HP DesignJet 6 color ProofReady Plugin Version 1.0r4 November 2007 AG50234 Rev.
Copyright and Trademarks HP DesignJet 6color ProofReady Plugin Version 1.0r4 Document issue 119 Part number:HQ-1.0r4-HPDESIGNJET6color March 2008 Copyright © 2007 Global Graphics Software Ltd. All rights reserved. Certificate of Computer Registration of Computer Software. Registration No.
US Government Use This Harlequin RIP software is a computer software program developed at private expense and is subject to the following Restricted Rights Legend: “Use, duplication, or disclosure by the United States Government is subject to restrictions as set forth in (i) FAR 52.227-14 Alt III or (ii) FAR 52.227-19, as applicable.
Contents 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 System requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Installing the plugin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Creating a page setup. . . . . . . . . . . .
HP DesignJet 6 color ProofReady Plugin 1 Introduction ™ ™ This manual describes the HP DesignJet 6 color ProofReady plugin for the Harlequin RIP . The plugin delivers Harlequin RIP optimized output to the printer and provides ‘out-of-the-box’ proofing quality color management profiles, hence the name ProofReady. 1.1 Summary of plugin features • Support for common paper types at various print resolutions. • Provides ProofReady color profiles for instant, expert color management.
USER GUIDE FOR HP 6 COLOR PLUGIN • 64 MB of RAM with virtual memory turned on (128 MB recommended). 2.3 Linux These are the platform requirements for a Linux operating system. • Intel Pentium 4 1 GHz (or equivalent). • Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES v4.0. Note: For each of these platforms, configure the Harlequin RIP with at least 4 MB RAM for the printer buffer and 24 MB RAM for the system.
USER GUIDE FOR HP 6 COLOR PLUGIN 3. The “Choose Features” window shows all the products available in the package. When you select a product, a short description of its function appears. Those products not checked in the list will not be installed. Figure 2 InstallAnywhere Choose Features dialog Note: Use the scroll bar at the right side of the display to view more selection options. 4. Use the “Choose Install Folder” window to select an installation folder.
USER GUIDE FOR HP 6 COLOR PLUGIN 3. On Windows systems in the “Choose Install Folder” screen select the same installation folder as the previously installed RIP. Click Next to move onto the next stage. 4. At the “Pre-installation Summary” screen click Install to proceed with the installation. 5. The installation will now continue. This may take some minutes. 6. The “Install Complete” screen indicates that the installer has finished. If any errors have occurred a message will be displayed.
USER GUIDE FOR HP 6 COLOR PLUGIN 3.5 Location of plugin folders Table 1 shows the correct Harlequin RIP installation folders for the HP DesignJet 6 color and supplied screening plugins. This information is provided for reference only. Unless instructed by Technical Support, you should not move these folders or delete information contained in them or the plugins may cease to function correctly.
USER GUIDE FOR HP 6 COLOR PLUGIN 3.6 Enabling plugins in the Harlequin RIP After installing the plugin files into your RIP, you must enable them in the Configure RIP Extras dialog before they can be used. To do this you will need your hp6 color plugin password, as supplied to you, as well as passwords for color management and screening plugins which may be required. To enable the HP DesignJet 6 color plugin, color management and screening plugins in the RIP, do the following: 1.
USER GUIDE FOR HP 6 COLOR PLUGIN 1. Select Harlequin RIP > Page Setup Manager, to open the Page Setup Manager (Figure 5). Figure 5 2. Page Setup Manager In the Page Setup Manger, click New to create a new page setup (or Edit to amend an existing page setup), to open the New/Edit Page Setup dialog (Figure 6). Figure 6 AG50324 Rev.
USER GUIDE FOR HP 6 COLOR PLUGIN 3. Enter information in the fields as follows: • Device: Select a device from the list. The device you select will largely depend on the dot type, screening method and resolution you prefer to use. See Table 2 for details about which dot types are supported and the screening modes that are available. • ProofReady: Select a ProofReady profile to use for color managed output.
USER GUIDE FOR HP 6 COLOR PLUGIN 4.1 Page Layout options The options in Page Layout are used to specify your media size and page size when not defined in the job itself. Page size refers to the ‘frame’ into which the job is printed; media size refers to the size of the paper installed in the printer. To prevent clipping of your print, the page size must not exceed the media size.
