Transcript Basic Concepts Of Electronic Printing

Basic Concepts Of Electronic
Printing
William J. “Bill” McCalpin
EDPP, CDIA, MIT, LIT
The Xenos Group
(972) 857-0776
Xplor Global Conference
Los Angeles, CA 1999
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About The Speaker
• Mr. McCalpin is Director of Product
Management at Xenos Group
• He received the EDPP from Xplor
International in 1992.
• He received the CDIA from CompTIA in 1996.
• He received the MIT from AIIM in 1997.
• He received the LIT from AIIM in 1998.
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About The Speaker (cont.)
• Mr. McCalpin writes and speaks
frequently on subjects in the
electronic printing and imaging
industries. He has spoken more than
forty times at Xplor, AIIM,
DocuGroup, and Guide meetings.
• Mr. McCalpin is a member of both
Xplor and AIIM. He serves on multiple
committees in AIIM and Xplor.
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A (Very Brief) History Of Printing
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The Chinese
• By the end of the
2nd century A.D.,
the Chinese had
the three
requirements for
printing:
– paper
– ink
– relief surfaces.
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The Chinese (cont.)
• By the 8th century, wooden blocks were
used for the reliefs. The oldest known
printed works date from this time
– 764-770 - Buddhist incantations printed in
Japan
– 868 - The first known book was made in
China, ‘The Diamond Sutra.”
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The Chinese (cont.)
• Movable type was invented in China in
the 11th century, but this invention did
not catch on.
• In the early 14th century, a Chinese
magistrate had a set of 60,000 Chinese
characters carved on wooden blocks for
the printing of a treatise on the history
of technology.
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The Arabs Bring Paper To The West
• 8th century - The knowledge of how to
make paper came through the caravan
routes of Central Asia.
• 12th century - Italians begin trading with
the Arabs to bring paper to Europe.
• 13th & 14th centuries - Europeans
create papermaking centers in Italy,
France, and Germany.
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Europe Learned About Paper, But
Not Printing
Despite trade and the travels of people
like Marco Polo, Europeans never
learned the art of xylography
(printing from wood carving) from
the Chinese. The ability to print in
this way was spontaneously learned
by the Europeans no earlier than the
last quarter of the 14th century.
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The Europeans Start To Print
• The first printed items
were relief images
pressed onto paper,
typically religious in
nature.
• Text was added to the
images, and so the
first real books
appeared in Europe in
the first half of the
15th century.
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Metallographic Printing
1430-1450 - After 12
centuries, Europeans
finally go beyond the
Chinese by making
durable components
for Metallographic
printing:
– the metal die
– the matrix
– cast lead
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Johannes Gutenberg
About 1450,
Johannes
Gutenberg first
associated the
idea of using die,
matrix, and lead
with the invention
of the printing
press.
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The Screw Press
The ‘screw press’
was used for the
next 350 years
with technological
improvements
allowing such a
press to print up
to 250 copies an
hour.
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Technology Improves Printing
19th Century
The 19th century saw the introduction
of:
– stereotypy (stereotyped plates allow
several presses to print the same text at
the same time)
– steam power
– cylinder presses
– roll-fed rotary presses
– typecasting machines such as the
Linotype and Monotype.
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Technology Improves Printing
20th Century
The 20th century
introduced many
more advancements in printing:
offset printing, dry
offset, color
printing,
photocomposition
, even three
dimensional
printing.
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At Last - Electronic Printing!
• 1923 - Electrostatic printing was first
demonstrated when the ink of a
cylindrical typeform was attracted to
paper by means of an electronic charge.
• 1948 - two Americans conceived the
idea of using a dry powder rather than
ink, and the first modern office copiers
were born.
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The 9700
In 1977 or so,
Xerox
introduces the
9700, the first
cut sheet
production
printer, and our
industry starts
to take off!
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How Electronic Printers Print
• Xerox
Centralized
Printers are
white on
black
• HP and other
printers are
black on
white
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How A Xerox 9700 Prints
1.The image is resolved piece of glass at a
rotating, mirrored
into a bit map.
polygon.
