A delirium.
"Printing in color from Windows is a complex ballet
of application software, the printer driver, and even the video driver."
- PC Magazine

 

New

and Win 7

 

WinLINE Windows Plotting That Works since 1994
No problems running Windows 95/98, ME, NT4, 2000/2003 and XP, Win, Vista, Win 7 32 & 64
for all Pen Plotters, Raster Plotters, Vinyl Cutters and Engravers

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Why is there a need for WinLINE?

• Microsoft Windows’ printing architecture provides a device independent software interface for printer devices, the Windows System Printer Driver Interface.
• Standard Windows programs rely on Windows printer drivers to print to particular printer model.
• The problem is that Windows, Plotters and Applications usually don't give good drivers,
  up-to-date (Win Vista, Win 7) or they don't give at all for old pen plotters or just discontinued inkjet/laser plotters.
• Discontinuous development by the plotters Producer

CAD & VISTA 64 CAD users have reported problems when printing in VISTA 64. Vista 64 users have reported problems when attempting to print via a TCP/IP port. We have reproduced the problem using a DesignJet with a JetDirect TCP/IP connection. The problem occurs when we print from Vista 64, but not when we print from other versions of Windows. Vista 64's print spooler apparently is not communicating correctly with the TCP/IP port. If that is the case, then full resolution of the problem would occur when Microsoft fixes the relevant code in Vista 64. For the meantime, we have figured out a workaround that appears to circumvent the problem: you'll need a WinLINE driver. February 16, 2009

What is WinLINE?

• An efficient vector mode Windows system printer driver for plotters, printers, vinyl cutters flatbed cutters and engravers. Complete support is included in the WinLINE Classic download.

What does WinLINE do?

• Works with standard Windows programs to generate output for pen plotters, inkjet plotters, vinyl cutters and engravers through Microsoft's system printer driver interface.
• Prints vector data efficiently and reliably using HPGL, HP-GL/2, DMPL, HP-RTL and PCL instructions
• Gives you control over media size and positioning
• Works with all Windows compliant networks and ports.
• Delivers control of color, line width and minimizes media consumption through a standard interface.

Use WinLINE to print accurately and efficiently from Windows programs to your output device
WinLINE supports the following types of vector devices:

HPGL Pen Plotters

The HPGL plotter driver which is distributed with Windows 95/98/Me wasn’t written by Microsoft or Hewlett Packard. It was originally developed by a company in Texas for an earlier version of Windows, and was only designed in the first place to work with one particular application.

Common problems with this HPGL driver include:

• Unrecoverable Application Errors
• General Protection Faults
• Out of bounds pen movements
• Incorrect line style
• Poor performance for wide lines
• Errors rendering arcs
• Spurious lines
• Incomplete plot
• Low resolution affecting curve smoothness
• Polygon fills do not take account of pen widths
• Incorrect text sizing, positioning and/or rotation
• Drawing does not fit on the sheet
• Microsoft doesn't include support for HPGL devices with Windows NT4/2000/XP.

HP-GL/2 Plotters

Microsoft doesn’t include support for HP-GL/2 devices with Windows 95/98/Me, but does provide an HP-GL/2 driver with Windows NT4/2000/XP. WinLINE makes pen plotters work efficiently with popular Windows programs by translating the printed page into efficient vector graphics statements that pen plotters can understand.

Common problems with the NT4/2000/XP plotter driver include:

• Output data size up to ~10x larger than drawing size
• Slow plot generation
• Incomplete paper size support
• Poor performance for wide lines
• Jagged rendering of diagonal lines
• Incorrectly joined polylines
• Spurious lines
• Errors rendering arcs
• Incomplete plot
• Low resolution affecting curve smoothness
• Polygon fills do not take account of pen widths
• Lack of support for HPGL and DMPL languages
• Driver does not exist for the plotter model

Raster Plotters

Hewlett Packard officially calls its large format devices DesignJet printers, not DesignJet plotters. The HP DesignJet Windows drivers don’t provide an interface for controlling color and line widths, or for optimising output for vector mode applications. WinLINE outputs CAD and line drawings efficiently on raster plotters including HP DesignJets, ENCAD, Oce, Calcomp and Xerox. Whilst ordinary printer drivers may treat plotters like very large, slow, desktop printers, WinLINE uses the native vector graphics capabilities of your large format plotter to render CAD and line drawings at maximum speed. Your productivity increases and your creative control expands every time WinLINE completes a faster print cycle.

WinLINE produces high fidelity output with control over line colors and line widths, the definitive range of paper size support, custom paper size support up to 200m (660ft), and vertical tiling for rendering very large output from programs like Corel Draw that don't support very large page sizes.

WinLINE provides CAD users with line and pen management functions for printing drawings from popular CAD programs such as AutoCAD, CadKey and IntelliCAD on large format inkjet and electrostatic devices.WinLINE solves these problems with a driver platform that is specifically engineered for vector devices and which has been acclaimed throughout the CAD industry since 1993 as the leading Windows driver for pen plotters.

Vinyl Cutters and Engravers

Vinyl cutters and engravers have traditionally been used with stand-alone signwriting programs which require the outut device to be directly connected to the workstation and driven directly by the program.
WinLINE supports page sizes up to 200m (660ft) in length and works with programs that don't support large page sizes through vertical tiling.

Engravers have traditionally been used with stand-alone engraving programs which require the outut device to be directly connected to the workstation and driven directly by the program.
WinLINE enables cutters and engravers to be used with popular vector illustration and CAD programs such as Corel Draw and AutoCAD LT with full network connectivity achieved through integration with Windows Print Manager.
WinLINE renders TrueType fonts as outlines, making any Windows program that prints TrueType text capable of working with your engraver, including Office applications such as Excel and Word.

PCL Printers (PCL 5 and higher)

HP LaserJet (using HP-GL/2 language)

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HPGL Language Files

HPGL and HP-GL/2 are popular vector file formats used to import/export data from diverse sources. WinLINE’s generic HPGL model support produces output using a subset of HPGL commands which can be understood by the simplest HPGL import processes and devices.
Use WinLINE's generic HPGL output with popular viewing, archiving and document management systems.

Hewlett Packard, ENCAD, Roland DG and a long list of software publishers have worked with Software Mechanics to help make WinLINE available as a third party solution for people who use vector devices with Windows.

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