USER GUIDE FOR HP 6 COLOR PLUGIN 1. In the , click Harlequin RIP > Page Setup Manager, or use the shortcut key Ctrl+S to open the Page Setup Manager. 2. Click New to create a new page setup, or Edit if you already have one that you wish to amend. 3. With the appropriate device selected, click Configure Device to open the Configure Device window, which is shown in Figure 8 on page 9.
USER GUIDE FOR HP 6 COLOR PLUGIN Port number If you selected Network as the output method enter the port number of the printer, otherwise leave this field at the default setting.The printer supports the following ports: • Port 515: Sets the LPR protocol when using the JetDirect network card. Note that the LPR protocol does not provide bidirectional communication with the printer. Consequently, the printer cannot report error messages when using this protocol.
USER GUIDE FOR HP 6 COLOR PLUGIN Paper tray 2 Sets the paper source to Paper tray two. Manual feed front Sets the paper source to manual feed from the front of the device. Manual feed rear Sets the paper source to manual feed from the rear of the device. Auto select Automatically selects the paper source that contains the paper size specified in the Device Configuration dialog box. If the specified paper size is unavailable an appropriate alternative will be chosen automatically.
USER GUIDE FOR HP 6 COLOR PLUGIN To add a print device, do the following: 1. Select Harlequin RIP > Device Manager to open the Device Manager (Figure 9). Figure 9 Device Manager 2. Select hp6col.i32 (Windows) or hp6col (Mac OS X) in the Plugin drop-down list. 3. Click New to open the Device Manager Edit dialog box (Figure 10). Figure 10 4. The Device Manager Edit dialog • Name: Enter a name for your new device.
USER GUIDE FOR HP 6 COLOR PLUGIN Note: If the ProofReady profile drop-down list in not available in your page setup, enable color management in your RIP.
USER GUIDE FOR HP 6 COLOR PLUGIN 5. Choose OK to make your selection, and OK again to close the Separations Manager. Figure 11 Edit Style dialog 7.3 Description of screening modes This section briefly describes the assorted screening modes (also know as ‘dot shapes’) supported by the HP Designjet plugin. Not every device that is installed by the plugin supports all dot shapes/screening modes.
USER GUIDE FOR HP 6 COLOR PLUGIN To implement your file naming template, add the appropriate tags and text (if needed) to the File template field of the Configure Device dialog for the device you wish to use. File template field Figure 12 AG50324 Rev.
USER GUIDE FOR HP 6 COLOR PLUGIN 8.1 Tag usage There are a few rules to keep in mind when using tags: • You may limit the length of any expanded (derived) file name by using an integer before the tag. For example, <5jobname> limits the name to a maximum of 5 characters. • Tags which produce numeric values are truncated from left to right. • Tags that produce alphanumeric strings (strings containing the characters a-z, A-Z, and 0-9) are truncated from right to left.
USER GUIDE FOR HP 6 COLOR PLUGIN copies of the file are created. If the template contains just static tags (such as , where the job name remains constant), a single output file is created because previous files are overwritten. Tag Description Limits the character set of the file name (from the point of the tag onwards) to ascii characters in the range 32 (0x20) to 126 (0x7E). Characters outside this range are discarded.
USER GUIDE FOR HP 6 COLOR PLUGIN 9 Content generating tags The following tags are available and can be used in any order. Tag Description The color space of the device, such as DeviceCMYK or DeviceRGB. The tag includes the color space of the device in the file name string. For example, the template hpf produces a file name of the form DeviceCMYK.hpf for a device using a CMYK color space (4colors) or a file name of the form PhotoInk.
USER GUIDE FOR HP 6 COLOR PLUGIN Tag Description The page buffer name without the page number prefix and without characters illegal to the operating system. White space characters are used, if present in the job name. This tag ensures that only legal operating system characters are used in the job name. For example, in the RIP running under any Windows operating system, the template hpf produces the file name Uncalibrated Target Default CMYK + spot colors target.hp f.
USER GUIDE FOR HP 6 COLOR PLUGIN Tag Description
USER GUIDE FOR HP 6 COLOR PLUGIN Your string can contain substitution codes, which are expanded by the RIP. See “Post processing operations” on page 21 for details. 10.1 Post processing substitution codes When using the post processing feature of the HP Designjet plugin, the RIP recognizes the substitution codes in the following list. You can insert an integer between the percent character and the letter code, to restrict the maximum number of characters used in the result string.
