postscript command of mediacolor

[nonlinearly]

Hi,
I have PrintShop Mail 6 and I have two layers and I need each one to print it in differnet tray. I have Xerox Nuvera printer with its ps driver. This printer distinguish trays from mediacolor (white-->tray1,blue-->tray2). I choose white color for layout1 and blue color for layout2. I choose print to file from print dialog and I have a .ps file. I open the ps file to find the corresponding mediacolor postscript commands but nothing. The strange thing is that when I select other options such as page size or dublex for a specific layer then the corresponding postcript commands for each layer's page appear as below:

featurebegin{
%%BeginFeature: *PageSize A3
% Note: The following size will be overridden by the output paper size (A3):
(<<) cvx exec /PageSize [595 842] /ImagingBBox null (>>) cvx exec setpagedevice
%%EndFeature
}featurecleanup
featurebegin{
%%BeginFeature: *Duplex DuplexNoTumble

%Intentionally null
%%EndFeature
}featurecleanup

 

[jdeubert]

Selecting paper trays in PostScript

Selecting paper trays in PostScript

Hi, nonlinearly.

The root of the problem is that PostScript has no commands specifically to select paper trays, which is why your software couldn't insert any code. It can be done, but you will need to hand-edit the PostScript output. Not hard, but potentially tedious and always a bit unnerving.

It's somewhat involved, so I'm going to refer you to an Acumen Journal article on exactly this subject: it's the September 2010 issue (#60) at

Acumen Journal

(Disclosure: I write these things, so although I think they're wonderful, you may hate 'em.)

As a summary of the process; there are two steps:

1. You need to associate a MediaType with each paper tray. This is done with a call to setpagedevice that needs to be placed at the end of the setup section of the PS file. (Place it immediately before the "%%EndSetup" or "%%EndDocumentSetup" line.)

<<
/InputAttributes <<0 <</MediaType (Top Tray) >>
1 << /MediaType (Bottom Tray)>>
>>
>> setpagedevice

2. Then, at the beginning of each page, you can specify the tray you want with another call to setpagedevice:

<< /MediaType (Top Tray) >> setpagedevice

This should go either after the %%Page: or the %%EndPageSetup comment. (The latter is better, if there is one.)

I know this is too brief to be helpful; read the article.

- J

 

[nonlinearly]

Thank you very much for your response. I wiil read the article but before that I have to comment somethig. Do you mean MediaType or MediaColor? Because I mentioned that the distinction between trays in this printer is made by setting the mediacolor not the mediatype. So we have to insert in the right possition in the ps file the printer's specific postscript command. Is the printer's driver PPD file the right position to find these commands? I found this section in the ppd file:

*OpenUI *MediaColor: PickOne
*OrderDependency: 30.0 AnySetup *MediaColor
*DefaultMediaColor: PrinterDefault
*MediaColor PrinterDefault/Printer Default: ""
*MediaColor white/White: "1 dict dup /MediaColor (white) put setpagedevice"
*MediaColor noColor/clear: "1 dict dup /MediaColor (noColor) put setpagedevice"
*MediaColor blue/Blue: "1 dict dup /MediaColor (blue) put setpagedevice"
*MediaColor buff/Buff: "1 dict dup /MediaColor (buff) put setpagedevice"
*MediaColor green/Green: "1 dict dup /MediaColor (green) put setpagedevice"
*MediaColor gray/Gray: "1 dict dup /MediaColor (gray) put setpagedevice"
*MediaColor goldenrod/Goldenrod: "1 dict dup /MediaColor (goldenrod) put setpagedevice"
*MediaColor ivory/Ivory: "1 dict dup /MediaColor (ivory) put setpagedevice"
*MediaColor orange/Orange: "1 dict dup /MediaColor (orange) put setpagedevice"
*MediaColor pink/Pink: "1 dict dup /MediaColor (pink) put setpagedevice"
*MediaColor red/Red: "1 dict dup /MediaColor (red) put setpagedevice"
*MediaColor yellow/Yellow: "1 dict dup /MediaColor (yellow) put setpagedevice"
*?MediaColor: "
save
currentpagedevice /MediaColor
{get} stopped
{pop pop (white)} {dup null eq {pop (white)} if} ifelse
= flush
restore
"
*End
*CloseUI: *MediaColor

 

[jdeubert]

MediaType is what I meant, although one could use MediaColor or MediaWeight, as well. All of these associate arbitrary strings with tray numbers. I use MediaType for preference for tray selection so I can reserve MediaColor for selecting, well, color.

By the way, PS Level 3 introduced the MediaPosition key

<< /MediaPosition 1 >> setpagedevice

which would make things simpler; you don't need the InputAttributes specification. However, it works only with level 3 printers (there are still a *lot* of level 2 devices out there) and I've had reports of iffy success with this even on level 3 printers.

- J

 

[nonlinearly]

Hmmm... But the selection between Mediatype and Mediacolor is not my choice. The assign mediacolor<-->tray is made in printer's console and then they tell me this assign to configure the postscript.

 

[jdeubert]

Yep, which is why I choose MediaType; it's less likely to provoke a conflict. (Actually, I would expect the /InputAttributes assignment to override the printer's own assignment, in any case, but I'd want to experiment with the individual machine.)

One can but try it and see what happens.

 

[nonlinearly]

Hi jdeubert,
after a long time I decide to apply your suggestions...(also I read the magazine... very interesting magazine)
I did them but before I send the new .ps file to the printer (the printer is an industrial XEROX NUVERA and I will visit it next week) I tried to open it with ghostscript gsview but all the pages that had the tray setpagedevice was blank! Is that ok? If I remove one then the specific page is ok.
I have attached a file with the postscript. the file has 2 pages with "Test Page 1" and "Test Page 2". I have included the postscript statements that you have suggested in the appropriate positions.

thanks

 

[peels]

we use mediacolor. and set all our weights to the same to avoid confusion by production operators.

We also use PrintnetT it has the options in the output module to assign up to 11 colors I think? And...the colors/types show up in the text just like that.

we have printed jobs with 9 different drawer pulls on a Kodak Digimaster using color only. But we had problems with accidentally changing type, and weight, and forgetting to change it on the Xerox front end. Or with operators changing front end options...