Send Images to Printer

The Send Images to Printer Action Task is used to (obviously) send images to the printer so they can be used as resources by documents run on the printer. They are comparable to Download to Printer action tasks (see Download to Printer), but they include image specific options. Furthermore, they can be used to send images not only to printers, but also to the virtual drive of other computers running PlanetPress Suite applications. Note that each Sent Images to Printer action task must be followed by a Printer Queue output task set to "passthrough", in order for the images to be actually sent to that printer.

Images sent to a printer are stored in the root folder of the printer’s hard disk, while images sent to the virtual drive of another computer are stored in a sub-folder of the PlanetPress Workflow folder.

Input

Any image file that you wish to upload to the printer.

Processing

The currently active image data file converted to postscript. The image's resolution, scan orientation, and quality can be modified, depending on the selected option. All files are converted into PostScript format for storage on the printer. If a virtual drive, the file is automatically sent to it.

Output

A postscript file containing the necessary code to save the data file on the hard drive.

Send Images to Printer action task properties are as follows:

General tab

Scan orientation: Select Side to side for images that will be printed in their original orientation on a portrait oriented page, or in a rotated orientation on a landscape page. Select Top to bottom for images that will be printed in a rotated orientation on a portrait oriented page, or in a rotated orientation on a portrait oriented page. Note that images that are meant to be printed in various ways can be stored twice on the printer as two identical copies of the same file that bear different names (Image_Original.tif and Image_Rotated.tif, for example). The first copy can be processed using a Send Images to Printer action task with the scan orientation set to Side to side, the second one with a different Send Images to Printer action task with the scan orientation set to Top to bottom, each one typically being included on two different branches of the same process.
Color conversion: Select As is to keep the color information included in the images. Select Grayscale to convert color images to grayscale.
Naming convention: Select ’File name, original’ to store the file under its original file name. Select ’File name, no extension’ to store the file without its original file name extension. Note that all characters are converted to uppercase and that extended characters (diacreased characters, such as é, for example) are not recommended in image file names.
Image quality: Select the same image quality chosen in the PlanetPress Design documents that reference the image files you are sending. In PlanetPress Design, this setting is included in the document’s resource options.
Image compression level: Select the level at which you want images to be compressed. Values can range from 1 (compress up to 1% of the image’s original size) to 100 (do not compress). For example if you set this box to 75, the Image Downloader compresses all images by 75% when it converts those image to PostScript. The default compression level is 70%.
Send to Virtual Drive of: Select the computers and/or printers to which the images are to be sent.
Refresh: Click to prompt PlanetPress Workflow to look again for available printers and computers.
Hard disk name and path: You may enter the name and path of the hard disk to which you want to send the images. Needless to say that this option is used if the device to which you are sending the images has multiple hard drives.
Print confirmation page: Select to print a confirmation page on each one of the selected printers after an image has been successfully received.

On Error Tab

By default, any action task, branch, splitter or condition that generates an error will simply be ignored, and the task just under it (not within a branch) will be given control of the job file without any modification. Any initial input task that generates an error will stop the process from running as a whole, and output tasks will not generate output. The On Error tab can be used to overwrite the default behaviors.

Send to Process: Check this option to send the job file to an error management process.
Error Process drop-down: Enabled only when the Send to Process option is checked. Lists any process of which the initial input task is the Input Error Bin task.
Action Group: This group is disabled in the initial input tasks and defaults to Stop Process. In all other tasks where the On Error tab is present, the following options are available:
- Ignore: The task is ignored as if it did not exist, and the job file is passed on to the next task in the process.
- Stop Branch: If the task is in a branch of the process, the branch is stopped and the job file is returned to the process after the branch. The branch will not produce any output.
- Stop Process: The process is stopped and no more processing is done. No further output is produced.
Log Message: Check this option to enable logging a custom error message in the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools' log file.
Message: Enabled only when the Log Message option is checked. Enter a message that will be logged in the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools' log file. You can use any variables available in PlanetPress Workflow to customize the message.
Store the message in variable: Select in which jobinfo, local or global variable you want to store the message content.
ID: Enter an error ID. This ID will be visible in the Windows Event Viewer. However, the ID is not visible in the PlanetPress Suite Workflow Tools' log file.
Store the ID in variable: Select in which jobinfo, local or global variable you want to store the error ID.
Reset to defaults: Resets all options in this tab to their default values.

If storing the message or ID, if they are store in a jobinfo they will be available in any error handling process where errors are being forwarded. In all cases, if your process continues after the error, the contents of the variables selected in this window will be available for the rest of your process, or whenever they are overwritten.

Common Errors

Though some error messages are specific to a task in particular, others may apply to any and all tasks because they are related more to the system than to PlanetPress itself. Some examples would be W3813, W3830, W3991, W4005. These correspond to issues such as not having any space to write files, permission errors on folders or files, etc.

Comments Tab

The Comments tab, added in PlanetPress Suite 7.5, is common to all tasks. It contains a single text area (Task comments) that lets you write comments about the task. These comments are saved when the dialog is closed with the OK button, and are displayed in The Task Comments Pane.