lee@rochester.UUCP (Lee Moore) (04/27/84)
The following message was on laser-lovers but is of interest to this group, too. =lee _____________________________ Xerox is today announcing the public availability of the first of the higher level applications protocols and formats. The protocols and formats included in this announcement are: Interpress, Printing Protocol, Xerox Character Code, Clearinghouse Protocol, Authentication Protocol, and Time Protocol. With this announcement, Xerox makes publicly available all of the information necessary for printing applications. As a group, this set of protocols and formats forms the "Interpress Printing Architecture". The press release is reproduced for your information below: EL SEGUNDO, Calif., April 25--Xerox Corporation announced today the availability of its Interpress Printing Architecture, a new set of protocols and formats that for the first time will enable a variety of office machines from different manufacturers to work together to produce and distribute complex, high quality business documents on electronic printers. "We expect the use of this architecture to give end users a greater choice in the equipment they use and to promote improvements in the quality of their printed documents." said Robert V. Adams, President, Xerox Systems Group. The Interpress Printing Architecture incorporates all of the Xerox Network Systems protocols that are required for printing documents on Xerox electronic printers. The initial layers of these protocols, including the Ethernet local area network and reliable communications protocols, have been publicly available since 1981. Now additional protocols for directory and security services are being made available. These formats and protocols are used widely in current Xerox products for printing, filing, electronic mail and other applications. The new Interpress Printing Architecture provides a way for different manufacturers to use common programs to link their products with each other and with a wide variety of electronic printers. It allows users to create documents in any layout and containing any combination of line graphics, half tone, scanned images, and text in as many font sizes and styles as the user desires. A key element of the Interpress Printing Architecture is the Interpress document format, a computer language for describing the appearance of pages in a document. Interpress masters created electronically by workstations, word processors, personal computers, and mainframe computers. The master is sent to electronic printers and the same master can be printed on different printers having a wide range of capabilities and resolutions. The Interpess document format uses the Xerox Character Code that can represent most languages of the world, including European languages, Greek, Russian, and Japanese Kanji. The character code represents multilingual text compatibly with leading national and international standards. The Network Systems protocols announced today include the Printing Protocol used to transmit Interpress masters to electronic printers; the Clearinghouse directory protocol for locating printers, workstations and other network resources; and the Authentication Protocol for information security. The Clearinghouse and Authentication protocols play a fundamental role in building large, distributed networks that are reliable and secure. Xerox says it will assist organizations wishing to achieve compatible implementations of these protocols and formats. Technical consulting and certification services will be available later this year. The set of documents specifying the Interpess Printing Architecture will cost $250. -- = lee@rochester rochester!lee =