Technical Bulletin #17
Date: March 10, 2000
Subject: Retaining Printer Driver Settings
The ability to save printer driver settings with the job is a great feature of color byte. Over the course of the past year however, several customers have indicated that this feature does not always work properly. The assumption is, if you print a job once, the driver settings the job was printed with will stay with the job. This is not necessarily the case.
Color Byte retains printer driver settings whenever a job is printed, then saved. The dual action of printing and saving is essential.
Here are some guidelines to follow regarding this issue:
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When creating new color byte jobs, print the job, then save the job by giving it a file name. Follow the print THEN save sequence. Do not save the job first, then print. This reverse action order will not retain driver settings.
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Jobs that have been properly saved (print, then save sequencing) will retain their driver settings and can be printed again and again as long as the only action performed is an Open/ Print action. That is, open the file, print it, then close it.
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If printer driver settings are changed on an existing file, the file must be printed THEN saved in order for the changes to register — even if no other changes were made to the file. Simply printing the job does not automatically "set" the new settings.
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Changes made to existing files remove preset printer driver settings if the file is not printed and saved. Any change, no matter how small the change is (i.e.: adding a line of text, changing the color of an object, moving the position of an object), will cause the file’s driver settings to be lost if the file is not BOTH first printed and then saved.
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Making changes to a file and then saving the file is not enough. If you open a file and make a change, you must print and save the file or the pre-existing printer driver settings will not be retained with the file. The saving sequence is important; print, then save — do not save, then print.
Actual printing does not have to take place in order to "print" a job; that is, you don't have to waste blanks to retain driver settings. The act of sending the job out to the parallel port is enough to insure that settings are retained. There are two ways to accomplish this:
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The easiest way is to select the PRINT option with your printer turned off. The job goes out to the printer, insuring that settings are retained. Click CANCEL when the Printers Folder dialog box displays indicating that the MILLENIUM is not receiving the job.
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Another way to print without actually printing is to PRINT TO FILE. This procedure takes longer than simply turning your printer off yet, for the purposes of retaining driver settings, it accomplishes the same thing. You actually have to go to the Printers Folder and select the MILLENIUM printer, using the right mouse button. Select Properties and then the Details tab. In Details, set the print port location to FILE.
After printing to FILE, you must go back and reset the print port destination to the appropriate port if you plan on actually printing with the MILLENIUM. The Print command will continue to PRINT TO FILE until you select that it should print to the LPT port designated for the MILLENIUM.
To assure that printer driver settings are saved with the file, always print, then save the file. If the print step is bypassed, the file will take on the driver settings of the last job printed.
If you need further assistance in upgrading your printer, please contact DCS technical support at techsupport@directcolorsystems.com or the same via phone at 860-829-2244.
