DUMP GRAPHICS

 
The DUMP keyword refers to the ability of a printer or other output device to accept Screen dumps of bit mapped images as opposed to other devices, such as pen based plotters, capable of accepting only vector graphics. However, modern raster devices can typically accept both pixel images and vector images. But traditionally it was important to support both printers and plotters with varying capabilities, and therefore a need to distinguish between them with both drivers and keyword syntax.
 
CONFIGURE DUMP is used to load and/or printer drivers:
 
Name
For these printers
WIN-DUMP
The default Windows printer
PCL
HP-PCL printers and files
PS-DUMP
PostScript printers and files
GIF
Graphic Interchange Format files
 
CONFIGURE DUMP specifies what printer language or bit mapped file format to use for DUMP GRAPHICS.
DUMP GRAPHICS outputs the contents of the screen to a printer, device, or file.
 
CONFIGURE DUMP TO format 
 
where format is a string expression naming the device/file format and any options separated by commas. For Example:
 
CONFIGURE DUMP TO "WIN-DUMP"
CONFIGURE DUMP TO "PCL[;options]" 
CONFIGURE DUMP TO "PS-DUMP[;options]" 
CONFIGURE DUMP TO "GIF[;options]" 
 
PS and PCL scale images so that its longest dimension fits in the shortest dimension of the paper with an adequate margin.
 
DUMP DEVICE sets the output device Isc or file where the output of the DUMP is directed.
 
CONFIGURE DUMP TO "WIN-DUMP" must select a Windows printer and the ISC is set by default (to 10) as the default Windows printer.
When using any other option, is it necessary to use the ISC of the device where the output is to be directed. For a device on the IEEE-488 bus, this would be the device’s address.  For a file, this would be the file name. For the parallel port, this is ISC 26.
 
CONFIGURE DUMP statements can be included in your AUTOST file. Up to ten graphic and dump drivers can be loaded.
 
The first time a driver is specified in a CONFIGURE DUMP statement, the driver is loaded and graphics are directed to it. When the driver is subsequently specified, it is not loaded again, but graphics are again directed to it.
 
For example:
 
CONFIGURE DUMP TO "PCL" 
 
By default, dump screen images are scaled to fill 100% of the width between the left and right margins. The can be changed as in the following example which sets the scaling to 20% of the margin width using GESCAPE code 39:
 
INTEGER S(1:1)
S(1)=20
GESCAPE CRT,39,S(*)
DUMP GRAPHICS
END
 

APPEND

If APPEND is included in DUMP DEVICE IS for file output, successive dumps are appended to the file separated by form feeds.
 

Options

  • EXPANDED selects landscape mode.
  • DPInnn selects nnn dots per inch. If not specified, the printer’s default resolution is used. The resolution specified must be one supported by the printer such as DPI75, DPI100, DPI150 and DPI300.
  • GRAY calculates a gray shade for each color using the NTSC grayscale equation and is inverted for black on white printing unless INVERT is included. Gray uses DPInnn to calculate the number of printer pixels required to print a single screen pixel to make a 9 x 6 3/4 inch (23 x 17 mm) plot, up to 4 x 4 printer pixels per screen pixel. GRAY is therefore ignored unless DPInnn is also specified. The NTSC grayscale equation is:
  • brightness = 11% blue + 59% green + 30% red.
  • INVERT reverses the default inversion for printing black on white to instead print actual screen colors for output to film devices.
  • RELATIVE begins each dump at the printer’s current print position rather than at the left margin by default.
 

Partial Screen Dump

GESCAPE PRT,106,param(*) is used to specify a portion of the screen to dump with DUMP GRAPHICS. The param array must be a one dimensional INTEGER array of five elements. The first element is the operation number. The remaining elements specify the boundary for the DUMP. The boundary is specified in screen units:
 
param(1) - 1
param(2) - Beginning Row
param(3) - Ending Row
param(4) - Beginning Column
param(5) - Ending Column
 
The full screen will be dumped if any of the following conditions occur:
 
  • The beginning row is greater than ending row.
  • A new Plotter, Graphics or Dump driver is loaded.
  • GINIT, SCRATCH A, PLOTTER IS, GRAPHICS INPUT, CONFIGURE DUMP
  • A Basic Reset is executed.
 

Multiple Screen Dumps per Page

Normally the Windows Print Manager ejects a page as soon as it processes a single Dump Screen. However, if you want to combine multiple screen dumps on a single page, you can use DUMP DEVICE IS 26 (instead of 10 which is normally used for the default printer). This allows you to bypass the Print Manager and you can use the following statement to set automatic page eject off :
 
CONTROL 26,113;0    ! toggle auto eject off 
 
For example, to output some text to the page before doing the dump:
 
CONFIGURE DUMP TO "PCL"
DUMP DEVICE IS 26
CONTROL 26,113;0    ! toggle auto eject off
ASSIGN @I TO 26
OUTPUT @I;"This is a  screen dump:"
DUMP GRAPHICS
ASSIGN @I TO *
CONTROL 26,113;1    ! toggle auto eject on
DUMP GRAPHICS
END