header
page.
4 Part 1 Crown Book
SPOOLING
Each active Crown II printer interface has an
exclusive input buffer. The size of the input
buffer needed should be dictated by the nature
of that interface. An Ethernet network interface
may receive data at a high speed and, therefore,
may need a large input buffer. A serial interface,
however, is a relatively slow interface and may
not require a large input buffer.
A serial interface may be an option. Refer
to your Crown II printer documentation for
the actual interfaces available.
The Simultaneous Interface Operation (SIO)
takes the print data from each active interface
simultaneously and stores it in the host input
buffer. The host input buffer functions as a
temporary storage area between the interface
and the next stage of the print process. The data
from each active interface is kept in logical
order.
t
Non-Crown II printers can focus only on one interface at a time, until completion of that
print job, even though all interfaces are considered active. This principle is called
hot-port interfacing.
When the last data packet from a particular interface is received (symbolically denoted in the
illustration by ⌧), that same interface becomes immediately available for the next print job.
Crown II printers are shipped with the host input buffer and the input buffers set to a
preconfigured optimum value. However, you may manually select other values to further
optimize the Crown II printer for your specific environment.
Crown II printers are shipped with all standard interfaces active.
Crown II printers equipped with an internal hard disk may use a part of the hard disk as
an overflow spool buffer.
Crown Book Part 1 5
INTERPRETATION
The print data from the spool buffer is examined by the
Emulation Sensing Processor (ESP). Each printer
emulation (like PostScript, PCL, GL, etc.) is recognized
by examining the nature of the data. The Emulation
Sensing Processor tries to find a match within the first
part of the print data by comparing the print code to
specific printer language patterns stored within the
printer.
The Emulation Sensing Processor assigns a criteriadependent value to a resident printer emulation when it
finds a match. Each emulation is weighed, and either an
emulation is selected or the printer defaults to a user
configurable option.
This avoids the need of selecting an emulation in the printer configuration menu each time.
Moreover, selecting an emulation for each print job would be impossible if the printer is in a
remote network location, serving a group of users.
Two situations may occur:
1. No clear match is found. The Emulation Sensing Processor selects the default ESP
emulation (usually PCL5).
Crown II printers are shipped with the default ESP emulation set to PCL5. You may
select another resident emulation as the default ESP emulation.
2. A clear match is found. The Emulation Sensing Processor activates the appropriate
resident emulation.
The print data is then interpreted, and a special format is generated and stored in the
Display List. Display List data is stored in a compressed format.
There is an important advantage of having a Display List: the pages of a particular print job
stay in the Display List until the print job is completely printed. This automatically enables
two major Crown II features:
1. Automatic Jam Recovery. If a media jam occurs, and if the printer power remains on, the
Crown II printer is able to reprint the page or pages in the engine at the time of the jam
after the jam has been cleared. This enables you to collect your document(s) from the
printer without missing pages and without resending the print job. See A
UTOMATIC JAM
RECOVERY on page 14 for additional information.
6 Part 1 Crown Book
2. Electronic Document Collation. Since all pages of a particular document are stored in the
Display List, it is not necessary to send a print job multiple times from the software
application to print multiple copies. This feature enhances printer performance and
decreases network traffic dramatically. For more details, see
COLLATION
on page 15.
ELECTRONIC DOCUMENT
Crown II printers equipped with an internal hard disk are shipped with a preconfigured
segment value for the Display List on the hard disk. However, you may manually select
other values to further optimize the Crown II printer in a specific application. This
allows the Crown II printer to receive and store many print jobs, and it allows print jobs
to be spooled. The process of storing documents before printing is referred to as
Compile-Ahead technology.
Crown Book Part 1 7
RASTERIZATION
Each time the print engine is ready to print a new page, the
Display List provides the compressed blocks for that particular
page. The Rasterizer translates the compressed blocks very
rapidly into a bitmap version that is stored in the Frame
Buffer. From the Frame Buffer, the print engine reads this
bitmap data.