2.Each 'scan line' is
5.The bits in the scan
dispatched to the
line cause the piece
engine.
of glass through
3.A photoelectric drum
which
the
laser
is
which is on a circular
belt is charged with a passing to vibrate.
6.The laser beam hits
high voltage.
the
drum
for
each
‘off’
4. A laser is fired
pixel, and discharges
through a
that spot on the
drum.
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How A Xerox 9700 Prints (cont.)
7.Toner is passed over
through a fuser,
the drum, and the
which is a set of very
toner sticks to the
hot rollers (400°F)
charged areas.
which ‘fuse’ the
8.Paper is passed
toner to the paper.
over the drum, and
10. The paper is postthe toner now sticks
processed as
to the paper.
needed and placed
9.The paper, now with
into an output bin.
toner applied,
passes
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Definitions In Electronic
Printing
Or, how what Gutenberg did five
centuries still affects you today...
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Type
Type - from the
Greek word typtein
- to beat or strike.
Even today, the
phrase in Italian for
‘to type’ is battere
a macchina,
literally, to ‘beat
with the machine’.
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Resources
•
•
•
•
•
Font
Forms
Image
Graphic
Logo
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Please Note
• In AFP, a graphic refers only to a
vector representation.
• In AFP, an image refers only to a
raster representation.
• The word logo is a reference to a
Xerox-specific object.
• In AFP, a form is called an overlay.
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Measurements
•
•
•
•
• x-height
• em space
• en space
Point
Pica Pitch
Monopitch
Proportional
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Point
996 points are equivalent
to 35 centimeters, or
one point is equal to
.01383 inches. This
means about 72.3 points
to the inch. We in
electronic printing use
72 points per inch
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Pica
From the Medieval
Latin word for
directory, probably
referring to the usual
size of the type used A letter-sized sheet of
to print a directory,
paper in the U.S. is 66
about 1/6th of an
picas long.
inch; hence, 12
points make up a
pica, and 6 picas
make up an inch.
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x-height
The height of the
lowercase x. Used
in typography as
the standard height
of the body for all
the characters in
the font, minus
their ascenders
and descenders.
bxp
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em
Originally, a unit of
measure equal to the
width of the capital M,
the widest character in
a font. Now the em
space is equal to the
height of the font,
hence the em space of
a 10 point font is 10
points (wide).
The default word
space for this font is
1/3 an em space.
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en
Half an em space.
Two ens add up to
an em.
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Pitch
Probably from
Middle English
picchen, to strike the number of
characters per
inch (applied to a
monopitch font)
Miwl
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Monopitch
Referring to a font in
which all the
characters are the
same width.
Miwl
10 pitch is 10 characters
per inch.
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Proportional
Referring to a font in
which each
character has a
width appropriate
to the size of the
character. E.g., in a
proportional font
(like this one), ‘I’ is
much narrower
than ‘W”.
Miwl
the ‘M’ is many times
wider than the ‘i’ in
a proportional font.
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The Character
• Raster fonts are
fonts whose
characters are
defined by bitmaps
(see right).
• Outline fonts (also
called scalable) are
fonts whose
characters are
defined by strokes.
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Character Anatomy
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Baseline
Baseline - An
imaginary line
upon which the
body of the
character sits. All
characters on a
line of text share
the same baseline,
even characters in
different fonts.
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Ascender And Descender
• Ascender - strokes
which rise above
the x-height (or
body of the
character).
• Descender strokes which go
below the baseline
(or the body of the
character).
bq
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Font Height And Baseline
• Font height - the sum
of the length of the
longest descender,
longest ascender, and
x-height.
• Line skip - Usually, the
distance from baseline
to baseline. Note, this
value is often larger
than the font height.
bxpW
pxbM
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Kern
• Kern - from the
French word carne,
meaning projecting
angle or hinge,
ultimately from the
Latin word cardo
(cardinis), a hinge.
