Polaroid BLL Generator User's Manual
Contents
1. BLL Generator Driver Client PC BLL files via network diskettes etc Dropbox Get file Film Recorder WinRascol32 Slides Image Data Ada file Get file Server PC gt NOTE The dropbox directory can be located on a network server or on the server PC 30 Principle of Operation Important Concepts This section explains resolution color fidelity and the differences between bitmaps and objects Resolution Resolution can be defined in many ways Dots per inch DPI is a common definition but an impractical one for slides and overhead transparencies because the DPI changes significantly when the image is projected The most practical definition of resolution is the total number of dots or pixels in the image The following table compares the image resolution of several graphics output devices Device Dots Image Resolution approx DPI VGA screen 640 by 480 307 200 58 on 17 CRT Most laser printers 2400 by 3276 7 862 400 300 All LFR film recorders 4096 by 2731 11 186 176 2790 on 35mm film LFR Mark Ill Mark V 8192 by 5461 44 736 512 5945 on 35mm film LFR Mark VI 16384 by 13438 220 168 192 11890 on 35mm film Images produced by the LFR Mark VI contain over 716 times more dots than images on a VGA screen Important Concepts 31 When discussing film recorder resolution the terms 2000 line slide 4000 line slide and 8000 line slide are commonly used2. m Raster Options Compression gt redu Best fit Fill frame A Rotation none CI Enable Interpolation Scaling 2R 400 5 Scale fact J100 g gt r Exposure Speed ew efault Fastest a acond Dead Timed Iw Change No anti aliasing X r Background Color ic Alias Compression selects a compression type for the BLL Medium compression optimizes for speed while high compression optimizes for file size Use high compression when you want to send BLLs to a service provider using removable media or the Internet Scale scales your image The range is 25 to 400 Note that scaling your image may result in non optimal use of film Minimum Exposure Time is used to lengthen the imaging time in rare cases of slice marking Using the Windows 95 98 Driver 45 e Background Color selects the color that is used to paint the background This color is used in cases where the application does not specify a background color and when the aspect ratio of the paper selected in the application doesn t match the aspect ratio of the film The options Aspect Ratio Raster Options and AntiAlias don t apply for non raster operations 46 Reference Changing the Default Printer Settings in Windows 95 98 The document default printer settings are used automatically when an application initializes the printer settings of a document usually when a docume
3. crop To trim an image prior to output DPI Dots per inch Commonly used to specify printer resolution DPM Digital Photography Model A film recorder model that is customized for digital photography Dropbox A shared directory where network users can put image files A dropbox directory is scanned by WinRascol periodically for image files to process Dropboxes make film recorder sharing very easy font Atypeface HPGL A popular computer aided design drawing format on PCs jaggies Within an image steps along the edge of a shape that should be smooth Jaggies are reduced by increasing resolution and or antialiasing landscape An output orientation where the width is greater than the height Also known as horizontal or wide format Compare to portrait Glossary 67 Lasergraphics Language A powerful graphics language that is common in the mainframe and minicomputer environments Lasergraphics Film Calibration file A file that provides calibration data of a film type for a specific LFR model Therefore the LFC file of 35mm Vericolor for LFR Mark Ill is different from the one for LFR Mark III Digital Photography Model LFC file See Lasergraphics Film Calibration file LFR Lasergraphics Film Recorder Refers to a family of film recorders including the LFR LFR PLUS Personal LFR Personal LFR PLUS LFR X LFR Mark Il and LFR Mark III and the Digital Photography Models Mark II DPM Mark Ill DPM Mark V DPM and Mark VI DPM LL An abbrevia
4. e s i ee ee ee ee ee ex qos e ee ee oe For Help press F1 Feel free to format the text any way you like 22 Printing your first Image Now open the Wordpad print dialog by selecting Print from the File menu Print r Printer Name Status Type Where Comment LFR Mark Ill DPM BLL Ready LFR Mark IIl DPM BLL BLL Print to file Properties r Print range All Pages from 1 to Selection Copies Number of copies EH Cancel Select the BLL Generator in the Name field gt Note You should never check the Print to file check box Printing your first Image 23 Now select Properties This will open a dialog that allows you to set film recorder print settings Set job options x Misc image options HPGL and line options Film and resolution Color balance and gamma correction nil 35mm Ektachrome Electronic Output Fi r Resolution Copies Fast 2000 line E Fine 4000 lines Extra fine 8000 lines Ultra fine 16000 lines Default Paper settings Landscape m tt sail Portrait m e5 xH fii 9 Inches mm Copyright 1992 1998 Lasergraphics Inc Irvine CA All rights reserved V4 1 This is the Windows 95 film recorder settings dialog The Windows NT dialog is shown in Printer Settings in Windows NTJ on page 48 e