A bitmap is a graphic representation of a page. All characters
and art representations are printed using tiny dots.
For monochrome Crown II printers, the Frame Buffer contains
a black bitmap only. Crown II color printers translate the
Display List blocks into either four separate bitmaps, (one for cyan, one for magenta, one for
yellow, and one for black) or a black bitmap only for monochrome output.
The illustration demonstrates the color rasterization process with bitmap representations. The
rasterizer processes the data from the Display List into four bitmaps, one for cyan, one for
magenta, one
for yellow, and
one for black.
The print
engine
processes these
bitmaps and
fuses the four
toner layers
onto the media
to produce a
printed output.
Cyan combined with yellow produces green, cyan combined with magenta produces
blue, and yellow combined with magenta produces red. Cyan, magenta, and yellow
combined produce black. In our example, the black is produced by fusing all four toner
colors.
The Frame Buffer always resides in RAM (Random Access Memory = volatile memory).
It is not possible to assign (a portion of) the internal hard disk as Frame Buffer. The
print engine reads Frame Buffer bitmap data continuously at a very high speed, not
allowing delays caused by search mechanisms of relatively slow devices, such as a hard
disk.
8 Part 1 Crown Book
*
*
*
*
The maximum resolution of printing is calculated
directly from the size of the Frame Buffer. The table
below shows the minimum amount of Frame Buffer
memory required for some media sizes and resolutions.
All values are rounded in megabytes (MB).
The printable area is defined as the media size minus
the nonprintable edges around the media. The value of
the nonprintable edges is dependent on the particular
Crown II printer. Some Crown II printers also allow
edge-to-edge printing, which means that the nonprintable area is zero.
Refer to your Crown II printer documentation for the actual printable area(s).
Minimum Frame Buffer size for single-sided media
Resolution Monochrome 4-Color
(Horizontal x
Vertical)
(dots per inch)
300 x 300
600 x 600
1200 x 1200
A4
(210x297 mm)
Letter
(8½"x11")
A3
(420x297 mm)
Ledger
(11"x17")
A4
(210x297 mm)
Letter
(8½"x11")
(420x297 mm)
(11"x17")
1 MB 2 MB 4 MB 8 MB
4 MB 8 MB 16 MB 32 MB
16 MB 32 MB 64 MB 128 MB
A3
Ledger
You may calculate the minimum Frame Buffer memory required for any media size by
applying the following formula. The value F is then rounded to the next integer.
F =
F = Frame Buffer size in MB
h = Horizontal dimension of media in inches
v = Vertical dimension of media in inches
H = Horizontal resolution in dpi
V = Vertical resolution in dpi
S = Number of sides:
Enter 1 for Simplex, 4 for Duplex
C = Number of colors:
Enter 1 for Monochrome, 4 for Color
Using Inches
h x v
(
8,388,608
)
x H x V x S x C
F =
F = Frame Buffer size in MB
h = Horizontal dimension of media in mm
v = Vertical dimension of media in mm
H = Horizontal resolution in dpi
V = Vertical resolution in dpi
S = Number of sides:
Enter 1 for Simplex, 2 for Duplex
C = Number of colors:
Enter 1 for Monochrome, 4 for Color
Using Millimeters
h
( )
25.4
8,388,608
v
x
25.4
x H x V x S x C
Crown Book Part 1 9
PRINTING
The printing segment is the hardware, often
referred to as the print engine.
To become familiar with the basic functions of a
print engine we demonstrate with a color print
K
Y
M
C
engine.
1. Laser Unit - The laser unit is controlled by the contents of the
Frame Buffer (for each color). For each dot color of the Frame
Buffer bitmap that is turned on, the laser is switched on and
‘writes’ an electrical dot onto the OPC.
An electrical dot is an isolated area on the surface of the OPC.
The OPC is initially charged. When the laser beam strikes the
surface, that area is electrically neutralized.
