From: bt@irfu.se (Bo Thide')
Subject: v0.8 of dvi2pcl now available for ftp.
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 19:07:16 GMT
Organization: Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Uppsala, Sweden


Version 0.8 of the DVI to HP PCL printer driver 'dvi2pcl' is now available
for anonymous ftp from

Name:    hybrid.irfu.se
Address:  130.238.30.23

This release fixes a bug wich showed up for largish jobs (> 50 pages)
with many soft fonts downloaded so that, in addition, graphics raster
fonts were being used.  If a pcl string was read via \special and that
string changed the printer resolution, the graphics raster glyphs were
printed with the latter, incorrect resolution.

Binary downloading of font and char descriptors is now done explicitly
value by value in order to avoid any struct alignment problems.  This
should improve portability to different architectures and may solve the
problems reported by some users running SGI and PC/386 with non-gcc
compilers.

Note that the '-o' option has changed.  The file extent '.pcl' is no
longer attached to the output bitfile name.  This is to simplify
printing to the bit bucket ('-o /dev/null') for testing purposes.  Also,
since 'dvi2plc' can write directly to standard output, there is usually
no need to save the bitfile but rather one should pipe the output
directly to the printer spooler ('dvi2pcl <file>.dvi | lp -or
-d<dest>').

Version 0.8 adds support for color text for PaintJet printers via the
command:

  \special{pjxl:<color>}

where <color> is either 'black', 'red', 'green', 'yellow', 'blue',
'magenta', 'cyan', or 'white'.  With the new 'pjxl.sty' style file, text
color may be changed by using shorthand commands:  '\black', '\red',
'\green', etc.

For PaintJet printers, 'dvi2pcl' only works acceptable with downloaded
soft fonts (not raster graphics ones) so printing on the PaintJet, which
cannot handle soft font downloading, or on the PaintJet XL with raster
fonts does not work yet.  The number of fonts downloaded to the PaintJet
XL must not exceed 28 (= the hardware limit).  Ordinary raster graphics
pictures are printed OK.  Rules are not printed on PaintJet XL since
the PJXL has no hardware support for this.

Version 0.8 adds rudimentary support for device selection via the '-d'
option ('-j' obsoleted, for compatibility with the 'lp' spooler).
Printers supported via '-d' are:  "lj+" (HP LaserJet+), "lj2" (HP
LaserJet II), "lj2d" (HP LaserJet IID),"lj2p" (HP LaserJet IIP),"lj3si"
(HP LaserJet IIISi), "lj3p" (HP LaserJet IIIP),"pj" (HP PaintJet), and
"pjxl" (HP PaintJet).  In fact, only "lj+" has any effect.  This flag
overcomes certain hardware limitations (missing transparency mode) in
the LaserJet+.  It is the user's responsibility to add the '-f <nnn>'
flag to limit the number of soft fonts for the particular printer used.

The man page has been updated to reflect changes and corrections ('-d',
'-o', '-r', and '-R' options; '\special' command 'pjxl:')

This release is the last alpha release.  The next release, v0.9 will be
the first beta release and will have the (now quite ugly) code cleaned
up and shortened considerably.  New functionality (support for
PostScript graphics in PCL via ghostscript, virtual fonts, and permanent
font downloading for faster printing) is planned for v0.9.

Please report successes and problems for your specific hardware/compiler
combination.

Uppsala 23 Nov 1992

---
   ^   Bo Thide'--------------------------------------------------------------
  |I|        Swedish Institute of Space Physics, S-755 91 Uppsala, Sweden
  |R|    Phone: (+46) 18-303671.  Fax: (+46) 18-403100.  IP: 130.238.30.23
 /|F|\          INTERNET: bt@irfu.se      UUCP: ...!mcvax!sunic!irfu!bt  
 ~~U~~ ----------------------------------------------------------------sm5dfw-
-- 
   ^   Bo Thide'----------------------------------------------Science Director
  |I|        Swedish Institute of Space Physics, S-755 91 Uppsala, Sweden
  |R|    Phone: (+46) 18-303671.  Fax: (+46) 18-403100.  IP: 130.238.30.23
 /|F|\          INTERNET: bt@irfu.se      UUCP: ...!mcvax!sunic!irfu!bt  
 ~~U~~ ----------------------------------------------------------------sm5dfw-