Instruction/ maintenance manual of the product BLL Generator Polaroid
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Windows BLL Generator User Guide W indows BLL Gen erator User G u ide V1.1 0, last m odific ation Janu ary 26, 199 9.
2 Copyright © 1988-19 98 Lasergr aphics, Inc . All R ights Res erved. 20 Ada Irvine, C alifornia 92618 +1-949-7 53-8282 Technical Support Department: +1-949-75 3-8292 Monday through Fr ida y 7:30 A . M . to 5:30 P . M ., US Pac ific T ime Zone Lasergraphics BB S (949) 72 7-9429 Internet: http://w ww.
Acknowl edgements 3 Acknowledgements The com bined ef fort of many people is required to mak e a qualit y software pr oduct. T his is a n undoubtedl y incom plete l ist of dealer s, custom ers, coworkers and friends who have b een he lpful in o ne way or an other in m aking W indows BLL G enerator into what it is toda y.
Contents 5 Contents Chapter 1: Introduction ........................................................................................ 9 W hat You Need ............................................................................................... 10 Required Hardware .
6 Contents Running s etup .................................................................................................. 18 Adding a BLL-Generator .................................................................................. 19 Chapter 4: Printing your first image .
Contents 7 Printer s ettings in W indows 95/9 8 ......................................................... 41 Color balance and gamm a correction ................................................... 44 Miscellan eous opt ions ...........................
8 Contents A ppendix A : Specifications ................................................................................. 63 Glossary 67 Index 71.
Introduct ion 9 Chapter 1: Introduction This is the user m anual f or the W indows BLL G enerator. T his pro duct is us ed to gener ate platf orm and applicat ion inde pendent BLL files that can b e used f or imaging on rem ote Lasergr aphics f ilm recorders .
10 Introduc tion What You Need You need th e follo wing hard ware and s oftware to run W indows BLL Ge nerator : Required Har dware • Any IBM ® PC com patible m achine wit h a 486 proc essor or better, Pen tium or better recom mended. • 16 MB of m emor y when runn ing W indows 95/98 and 32 MB when runni ng W indows NT.
About this Guide 11 About this Guide This guid e explai ns how to set up an d use W indows BLL G enerator. This guid e assum es that you alread y know ho w to use Micr osoft W indows. If you are ne w to W indows, revie w your Microsoft W indows Us er’s Guide before proce ed ing .
12 Introduc tion What’s new W indows BLL Gen erator replac es W indows BLL G enerator 3.15 for W indows 95 and W inRascol 3.15 for W indows NT. Maj or parts of W indows BLL Generato r 3.15 were rewri tten to incr ease perf orm ance, sim plify its use, a nd tak e advantage of new feat ures of W indows 95 and W indows NT .
Windows BLL Gener ator Features 13 Windows BLL Generator Features W indows BLL Gen erator adds a new dim ension to all of your visua l comm unications by le tting you produce prof es s ional- qu al ity pres ent at ion graphic s —righ t at your des k .
14 Introduc tion True Color W indows BLL Gen erator suppor ts 24-bit color, whic h enabl es you to produc e lif e- lik e pictures wit h an y of over 1 6.
Expres s Setup 1 5 Chapter 2: Express Setup This s ection exp lains how us ers with pr evious W inRasc ol experienc e can g et W indows BLL Gen erator up and ru nning quick ly.
16 Expr ess Setup Installing Wind ows BLL Generator W indows BLL Gen erator is f reely availab le on the Lasergraphic s web sit e www.laser graphics .com . It is also par t of the W inRasc ol 4 distribut ion disk s f or convenience. N ote that you m ay not distr ibute the W inRascol 4 distr ibution dis ks or their contents .
Software I nstallat ion 17 Chapter 3: Software Installation This s ection exp lains how to instal l W indows B LL Generat or on your com puter. The inst allation is perform ed in two steps, the initial ins ta l lat ion and runnin g BLLC onf.
18 Softw are Instal lation Running setup These s teps perf orm the initi al inst allation of the W indows BL L Generator pack age. • Close al l progra ms currently runn ing. • Insert disk 1 of the W indows BL L Generator installati on disk set, sk ip this ste p if you’v e downloa ded the W indows BLL G enerat or from the web site.
Adding a BLL-gener ator 19 Adding a BLL-Generator Start BLLConf in Start- >WinRascol32 . Se lect Add/Manage BLL Gene rators . This dial og will a ppear: • Select A dd genera tor .