Kern is that part of
the face of a letter
which projects
beyond the body.
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Serif And Sans Serif
· Serif & Sans Serif serif (also spelled
cerif) comes from the
Dutch word schreef,
meaning a stroke or a
line, from schrijve (to
write, cf. German
schreiben), ultimately
from Latin scribere
Serif
Sans
Serif
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Leading
Leading - blank dies
made of the metal
lead were inserted
between
characters on a
line of type to
enable justifying
the line of text to fit
the print area
• This text has
been left and
right justified
so the word
spaces vary.
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Upper Case And Lower Case
• The box on the right
hand side contained
individual pieces of
type
• The less frequently
used characters
would be at the top away from the printer
• Hence, capital letters
were called “upper
case”
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Mind Your P’s And Q’s
• “p’s and q’s” - the phrase mind your
p’s and q’s comes from the days of
metal type. On metal type, the image
of the character is backwards from
the printed image. Since a ‘p’ and a
‘q’ are mirror images of each other, it
is easy to confuse them, hence the
warning.
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The Family Tree of Printer
Data Streams
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Philology
• Philology is the study of language,
normally human languages
• One field of study in philology is the
relationship that different languages
have to one another
• What happens if we apply philology
to electronic printing?
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The Family Tree
Line
Data
EBCDIC
Interpress
PostScript
Line data
w/ printer
controls
Escape
sequences
LCDS
AFP and
IPDS
ASCII
Line Data
w/ carriage
control
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In The Beginning
• The first computer created tables
for artillery
• Mechanical typewriters
• ‘Line Data’
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EBCDIC Versus ASCII
• BCD - Binary Coded Decimal
• BCDIC - Binary Coded Decimal
Interchange Code
• EBCDIC - IBM Extended Binary
Coded Decimal Interchange Code
• ASCII - American Standard Code for
Information Interchange
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EBCDIC Line Data
• EBCDIC encoded - 8 bit
• Record-oriented because of IBM OS’s
• Carriage controls
– Machine carriage controls
– ANSI carriage controls
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ASCII Line Data
• ASCII encoded - 7 bit
• ‘Record’ orientation is not intrinsic to
OS
• Text files use print controls to delimit
records
• Common print controls
– x’0d’ carriage return
– x’0a’ line feed
– x’0c’ form feed
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The EBCDIC Family Tree
• EBCDIC text
• 1403 data - EBCDIC records with a
carriage control
• LCDS - ‘Line conditioned’ data
stream
– 3800 Mod I
– 3211 data with Xerox DJDEs
– Others
• AFP and IPDS
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The ASCII Family Tree
• ASCII text
• ASCII text with print controls
• ASCII text with escape sequences
Epson MX-80
QMS QUIC
HP PCL
Xerox UDK (XES)
IBM PPDS
Xerox Metacode
• Print programming languages using
ASCII
Interpress
PostScript
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Escape Sequences Versus
Programming Language
• For escape sequence data streams,
the host completely formats the
documents - the printer merely
follows the instructions
• For programming language data
streams, the host describes the
document to be printed - the printer
finishes the composition process
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Escape Sequences Versus
Programming Language (cont.)
• Escape sequence data streams
normally print faster on the printer
• Programming language data streams
enable superior graphics
• Both are capable of printing the
average business document: text,
fonts, graphics, scanned images, etc.
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Line Data versus APA Data
• Line Data
– Character-based
– Row and column oriented
• All Points Addressable
– Lets you place toner almost anywhere
on a page
– Requires significantly more information
to print or view than “line data”
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Printing Resources: Basics
• Anything the printer needs to resolve
the print datastream
• Specialized groups of control
records
• Fonts, Forms, and Graphics
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Fonts
• The file(s) that define how the
characters should appear when the
file is created
• One or more files in a vendorspecific format
• Contain mappings of specific
codepoints (codepages/symbol sets)
to images of the characters
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Font Basics
•
•
•
•
•
•
Serif or Sans Serif
Weight: UltraLight or UltraBold
Stress: Roman, Oblique, Italic
Point Size - 72 points per inch
Character set / Code page
Custom Logo and signature fonts
No two shops have exactly the same
set of fonts installed!