2. OPC (Optical Photo Conductive) Belt (also called ‘Drum’) - The
laser unit ‘writes’ the dots from one side to the other, while the
rotation of the OPC is responsible for the vertical movement (lines
of dots).
3. Toner - Each toner cartridge transfers its toner (one color at a time)
to the neutral areas on the OPC by means of electrostatic attraction
(the toner carries a negative charge). Each OPC belt rotation
transports one color image.
4. Transfer Belt - The Transfer Belt collects all four color images in
succession (on top of each other). Then the total combined toner
image is transferred from the Transfer Belt to the media drawn
from the media cassette. The transfer is also obtained by
electrostatic attraction.
5. Fuser Unit - The fuser unit contains pressurized hot rollers. As the media passes the fuser,
the toner images are melted and fused onto the media. The printed media is then
transported to the output area of the print engine.
The various print engine units are controlled by the Crown II firmware. To detect the status
of these modules, the print engine provides specific sensor signals.
10 Part 1 Crown Book
2. CROWN II FEATURES
The previous chapter explained the Crown II printer and introduced some of the Crown II
features. This chapter explains the Crown II features in more detail:
Refer to your Crown II printer documentation for the actual features available.
IMPORTANT NOTES
Before discussing the Crown II features in detail, several important words need to be defined.
✓ Serverless Printing ✓ Printer-Based Accounting
✓ Automatic Jam Recovery ✓ Network Connectivity
✓ Electronic Document Collation ✓ Color Management
✓ Emulation Context Switching ✓ Proof-Then-Print
✓ Overlay Printing ✓ Printer Management
✓ Number-Up printing ✓ Memory Management
✓ Booklet Printing
ABOUT OUTLINE FONTS AND BITMAP FONTS
A font is a subset of a typeface with a certain size, style (such as italic), and stroke weight
(such as bold). A typeface is the design of a set of characters and usually carries a name, like
Helvetica or Times. The size is expressed in points (1 point = 1/72 inch = 0.35 mm). There
are two basic methods of storing fonts in a printer:
a. Bitmapped Fonts
These fonts are stored as a collection of dots within a matrix. Principally, each font
is designed separately for the best appearance according to the size and resolution
used (the higher the resolution and/or size, the more dots are needed). This
approach has the disadvantage that a separate bitmapped font must be stored for
each size, style, stroke weight, and resolution to be used, occupying much memory.
A further disadvantage is that scaling is not possible without causing a jagged
appearance, although special software routines may help. The illustration shows a
bitmapped font of the italic character ‘I.’
b. Outline Fonts
These fonts are size- and resolution-independent since they describe only
the outline of the characters, not the individual dots. The illustration
shows the italic character ‘I’ stored as vectors. You may describe this
character as follows:
• Draw a line from a (X = 1,Y = 0) to b (X = 2½, Y = 7) to c
(X = 3½, Y = 7) to d (X = 2, Y = 0) to a (X = 1, Y = 0).
• Fill the enclosed outline with dots (resolution dependent).
Crown Book Part 1 11
This vectored description is independent of the size and resolution. The raster being used in
our example is a matrix of 4 x 7 units (a unit does not have a fixed dimension). When such a
character needs to be printed, the unit number is translated into dots by multiplying the unit
by an integer, according to the required point size and resolution. Only one character
description needs to be stored for all sizes and resolutions used.
An outline font can be scaled and rotated easily. A bitmapped font cannot. Scaling
and/or rotating bitmapped fonts may cause a loss of dots, giving the character a jagged
appearance.
The examples used have small matrices for clarity. Normally, these matrices are much
larger.
ABOUT PRINTER LANGUAGES
The printer receives commands from the computer, which tell the printer how to format the
document being processed. The structure of the print data is called a printer language. There
are basically two kinds of printer languages: PDL and non-PDL. A PDL (Page Description
Language) describes the contents of a page rather than supplying print data from left to right
and from top to bottom. PostScript is a PDL. A PDL may start the data stream with a
prologue. A prologue describes how the contents of the following data (the script) must be
handled. This may invoke routines to handle outline fonts, images, etc.