20 Softw are Instal lation The f ollowing dialog is displa yed: • Select th e destin ation film recorder type in Film recorde r type . • Enter the s erial num ber of the t arget fi lm r ecorder in the Ser ial number edit bo x. • W indows BLL Gen erator wil l select a default nam e for y ou.
Printing y our first Image 2 1 Chapter 4: Printing your first image This guid ed tour will sho w you ho w to print fr om an appl ication. You must hav e compl eted the so ftware insta lla tion su ccessful ly to fo llow thi s tour.
22 Print ing your fir st Imag e Printing from an Application This s ection wil l show you how to pri nt an im age using M icrosof t W ordpad. W ordpad is included in both W indows 95/98 and W indows NT. But you can use an y other W indo ws applicati on instea d.
Printing y our first Image 2 3 Now open the W ordpad print d ialog b y selecting Print... from the File m enu. Select th e BLL Gener ator in the Name f ield.
24 Print ing your fir st Imag e Now sele ct Proper ties . This will open a dialog that allows you to se t film recorder pr int settings : This is the W indows 95 film recor der settings dialog. T he W indows NT dial og is shown in “Pr inter settings in W indows NT” on page 48.
Printing y our first Image 2 5 • Now press OK in the Print dia log. A BLL will be c reated in th e director y you des ignated a t insta llation t im e.
26 Print ing your fir st Imag e Viewing a BLL You can previe w the BL L you just creat ed b y usin g W indows Explorer to locat e the file in the direc t or y you designated dur i ng ins tall ati on and dou bl e clic k ing on it.
Introduct ion 27 Chapter 5: Principle of Operation This s ection exp lains how th e W indows BLL G enerator a nd W inRascol work together to produce f ilm output. Introduction W inRascol consis ts of t wo software com ponen ts: • WinRascol32: T he queue a nd print m anager.
28 Princ iple of Op eration BLLs and other im age files should be placed into dro pbox direct ories th at are ser viced autom atical ly by a PC with W inRas col. If dropbox director ies are not acc essible, BLL and oth er im age files ca n be copied to a disk and later ad ded to W inRascol on the PC with a fi lm rec order.
Introduct ion 29 Printi ng fr om Windows on a PC without Fi lm Recorder Produc ing slides from W indows appl ications o n a PC wit hout f ilm rec order is a sim ple four -step process . • Select a BLL-gen erator Driv er as the ou tput dev ice for the W indows applica tion on th e PC.
30 Princ iple of Op eration Here is a diagram showing h ow this works: .
Important C oncepts 31 Important Concepts This s ection exp lains resol ution, co lor fidel ity, and th e differenc es bet ween bitm aps and obj ects. Resolution Resolutio n can be defined in man y ways.
32 Princ iple of Op eration W hen discuss ing film recorder resolutio n, the t erms 2000-line s lide, 400 0-line s lide a nd 8000-lin e sl ide are com monly used. The num ber of lin es ref ers to the num ber of dots across the image. Exam ples: NOTE: High end Lasergraph ics film rec orders can im age up to 1 6384x134 48 dots.
Important C oncepts 33 Bitmaps and Objects Images can contain bitmaps , objects , or b oth. Bitm aps c onsist of dots or pixels . Objec ts consis t of mathem atical desc riptions of a shap e, such as a pol ygon or line.
34 Princ iple of Op eration Which Applications C reate Bit maps or Obje cts Most im ages conta in either b itmaps or objects, bu t som e images can contain b oth. Here are som e of the mo re popular applicat ions: Bitmaps • Adobe® Ph otoshop T M • Aldus® Phot oS t yler T M • Microsof t ® Paint • ZSoft Corp.
Printer Setti ngs 35 Chapter 6: Reference This c hapter provi des deta iled inf ormation abo ut how t o use W indows BLL G enerator. Printer Settings Many W indows BLL Generator components will let you m odif y a wide var iet y of imagin g options . This section explains t hese opt ions in d etail.
36 Reference Note that the tim e it takes to im age a s lide wil l increase with the r esolutio n setting approxim ately as follo ws: Resolutio n 2k 4k 8k 16k Relati ve resolut ion 0.