5. Digital Photography Model 38 Reference Background Color Background Color specifies the background color of the image This setting is ignored if the application explicitly sets the background color in the image Use Background Color to set the color of unpainted regions to white for text applications like Word Otherwise you might end up with black text on black background Scaling Scaling controls how the image is scaled for output 100 keeps the image size unchanged To shrink the image set the value to less than 100 To expand the image set the value to greater than 100 The range of valid scaling values is 20 to 400 Minimum Exposure Time This setting applies mostly to very old film recorders that have no internal slice mark control mechanisms Minimum Exposure Time controls the exposure time of the film recorder to eliminate slice marks periodic faint horizontal lines on the output Normally Fastest Possible should be selected If there are slice marks on the output slide set the minimum exposure time to 1 5 times the normal processing time of the image If slice marks are still there increase the value and try again Color Balance Color balance controls the percentages of red green and blue used in the film recorder Normally each of the three colors is set to 100 The range of valid color balance values is 25 to 400 Printer Settings 39 Contrast Gamma Contrast Gamma allows for very fine contrast adjustme
6. Medium compression optimizes for speed while high compression optimizes for file size Use high compression when you want to send BLLs to a service provider using removable media or the Internet Storing Changed Settings Press OK to store changed settings Cancel will undo all changes Using the Windows NT Driver 51 Changing the Default Printer Settings in Windows NT The default document settings are used automatically when an application initializes the printer settings of a document usually when a document is created and when the selected printer is changed By setting the document defaults to the settings you normally use you can make your life easier You can find the default document settings by Selecting Start gt Settings gt Printers right clicking on the film recorder selecting Document Defaults The default document settings dialog is the same as the printer settings dialog described in Printer settings in Windows NTT on pace E Please see Printer Settings on page B5 tor details on individual settings 52 Heference Managing BLL Generators Open the BLL management dialog by selecting Start gt WinRascol32 gt BLLConf and pressing Add Manage BLL Generators The dialog looks like this This is the dialog BLL generator administration X Change path Delete generator Done a Adding a BLL Generator e Select Add generator The following dialog is displayed Film recorder ty
7. a text editor such as EDIT COM from MS DOS or NotePad from Windows to add the following lines to the end of the ALDUS INI file your_Windows BLL Generator printer name NoPatternOnlySolidFill 0 ROPtype 0 StretchImage 0 Specific Applications 61 where your_Windows BLL Generator_printer_name is the name of the Windows BLL Generator printer as shown in the Installed Printer List of the Control Panel For example if you have an LFR the lines you should add are LFR NoPatternOnlySolidFill 0 ROPtype 0 StretchImage 0 If you have a Personal LFR the lines you should add are Personal LFR NoPatternOnlySolidFill 0 ROPt ype 0 StretchImage 0 After you have changed the ALDUS INI file restart Windows gt CAUTION Please make sure the lines you are adding follow exactly the format described here A spelling mistake or an extra space may cause Persuasion to ignore these lines with no warning PhotoStyler You must check the Halftone by Printer box in PhotoStyler s Page Setup window Otherwise PhotoStyler will limit the bitmaps to 16 colors when printing to Windows BLL Generator Driver If you choose Scale to Fit in the PhotoStyler s Print window PhotoStyler will resample bitmaps to the film recorder s resolution instead of letting Windows BLL Generator do the work This will make Windows BLL Generator print job files very large and make the processing very slow Word Write These applications assume a white background
8. fonts produce smooth text at any size and match text layout in your output with your image on screen In ATM Control Panel make sure the Print ATM fonts as graphics option is checked otherwise very large ATM text may be missing in your output Arts amp Letters The long names of Windows BLL Generator devices may cause problems with Arts amp Letters To get around the problems you can shorten the Windows BLL Generator device names 1 Open Start gt Settings gt Printers 2 Select the Windows BLL Generator printer 3 Use File gt Rename to shorten the name of the printer Corel Draw In order to get a realistic preview of the document be sure that the color selected as the Paper Color in CorelDRAW s Page Setup window matches with the Background Color in Windows BLL Generator Driver s setup window For example when printing to the film recorder Windows BLL Generator s default background color is black Set Paper Color in CorelDRAW s Page Setup window to black so that the preview of the image in CorelDRAW will be correct If you are using CorelDRAW 3 00 Rev B or later adding the following entry to the CDrawConfig section of the CORELDRW INI file will significantly improve the printing times of certain images UseClippingForFills 0 In the Print window of CorelDRAW make sure the Print to File box is not checked Corel Draw 7 When using gradient fills in Corel Draw 7 make sure to select the highest number of steps at every
9. for providing incredibly useful code Acknowledgements 3 Contents Contents 5 6 Contents Contents 7 lossar 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 e Any IBM PC compatible machine with a 486 processor or better Pentium or better recommended e 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 high resolution 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 e Microsoft Windows 95 Windows 98 Win
