Hua Xia Wen Zhai (CND-CM) Printing Help File Table of Contents: Line No. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. What are needed to print GB code?................................. 22 2. Basic concept to print a GB file ................................. 42 3. How to print GB files on IBM-PC .................................. 62 4. How to print GB files on Macintosh ............................... 75 5. How to print GB files on UNIX .................................... 87 6. How to print GB files on VAX/VMS ................................. 99 7. How to print out HXWZ PostScript Version .........................108 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author: Chen Jian 5/5/1991 Last revised 5/9/1992 [On multiple-user printers, please try to avoid printing HXWZ during the working hours. Thank you for being considerate to other users.] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. What are needed to print GB code? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- HXWZ uses GB (Guo2 Biao1) code as its file format. Basically, to print a GB code file is the same as to print an ASCII file. But the GB code files are not very polular in the current computer system, so for the GB code users, they have to use some special program to translate GB code to the printer acceptable code. We only discuss GB code file in current help file. There are several other coding schemes for Chinese characters today, like Hz, zW, BIG5 etc. Like displaying Chinese character on the screen, some basic hardware and software are required. For the hardware, one of the following printer is required: 9 pin dot printer, 24 pin dot printer, HP laser printer laser printer with Postscript capability. For the software, at least two files are required. One is GB code file that you want to print out, e.g. cm9205b.gb. The other is the driver program, e.g. dayin24, cpl-11, gb2ps. Usually, the driver program does not contain Ziku (Chinese fonts) files, so the Ziku files are required to support the driver program. Examples of Ziku files are ziku24.1, ziku24.2, csong24.plib. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Basic concept to print a GB file ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This topic is only for a user who wants to write his own driver program. The element of GB code is a two-bytes binary code. One GB element represents one Chinese character. Each Chinese character is a "drawing", it can be drawn by bitmap or vector (matrix). 24x24 is a very popular size for bitmap Chinese character font, that means each character is formed by 24x24 points. Ziku file contains all these (6768 characters for the whole GuoBiao Code Table) drawing of Chinese characters. The order of the Chinese characters in the Ziku file is fixed. The order can be arranged according to a particular coding scheme and is thus associated sometimes with names like GB, Big5, etc. Actually, one GB element represents an address of the character in the Ziku file. So the basic functions of the driver program are to 1)read a GB code, 2)find the character's address, 3)take out the character "drawing" from Ziku; 4) send the "drawing" to printer. All the above processor is the same as with the ASCII printing. Almost all the GB code printing processor is done by software, but ASCII code can be done by hardware. Different machine has to have different driver program, but Ziku can be the same. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. How to print GB files on IBM-PC ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Printer drivers for dot-matrix printers, HP laser jets and Postscript printers are available for PC users. They are in src/pc/ directory at ahkcus.org for ftp(see FTP help file). BYX byxprn1.exe, byxprn2.exe and byxprn3.exe support the 9 pin and 24 pin dot printer program. Program cpl-11 and hz24 support HP laser printer. If the user has C compiler in his machine, he can get gb2ps.c in the src/unix to transfer GB code files to PostScript files. The output files have to send to PostScript acceptable laser printer. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. How to print GB files on Macintosh ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Not too many FREE Chinese Word Processors are available for Macintosh right now. Program MacHanzi and Qread can display GB code file on screen and send the file to printer when print command in pull down menu is clicked at. (Please be patient, it will take a little bit longer time to get a hardcopy.) Please check the Macintosh help file to get detail information about Macintosh printing feature in src/mac/ directory at ahkcus.org for ftp (see FTP help file). ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. How to print GB files on UNIX ------------------------------------------------------------------------- There is only PostScript driver program for the UNIX system. The source code program is in anonymous@ahkcus.org src/unix (see FTP help file). There are two source code files there right now. One is GB2PS, the other is HZ2PS. The detail information has been included in the package. Another program can help reader transfer GB file to PostScript, called ChTeX. Interested readers can anonymous ftp to uhunix2.uhcc.hawaii.edu (128.171.44.7) to get those programs, directory name is /pub/TeX/ChTeX. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. How to print GB files on VAX/VMS ------------------------------------------------------------------------- For the VMS system, we only have one program available right now, it is GB2PS. The executable program is in anonymous@ahkcus.org, src/vms. Please get the gb2ps.readme as well as gb2ps.exe. gb2ps.readme gives all the information about setting define, running, and printing. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7. How to print out HXWZ PostScript Version ------------------------------------------------------------------------- CND-CM group (HXWZ editorial board) supplies HXWZ PostScript (PS) version to the readers. The file is in anonymous@ahkcus.org gb/cnd-cm. Only current issue of HXWZ is available. The file will be updated on Friday morning. For the detail information, please read HXWZ_PS.TXT in the same directory. Normally, it will take about 30 minutes to print out one issue of HXWZ. If you don't have your own laser printer, please do not print the HXWZ PS version in the working hours. It could cause inconvenience to other users.