Printer Setti ngs 37 Film Type Film Type spec ifies the type of film in the c amer a back c onnected to the f ilm recorder. W indows BLL Generator s upports t wo t ypes of film , LFC-bas ed and non-LFC b ased. LFC b ased film choices rel y on so-calle d LFC files that resid e in the LGD ATALFC director y.
38 Reference • Polaroid 6 91 Overhe ad Trans parenc y film, wh ich produc es 3 3/4 "x 2 7/8" i nstant trans parencies • All film rec orders exc ept the Person al LFR and t he Pers onal L.
Printer Setti ngs 39 Background Color Background Color spec ifies the back ground color of the im age. T his setting is ignore d if th e applicat ion exp licitl y sets the back ground co lor in t he im age. Use Bac kground Co lor to set t he color of unpainted r egions to white f or text app lications like W ord.
40 Reference Contrast Gamma Contrast Gamma a llows for v ery fine c ontrast adj ustm ent. The rang e of vali d gam ma contras t values is 0.14 to 7.0. Howev er, values between 0 .25 an d 2.0 are us uall y more practic al. B y adjusting th e gamm a contrast val ue you c an chang e the m idtones of the im age without aff ecting the h ighlights .
Using the Windows 95/98 Driver 41 Using the Windows 95/98 driver Printin g a docum ent or im age to a film rec order fr om an applicat ion is j ust lik e printing to a ny ord inary printer. T his proc ess will vary slight ly from applicat ion to ap plication, but gener ally the Pr int comm and in the applic ation’s File m enu will do the trick .
42 Reference This is the printer s ettings dialog in W indo ws 95. • Choose the desired reso lut ion in the Resolution box . Note that not all f ilm rec orders and f ilm types suppor t all res olutions .
Using the Windows 95/98 Driver 43 • Orientation selec ts the im age orie ntatio n. • Output Size selects the “pap er” f ormat to use. T his shou ld matc h the paper f orm at selected in your app lication. You will general ly get best r esults with the def ault “St andard Sl ide”.
44 Reference Color bal a nce and gamma corr ection • Color Balance c ontrols the brightn ess of the thr ee col or channe ls. • Gamma Correction c ontrols the gamm a correc tion. It is used t o bright en or dark en m id tones of an im age witho ut changing t he ver y dark and ver y bright pixe ls.
Using the Windows 95/98 Driver 45 Miscellaneous options • Compression selec ts a com press ion type for the BLL. Med ium c ompress ion optim izes for speed, whi le high com press ion optim izes for f ile size. Use high com pression when you want to send BLLs to a ser vice prov ider usin g rem ovable media or the Int ernet.
46 Reference • Background Color se lects the c olor that is used to paint the back ground. This c olor is us ed in cases wh ere the app lication does not specif y a back ground color and when the aspect r atio of the paper s elected i n the appl ication doesn’t m atch the aspect rat io of the f ilm.
Using the Windows 95/98 Driver 47 Changing the Default Printer Settings in Windows 95/98 The doc ument def ault printe r sett ings are us ed autom aticall y when an applica tion in itiali zes the printer settings of a docum ent, usual ly when a docum ent is create d and when the select ed print er is cha nged.
48 Reference Using the Windows NT driver Printer settings in Windows NT Printin g a docum ent or im age to a film rec order fr om an applicat ion is j ust lik e printing to a ny ord inary printer.
Using the Windows NT Dr iver 49 The printer settin gs dial og look s like this : • Selecting Paper Size : Select ' Paper S ize' in th e upper win dow, the n choose a f orm in the lower window. D efault is 'LFR Standar d Slide 7.33x11i n'.
50 Reference • Selecting Background Color : S elect 'Bac kground Co lor' in the up per windo w, then choos e 'black ' or 'white'. The backgr ound color de term ines the color imaged on film for areas that the applicat ion dec ides not t o rasteri ze on.
Using the Windows NT Dr iver 51 • Selecting Gamma Correction : Select 'G amm a Correction' in the upper window, then cho ose a gamm a value bet ween 0.
52 Reference Changing the Default Printer Settings in Windows NT The def ault docum ent settin gs are us ed autom aticall y when an appl ication initial izes the pri nter sett ings of a docum ent, usua lly when a docum ent is created and when the se lected pri nter is c hanged.
Managing BLL Genera t ors 53 Managing BLL-Generators Open the BLL manag ement dia log b y selecting St art->WinRascol 32->BLLConf and pressing Add/Manage BLL Generators . T he dialog looks lik e this: This is the dia log: Adding a BLL-Generator • Select A dd genera tor .