10. the image orientation Output Size selects the paper format to use This should match the paper format selected in your application You will generally get best results with the default Standard Slide You can also select a user defined paper size NOTE Make sure to match the paper size and orientation settings of the printer driver with those of your application Some applications will ignore paper dimensions returned by the printer driver Paper size and orientation mismatches can lead to badly sized images e Film selects the film to use Using the Windows 95 98 Driver 43 Color balance and gamma correction Set job options x Misc image options HPGL and line options Film and resolution Color balance and gamma correction r Color Balance Brightness irs Red fi oo Green ho 1 Blue fi nn x n3 cn E pes e e E ajajaja LJL JL C a Ka ag a r Gamma Correction Gamma fo 500 4 E Lx Output Intensity e Color Balance controls the brightness of the three color channels Gamma Correction controls the gamma correction It is used to brighten or darken mid tones of an image without changing the very dark and very bright pixels 44 Reference Miscellaneous options Set job options x Film and resolution Color balance and gamma correction Misc image options HPGL and line options r Pixel Aspect Ratio In Pixel Height Pixel width
11. 28 Excel 34 Exposure Speed 50 Exposure Time 39 45 Film LFC based 38 Non LFC based 37 film transparencies 13 Film Type 37 43 Ektachrome 100 120 220 38 Ektachrome 100 4x5 38 Kodacolor 100 38 Lasergraphics Film Calibration files 38 Index 71 LFC files 38 Polachrome 37 Polaroid 339 37 Polaroid 669 37 Polaroid 691 37 Film Types 64 font ATM 33 60 Freelance 34 61 Freelance Graphics for Windows 61 Gamma 51 Contrast 44 Guided tour 21 Hardware Required 10 Harvard Graphics 34 Lasergraphics Film Calibration files 37 38 LFC files 37 38 LFR 13 Microsoft Word 62 objects 33 Orientation 36 43 49 Output Size 36 43 72 Index PageMaker 34 Paper Size 36 43 49 Persuasion 34 61 Photoshop 34 PhotoStyler 34 62 Polaroid prints 13 PowerPoint 34 Printer Driver 27 Windows 95 98 41 Windows NT 48 Printing From application 22 Reference 35 Resolution 35 42 49 defined 31 image resolution 13 Scaling 39 45 Server PC printing on 27 Settings 35 Default 47 52 Windows 95 98 41 Windows NT 48 Setup 18 slice marks 39 slide 2000 line 32 4000 line 32 8000 line 32 Specifications 63 text bitmap 33 object 33 Uninstalling WinRascol 57 What s new 12 Windows 3 1x 12 WinRascol About 13 Installation 17 Version 3 15 12 What s new 12 WinRascol Driver Lasergraphics Film Calibration files 38 LFC files 38 WinR
12. Select the film type you intend to use in Film Type e Select Standard Slide as the page size in Output Size e Select White as Background Color Wordpad assumes white background but doesn t fully paint it e Press OK 24 Printing your first Image e Now press OK in the Print dialog A BLL will be created in the directory you designated at installation time Printing your first Image 25 Viewing a BLL You can preview the BLL you just created by using Windows Explorer to locate the file in the directory you designated during installation and double clicking on it The BLL Viewer will show you the rastered file ac BLLViewer Docume03 bil Jof 8X O File View Window Help BEY Note that the printer driver has automatically rotated the image because the film recorder only images in landscape orientation 26 Printing your first Image Chapter 5 Principle of Operation This section explains how the Windows BLL Generator and WinRascol work together to produce film output Introduction WinRascol consists of two software components e WinRascol32 The queue and print manager It queues print jobs and sends them to the film recorder WinRascol32 is the same program on Windows 95 Windows 98 and Windows NT e WinRascol Printer Driver or Windows BLL Generator The printer driver is used when you invoke the Print command from within a Windows application Due to architectural differences between Win
13. The number of lines refers to the number of dots across the image Examples 2000 Line Slide 4000 Line Slide 8000 Line Slide 2 E E o o o o LO T y e eo e N N nti 2048 dots 4096 dots 8192 dots NOTE High end Lasergraphics film recorders can image up to 16384x13448 dots This is called 16000 line resolution Some camera backs have a different aspect ratio that enables the film recorder to output at higher vertical resolution like 4096x3362 This is still called 4000 line resolution Color Fidelity Color fidelity refers to the range of colors that can be reproduced in an image The range of colors that can be represented is defined by the number of bits per pixel used to store an image The more bits per pixel the greater the range of colors Windows BLL Generator supports 24 bits per pixel 8 for each of red green and blue This results in 256 shades of each primary color which can combine to form 16 7 million colors Each pixel in an image can be a different color 32 Principle of Operation Bitmaps and Objects Images can contain bitmaps objects or both Bitmaps consist of dots or pixels Objects consist of mathematical descriptions of a shape such as a polygon or line Applications that create bitmaps are often called paint programs and those that create objects are often called draw or illustration programs Both graphics and text can be bitmaps or objects Graphics At high resolution bitm
14. Windows BLL Generator User Guide MASERGRAPHICS E Windows BLL Generator User Guide V1 10 last modification January 26 1999 Copyright 1988 1998 Lasergraphics Inc All Rights Reserved 20 Ada Irvine California 92618 1 949 753 8282 Technical Support Department 1 949 753 8292 Monday through Friday 7 30 A M to 5 30 P M US Pacific Time Zone Lasergraphics BBS 949 727 9429 Internet http www lasergraphics com LFR LFR PLUS Personal LFR Personal LFR PLUS LFR X LFR Mark Il LFR Mark II Digital Photography Model LFR Mark IIl LFR Mark III Digital Photography Model LFR Mark V 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
