Polaroid BLL Generator User Manual

Windows BLL Generator

User Guide

Windows BLL Gener ator User Guide V1.1 0, last modification January 26, 1999

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LFR, LFR PLUS,

Personal

Photography Model, LFR

LFR,

Mark III

Personal

, LFR

Mark III

LFR PLUS, LFR-X, LFR

Mark II

- Digital Photography Model, LFR

, LFR

Mark I I

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- Digital

- Digital Photography Model, LFR Mark VI – Digital Photography Model, RascolPort, WinRascol and MacRascol are trademarks of Lasergraphics, Inc. and Rascol is a registered trademark of Lasergraphics, Inc. Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Adobe Type Manager is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Inc. Ektachrome and Kodacolor are registered trademarks of Eastman Kodak Company. All other brand names and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

While great care was taken to prepare this user guide, Lasergraphics, Inc. disclaims all warranties with regard to this information including all implied warranties of satisfactory quality and fitness. Measurements are approximate and no responsibility is taken for any error, omission or misunderstanding in these particulars, which do not constitute an offer or contract. In no event shall Lasergraphics, Inc. be liable for any special, indirect or consequential damages or any damages whatsoever resulting from loss of use, data or profits, whether in an action of contract, negligence or other tortuous action, arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of this information. No representation or warranty whatever is made or given either during negotiation, in particulars or elsewhere.

Acknowledgements

The combined effort of many people is required to make a quality software product. This is an undoubtedly incomplete list of dealers, customers, coworkers and friends who have been helpful in one way or another in making Windows BLL Generator into what it is today.

Hanspeter Andermatt, Wolfgang Beaugrand, Xavier Bengoechea, Tim Bochnak, Murray Bowman, Dr. Ralf Brandes, Tony Brown, Falah Chebbo, Larry Cole, David Davies, Mike DeLucca, Dr. Stefan Demetrescu, Jo Elliot, Jon Elion, LtCol Dr. Doug Erickson, David Hard, Wenxin He, Ron Herman, Jack Hobbs, Andreas Hölling, Thomas Hofmeister, Genie Jacobsen, Dr. Jürgen Krüger, Bill Kruki, Jörg Kunz, Klaus-Norbert Laroche, Beat Lechmann, Wai-Hung Lee, Adrian Martin, Bob McCormack, Rod Miller, Martin Müller, Rick Narveson, Chris Olsen, Doris Rusch, Doug Schafer, Steffen Seeber and Bill Smithson.

Thank you all.

This software is based in part on the ZLIB compression library written by Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.

Thank you for providing incredibly useful code.

Acknowledgements 3

Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction ........................................................................................9

What You Need ...............................................................................................10

Required Hardware...............................................................................10

Required Software.................................................................................10

About this Guide..............................................................................................11

What’s new......................................................................................................12

Windows BLL Generator Features..................................................................13

Various Output Types............................................................................13

High-Resolution.....................................................................................13

True Color .............................................................................................14

Easy to Use and Highly Compatible......................................................14

Chapter 2: Express Setup....................................................................................15

Installing Windows BLL Generator..................................................................16

Installing BLL Generator from the Web Site .........................................16

Installing Windows BLL Generator using Windows BLL Generator installation

disks ......................................................................................................16

Chapter 3: Software Installation..........................................................................17

Contents 5

Running setup..................................................................................................18

Adding a BLL-Generator..................................................................................19

Chapter 4: Printing your first image ................................................................... 21

Printing from an Application.............................................................................22

Viewing a BLL..................................................................................................26

Chapter 5: Principle of Operation ....................................................................... 27

Introduction......................................................................................................27

Printing from Windows on a PC without Film Recorder ........................29

Important Concepts .........................................................................................31

Resolution..............................................................................................31

Color Fidelity..........................................................................................32

Bitmaps and Objects .............................................................................33

Graphics......................................................................................33

Text .............................................................................................33

Which Applications Create Bitmaps or Objects ..........................34

Chapter 6: Reference ........................................................................................... 35

Printer Settings ................................................................................................35

Resolution..............................................................................................35

Orientation and Paper Size...................................................................36

Film Type...............................................................................................37

Non-LFC based Film Types........................................................37

LFC-based Film Types................................................................38

Background Color..................................................................................39

Scaling...................................................................................................39

Minimum Exposure Time.......................................................................39

Color Balance........................................................................................39

Contrast Gamma...................................................................................40

Using the Windows 95/98 driver......................................................................41

6 Contents

Printer settings in Windows 95/98.........................................................41

Color balance and gamma correction ...................................................44

Miscellaneous options...........................................................................45

Changing the Default Printer Settings in Windows 95/98.....................47

Using the Windows NT driver..........................................................................48

