ranjit@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Ranjit Bhatnagar) (11/29/88)
I don't know that I want to call this a bug - perhaps it's just a SIDE EFFECT. If you print the picture "Lady" from the Digipaint distribution disk (it's a 320x400 HAM mode monochrome image) as a 3 inch wide image, using halftone shading, under the EpsonX driver in 1.3, then in densities 3, 5, and 6 (the ones which can not print consecutive horizontal dots), her lips vanish. Really. All of the picture comes out beautifully except the chin is washed out, and the lips vanish. My best guess is that the restriction on horizontal dots causes a severe reduction in contrast at the darker gray levels. Thus making these density modes useless for most gray scale dumps as well as for fine detail. Oh well. Someone from Commodore already mentioned that this limitation probably won't be fixed in software because it's not Commodore's problem. Besides, waiting for a six-pass screen dump to finish would cause nervous breakdowns. - Ranjit "Trespassers w" ranjit@eniac.seas.upenn.edu mailrus!eecae!netnews!eniac!... If you throw a rock into the night and something barks, you know you hit a dog.
CJC105@PSUVM.BITNET (11/30/88)
Ever since I installed the 1.3 Epson driver I lost medium print (96 columns).
Inseated of the three print sizes in preferences corresponding to 80,96,132
they now correspond to 80,132,160. Oh well.
Chris
CJC105@psuvm (bitnet)daveb@cbmvax.UUCP (Dave Berezowski) (12/01/88)
In article <6403@netnews.upenn.edu> ranjit@eniac.seas.upenn.edu.UUCP (Ranjit Bhatnagar) writes: >I don't know that I want to call this a bug - perhaps it's just >a SIDE EFFECT. > >If you print the picture "Lady" from the Digipaint distribution >disk (it's a 320x400 HAM mode monochrome image) as a 3 inch wide >image, using halftone shading, under the EpsonX driver in 1.3, >then in densities 3, 5, and 6 (the ones which can not print >consecutive horizontal dots), her lips vanish. > >Really. All of the picture comes out beautifully except the >chin is washed out, and the lips vanish. My best guess is that >the restriction on horizontal dots causes a severe reduction in >contrast at the darker gray levels. Thus making these density >modes useless for most gray scale dumps as well as for fine detail. >Oh well. Someone from Commodore already mentioned that this limitation >probably won't be fixed in software because it's not Commodore's >problem. Besides, waiting for a six-pass screen dump to finish >would cause nervous breakdowns. > > - Ranjit > You've hit the nail on the head exactly! The printer device thinks that the printer has 240 dpi in the x direction and generates all the dots necessary to draw the picture. The printer unfortunately drops EVERY SECOND DOT, thus you see wierd things happen. That is why it is pointed out in the V1.3 enhancer manual that the printer cannot print two consecutive dots. The printer driver tells the printer device that the printer has 240 xdpi because the printer (as spec'd by the manf.) actually can place dots at 240 xdpi (just not consecutively). This is a limitation of the hardware in the printer and (in my opinion) a limitation in the romware inside the printer. Some printers (Nec specifically) actually account for this and automatically do a double pass to print the dots it missed on the first go round. Kudos to Nec for putting this kind of smarts in their firmware! David Berezowski
jwcote@blake.acs.washington.edu (Jim Cote) (12/01/88)
In article <63259CJC105@PSUVM> CJC105@PSUVM.BITNET writes: >Ever since I installed the 1.3 Epson driver I lost medium print (96 columns). >Inseated of the three print sizes in preferences corresponding to 80,96,132 >they now correspond to 80,132,160. Oh well. > > Chris > CJC105@psuvm (bitnet) I have also experienced the same sort of problem. I have a Citizen MSP-10 printer. With the EpsonX[CBM_MPS-1250] driver, I get a 0 printed whenever the printer is sent the initialization strings. Then I do get 80,96,136 chars per line, but of course this is unacceptable with a 0 printed on the page. If I switch to the EpsonXold driver, the printing of 0 goes away, but now I only get 80 and 136 columns of text (10 and 17 chars per inch). I have lost that 96 which is very helpful. Am I screwing up ? Is it difficult to write my own driver ? Certainly the Citizen MSP-10 is a popular printer. BTW, I'm using all 1.3 stuff and no non-CA shells, etc. Thanx. -- ===============Bleeding Meeechigan Maize and Blue Blood=============== jwcote@blake.acs.washington.edu Univ. of Washington, Seattle Electrical Engineering Jim Cote, 13341 15th Ave NE #E301, Seattle, WA 98125 (206) 367-1082
daveb@cbmvax.UUCP (Dave Berezowski) (12/02/88)
In article <63259CJC105@PSUVM> CJC105@PSUVM.BITNET writes: >Ever since I installed the 1.3 Epson driver I lost medium print (96 columns). >Inseated of the three print sizes in preferences corresponding to 80,96,132 >they now correspond to 80,132,160. Oh well. > What printer and printer driver are you using? I just took a look at the codes that I send out to the printer when Pica, Elite, and Fine are selected. The codes do select 10 cpi (80 cols), 12 cpi (96 cols), and 17 cpi (133 cols) respectively. This is true for both the EpsonX (8/9 pin) and EpsonQ (24 pin) drviers. Are you using the official V1.3 release or some early gamma copy?