15. and always print text in black So when printing to the film recorder you must explicitly select a white Background in Windows BLL Generator Driver s setup window Otherwise you will get black text printed on a black background 62 Tips and Tricks Appendix A Specifications Specifications are subject to change without notice Supported PCs Supported Output Devices Any IBM PC compatible with a 486 processor or better and at least 16 MB of memory Note that this represents the absolute minimum You will need more memory if you intend to use Windows NT or have graphics intensive images All film recorders in the Lasergraphics LFR family are supported Personal LFR Personal LFR PLUS LFR X LFR Mark II LFR Mark II Digital Photography Model DPM LFR Mark III LFR Mark III Digital Photography Model DPM LFR Mark V Digital Photography Model DPM LFR Mark VI Digital Photography Model DPM Specifications 63 Supported Operating Environment Image Enhancements Fonts Software Selectable Resolution Film Recorder Film Types 64 Specifications Windows 95 Windows 98 Windows NT 4 0 and Windows NT 5 0 Color balance Gamma contrast TrueType ATM Adobe Type Manager ver 1 5 or later 4000 lines 4096 x 2730 pixels 2000 lines 2048 x 1366 pixels On LFR Mark Ill LFR Mark III Digital Photography Model LFR Mark III Digital Photography Model and LFR Mark V Digital Photography model 8000 li
16. aps look the same if the film recorder resolution exceeds the resolution of the bitmap but objects get sharper You can usually tell bitmaps from objects by watching how the image is created when it is first displayed on the screen Bitmaps are usually drawn on the screen from top to bottom in one chunk Objects are assembled in pieces Text Text can be a bitmap or an object just as graphics can Text that is part of a bitmapped graphic with lower than film recorder resolution remains jagged at high resolution However text that is an object can get sharper when output at high resolution Text created with ATM Adobe Type Manager or TrueType fonts is sharp at any size and resolution In addition ATM and TrueType fonts will look the same on screen as on the slides printed by WinRascol Important Concepts 33 Which Applications Create Bitmaps or Objects Most images contain either bitmaps or objects but some images can contain both Here are some of the more popular applications Bitmaps e Adobe Photoshop TM e Aldus PhotoStyler TM e Microsoft Paint e ZSoft Corp Publisher s Paintbrush Objects e Aldus PageMaker e Aldus Persuasion e Computer Support Corp Arts amp Letters e CorelDRAW amp e Harvard Draw e Harvard Graphics e Lotus Freelance Graphics e Micrografx Charisma TM e Micrografx8 Designer TM e Microsoft PowerPoint e Microsoft Excel Images from these applications may contain bitmaps that
17. ascol32 27 Installation 18 Word 62
18. been corrupted While you can reinstall Windows BLL Generator over a corrupted installation of Windows BLL Generator this is not recommended You do not need to uninstall Windows BLL Generator when e You want to install an update of Windows BLL Generator e You have used a Windows BLL Generator and now want to attach a film recorder directly e You have used a film recorder directly using WinRascol but want to install a BLL generator When to use the Uninstaller 57 How to use the Uninstaller You can uninstall the Windows BLL Generator package by selecting Uninstall in the WinRascol32 program group Uninstall will do the following Remove all Windows BLL Generator printer drivers Remove all Windows BLL Generator system drivers NT only Remove all Windows BLL Generator program and data files Remove all Windows BLL Generator related entries in the WIN INI Remove all Windows BLL Generator entries in program groups Startup and WinRascol32 NOTE It is best to run Uninstall after rebooting the computer and exiting all programs Some programs tend to leave printer drivers activated Uninstall will fail in this case 58 Uninstalling WinRascol Chapter 8 Tips and Tricks Tips and Tricks 59 This section gives tips and tricks on particular image types and applications Specific Applications Adobe Type Manager ATM Windows BLL Generator is fully compatible with Adobe Type Manager ATM fonts version 1 15 or newer These
19. 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 Halling Thomas Hofmeister Genie Jacobsen Dr J rgen Kr ger Bill Kruki J rg Kunz Klaus Norbert Laroche Beat Lechmann Wai Hung Lee Adrian Martin Bob McCormack Rod Miller Martin Muller 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
20. dows 95 98 and Windows NT there need to be separate printer drivers for each type of operating system There are several different ways to use WinRascol The user on a PC with a film recorder attached can print by e Printing directly from an application with the WinRascol Printer Driver or e Adding image files directly to the queue with WinRascol32 e The user on a PC without a film recorder can e Print from an application with the Windows BLL Generator to make BLL files or e Save images in one of the formats that WinRascol supports directly Introduction 27 BLLs and other image files should be placed into dropbox directories that are serviced automatically by a PC with WinRascol If dropbox directories are not accessible BLL and other image files can be copied to a disk and later added to WinRascol on the PC with a film recorder gt NOTE Image files in dropbox directories will be automatically deleted after they are printed 28 Principle of Operation Printing from Windows on a PC without Film Recorder Producing slides from Windows applications on a PC without film recorder is a simple four step process e Select a BLL generator Driver as the output device for the Windows application on the PC Create the images with the application e Print the images using the Print command from within the application on the client PC Introduction 29 Here is a diagram showing how this works Windows Application