Another important industrial printer language is PCL (Printer Command Language). PCL
commands are escape sequence codes embedded in the data of the print job being transmitted
to the printer. These escape codes define special features to be executed, such as setting fonts,
point sizes, etc.
ABOUT HARD DIS KS
Internal hard disk-equipped Crown II printers may be used extensively for memory clients
and printer-related files. A memory client is a Crown II memory function for one of its
specific segments, like the Spool Buffer, Display List, Emulation, and Emulation Temp
buffer. The corresponding files are in restricted areas of the hard disk. Printer-related files
include optional fonts, emulations, forms, and macros.
12 Part 1 Crown Book
Memory clients should be assigned to the internal hard disk, since an external hard disk
is attached outside the interior of the printer and, therefore, an accidental disconnection
may cause a malfunction of the printer.
One internal hard disk may be installed and has a logical name ‘SYS:.’ A maximum of three
external hard disks may be attached.
Attaching one or more external hard disks requires the installation of the (optional) SCSI
interface.
ABOUT THE FEATURES
Some features of a Crown II printer depend upon the installation of a particular option. In
addition, a certain option or environment may be recommended, although not absolutely
necessary, to take full advantage of the feature. To clearly identify this, we use the following
symbols.
Required Recommended Description
This icon is shown when the situation applies to
networked environments.
This icon is shown when the situation applies to Crown
II printers equipped with a duplex unit. The duplex unit
may be an option.
This icon is shown when the situation applies to
PostScript emulations. Crown II printers are shipped
with the KONICA MINOLTA PostScript Drivers for
Windows 95/98/Me and for Windows XP/2000/NT4.
This icon is shown when the situation applies to Crown
II printers equipped with an internal hard disk.
This icon is shown when the situation applies to Crown
II color printers.
This icon is shown when the situation applies to
Internet or web browser applications.
Crown Book Part 1 13
SERVERLESS PRINTING
The illustration shows a simplified section of a typical
network environment. A workstation (WS1) generates
print data from a software application and transmits it
via the network to the network server. The network
server stores the data on its hard disk (in what is called
a print queue). After the data transmission is
completed, the network server sends the print job to the
printer via the same network.
This method has two major disadvantages:
1. The print data is sent two times across the network,
increasing the network traffic.
2. It also takes much longer to print from the time the
workstation sends the data until the print job is
completely printed.
Not only do you have to wait a relatively long time before the printer starts to process the job,
but all other users on the network experience a slower response time as well.
Crown II technology offers a better solution:
A workstation sends the print data directly to the
printer, omitting the network server routing.
All Crown II printers may still print through a
print queue on a network server if you need to use
this method.
All Crown II printers behave like network servers when
connected to a network, decreasing unnecessary
network traffic. This becomes a major benefit when
multiple Crown II printers are active in the same
network. Everyone experiences a much faster
throughput of their print jobs.
AUTOMATIC JAM RECOVERY
Crown II printers provide automatic jam recovery (when enabled through the
Administration/Engine/Page Recovery menu). After you remove any jammed media,
printing automatically resumes from the page the printer stopped at when the jam occurred.
For automatic jam recovery to work, it is necessary to leave the printer turned on when
you remove the jammed media.
14 Part 1 Crown Book
ELECTRONIC DOCUMENT COLLATION
Many software applications (in
particular Microsoft Office) offer a
collation button in the Print menu.
Activating this button causes the
application to send the document
multiple times to the printer. This not
only increases network traffic, but the
sending workstation also dramatically
slows down due to the unknown
amount of the print data. For example,
if 3 copies and collate are selected for a
4-page document, the application
generates 3 x 4 = 12 pages of print data.
Note that this 12-page file is nothing more than THREE IDENTICAL 4-page documents.