USER GUIDE FOR HP 6 COLOR PLUGIN Running post-job command "C:\test\logfile.bat out00002.hpf 112442" in directory C:\SWNT\SW\Output The above example refers to a batch file (logfile.bat) which uses a program to send an e-mail confirming that a job has been processed. The e-mail contains the job name (out00002.hpf) and the time it was processed (approximately 11:24). These details were provided by using the substitution codes %f and %t in the post processing text box.
USER GUIDE FOR HP 6 COLOR PLUGIN 10.4 Troubleshooting post processing command Your post processing commands might not execute as you would expect them to. If this is the case, there are a number of troubleshooting tips which you can follow: • Open a command dialog and run the post processing command there. • A substitution code may be being misinterpreted by your operating system. Try enclosing the substitution code in double quotes, for example "%f".
USER GUIDE FOR HP 6 COLOR PLUGIN 11.1.1 Recalibrating the printer To maintain printer calibration accuracy, you should periodically recalibrate your HP printer. This is particularly important if the paper, ink, or some other variable (including ambient room conditions) changes. To recalibrate the printer, do the following: 1. Click Output > Print Calibration to open the Print Calibration window. 2.
USER GUIDE FOR HP 6 COLOR PLUGIN • The name of the calibration profile or calibration set that you used in the page setup (golden state). The calibration data is incorporated into the ICC profile when you import it. This means you can delete the temporary calibration profile or calibration set once you have imported the ICC profile. You can create a color setup using this profile (see “Creating color setups” on page 27 for details). 11.2.
USER GUIDE FOR HP 6 COLOR PLUGIN 11.3 Creating color setups Using the Color Setup Manager (Figure 14) and the options that are available in the New Color Setup dialog (Figure 15), you can add your own color setups to specify precisely how you want the colors in your jobs to be processed. The plugin already contains color setups which are invoked when a ProofReady profile (or a calibration profile in a pre-Eclipse RIP) is selected in a page setup.
USER GUIDE FOR HP 6 COLOR PLUGIN 4. Specify your color setup options. To correctly process the color in your jobs, the following options need to be specified: • Input Profiles • Output Profile • Output Rendering Intents The other options are optional and may be left at their default settings or changed as required. 5. When you have made your selections, click Save As and enter a name for your new color setup. To use your new color setup, select it from the Color drop-down list in your page setup.
USER GUIDE FOR HP 6 COLOR PLUGIN Solution: On the Apple Mac, set the system option Minimum memory left for system to 10000 KB. Large page sizes may need a larger value. For PC systems add more RAM to the machine. 12.2 Printer-specific messages and symptoms Many of the printer-specific warnings are informative messages, which can be ignored without any adverse effects. Other messages can often be cleared by aborting output from the RIP, clearing any used media from the printer and starting the job again.
USER GUIDE FOR HP 6 COLOR PLUGIN Job output for "job name" is aborting - Printer will print data that it has already received. Symptoms: May occur after an error has been reported. Solution: If the RIP aborted due to a problem with the parallel (LPT1) connection method, you may be prompted to retry or cancel the job. Click Cancel to abort the job and then check that the printer is switched on and connected using the correct cable.
USER GUIDE FOR HP 6 COLOR PLUGIN Solution: Check the status of the printer: make sure it is online, powered and connected. Also, check ink and media are loaded and ready to be used. If necessary, print a self-diagnostic test page. Your printer manual will have details on how to print a test page. Output appears clipped Symptoms: Printed output may be clipped at the top, bottom or side of the page when printing with large paper sizes or high resolutions.
USER GUIDE FOR HP 6 COLOR PLUGIN The path was not supplied This message appears when the file path is not specified in the Change... text box within the Configuration dialog box. To prevent this error, provide a valid file path. Unknown tag found in template This message appears when an unknown tag is found in the template. This is most likely due to a spelling error. Tag delimiter not found This message appears when a tag delimiter, either < or >, is missing from a tag.
USER GUIDE FOR HP 6 COLOR PLUGIN Windows2000/Windows XP Under Windows 2000 and Windows XP the parallel port driver can achieve higher data rates, especially when operated in ECP mode. Using this mode the operating system sometimes crashes or shuts itself down. You can avoid these problems by reconfiguring the parallel port in the BIOS to select the most basic configuration.
USER GUIDE FOR HP 6 COLOR PLUGIN AG50324 Rev.
