VMS Printing a Signature

[Paul Whapshott]

I vaguely recall being able to scan a signature and put into a printer library and print the signature using the printer library.

i.e. Print/setup=sign

Does anyone know how to do this. Is a postscript enabled printer required?


Thanks in advance

Paul

[Hakan Zanderau ( Anders]

Paul,

Extracting from HELP:

PRINT

/SETUP

/SETUP=module[,...]

Extracts the specified modules from the device control library
(containing escape sequence modules for programmable printers)
and copies the modules to the printer before a file is printed.


Now......

The symbiont will look for the included module(s) in SYS$LIBRARY:SYSDEVCTL.TLB as default. If the qualifier /LIBRARY= is set on the queue, that library will be used instead of SYSDEVCTL.

The included module will be sent to the printer before the actual printjob.

You have to write the signature-file in the same language as the file you print.

If we talk about Lasers, text is printed by the PCL-interpreter in the printer and you can write you signaturefile in plain text as well.

This is the short story......
Depending on your needs, it can be longer..... ( how to create and insert modules to a library and so on..... )

regards,

Hakan Zanderau

[Hakan Zanderau ( Anders]

A fast example ( on a HP Laserjet 4100 )

$ EDIT/EDT signature.txt
***********
* Hakan Z *
***********


$ LIB/CREA/TEXT SYS$LIBRARY:MYLIB.TLB
$ LIB/INS SYS$LIBRARY:MYLIB.TLB signature.txt
$ INIT/QUE-
/START-
/PROC=TCPIP$TELNETSYM-
/ON="10.0.0.1:9100"-
/LIB=MYLIB -
TEST$QUEUE
$ PRINT/QUEUE=TEST$QUEUE/SETUP=signature login.com

This will print a custom made flagpage.

regards,

Hakan Zanderau

[Paul Whapshott]

Thanks for the replies so far. Its a start, however I need to know whether I can scan a hand written signature and put this into a library and for it to be placed and printed on a A4 letter size using print/setup etc.

Thanks and Regards,

Paul

[Hakan Zanderau ( Anders]

You can't mix PCL and PS in the same printjobb. I don't think the printer can switch language in the middle of a job.

But you can scan your signature.
Print it to file, using a PCL-driver and then
use this file as setup-module......as long as you print PCL or TEXT.

Use a PS driver and make a PS-setup-module as well for PS-jobs.

Hakan Zanderau

[Doug Phillips]

Presuming an HP or compatible printer, you can use a PCL Macro Overlay with an imbedded image (bitmap) in the job setup module. If your printer has insufficient memory to store it, you can build it as a page setup module in the form definition (which is much more overhead if you're printing more than one document.)

You'll need to check the tech and programming manuals appropriate for your printer. Also search the web to see some examples and discussions.

How you build the overlay macro will depend on the tools you have. Editing the image into the macro is the tricky part. I've always just written some code to strip any leading and trailing "garbage" from the bitmap (dump it first to see what's there) and surround it with the proper PCL commands. If you are conversant with an editor that can operate on binary files then you can use that.