21. dows NT 4 0 or Windows NT 5 0 operating system e 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 Microsoft Windows User s Guide before proceeding Screen illustrations in this guide are meant to be representative not necessarily exact duplicates of screens that appear on your display 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 e One package supports Windows 95 98 and Windows NT 4 0 5 0 e Simple installation e Same installation and interface on Windows NT and Windows 95 98 e Installation from hard drive or network e Long filenames supported e BLLs can be previewed e Anew high compression BLL format generates smaller BLLs gt Note Windows 3 1x is not supported by Windows BLL Generator Windows BLL Generator 3 15 is the last version to support Windows 3 1x gt Note LFR and LFR type film recorders are not supported in Windows BLL Generator WinRascol 4 0 will continue t
22. eproduces the full range of color visible to the human eye 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 Print command To print images the Windows BLL Generator you simply invoke the Print command from your Windows application Images will be sent from your application to Windows BLL Generator for processing 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 ourself a seasoned computer user please take the time to study the chapters beginning with Chapter 3 Software Installation on page 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 gt Programs gt WinRascol32 gt BLLConf and
23. es not to rasterize on The background color is also applied to areas that are not imaged by the application due to the fit of the form on the film Options are black and white Default is black Select White for text applications like Word that expect white paper Selecting Exposure Speed Select Exposure Speed in the upper window then choose a minimum exposure time in minutes This setting selects the minimum time for the exposure It is used to slow down the film recorder in rare cases of banding Default is 0 for maximum speed 50 Reference ie LFR Mark Ill DPM Document Properties 21x PoE Bile Document Options Resolution 4k m Film type 35mm Ektachrome Electronic Output I Background color Black E Exposure speed lt 0 minutes A Gamma correction 0 500 ef Color balance F Red 100 gt Green 100 gt gt r Change Paper Size Setting LFR 4x5 9 03x11in E LFR Persuasion 6 75x10 14in LFR Powerpoint 2 0 6 0x8 9in LFR Powerpoint 3 0 7 5x11 25in LFR Standard Slide 7 33x11in Selecting Gamma Correction Select Gamma Correction in the upper window then choose a gamma value between 0 144 and 7 Default is 0 500 Selecting Color Balance Select Red Green or Blue in the upper window then set a balance value between 25 and 400 Default is 100 for red green and blue Compression selects a compression type for the BLL
24. have been imported Both Deneba Canvas CorelDRAW M PowerPoint M Lotus Freelance 34 Principle of Operation Chapter 6 Reference This chapter provides detailed information about how to use Windows BLL Generator Printer Settings Many Windows BLL Generator components will let you modify a wide variety of imaging options This section explains these options in detail Later sections will explain where these options apply and how to access them Resolution Resolution controls the number of dots in the image according to the following table 35mm resolution 120 220 4x5 resolution Available on Exra 8k 8192x5461 8192x6719 Mark Ill and above Ultra 16k 16384x10923 16384x13438 Mark VI Printer Settings 35 Note that the time it takes to image a slide will increase with the resolution setting approximately as follows Pemeemum em po pe pre emi ee Os 0o FONS IRURE Relative resolution is the total number of pixels relative to a 4k slide Relative imaging time is the time it takes to image relative to a 4k slide on a theoretical basis Approximate imaging time is the time it minimally takes to image a slide in real life Orientation and Paper Size Orientation specifies whether the output should be in Landscape or Portrait mode Landscape Portrait Paper size determines the paper dimensions returned to the application gt NOTE Paper size does not correspond to the actual size of
25. le 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 Next Setup is now ready to install Windows BLL Generator Press Next to install now Setup will install all program files at this time Follow setup s instructions to insert additional disks if needed Press Finish to exit setup Setup may ask you to reboot your computer in rare cases The Windows BLL Generator program files are now installed 18 Software Installation Adding a BLL Generator Start BLLConf in Start gt WinRascol32 Select Add Manage BLL Generators This dialog will appear BLL generator administration x LFR Mark Ill DPM BLL Change path Delete generator Done e Select Add generator Adding a BLL generator 19 The following dialog is displayed Film recorder type LFRMakIIIDPM Serial number ej3000 Driver name LFR Mark IIl DPM BLL Destination directory DA0SRAXTEMPA Cancel OK e Select the destination film recorder type in Film recorder type e Enter the serial number of the target film recorder in the Serial number edit box e Windows BLL Generator will select a default name for you You can modify the name of the printer driver in the edit box Driver name e Select the destination directory into which the BLL files will be placed Windows BLL Generator will select the defaul
26. mmunication port for connecting to RISCRascol and Internal Rascol It can emulate the standard bi directional parallel LPT port to work with most third party printers raster See bitmap rasterization A time and memory consuming process for converting graphics objects into rasters for output resolution The total number of dots in an image Film recorder resolutions measured in lines represents the number of dots across the image 68 Glossary RISCRascol A Rascol model that offers dramatic speed increase for the Lasergraphics film recorders For complex images the RISCRascol is 15 times faster than the Rascol II IV server PC A PC connected to a film recorder The PC can run WinRascol Network Version to share the film recorder with other network users via dropboxes TARGA A popular bitmap file format for PCs TIFF A popular bitmap file format for PCs Glossary 69 Index 24 bit color 14 35mm prints 13 35mm slides 13 Adobe Type Manager 33 60 Application Printing from 22 applications draw 33 illustration 33 paint 33 Arts amp Letters 34 60 ATM 33 60 auto deletion 28 Background Color 39 50 Bitmap 33 BLL generator Add 53 Adding 19 Change path 54 Delete 54 Manage 53 Canvas 34 Charisma 34 Client Computers printing on 27 Color Background 39 50 fidelity 32 true color 14 Color Balance 39 44 51 Contrast Gamma 40 44 Copy count 49 CorelDRAW 34 60 Designer 34 dropbox