Printer settings in Windows NT.............................................................48

Storing Changed Settings...........................................................51

Changing the Default Printer Settings in Windows NT .........................52

Managing BLL-Generators ..............................................................................53

Adding a BLL-Generator.............................................................53

Changing Destination Path.........................................................54

Deleting a BLL-Generator...........................................................54

Modifying Driver Options.......................................................................55

Chapter 7: Uninstalling.........................................................................................57

When to use the Uninstaller ............................................................................57

How to use the Uninstaller...............................................................................58

Chapter 8: Tips and Tricks...................................................................................59

Specific Applicatio ns ........................................................................................60

Adobe Type Manager (ATM).................................................................60

Arts & Letters.........................................................................................60

Corel Draw ............................................................................................60

Corel Draw 7 .........................................................................................60

CorelDRAW 8........................................................................................61

Freelance Graphics for Windows Ver 1.0 .............................................61

Freelance Graphics 97..........................................................................61

Persuasion ............................................................................................61

PhotoStyler............................................................................................62

Word, Write ...........................................................................................62

Contents 7

Appendix A: Specifications................................................................................. 63

Glossary 67

Index 71

8 Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction

This is the user manual for the Windows BLL Generator. This product is used to generate platform and application independent BLL files that can be used for imaging on remote Lasergraphics film recorders.

Windows BLL Generator supports PCs running Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0 and Windows NT 5.0.

This chapter explains the features of the Windows BLL Generator.

Introduction 9

What You Need

You need the following hardware and software to run Windows BLL Generator:

Required Hardware

• Any IBM® PC compatible machine with a 486 processor or better, Pentium or better recommended.

• 16 MB of memory when running Windows 95/98 and 32 MB when running Windows NT. More memory may be required for complex images or images that contain large bitmaps.

• Minimum 4 megabytes of disk space for Windows BLL Generator programs plus additional storage for images. The amount of additional storage required depends on the type of images. Simple presentation slides will take between 100 kilobytes to 2 megabytes, complex and highresolution slides run from 5 megabytes up to 630 megabytes for a true color uncompressible 16000 line resolution image. Generally, 100 megabytes free disk space will be plenty.

Required Software

• Microsoft Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0 or Windows NT 5.0 operating system.

• A Windows application that can print to a Windows printer driver.

10 Introduction

About this Guide

This guide explains how to set up and use Windows BLL Generator. This guide assumes that you already know how to use Microsoft Windows. If you are new to Windows,

review your Screen illustrations in this gui de ar e m eant to be repres enta ti ve, not neces sar i l y exact duplic ates of

screens that appear on your display.

Microsoft Windows User’s Guide

before proceeding.

About this Guide 11

What’s new

Windows BLL Generator replaces Windows BLL Generator 3.15 for Windows 95 and WinRascol 3.15 for Windows NT. Major parts of Windows BLL Generator 3.15 were rewritten to increase performance, simplify its use, and take advantage of new features of Windows 95 and Windows NT.

Windows BLL Generator offers these advantages over previous versions:

• One package supports Windows 95/98 and Windows NT 4.0/5.0

• Simple installation

• Same installation and interface on Windows NT and Windows 95/98

• Installation from hard drive or network

• Long filenames supported

• BLLs can be previewed

• A new high-compression BLL format generates smaller BLLs



: Windows 3.1x is not supported by Windows BLL Generator. Windows BLL Generator

Note

3.15 is the last version to support Windows 3.1x.



LFR and LFR+ type film recorders are not supported in Windows BLL Generator.

Note:

WinRascol 4.0 will continue to service this film recorder type.

12 Introduction

Windows BLL Generator Features

Windows BLL Generator adds a new dimension to all of your visual communications by letting you produce professional-qu al ity pr esentation graphics—righ t at your des k.

Various Output Types

Windows BLL Generator takes images produced by any Windows application and prints the images on a Lasergraphics LFR series film recorder to make 35mm slides, 35mm prints (negatives), Polaroid prints, 6x7 cm or 4x5 film transparencies or prints (negatives).

Slides Transparencies

High-Resolution

With the Lasergraphics Film Recorder (LFR), Windows BLL Generator in combination with WinRascol or MacRascol produces brilliant color images on film. The LFR 16384 lines which produces sharp images with over 700 times the image resolution (total number of dots in an image) of a VGA screen.

Name Short 35mm resolution 120/220/4x5 resolution Available on Fast Fine Extra Ultra

2k 2048x1365 2048x1680 All 4k 4096x2731 4096x3360 All 8k 8192x5461 8192x6719 Mark III and above 16k 16384x10923 16384x13438 Mark VI

Mark V I

has a maximum resolutio n of

Windows BLL Generator Features 13

True Color

Windows BLL Generator supports of over 16.7 million colors. 24-bit color refers to the way color information is stored in the image. 24-bit color is sometimes called “true-color” because it reproduces the full range of color visible to the human eye.