54 Reference • Press OK to create th e BLL dr iver. The BLL driver will now appear in the BLL-generator Administration di alog. Changing Destination Path Select Change Path in the BLL-generator adm inistrati on dia lo g. A dial og will app ear to allow you to change the destinat ion path.
Managing BLL Genera t ors 55 Modifying Dri ver Opti ons Open the G lobal dr iver s ettings d ialog b y selec ting St art->WinRascol32->BLLConf and pres sing Configure Drivers . T he dialog look s like this : • Disk space usag e sets th e am ount of free dis k s pace the driv er leaves m inim ally before reporting D isk Full .
When to us e the U ninstaller 57 Chapter 7: Uninstalling When to use the Uninstaller The uninsta ller is us ed to r emove a ll com ponents of the W indows BLL Gen erator fr om y our com puter. You will want to do this when • You do not intend to use W indows BLL G enera tor on your com puter an y longer.
58 Uninsta lling W inRascol How to use the Uninstaller You can u ninstall th e W indows BLL G enerator p ack age by select ing Uninstall in the WinRascol32 program group.
Tips and Tricks 59 Chapter 8: Tips and Tricks.
60 Tips and Tricks This s ection gives tips and trick s on particu lar image t ypes and applic ations. Specific Applications Adobe Type Manager (ATM) W indows BLL Gen erator is full y com patible with Adobe T ype Manager ( AT M ) fonts, vers ion 1.15 or newer.
Specific App lic at io ns 61 CorelDRAW 8 CorelDRAW 8 will generate erroneous o utput when you choos e a va lue higher than 25 6 for the number of f ountain steps i n the m iscellaneous printer options. CorelDR A W 8 will e ven crash while pri nting gradient f ills if th e num ber is ver y high, lik e 2000.
62 Tips and Tricks where your _Windows B LL Generat or_pri nter_name is the name of the Windows BLL Gener a tor printer as sho wn in the Ins talled Pri nter Lis t of the Control Panel .
Specific at ions 63 Appendix A: Specifications Specific ations are subject to change without notice. Supported PCs Any IBM PC com patible with a 486 pr ocessor or better a nd at least 16 MB of m emor y. Note that this represents the abs olute m inimum .
64 Specif ications Supported Operating Environment W indows 95, W indows 98, W indows NT 4.0 and W indows NT 5.0 Image Enhancements Color balanc e Gamma co ntra st Fonts True Type ATM (Adobe T ype Manager) ver 1.
Output Prob le ms 65.
Glossary 6 7 Glossary antialiasing Assigning pixels at the edg es of objec ts a gradua ted gra y scale of values. T his dram atically red uces the app earance of jaggies . Binary Lasergraphics L anguage (BLL) A pro prietary pr int job f orm at. bitmap A t ype of graphic com posed of a rec tangular group of colored dots.
68 Gloss ary Lasergraphics Language A po werful gra phics language t hat is com mon in the m ainf rame and minic omputer envir onm ents. Lasergraphics Film Calibration file A file t hat prov ides ca libration data of a film type for a s pecif ic LFR model.
Glossary 6 9 RISCRascol A Rascol model th at offer s dramatic speed incr ease f or the Laser graphics film recorders . For com plex im ages, the RISCRas col is 1 5 times faster than t he Rasc ol II/IV.
Index 71 Index 24-bit c olor, 14 35mm prints, 13 35mm slides, 13 Adobe Type Manager , 33 , 60 Applicat ion Pri nting fr om, 22 applicat ions draw , 33 illustr ation, 33 paint, 33 Arts & Letters, 3.
72 Index LFC files , 38 Polachrom e, 37 Polaroid 3 39, 37 Polaroid 6 69, 37 Polaroid 6 91, 37 Film Ty pes , 64 font ATM , 33, 60 Free lance, 34 , 61 Freelanc e Graphics for W indows, 61 Gamma, 51 Cont.
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However, one of the most important roles played by the user manual is to help in solving problems with Polaroid BLL Generator. Almost always you will find there Troubleshooting, which are the most frequently occurring failures and malfunctions of the device Polaroid BLL Generator along with tips on how to solve them. Even if you fail to solve the problem, the manual will show you a further procedure – contact to the customer service center or the nearest service center
