The VDI printer driver can be used in most cases without problems. Should difficulties arise nevertheless, then perhaps you can find a description of your problem and its solution in this section.
Depending on the speed of the computer and the interface over
which the printer is connected, printing in high resolutions in the
TrueColor
mode of the NVDI can take a very long time in some
circumstances (particularly with high resolution colour inkjet
printers).
Remedy:
In the NVDI control panel switch Printer
from
Greyscale
to Black/White
or if appropriate from
TrueColor
or 16 million colours
to 8 colours
.
But have no fear: Even in this mode all colours and grey tones will be printed. The difference is only that the rasterizing for the intermediate tones is now no longer performed by NVDI and its drivers, but by Calamus itself.
For this you can employ not just the Raster generator (which is recommended primarily for all laser printers), but also make use of Calamus' own dithering process for output if you wish (particularly well suited for inkjet printers).
Simply call up the Raster generator (from within the Print dialog)
and set there whether Calamus should always use its own ordered
dithering (Always use ordered dithering
active) or not.
As an additional bonus the quantity of data created by the VDI printer driver for the 8-colour mode will be reduced to such an extent that output is speeded up appreciably.
Naturally you can also use the StarScreening module or the
FM-Dither filter of the optional Filter module for the creation of a
Floyd-Steinberg
dither, which can also be output in 8-colour
mode.
If other programs that use VDI too output correctly, then the
error could also lie in the *.SYS drivers (see also Nothing
works
). Try first to print from other applications via various
printers. If this works with all printers, then please report
the error to us. Otherwise change over to the correct driver. Or
obtain a VDI update.
Try first whether VDI printing works from other applications. If this is not the case, then the error should be looked for in the VDI installation. In such cases check that all settings have been made correctly.
If necessary install the new driver files MACPRN.SYS and PAGEPRN.SYS from the GEMSYS folder.
Important: These files only work from NVDI version 4.11 onwards!
If printing does not work in high resolutions, then this can be due to several causes. Check first that there is sufficient free space on the hard disk. For printing an A4 page in colour at 720 dpi in TrueColor mode you require up to some 150 MB (!) on the VDI spool partition; if this has not been set (possible from NVDI 4.11 onwards) then this will be the partition from which Calamus was launched too.
If printing should not be possible despite sufficient space, check first that you have installed the current driver versions for VDI (PAGEPRN.SYS, MACPRN.SYS etc...).
If printing works in lower resolutions but not in the higher, then the error should be looked for normally not in the VDI printer driver for Calamus, but somewhere between this and the printer. In such cases please contact your dealer or the (N)VDI service hotline.
The Print dialog of Calamus does not show the resolution that you have set in the Control Panel for the VDI driver. You are probably working with an older version of NVDI, or you have forgotten to install the latest version of the CPX module.
This is a VDI error message. Unfortunately we can offer no solution either for this sporadically occurring error. It seems to be an error in VDI, which appears only rarely.
No VDI/GDOS has been installed.
or [Communication with VDI/GDOS does not work] For some reason the printer is not accessible. Check the VDI settings and the free system memory in the file CALAMUS.SET.
The driver reports back a format to which Calamus can not output as yet. Please be sure to report this error to us.
Calamus no longer has enough memory available to create a buffer required for converting data to the VDI format. If appropriate, switch on Calamus' virtual memory. Then try to load the printer driver once more.
For using the VDI driver under PowerMacs you should have at least System 7.5.3 Rev. 2 installed. With older versions you get system crashes.