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Forms / Overlays / Macros
• Contain data used repeatedly
• designed to replace preprinted forms
• may contain lines, text and/or
graphics
• may be inline or in a separatelycalled file
• format is different for each
datastream
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Images / Graphics
• Bitmap images are made of a pattern
of dots
• Vector graphics are mathematical
instructions for drawing lines
• All datastreams support one or more
types of bitmap images
• Not all datastreams support vectors
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The Datastreams
•
•
•
•
What are they?
What are the pieces? (resources)
Where do you find the pieces?
Who uses them?
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What is AFP?
• Advanced Function Printing (1980’s) /
Presentation (1990’s)
• Publicly documented, open architecture
from IBM - an industry standard
• Provides integration of data and
resources to create pages for printing,
viewing, or archiving
• All Points Addressable datastream
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AFPDS
• The device independent, objectbased structured datastream
• Contains text, image, forms, fonts,
bar codes, graphics, formatting
instructions, tagging for indexing or
finishing
• Uses internal and external fonts,
graphics, & forms
• Resources are centrally controlled
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Print Services Facility
• Printers are most often attached to a
mainframe or workstation that
maintains control of the print
process via PSF
• PSF transforms device independent
AFPDS to device dependent IPDS
• PSF provides error recovery
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Flavors of AFP
• Line Data (3211) - usually EBCDIC
– may have CC and/or font index characters
• Conditioned Line Data / Mixed Mode
• Fully Composed - MO:DCA
– Mixed Object Document Content Architecture
– IOCA, GOCA, FOCA, PTOCA, BCOCA
– New objects: multimedia, page grouping,
navigation, non-AFP
• ACIF - resources are bundled in a single file
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What Creates AFP?
• Script Languages
– DCF, BookMaster, CompuSet
• Industry-specific applications:
– CSF, EZ-Letter, DocuMerge, CBIS
• Transforms
– Xenos’ Meta2AFP, PCL2AFP, etc.
• Report management systems:
– CA, New Dimension, RDS
• AFP Print Driver for Windows, APIs, Toolbox
• Form Design Packages
– Elixir, ISIS, ProForm, DOC1, XPRINT
• User Created programs
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AFP Wrap-up
• IBM AFP is based on an architecture,
which is published
• AFP printers are centrally managed
from a host
• Resources normally reside on the
host, not the printer
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Xerox Printer Datastreams
• 2 “languages” for high-speed
centralized printing: Metacode and
DJDE
• UDK/XES for Xerox decentralized
printing
• PostScript (Midrange and DocuTech)
• PCL (Midrange)
• XES/Metacode mixed - 4235
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Xerox Terms
• Online Printing: Printer is attached to
a host computer which controls the
print job.
• Offline Printing: Printer is not
attached to a host computer. Print
jobs are fed via an attached
peripheral device, usually a tape
drive. Some commands behave
differently.
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What is Metacode?
• Native printer language to Xerox
ESS/Centralized printers
• Fastest way to print on a Xerox
Centralized printer
• Partially documented, proprietary Xerox
Format - not an architecture
• A set of ASCII formatting controls that
more closely resembles stream I/O
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Metacode / DJDEs
• Printer control commands may be
interspersed with print data;
sometimes the printer control
commands appear within the same
record as the print data.
• The Metacode printer may switch
between EBCDIC and ASCII data
modes between print jobs, or within
jobs as required.
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Other Flavors of “Metacode”
• Conditioned Line Data: DJDE
– line data with DJDE records to change fonts,
and call forms and images
– The bulk of all Xerox printing
• Mixed Mode
– Metacode and line data in the same print file,
sometimes in alternating records
– Usually generated by 3rd-party products
– “page interleaved” files slow the printer down
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What Creates Metacode?