24-bit color,

which enables you to produce lif e- like pictures with any

Easy to Use and Highly Compatible

Windows BLL Generator is compatible with all Microsoft Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows NT applications that provide the invoke the Print command from your Windows application. Images will be sent from your application to Windows BLL Generator for processing.

command. To print images the Windows BLL Generator, you simply

14 Introduction

Chapter 2: Express Setup

This section explains how users with previous WinRascol experience can get Windows BLL Generator up and running quickly. If you are new the Windows BLL Generator or don’t consider yourself a seasoned computer user, please take the time to study the chapters beginning with “Chapter 3: Software Installation” on pag e 17.

Express Setup 15

Installing Windows BLL Generator

Windows BLL Generator is freely available on the Lasergraphics web site www.lasergraphics.com. It is also part of the WinRascol 4 distribution disks for convenience. Note that you may not distribute the WinRascol 4 distribution disks or their contents. The Windows BLL Generator downloadable from Lasergraphics' web site (www.lasergraphics.com) can be freely distributed. If you don’t have access to the Internet, please ask your dealer for a copy.

Installing BLL Generator from the Web Site

Run “WinBLL.exe“. Follow the prompts of the setup program. Click Start->Programs->WinRascol32->BLLConf and select “Add/Manage BLL Generators” to install

one or more BLL generator drivers.

Installing Windows BLL Generator using Windows BLL Generator installation disks

Run “setup.exe“. Follow the prompts of the setup program. Start “WinRascol32->BLLConf” and select “Add/Manage BLL Generators” to install one or more BLL generator drivers.

16 Express Setup

Chapter 3: Software Installation

This section explains how to install Windows BLL Generator on your computer. The installation is performed in two steps, the initial insta l lat ion and runn in g BLLC onf .

Software Installation 17

Running setup

These steps perform the initial installation of the Windows BLL Generator package.

• Close all programs currently running.

• Insert disk 1 of the Windows BLL Generator installation disk set, skip this step if you’ve

downloaded the Windows BLL Generator from the web site.

• Press

• If you are using installation disks enter “a:setup“ in the “run“ dialog box as follows:

• If you’ve downloaded the Windows BLL Generator or have received it from another source, use

the

Browse

• Press OK. Setup now prepares the installation.

• Press

• You will be asked to select a destination directory at this time. It is strongly suggested that you

use the default directory offered by the installation program. Press

• Setup is now ready to install Windows BLL Generator. Press

on the Windows tool bar, then select

Start

button to point to it.

after reading the introductory screen.

after reading the readme file.

Run

Next.

to install now.

• Setup will install all program files at this time. Follow setup’s instructions to insert additional disks if needed.

• Press

• Setup may ask you to reboot your computer in rare cases.

The Windows BLL Generator program files are now installed.

18 Software Installation

Finish

to exit setup.

Adding a BLL-Generator

Start

BLLConf

This dialog will appear:

• Select

Start->WinRascol32

Add generator

. Select

Add/Manage BLL Generators

Adding a BLL-generator 19

The following dialog is displayed:

• Select the destination film recorder type in

• Enter the serial number of the target film recorder in the

• Windows BLL Generator will select a default name for you. You can modify the name of the

printer driver in the edit box

• Select the destination directory into which the BLL files will be placed. Windows BLL Generator will select the default temporary file path as default. You should select the network path of a WinRascol drop box if you intend to use a film recorder that is connected to your network. Contact your network administrator for details. You can also select the path of a ZIP-Drive, for example.

• Press OK to create the BLL driver.

The BLL driver will now appear in the



NOTE:

port on Windows 95/98 until your computer is rebooted. After reboot, the new generator will show any way.

For technical reasons, the new BLL-generator will show

. This affects appearances only, it does not impact operation of the BLL-generator in

BLL:

Driver name

BLL-generator Administration

Film recorder type

Serial number

dialog. Press

LPT1:

edit box.

to exit.

Done

to be the selected output

20 Software Installation

Chapter 4: Printing your first image

This guided tour will show you how to print from an application. You must have completed the software installation successfully to follow this tour.

Printing your first Image 21

Printing from an Application

This section will show you how to print an image using Microsoft Wordpad. Wordpad is included in both Windows 95/98 and Windows NT. But you can use any other Windows application instead.

Start Microsoft Wordpad. You will fin d it in

Start->Programs-> Accessori es- >Wordpad.

Punch in a few letters. Wordpad should look like this now:

Feel free to format the text any way you like!

22 Printing your first Image

+ 47 hidden pages