27. nes 8192 x 5461 pixels are available On the LFR Mark VI Digital Photography Model 16000 lines are available Ektachrome 100 color slides Kodacolor 100 color prints Other ISO 100 films Polachrome instant slides Polaroid 339 Print instant prints with optional Polaroid camera Polaroid 669 Print instant prints with optional Polaroid camera Polaroid 691 instant transparencies with optional Polaroid camera Ektachrome 100 4x5 transparencies with optional 4x5 camera Ektachrome 100 Color Reversal 120 220 film with optional 120 camera Lasergraphics Film Calibration LFC files currently 176 film type and film recorder combinations Output Problems 65 Glossary antialiasing Assigning pixels at the edges of objects a graduated gray scale of values This dramatically reduces the appearance of jaggies Binary Lasergraphics Language BLL A proprietary print job format bitmap A type of graphic composed of a rectangular group of colored dots Bitmaps have jagged edges when output at high resolution BLL An abbreviation for Binary Lasergraphics Language camera back A film recorder s camera client computer A computer without a film recorder Users on client computers can put image files in dropboxes so that the WinRascol server PC can pick up the image files and print them contrast Measures the range of shades between light and dark Black and white is high contrast whereas two similar shades of gray is low contrast
28. nt The range of valid gamma contrast values is 0 14 to 7 0 However values between 0 25 and 2 0 are usually more practical By adjusting the gamma contrast value you can change the midtones of the image without affecting the highlights As the gamma contrast value decreases output midtones become darker As the gamma contrast value increases output midtones become lighter The graph under the scroll bar for gamma contrast adjustment only available in some dialogs shows how input intensities are mapped to output intensities The horizontal axis represents input intensities which increase from left to right The vertical axis represents output intensities which increase from bottom to top 40 Reference Using the Windows 95 98 driver Printing a document or image to a film recorder from an application is just like printing to any ordinary printer This process will vary slightly from application to application but generally the Print command in the application s File menu will do the trick Printer settings in Windows 95 98 The printer driver allows changing a number of print settings Most of these settings don t need to be changed in many cases but you will always need to select the film type you want to use The Print dialog generally has a button that allows you to access the printer settings dialog Please see Printer Settings on page B5 tor details on individual settings Using the Windows 95 98 Driver 41 This is the p
29. nt is created and when the selected printer is changed By setting the document defaults to the settings you normally use you can simplify using the printer driver You can find the default document settings by Selecting Start gt Settings gt Printers right clicking on the film recorder selecting Properties gt Details gt Setup The default document settings an same as the printer settings dialog described in Printer Settings in Windows 95 98 on page Using the Windows 95 98 Driver 47 Using the Windows NT driver Printer settings in Windows NT Printing a document or image to a film recorder from an application is just like printing to any ordinary printer This process will vary slightly from application to application but generally the Print command in the application s File menu will do the trick The printer driver allows changing a number of print settings Most of these settings don t need to be changed in many cases but you will always need to select the film type you want to use The Print dialog generally has a button that allows you to access the printer settings dialog Please see Printer Settings on page B5 for details on individual settings 48 Reference The printer settings dialog looks like this Ej LFR Mark Ill DPM Document Properties fx Page Setup Advanced f Lasergraphics Mark Ill DPM Document Settings g IE Paper Output J Paper Size lt LFR S
30. o 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 quality presentation graphics right at your desk 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 wo Sy Ud 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 Mark VI has a maximum resolution of 16384 lines which produces sharp images with over 700 times the image resolution total number of dots in an image of a VGA screen 35mm resolution 120 220 4x5 resolution Available on Extra 8k 8192x5461 8192x6719 Mark Ill and above Ultra 16k 16384x10923 16384x13438 Mark VI Windows BLL Generator Features 13 True Color Windows BLL Generator supports 24 bit color which enables you to produce life like pictures with any 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 r