When collate is not selected and the copy count is set to 3, the application sends the 4-page
file once, with a copy count of 3 embedded in the data stream. A non-Crown II printer
usually prints page 1 three times, followed by page 2 three times, page 3 three times, and
page 4 three times. You must manually collate the pages afterward to obtain the documents.
The example discusses what happens when only three copies are selected. In some cases,
many more copies are needed.
Crown II technology offers a better solution:
With a Crown II printer,
you do not have to select
collation in the software
application when you need
multiple copies of your
document. If the driver
collate setting is turned on,
just enter the number of
copies you need in the driver. The print data is sent once, regardless of the number of copies
you selected. The Crown II printer prints and automatically collates the specified amount of
documents, with the pages in the correct order for each copy of the document. This Crown II
feature allows a very efficient way of producing multiple documents while keeping the
network traffic at a minimum and saving you from manually collating the printed pages into
documents.
Crown II printers are shipped with the collate feature switched off. You are advised to
switch it on after completely setting up your Crown II printer.
Crown Book Part 1 15
EMULATION CONTEXT SWITCHING
Both workstations WS1 and WS2 are independently
creating a document. Workstation WS1 uses a PCL
printer driver, and workstation WS2 uses a
PostScript printer driver. Assume the printer is just
switched on, and each page is sent as a separate print
job. The following is received by the printer in
succession:
1. Print job C is received from WS1.
2. Print job A is received from WS2.
3. Print job D is received from WS1.
This sequence causes the following actions:
1. The Emulation Sensing Processor activates the resident PCL
emulator after print job C was received. The PCL emulator starts
from its default condition. Assume that in print job C some special
features were selected, like downloaded PCL fonts and PCL macros.
2. The next print job arriving at the Emulation Sensing Processor
causes the resident PostScript emulator to be activated. Prior to
activation, the current emulation context (downloaded fonts and
macros previously used) of the PCL emulator is saved in memory.
Then the PostScript emulator is activated and processes the print
job A.
3. Following, print job D from WS1 is received. The PCL driver located in
WS1 still assumes that all emulation context selected during the
previous page is still active. Therefore, before the PCL emulator is
activated, the Crown II printer first uploads the previously stored
emulation context from the Emulation Temp buffer.
Without the Crown II emulation context switching feature, WS1
would have to download the fonts and macros used with each print
job.
This Crown II feature ensures the correct handling of any multienvironmental situation, utilizing multiple printer emulations. Although this
feature is predominant in networked environments, the same situation occurs when using
multiple Crown II interfaces, each receiving data with a different printer emulation.
16 Part 1 Crown Book
OVERLAY PRINTING
In certain cases a special kind of media, like preprinted forms or letterhead, is used. When
you produce many documents with preprinted forms (for a mailing) you may run out of this
media. Or you must first reprint this media, since something may have changed (like a
telephone number). Even though you are able to print, your production stops and becomes
dependent upon external situations.
Crown II technology offers a
better solution:
You may download the entire
preprinted form(s) onto the
printer’s hard disk. Crown II may
use this file as an overlay
template.
Overlay printing features three major advantages:
1. You do not need a stock of preprinted forms anymore.
2. You may modify forms whenever needed, without scrapping existing stock.
3. The overlays are printer resident and do not need to be transmitted from a workstation to
the printer each time.
Up to 5 different overlays may be used for each document. For each overlay, you may select
the following criteria:
a) Disk – Printer hard disk where the overlay file is located.
b) File - The overlay filename.
c) Placement - On All Pages, the First Page only, all Even Pages, all Odd Pages or Complex
(page number for the first placement, followed by a cycle number, representing how
many successive pages later the overlay should be placed again).
You are also able to include a ‘watermark.’ A watermark is a text line for special
purposes, such as ‘Confidential’ or ‘Draft.’ A watermark, however, is generated by the
printer driver and is independent from the contents of the document and function of
overlay printing.
Crown Book Part 1 17
The overlay may be designed from
any available software application.