• Script Languages
– DCF/BookMaster with DCF/PLUS, CompuSet/XICS
• Industry-specific applications
– CSF, EZ-Letter, or DocuMerge
• Transforms
– Xenos’ AFP2Meta, PCL2Meta, etc.
• Forms design packages
– Elixir or Intran, Proform
• User created programs (rare)
• Application of DJDEs to legacy line data
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Metacode Wrap-up
• Metacode is not an architecture
• There is no PSF to monitor resource
usage
• Resources are usually stored on the
printer
• Data and printer commands can be
either ASCII or EBCDIC
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What is PCL?
• All Points Addressable Datastream
• Publicly documented, owned by HP
• Provides integration of data and resources to
create pages for printing
• ASCII data with escape sequences to
designate printer commands
• Many levels, newest is Level 6
• Levels 4 and 5 are most commonly used
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What Creates PCL?
• A variety of programs such as
PeopleSoft
• User created programs
• Print Drivers
• Transforms such as Xenos’s
AFP2PCL, Meta2PCL, XES2PCL,
PDF2PCL
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PCL Wrap-up
• PCL is an ASCII datastream most
often generated by PC-based
programs
• PCL uses very few external resource
files
• PCL fonts are often stored on the
printer either in ROM or on cartridges
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What is PostScript?
• Adobe’s Document Formatting
Language
• All Points Addressable
• Complex Language with standard
computing operators
• Still changing
• Designed for flexibility, not speed
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What Creates PostScript?
• Adobe and 3rd Party Software
packages
• Many graphics and page layout
programs
• User created software (rare)
• Windows Print Drivers
• Transforms such as Xenos’s
AFP2PS, Meta2PS, PCL2PS, XES2PS
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What is PDF?
•
•
•
•
•
Adobe’s Portable Document Format
NOT exactly PostScript -No math or GOTOs
Self-contained for easier sharing
Designed for rapid Viewing
Designed to support Acrobat Reader and
Acrobat Exchange.
• Supported by web browsers via plug-in
• Designed for cross-platform compatibility
(Windows, MAC, UNIX, WWW)
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What Can You Do with PDF?
• Post documents on the WWW
• Create viewable versions of business
documents
• Index, annotate, link and bookmark
documents
• Combine, extract, and manipulate
document pages
• View Thumbnails of pages
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What Creates PDF?
• Created from PostScript files by
Adobe Distiller
• PDF Writer (emulates a print driver)
• Transforms such as Xenos’s
AFP2PDF, Meta2PDF, PCL2PDF, and
XES2PDF
• A growing number of other software
packages
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The Other Pieces - Adobe Fonts
• Define how the characters should
appear when the file is created
• Printer-resident fonts used for most
PostScript jobs.
• TrueType and Type 1 scaleable fonts
may reside on the host and be sent
to the printer with the job
• May also use Type 3 bitmapped fonts
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PDF Fonts - Base 14
• All Acrobat installations contain 14 base
fonts:
Helvetica
Helvetica-Bold
Times-Roman
Times-Bold
Courier
Courier-Bold
Helvetica-Oblique
Helvetica-BoldOblique
Times-Italic
Times-BoldItalic
Courier-Oblique
Courier-BoldOblique
Symbol (
ZapfDingbats ()
T
PostScript Wrap-up
• PostScript in a complex printer
language that allows inline
programming
• PostScript is evolving into a
language which can be used in high
volume printing applications
T
PDF Wrap-up
• PDF is optimized for online viewing
and offers many features not
available with printed paper.
• PDF is changing …. PDF 1.3 was
announced earlier this year.
T
What is XES?
• Xerox Escape Sequences, also called
UDK for User Defined Keys
• Proprietary Xerox text-based
formatting for Xerox low-speed
decentralized (departmental) printers
• Usually ASCII
• Obsolete - these printers have been
“end-of-life’d” by Xerox
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XES Pieces
• Bitmapped font files are usually
stored on the printer
• Forms are usually defined inline
• Bitmapped image and logo files are
usually stored on the printer
• Vector Graphics (Line Draw) may be
defined inline
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What Creates XES?