31. opportunity to avoid banding Especially in the dialog hidden under Print gt Options gt Options Also make sure to disable color management for composite print under Tools gt Color Manager This will prevent the very strange discoloration caused by the default profile 60 Tips and Tricks CorelDRAW 8 CorelDRAW 8 will generate erroneous output when you choose a value higher than 256 for the number of fountain steps in the miscellaneous printer options CorelDRAW 8 will even crash while printing gradient fills if the number is very high like 2000 Freelance Graphics for Windows Ver 1 0 If the text and or objects on your slides are printed with a different color than those on your screen do the following 1 Inthe Page Setup window of Freelance click on Color Map 2 Select Use Window s color map All bitmaps will appear in black and white when printed with Windows BLL Generator This problem is fixed in Freelance Graphics for Windows ver 2 0 Freelance Graphics 97 Freelance Graphics 97 has a bug that makes it preview and print in black and white to true color devices like Lasergraphics film recorders Please enable the Lotus Freelance Workaround outlined in Modifying Driver Options on page Bsli you experience this problem Persuasion To make Persuasion print faster to Windows BLL Generator you can modify the ALDUS INI file The ALDUS INI file is usually located in the USENGLSH subdirectory under your ALDUS directory Use
32. pe LFRMakIIIDPM f Serial number 330500 5 Driver name LFR Mark Ill DPM BLL Destination directory DA0SRAXTEMPA Cancel OK e Select the destination film recorder type in Film recorder type e Enter the serial number of your film recorder in the Serial number edit box e You can modify the name of the printer driver in the edit box Driver name Windows BLL Generator will select a default name for you e Select the Destination directory in 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 Managing BLL Generators 53 e Press OK to create the BLL driver The BLL driver will now appear in the BLL generator Administration dialog Changing Destination Path Select Change Path in the BLL generator administration dialog A dialog will appear to allow you to change the destination path The destination path points to the directory in which generated BLLs are placed Deleting a BLL Generator Select a BLL driver in the BLL generator Administration dialog by clicking on it Press Delete generator The BLL generator will be deleted 54 Reference Modifying Driver Options Open the Global driver settings dialog by selecting Start gt WinRascol32 gt BLLConf and pressing Configure Drivers The dialog looks like this Global d
33. rinter settings dialog in Windows 95 Set job options x Misc image options HPGL and line options Film and resolution Color balance and gamma correction Film 35mm Ektachrome Electronic Output Film v1 r Resolution Copies Fast 2000 line El Fine 4000 lines Extra fine 8000 lines Ultra fine 16000 lines Default Landscape Portrait Ww 7 33 xH i 9 Inches mm rm Paper settings Standard Slide Copyright 1992 1998 Lasergraphics Ine Irvine CA All rights reserved V4 1 Cancel Apply e Choose the desired resolution in the Resolution box Note that not all film recorders and film types support all resolutions Up to four different resolutions are available e 2k Fastest selection up to 2048 x 1680 pixels e 4k Fine resolution up to 4096 x 3360 pixels e 8k Extra fine resolution up to 8192 x 6719 pixels e 16k Ultra fine resolution up to 16384 x 13438 pixels Note that the higher the resolution the longer it will take to print the image on the film recorder As a rule of thumb 2k images will take at least 30 seconds 4k images will take at least 40 seconds 8k images will take at least 150 seconds and 16k images will take at least 600 seconds The exact times will vary with the complexity of the image the speed of the interface the film type and the type of film recorder used 42 Heference Orientation selects
34. river settings x m Disk space usage Minimum free MB f Cancel Enter 0 to disable r Miscellaneous MV Enable Power Smoothing Technology TM Status Info Enable Lotus Freelance Workaround Disk space usage sets the amount of free disk space the driver leaves minimally before reporting Disk Full e Enable Power Smoothing Technology This option enables a post processing feature that attempts to correct a gradient fill problem of PowerPoint 97 Gradient fills printed from PowerPoint 97 have very coarse steps and exhibit visible banding on high quality film recorders This option interpolates between bands to ease the effect Enable Lotus Freelance Workaround This switch enables a workaround for a bug in Lotus Freelance 97 Freelance 97 will preview and print in black and white on true color printers Enabling this switch hides the fact that Lasergraphics film recorders are true color devices from applications gt Note Enabling this switch may affect printing from other applications adversely Note Lotus will try to fix this problem in future releases Managing BLL Generators 55 Chapter 7 Uninstalling When to use the Uninstaller The uninstaller is used to remove all components of the Windows BLL Generator from your computer You will want to do this when e You do not intend to use Windows BLL Generator on your computer any longer e The Windows BLL Generator installation has
35. 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 gt 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 installation and running BLLConf 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 Start on the Windows tool bar then select Run If you are using installation disks enter a setup in the run dialog box as follows Run HEI Type the name of a program folder document or Internet resource and Windows will open it for you Open s setud Cancel Browse If you ve downloaded the Windows BLL Generator or have received it from another source use the Browse button to point to it Press OK Setup now prepares the installation Press Next after reading the introductory screen Press Next after reading the readme fi
36. t 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 BLL generator Administration dialog Press Done to exit gt NOTE For technical reasons the new BLL generator will show LPT1 to be the selected output port on Windows 95 98 until your computer is rebooted After reboot the new generator will show BLL This affects appearances only it does not impact operation of the BLL generator in any way 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 find it in Start gt Programs gt Accessories gt Wordpad Punch in a few letters Wordpad should look like this now I Document WordPad I1 Ej File Edit View Insert Format Help Dor ta SR a xele amp Staccato222 BT Wester 48 B7 v