It must be a one page document
that can be printed. Rather than
printing, you must temporarily
store the overlay on your PC’s hard
disk as a PostScript file, for
example, overlay1.ps. The next
step is to transfer this file to the internal hard disk of the Crown II printer. You can use the
Download Manager application or FTP to transfer the files to the hard disk of the printer.
18 Part 1 Crown Book
NUMBER-UP PRINTING (N-UP PRINTING)
Multiple pages of a document
may be printed onto one sheet.
This is particularly useful for
draft printing, layout control, and
archiving of documents.
The various Page Order possibilities when N-up printing four (logical) pages are shown
below. The same structure applies for more columns and/or rows.
Crown Book Part 1 19
g
g
BOOKLET PRINTING
Automatic production of booklets is an important Crown II feature. It allows you to print
your document in a book format. This is of special interest to writers, allowing them to
examine the final document immediately.
A booklet is printed as four logical pages onto both sides of one physical sheet. All printed
sheets are then folded into what looks like a book. On the folding edge, you may manually
insert staples to bind the booklet.
36
8
1
For booklet printing, a sheet is defined as being the media size you print on. A page is
defined as the media format set in ‘page setup’ of your document.
Example: Your document is created using A3/Ledger format. You want to print a booklet
using A3/Ledger sheets. This means that your booklet will be printed in A4/Letter size (see
illustration above). A Crown II printer automatically scales and rotates your A3/Ledger pages
into A4/Letter size on the A3/Ledger sheet. Similarly, you may also print on other sizes from
the very same document. A Crown II printer automatically scales and rotates the pages.
A booklet must always print in multiples of 4 pages. The Crown II Print System
automatically prints all logical pages in the correct order and automatically prints empty
pages at the end of your document when necessary.
The following illustration shows the fold directions
available. The selection depends on the media size
of your document and on the media size you are
going to print on. Long Edge is by definition the
default.
The maximum number of pages to be printed as a booklet depends predominantly upon
the memory assigned to the Display List and the complexity of the document.
Crown II printers equipped with an internal hard disk have the advantage of assigning
hard disk space to the Display List memory client. This greatly enhances the number of
pages that can be printed as a booklet.
Short
Ed
e
Long
Ed
e
If a booklet fails to print, try increasing the Display List size. The entire job needs to be
stored in the Display List for booklet layout to work.
20 Part 1 Crown Book
PRINTER-BASED ACCOUNTING
Crown II printers with an internal hard disk may utilize Printer-Based Accounting. With
Printer-Based Accounting, individual print job information is saved on the printer’s internal
hard disk in an accounting file. This information can be retrieved from the printer, filtered in
regards to the individual customer requirements and exported into a spreadsheet program in
order to be analyzed. There are over 40 different information fields available.
Printer-Based Accounting is important for System Administrators who need
interdepartmental accounting, pay-for-print applications, or workflow management.
The table below shows some of the more helpful information fields available in each
accounting entry.
Information Remark(s)
Time and date The time and date when the print job started. This information is taken
from the printer’s Time-of-Day clock. If the printer does not have this
clock installed, no time information is available.
Refer to your Crown II printer documentation for the actual
information regarding the availability of a Time-of-Day clock.
Completion code This code gives job completion or termination information.
User, Host, and
Charge number
This information is stored only if the information is contained in the data
stream.
Connection Information about which interface the print job was received from.
File name This information is stored only if this information is contained in the
data stream.
Print Time The time the printer was busy with processing the print job.
Error count If an error occurred in the print job (and the printer menu option
administration/special pages/trailer page was set for ‘On Error’ or
‘Errors only’), the error count indicates the amount of error pages.
Simplex count
and Duplex count
Cyan, magenta,
This is information about the actual printed simplex and duplex pages,
respectively, including possible header pages.
