tim@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Maroney) (12/01/90)
I sent this to MacDTS via AppleLink a week ago. So far I have not even gotten the usual acknowledgment of message receipt. I thought I would bounce it off the good people here instead. Source: Q Stack Subject: Printing Seed: no Priority: Important Q Stack, Version 1.0 The Problem -- The general category: Printing Our Product: (confidential information removed for USENET posting) The Problem: I need to send large amounts (megabytes) of PostScript image data to a LaserWriter using the high-level Printing Manager interface, from MacApp (overriding TStdPrintHandler.DrawPageInterior). What is the best way to do this? Efforts to resolve the problem: I did it at first using the PostScriptFile comment; this worked wonderfully, but it turned out not to be supported in background mode, and so to be useless. Then I tried successive calls to the PostScriptHandle comment with large (~16K) handles. Also worked wonderfully in foreground printing mode, but in bkgnd mode, it appears you have to put the comments into real PICT handles (rather than just calling PicComment in the printing GrafPort context). Not only is it impossible to have a multi-megabyte PICT handle, but any drawing into a picture while printing to a LaserWriter appears to cause serious problems. I tried using multiple pictures, one for each data buffer, but it seems to crash if PostScriptHandle is not framed by PostScriptBegin/PostScriptEnd in each picture, and that would cause "psb" and "pse" commands to break up my hexadecimal image data. Sources Consulted: Inside Macintosh II, Ch. 5; IM V, Ch. 22; Tech Notes 72, 73, 91, 122, 123, 183, 192; an old Inside Laserwriter I happened to have; LaserWriter Reference Manual. The Priority for us -- Important System configuration -- CPU: Machine type: Macintosh IIfx, System version: 6.0.5, Processor: Motorola 68030, Has FPU?: true, Has CQD?: true, Keyboard: Apple Extended keyboard, Appletalk version: 54, System Folder WDRefNum: -32541 Total Ram: 8MB Video: 2 monitor(s) Slot 4,640 x 480,256 Colors Slot 1,640 x 480,direct RGB Printer(s): Laserwriters, QMS ColorScript Platform: THINK Pascal 3.0.1, MPW Pascal 3.1, MPW C 3.1, MacApp Inits: INITPicker 2.0, 8%24 GC, ADSP, Apple CD-ROM, AppleShare, Boomerang, CEToolbox, DA menuz, DiskLight, Flowfazer*, Foreign File Access, IconWrap 1.2, INIT Mr. Bus Error, Programmer's Key, QM Menu*, QuickINIT, Responder, Shiva Config, Suitcase* II, SuperClock!, TOPS TCP/IP, W Disinfectant INIT, Who we are -- Tim Maroney Electronics for Imaging, Inc. Research and Development 950 Elm Avenue San Bruno, California, USA, 94066 Programmer info -- Programming field and competence level: Apple II: None Macintosh: Expert General: Expert Contact Info -- AppleLink Address: D3861 Phone: (415) 742-3400 Extension: 424 Fax Number: (415) 742-0251 -- Tim Maroney, Mac Software Consultant, sun!hoptoad!tim, tim@toad.com The fact is self-evident from the text and requires no supporting argument.