37. tandard Slide 7 33x11in gt Orientation lt Landscape gt pod 5 Copy Count 1 Copy ed Document Options Hoe E Resolution lt 4k gt be A Film type 35mm Ektachrome Electronic Output I i E Background color Black m dE Exposure speed lt 0 minutes rm Change Paper Size Setting LFR 4x5 9 03x11in LFR Persuasion amp 75x10 14in LFR Powerpoint 2 0 6 0 8 9in E LFR Powerpoint 3 0 7 5x11 25in Bi LFR Standard Slide 7 33x11in e Selecting Paper Size Select Paper Size in the upper window then choose a form in the lower window Default is LFR Standard Slide 7 33x11in Selecting Orientation Select Orientation in the upper window then choose Portrait or Landscape in the lower window The driver will rotate the rasterized image to fit the form on the film using as much film as possible Default is Portrait Selecting Copy Count Select Copy Count in the upper window then choose the number of copies in the lower window Default is 1 Selecting Resolution Select Resolution in the upper window then choose 2k 4k 8k or 16k in the lower window Note that not all film recorders support all resolutions Default is 4k Using the Windows NT Driver 49 Selecting Background Color Select Background Color in the upper window then choose black or white The background color determines the color imaged on film for areas that the application decid
38. the film NOTE Make sure to match the paper size and orientation settings of the printer driver with those of your application Some applications will ignore paper dimensions returned by the rinter driver Paper size and orientation mismatches can lead to badly sized images 36 Reference Film Type Film Type specifies the type of film in the camera back connected to the film recorder Windows BLL Generator supports two types of film LFC based and non LFC based LFC based film choices rely on so called LFC files that reside in the LGDATA LFC directory These LFC files contain transfer functions for specific film film recorder combinations The transfer functions of non LFC based films have been pre programmed into the film recorders gt NOTE Choose LFC based films over non LFC based films when possible Non LFC based Film Types Use Ektachrome 100 35mm with e 35mm camera back e SO daylight balanced slide film such as Ektachrome 100 Fujichrome 100 or Agfachrome 100 e All film recorders except the Digital Photography Models Use Polachrome with e 35mm camera back e Polachrome instant 35mm slide film You process the slides yourself using the Polaroid 35mm Autoprocess System Polachrome slides are only draft quality but are useful if time or confidentiality is important e All film recorders Use Polaroid 339 with e Polaroid camera back e Polaroid Instant Print film which produces 4 x 3 instant prints It is con
39. tion for Lasergraphics Language object Atype of graphic composed of graphic primitives e g circles lines polygons etc The graphic primitives are represented by their mathematical coordinates Objects reproduce well at high resolution output To create an image on a film recorder pixel An acronym for picture element A pixel is a single dot on your monitor or output device portrait An output orientation where the height is greater than the width Also known as vertical or tall format Compare to landscape printer driver Software that knows how to communicate with a printer device queue A directory on your hard disk for storing temporary Windows BLL Generator print job files Rascol Refers to a family of high speed Lasergraphics image processors Instead of burdening the PC WinRascol lets the Rascol perform the time and memory consuming task of rasterization This way you can continue to do work on your PC while the Rascol is busy rasterizing The Rascols also control the Lasergraphics film recorders These days PCs have become so fast that they usually rasterizer faster than Rascol devices Rascol ll A Rascol model that plugs into your PC and acts as a fully independent co processor that performs rasterization and controls the film recorder Rascol IV A Rascol model that plugs into your PS 2 and acts as a fully independent co processor that performs rasterization and controls the film recorder RascolPort A high performance co
40. venient for making test prints and single print images e All film recorders except the Personal LFR and the Personal LFR PLUS Use Polaroid 669 with e Polaroid camera back e Polaroid Instant Pack film which produces 3 3 4 x 2 7 8 instant transparencies e All film recorders except the Personal LFR and the Personal LFR PLUS Use Polaroid 691 with e Polaroid camera back Printer Settings 37 e Polaroid 691 Overhead Transparency film which produces 3 3 4 x 2 7 8 instant transparencies e All film recorders except the Personal LFR and the Personal LFR PLUS Use Kodacolor 100 with e 35mm camera back e ISO daylight balanced print film e All film recorders except Digital Photography Models Use Ektachrome 100 4x5 with e 4x5 camera back e Ektachrome 100 4x5 film e All film recorders except the Personal LFR Personal LFR PLUS LFR X and the Digital Photography Models Use Ektachrome 100 120 220 with e 120 or 220 camera back e Ektachrome 100 film e LFR Mark Il and LFR Mark III standard film recorders only LFC based Film Types In addition Windows BLL Generator supports Lasergraphics Film Calibration LFC files These LFCs support a variety of film types such as Kodak Gold 100 Plus Vericolor Ill etc Each Lasergraphics Film Calibration file provides calibration data for one film on one specific film recorder model For example the 35mm Vericolor IIl LFC file for LFR Mark III will be different from the one for LFR Mark III
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