These values indicate the percentage of toners used for the print job.
yellow, and black
count
Normalized cyan,
magenta, yellow,
These values indicate the normalized percentage of toners used for the
print job.
and black count
Index count The index describes a paper format in the paper accounting file, where
the measurements of the respective paper are listed.
Finishing options This field is a number formed by adding the codes for different finishing
options.
Chunk count This represents the number of collated chunks for this job.
Jam field Jam field indicates how many times the printer jammed while printing
the document.
Paper types count This indicates how may different types of paper were used in the
Crown Book Part 1 21
document and represents the number of separate index entries that
follow the main record for the document in the Job Accounting file.
Compile time The compile time field is the processor time in milliseconds spent
translating the page description language.
Header count The header count field indicates how many images comprise the
document header page(s) subjob.
Body count This represents the number of images in the actual document, excluding
multiple copies.
Job ID The job ID field is the document’s number. The number sequence
restarts whenever the printer is turned off and on again.
Priority This documents the document’s assigned priority.
The default size for the accounting file on the printer’s internal hard disk is 1 MB, but you
can reconfigured it when necessary (refer to
ACCOUNTING on page 73). Each accounting
entry has a size between 200 and 300 bytes. This means that the 1 MB default file size is
sufficient for approximately 4,000 print jobs.
You may enable
accounting
identifications in
the KONICA
MINOLTA
PostScript Driver
for Windows. You
can enter your
account data into
the following
areas:
1. Author - Your
user name.
2. Host - The
identification
name of the
host.
3. Charge number - A number for interdepartmental accounting.
A convenient way to retrieve the printer accounting data is by using CrownView (see
PRINTER MANAGEMENT
on page 36).
The accounting data may be filtered and exported into a spreadsheet program, like Microsoft
Excel, for further analysis. Usually, the system administrator uses such a spreadsheet to
calculate the cost of usage (consumables and media) to invoice the appropriate department.
22 Part 1 Crown Book
NETWORK CONNECTIVITY
The integration of PCs, and the exchange of data among individual PCs have become crucial.
This is achieved by attaching the PC (workstation) to a network environment where all users
have mutual access to shared data. At the same time all users may also share specific devices
attached to this network. Devices, like printers, must have excellent network capabilities.
Crown II printers are equipped with very powerful network capabilities, making them ideal
for attaching in most network environments.
Basically, there are two fundamental methods of connecting a printer to a workstation.
LOCAL CONNECTION
A local connection is accomplished by
connecting the workstation and the printer
directly by means of a parallel, serial or USB
interface. These interfaces support only a one-
LOCAL
to-one connection, which means that the
workstation exclusively ‘owns’ the
connection to the printer.
WORKSTATION
Some network environments allow the access
of a printer locally attached to one of the
workstations. Although all users attached to
the network may use the printer, the (print)
data flow to that particular workstation may
affect its normal use. In most of these cases,
this workstation is exclusively needed as a
print server and cannot be used as a normal
workstation anymore.
Connector types for local connections
Parallel Serial USB
Crown Book Part 1 23
NETWORK CONNECTION
When the number of users increases, the data communication to locally attached printers
can become a bottleneck, especially in the case when various users require specific printer
features. In many situations a network is already available, allowing one or more network
printers to be used by all workstations. To better handle print jobs from multiple users, it
makes sense to have network printers attached with features like high speed, duplex
capability, output finishing, and color. Each user can now route print data to the
appropriate printer attached to the network.
The format in which a network is laid out is called the network topology. The scheme that
connects all components of a topology is called the network architecture. Because
network architectures handle data in different ways, each requires unique network
hardware and specific network communication protocols.
NETWORK TOPOLOGIES
Basically, there are two topologies:
a. The Bus topology
In this network architecture, all
devices (like workstations, servers,
and printers) are connected via a
single cable (called the main
network cable or backbone). When a
workstation needs to print, it usually
addresses the file server, which in
turn directs the print data to a print
server (the file server and print
server may share the same PC).