daveb@cbmvax.UUCP (Dave Berezowski) (12/03/88)
In article <315@blake.acs.washington.edu> jwcote@blake.acs.washington.edu (Jim Cote) writes: >In article <63259CJC105@PSUVM> CJC105@PSUVM.BITNET writes: >>Ever since I installed the 1.3 Epson driver I lost medium print (96 columns). >>Inseated of the three print sizes in preferences corresponding to 80,96,132 >>they now correspond to 80,132,160. Oh well. >> >> Chris >> CJC105@psuvm (bitnet) > >I have also experienced the same sort of problem. I have a Citizen MSP-10 >printer. With the EpsonX[CBM_MPS-1250] driver, I get a 0 printed whenever >the printer is sent the initialization strings. Then I do get 80,96,136 chars >per line, but of course this is unacceptable with a 0 printed on the >page. If I switch to the EpsonXold driver, the printing of 0 goes away, >but now I only get 80 and 136 columns of text (10 and 17 chars per inch). >I have lost that 96 which is very helpful. Am I screwing up ? Is it difficult >to write my own driver ? Certainly the Citizen MSP-10 is a popular printer. >BTW, I'm using all 1.3 stuff and no non-CA shells, etc. Thanx. Ok, now I know what is going on here. The Citizen_MSP-10 must not be fully EpsonX compatible (ie. it doesn't respond to at least one of the common commands). The EpsonXOld driver was developed for just that reason. The EpsonXOld driver sends only the absolute minimum EpsonX command sequences (ie. the ones that work on ALL Epson printers old and new). Believe it or not, the elite command (12 cpi) is NOT supported by some very old Epson printers and that is why you cannot select 96 character mode. The only solution would be to have YAEXD (Yet Another EpsonX Driver) called 'EpsonXYoung' (just kidding, really). Actually, you may be able to get away with using the PD printer driver generator (called PrtDrvGen ?) which can be used to modify an existing driver. Hope that clears things up. David
hugh@censor.UUCP (Hugh Gamble) (12/03/88)
In article <315@blake.acs.washington.edu>, jwcote@blake.acs.washington.edu (Jim Cote) writes: ... > I have also experienced the same sort of problem. I have a Citizen MSP-10 > printer. With the EpsonX[CBM_MPS-1250] driver, I get a 0 printed whenever > the printer is sent the initialization strings. Then I do get 80,96,136 chars ... > -- > ===============Bleeding Meeechigan Maize and Blue Blood=============== > jwcote@blake.acs.washington.edu > Univ. of Washington, Seattle Electrical Engineering > Jim Cote, 13341 15th Ave NE #E301, Seattle, WA 98125 (206) 367-1082 I have an Epson RX-80 and it has the same problem with the new driver. I too switched to EpsonXold. Anyone know what the spurious "0" is supposed to be part of, i.e. what control sequence? -- | Hugh D. Gamble (416) 581-4354 {lsuc, utzoo}!censor!hugh (Std. Disclaimers) | I can push any computer to its limits. | Any computer can push me to *my* limits.
mikes@lakesys.UUCP (Mike Shawaluk) (12/15/88)
In article <153@censor.UUCP> hugh@censor.UUCP (Hugh Gamble) writes: >I have an Epson RX-80 and it has the same problem with the new driver. >I too switched to EpsonXold. Anyone know what the spurious "0" is >supposed to be part of, i.e. what control sequence? >-- >| Hugh D. Gamble (416) 581-4354 {lsuc, utzoo}!censor!hugh (Std. Disclaimers) I believe it's part of the "set left & right margins" commands, which the FX-series has, but the older MX (which I used to have) doesn't. I used to get a "P", which is the ASCII code for 80 (decimal). If you want to find out what's going on, though, try putting your printer in its hex dump mode (if it has one) and examining the output, or, better yet, use the CMD4 program to capture printer output to a file, and "type hex" (or "type opt h" for us old-timers) to see what you have. -- - Mike Shawaluk ...!uunet!marque!lakesys!mikes