Driver for the Xerox XPRESS Plotter

Sending a Test Plot File

We assume that you will configure Artwork's GDSPLOT to create RTL output and that you wish to get plots. express_plot will read the RTL file and stream out data directly to the Express plotter. To test this last function you can use a small RTL file called colors.rtl that is provided in the release. You can easily exercise different plotting qualities and rolls by using the appropriate command line options.

	./xpress_plot /dev/xpress0 rtl colors.rtl -quality:4 -papersize:a0

	./xpress_plot /dev/xpress0 rtl colors.rtl -quality:4 -roll:1

	./xpress_plot /dev/xpress0 rtl colors.rtl -quality:8 -papersize:a1

	./xpress_plot /dev/xpress0 rtl colors.rtl -roll:2

	./xpress_plot /dev/xpress0 rtl colors.rtl 

The first two lines are equivalent, i.e. the roll selection can be made via the -papersize or -roll command line options. The next two lines differ only by the quality printing mode, specified by the -quality command line option; the default quality is 4. The different print qualities are:

     Quality   DPI        Remarks
       1       360        uni-directional draft
       2       360        bi-directional draft
       3       360        uni-directional std
       4       360        bi-directional std
       5       360        uni-directional 1/2 interlace
       6       360        bi-directional 1/2 interlace
       7       360        uni-directional 1/4 interlace
       8       360        bi-directional 1/4 interlace
       9       720        uni-directional hires 1/2 interlace
      10       720        bi-directional hires 1/2 interlace
      11       720        uni-directional hires 1/4 interlace
      12       720        bi-directional hires 1/4 interlace

express_plot Command Line Options

usage:  xpress_plot: [device] [command]

device is the full path name of device i.e. /dev/express0          

command is one of the following:

    1.    open - just open & close
    
    2.    stop - stop printing
    
    3.    sense - send the SCSI 'sense' command
    
    4.    monotest dx dy (inches) [other_args]
    
    5.    colortest dx dy (inches) [other_args]
    
    6.    obsolete
    
    7.    rtl rtl_file [other_args]

          where other_args is one of
    
              -busy:T            T is 0 - 60 minutes (default 10)
              -quality:Q         Q is 1 - 12
              -roll:R            R is 1 - 4 or auto
              -papersize:size	size is a0, a1, a3, a0r, auto
    
          if rtl_file is '-' then stdin is assumed
    
    8.    test paper patternid - generate test print
    
                       paper is "a0" or "a1"
                       patternid is 1 - 8
    
    9.    roll paper - select roll
    
                       paper is "a0" or "a1"
    
    10.    cut paper - cut paper roll at current position
    
                       paper is "a0" or "a1"
    
    11.    feed paper amount - feed paper roll amount inches
    
                       paper is "a0" or "a1"
    
    12.    inquire info - inquire about info (hex value), one of
    
                       0x00 vendor info
                       0xc0 roll selection
                       0xc1 roll info
                       0xc2 engine status
                       0xc3 interface status
                       0xc4 engine error status
                       0xc5 engine busy status
                       0xc5 engine warning status
                       0xcf machine id
    
    13.    errlev [lev] - Set the error reporting level
    
    14.    tur - send the SCSI 'test unit ready'command