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Dear All,
I have created a set of commands that can output text and graphics to printing devices. I am releasing a beta version to help me to identify any issues that may arise. This libray is not available for general release yet. Please visit my web site to get the latest download.

http://www.zogtrog.plus.com/darkink/

I am not going to able to reply to any queries though until tuesday morning at the earliest. The documentation is all online at the moment. If you have any critisms ( especially ) or suggestions, please could you email me trial@zogtrog.plus.com. This would be appreciated as these mail messages get echoed all around the world
and stored forever.

http://www.zogtrog.plus.com/darkink/

Thanks,


Jack Taylor

Here are some more details of what my plug-in is capable of

Dark ink can print text, bitmaps and images, lines,

rectangles and ellipses. You can output pretty much anything you like to the printer. I have created a BETA trial release as it is

impossible for me to test it againt all the computer/ printer combinations that exist. I have tested it with an epson c64 printer

and microsofts XPS document writer under windows 64 bit version of windows. The plug-in is fully documented and can be downloaded

from my web site.

http://www.zogtrog.plus.com/darkink/

http://www.zogtrog.plus.com/darkink/

The following commands have been implemented


TEXT COMMANDS

CENTER LTEXT - draws centreted text at coords x,y
LPRINT - prints a string to the printer
LPRINTNL - as ltext but advances a new line
LTEXT - outputs text at coords x,y
GET PTEXT HEIGHT - gets the height of a piece of text
GET PTEXT WIDTH - gets the width of a piece of text
PRINTER INK - sets printer (fore & back)ground colours
SET PTEXT OPAQUE - makes text have an opaque background
SET PTEXT TRANSPARENT - makes text have a transparent back ground
SET PTEXT SIZE - sets the size of the printed text
SET PTEXT TO BOLD - printer text style bold
SET PTEXT TO ITALIC - printer text style italic
SET PTEXT TO BOLDITALIC - printer text style bold & italic
SET PTEXT FONT - sets the font for the printer
SET PTEXT TO NORMAL - sets text style to normal

GRAPHICS COMMANDS

PLOT BITMAP IN MEMORY BLOCK - draws a bitmap or image to printer
PLOT CIRCLE - draws a circle on the printer
PLOT DOT - plots a dot
PLOT LINE - draws a line
PLOT BOX - draws a rectangle on the printer
PLOT ELLIPSE - draws an ellipse on the printer

CONTROL COMMANDS

DISPLAY PRINTER SETUP DIALOG - display the printer setup dialog
GET PRINTER COUNT - counts the printers
GET PRINT CURSOR X - gets the x cursor
GET PRINT CURSOR Y - gets the y cursor
GET LINE SPACING - set line spacing using the current
GET PAGE COUNT - counts the number of pages in the print job
GET PRINTER NAME - returns the current printers name
GET PRINTER ORIENTATION - get page orientation
GET PRINTER PAGE HEIGHT - returns page height
GET PRINTER PAGE WIDTH - gets the page width

SET LINE SPACING - sets line spacing based on current font
SET PRINTER CURSOR - positions the print cursor
SET PRINTER INDEX - sets the current printer
SET PRINTER ORIENTATION - sets the printers page orientation
PRINTER COPIES - sets / gets printer copies
PRINTER STATE - printing or idle
PRINTER NEW PAGE - starts a new page
PRINTER GO - completes a print job
PRINTER STOP - aborts a print job




Extended font commands

Setup stored fonts for ease of use

DESTROY ALL PRINTER FONTS
DESTROY PRINTER FONT
GET PRINTER FONT FLAGS
GET PRINTER FONT NAME
GET PRINTER FONT SIZE
SET PRINTER FONT
SETUP PRINTER FONT

see web site

Miscellaneous Commands

DARKINK - Displays text on the screen to show if version info and copyright info

Best Regards,

Jack Taylor


http://www.zogtrog.plus.com/darkink/

There has been a problem with some missing files.
I have compiled my project differently, so hopefully this should elimate the need for any external files. I have updated my files BETA version 1.0.1.1

You can get the latest version from

http://www.zogtrog.plus.com/darkink/page55.html


Jack Taylor

This looks pretty useful for applications.

The

returns the sizes in pixels right?

Is there also a way to change the DPI (if this is possible)?

Yeh at the moment it just returns pixels
I was thinking about adding some conversion functions anyway. I will probably implement some functions to allow scaling between pixels, inches, and cms, mms etc.
I am not sure you can change the number of dots per inch your printer prints at, is that what you mean ?
You can change the print quality which alters the DPI you are using the SETUP PRINTER DIALOG FUNCTION although I guess it might be handy to be able to store and load settings, so they don't have to be re-configured every time you run your app.

Jack Taylor

Well, not necessarely the DPI of the printer itself.

I meant for the document. Would you have to scale down/up your images to the document width, or would it be possible to actually set the page width and height in pixels?

I'm not that much of a genius when it comes to printers, so it might not even be possible. It would just save alot of time...

The number of pixels is generally fixed for a given paper size for your printer. What governs the width of your image is the number of pixels multipled by the width of 1 pixel on the device you are drawing to. The height is governed in a similar fashion. Pixels are not necessarily square, they can be retangular to.
In short you have to scale your images if you want them to appear to be a certain size. Scaling small images to large images can lead to pixelation. Like I said in my last post, I need to add functions to my library which will allow you to get dimensions in inches and millimeters. I am hoping to get round to doing this sometime next week.

Best Regards,


Jack Taylor

Oh, ok thx!

Okay there is a new update availible with the commands you requested.




See the rulers example

Documentation

[/href]http://www.zogtrog.plus.com/darkink/page22.html


Download can be found here

[href]http://www.zogtrog.plus.com/darkink/page55.html

The DarkInk Beta is no longer available for download.
Please watch this space in the near future for news updates.

Best Regards


Jack Taylor

I am pleased to announce that you can now purchase Dark Ink as a plug in for Dark Basic Pro through this web site.

Jack Taylor