From there, the print data is sent to
the appropriate printer attached to the same network cable. The bus topology is currently
the most widely used network architecture and allows communication speeds from 10
Mbit/s to 100 Mbit/s.
The most widely used network architecture used for bus topologies is Ethernet.
One Mbit (Megabit) is (1024 x 1024 =) 1,048,576 bits. A bit (contraction of the words
binary and digit) is either a ‘0’ (no voltage) or ‘1’ (maximum voltage). Usually, all
characters may be expressed within 8 bits, giving 256 possible combinations of bits.
Each combination represents one character (1 byte). Therefore, a 100 Mbit/s
communication speed allows a maximum of over 13 million characters transmitted
per second.
24 Part 1 Crown Book
b. The Ring topology
The ring topology is logically constructed
like a ring (see the dotted line in the
illustration). In practice, a central unit
controls the ring topology. In this type of
network environment, the central unit sends a
signal, or token, to one particular device.
When the token is passed to each device, this
device is able to withdraw data from or add
data to the network. The main advantage of a
ring topology is its reliability and lack of
collisions on the network. If one of the
connections fails, the central unit may reverse
the data stream in order to maintain operation
or even bypass the faulty connection. Ring network environments allow communication
speeds of 4 Mbit/s or 16 Mbit/s.
The most widely network architecture used for ring topologies is Token-Ring.
NETWORK TRANSPORT PROTOCOLS
Since a network transports data from various locations, a
workstation must first divide the print data into packets (data
transfer method). These packets must have a format specified
by the communication protocol, including device source and
destination address. A network protocol transmits these data
packets from a sender (source address) to a receiver
(destination address). Therefore, the workstation needs
software to generate these data packets.
Currently, the most used communication protocols for
Ethernet and Token-Ring are:
a. TCP/IP
The TCP/IP communication protocol is being used in almost every network architecture.
Crown II printers support the following data transfer methods for this protocol:
• Transport1/status1 used by the TCP/IP Print Monitor software.
• FTP (FileTransferProtocol).
• LPD (LinePrinterDaemon).
• Telnet-software for configuration and printer management.
• http (hyper-text transport protocol) for data transmissions and printer management
using Internet Browser software.
• SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) for transferring data and for printer
management.
Crown Book Part 1 25
b. NetBEUI/NetBIOS
This protocol is used in Windows for Workgroups and OS/2 LAN Manager Networks.
The software client to be used is the CrownNet Print Utility for Windows or the
CrownNet Manager software for OS/2 (both utilities are available on the Software
Utilities CD-ROM shipped with all Crown II printers).
c. EtherTalk (for Ethernet)
This protocol is used in Apple Macintosh networks.
d. IPX/SPX
This protocol is used in Novell NetWare networks.
PHYSICAL NETWORK CONNECTIONS
The following connections are predominantly used in network environments:
Connector types for network environments
Connection RJ45 BNC AUI DB-9s
Alias
Usage
10BaseT/
100BaseTX or
Twisted Pair
Ethernet and
Token-Ring
Thin Wire,
10Base2 or
Coax
Ethernet
(10 Mbit/s)
Thick Wire or
10Base5
Ethernet
(10 Mbit/s)
Type 1
Token-Ring
(4 to 16 Mbit/s)
(10 or 100
Mbit/s).
Type of
connector
Availability
Standard in
Crown II
printers.
Optional for
Crown II
printers.
Third-party
transceivers
should be used
Third-party
transceivers
should be used
CROWN II CONNECTIVITY
Crown II printers can easily connect in
most network environments. Standard
available interfaces are USB, parallel,
and an Ethernet network interface with an
RJ45 type of connector (supporting
speeds from 10 up to 100 Mbit/s).
Optionally, a second network interface
may be installed, like a Token-Ring
interface or a (second) Ethernet interface. Both network interfaces may be configured
separately from your printer’s control panel and are able to operate simultaneously.
Additional interfaces may be standard on some models of KONICA MINOLTA
printers.
26 Part 1 Crown Book
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