• XES only has about 20 commands so
it is usually hand coded or built by
user-created programs
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What Do We Do With XES?
• Since XES printers have been “end-of-life’d”
by Xerox, users will have to:
– Convert applications generating XES to PCL or
PostScript (usually), or
– Acquire 3rd party transforms such as Xenos’
XES2PCL or XES2PS, or
– Find someone willing to support these obsolete
printers
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XES Wrap-up
• XES is an obsolete Xerox format for
low-speed printers
• Most XES users are looking for a way
to convert to less-costly PCL or
PostScript printers
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AFP and Xerox Discussion Lists
• Discussion lists are for people interested in
particular things to exchange information
• Discussion lists communicate via e-mail to
registered users, rather than public bulletin
boards.
• Xerox list-serve: [email protected]
• AFP list-serve: [email protected]
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Additional Sessions This Week
• CAV 01 - A broad view of document
standards
Marilyn Wright
WED 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM
• FOC 21 - Moving your legacy documents
to new media
Pat McGrew, EDPP
WED 7:15 AM - 8:15 AM
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Additional Sessions This Week
• FOC 32 - The EDPP certification
process revealed
Stephen Wowelko, EDPP, Diana
Hillman, EDPP
WED 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM
• INT 20 - XML update - Where is XML
going and how will it affect you?
Bill McCalpin - EDPP
THU 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM
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Additional Sessions This Week
• FUN 06 - From hardcopy to electronic
delivery: making the migration
Stephen Poe, EDPP
WED 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM
• FUN 04 - Buzz word central
David Weinberger and Stephen Poe,
EDPP
TUE 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM (right now!)
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Additional Sessions This Week
• KNO 07 - What knowledge
management is and isn't
David Weinberger
THU 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM
• ORG 25 - Is the document dead?
Bill McCalpin, EDPP, and Bill
McDaniel, EDPP
THU 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM
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Credits
• ‘Kern’- graphic from IBM’s Font Object
Content Architecture manual found at
http://booksrv2.raleigh.ibm.com:80/cgibin/bookmgr/bookmgr.cmd/BOOKS/HA3
F2M00/4.2.9
• Many data stream slides courtesy of
Linda McDaniel, EDPP, Xenos Group
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Credits
• Gutenberg Bible graphic - found at
http://www.huntington.org/LibraryDiv
/GutenbergPict.html
• ‘A...History Of Printing’ (Japanese
character for vigor) - found at
http://www.jmac.co.jp/amusement/steve/kanji/kan
jiframe.html
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Credits
• ‘Technology..20th Century’ (actually a
SM102 Heidelberg press) - found at
http://www.heidelbergaus.com.au/Sm
aster/SM102/SM102P.HTM
• History of Printing - Encyclopaedia
Britannica
• ‘Screw Press’ (actually the first stopcylinder press) - Encyclopaedia
Britannica
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Credits
• ‘Type’ - graphic from The Imperial
Dictionary Of The English Language
• ‘The Character’ (raster A) - from ‘InHouse Publishing In A Mainframe
Environment (McGrew/McDaniel)
• ‘Character Anatomy’ - from ‘The New
York Public Library Writer’s Guide To
Style And Usage’
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Credits
• ‘The 9700’ (actually a 4090) - from a
PC graphics package
• ‘Chinese print shop’, portrait of
Gutenberg, image of single page of
manuscript, woodcut of a European
print shop, and the outside of the
Gutenberg Museum are all found at
http://www.gutenberg.de
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Credits
• All other graphics
created by Bill
McCalpin, EDPP,
and Chris Halicki,
EDPP
• On the right, the
Gutenberg
Museum in Mainz,
Germany
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Bill McCalpin
EDPP, CDIA, MIT, LIT
Director of Product Management
Xenos Group
3010 LBJ Freeway Suite 1500
Dallas, TX 75234
(972) 857-0776 (voice) (972) 857-0979 (fax)
[email protected]
www.xenosgroup.com
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