To: macgifts@mac.archive.umich.edu
Subject: [*] LaserWriter 8.x Hacks & Patches, version 1.1
Date: Tue, 07 Dec 93 11:40:16 EST
From: Don Markuson <dmm@tiger1.CV.COM>
Enclosed is a brief report on hacks and patches folks can make to the
LaserWriter 8.x driver to tailor it better to their needs or environment.
It covers how to:
- Make the SETUP button in the Chooser always active
- Disable the AppleTalk requirement (use to only generate PS files)
- Select N-up choices from the Print Dialog
- Modify N-up choices for additional/other layouts
- Disable N-up page borders
- Modify which fonts are included in PS files
- Disallow printing of multiple copies
- Avoid unnecessary use of the Symbol font for certain symbols
..Don Markuson
dmm@tiger1.cv.com
--------------Cut Here-------------
Patches YOU can make to LaserWriter 8.x. DMM Rev. 1.1 07-Dec-93
Supplementing Ric Ford's 28-Jun-93 MacWeek MacInTouch column on patches to the
LaserWriter 8 driver, here's some more info based on my own experimentation
with thanks to Ric and his sources. All require using ResEdit or equivalent,
however some have been incorporated into a new freeware tool called "Printer
Defaults" by John Rawnsley, which is intended to replace the aging MyPageSetup.
Look for rev 1.1.1 or later at standard archive sites.
ALWAYS MAKE A BACKUP COPY OF THE DRIVER BEFORE MONKEYING WITH IT USING RESEDIT!
1) MAKE SETUP BUTTON IN CHOOSER ALWAYS ACTIVE
To make the Setup button in the Chooser always active (i.e., so it works
even when AppleTalk is disabled or you have no PostScript printers on the
network):
In ResEdit, open the nrct resources by double-clicking on their icon, then
double-click on nrct -4096. Change the second rectangle from 0,0,0,0 to
match the first rectangle (112,178,132,255 in US versions of LW 8). Then
change the first rectangle to 9999,9999,9999,9999. (If you change the
first to 0,0,0,0, you'll get a strange-looking circle in some weird place
in the Chooser window because this button is outlined.)
You've now enabled the Setup button that's always active and disabled the
one that stays grayed out until a configurable printer shows up in your
network.
2) DISABLE APPLETALK REQUIREMENT
To patch driver not to require AppleTalk (e.g., so you can use it in PS
file generation mode when not on a network):
Open the PACK resources by double-clicking, then double-click on the PACK
-4096 resource to open it (using the Hex Editor). Change the byte at
offset 000C from "ED" to "6D". This works best in combination with the
nrct patch discussed above to activate the Setup button in the Chooser at
all times.
Fortunately, there's no longer a need to patch the driver to always
generate a PS file, since the choice to generate PS files in the Print
dialog is now "sticky".
Once you've saved this change and exited ResEdit, you need to "flush the
Chooser's cache" for this change to be noticed: remove all LaserWriter 8
variants from the Extensions and/or System Folder (e.g. move them onto the
desktop), open the Chooser, close the Chooser, and finally put your LW 8
variants back.
!! WARNING !! A LaserWriter driver crippled in this manner will no longer
!! WARNING !! see printers on an AppleTalk network (LocalTalk -or-
!! WARNING !! EtherTalk). This patch is intended only for those who have
!! WARNING !! no such network and want to just generate PS files. If
!! WARNING !! you're a portable Mac user and move between a networked and
!! WARNING !! non-networked environment, keep two copies of the LW driver,
!! WARNING !! one patched to avoid AppleTalk and the other regular.
3) SELECT N-UP FROM PRINT DIALOG
To allow N-up choices directly within the Print Dialog (in addition to
Page Setup):
The DITL -8191 resource includes an N-up pull-down menu way off the right
side of the dialog. To pull it in, open the DITL resources by double-
clicking on their icon, then JUST SELECT (click once) on DITL -8191.
Pull down "Open Using Template..." from ResEdit's Resource menu, and use
the "DITL" template (which should be the default choice). Scroll to the
bottom of the list to item 31, which should look something like:
31) *****
Display rect: 46 600 63 770
Item type: $07
Item info: <some binary bytes>
Change the display rect to something inside the visible dialog area; I
used:
Display rect: 46 110 63 280
Do NOT click on the "Set" button to the right of this entry; simply close
the window to make the change.
This places the N-up pull-down just below "Pages:" in the Print dialog.
The N-up setting for the document can be changed using either this
control or the one in Page Setup; once you change it, that setting
is retained and will be the default for the next time Page Setup or Print
are used.
(I've been told the above placement for this control isn't the best choice
if you've got a printer which supports PostScript FAX, since a FAX radio
button appears in this area of the Print dialog. Another strategy would
be to move Item 30 off-screen (it seems to be simply a status field which
reiterates the N-up setting when greater than 1), and then move the N-up
pull down control into the lower left area of the dialog where this field
used to be. Item 21, the outline surrounding the "Paper Source" area of
the dialog must have its height shrunk in order to allow mouse clicks to
reach the N-up pull-down. Feel free to experiment.)
4) MODIFY N-UP CHOICES
To modify the N-up dialog to alter or add other organizations you might
desire instead of the 1-, 2-, and 4-up organizations provided:
Up to 8 choices, or N-up menu items, are allowed (including 1-up, which
should not be modified). Open the MENU resources by double-clicking on
their icon, then double-click on MENU -8185. Clicking to select a menu
item allows you to change the text of that entry. You can also alter
its text style using the Style menu which appears when MENU items are
opened. I don't recommend changing any other attributes. To add another
choice to the list, select "Create New Resource" from ResEdit's Resource
menu.
The corresponding specification for each N-up layout is in the NPLY -8192
resource. This resource consists of x-1 groups of 3 longwords (12 bytes),
where x is the number of N-up choices (subtracting one because 1-up is not
represented in this resource). The 3 longwords are:
1. 0 = portrait, 1 = landscape orientation of layout on paper
2. the number of columns in the layout
3. the number of rows in the layout
and each one corresponds to its positional location in the MENU resource
(excepting 1-up, of course). The original MENU -8185 and corresponding
NPLY -8192 are:
MENU choice Landscape # columns # rows
----------- --------- --------- ---------
1-up (not represented in NPLY)
2-up 0000 0001 0000 0002 0000 0001
4-up 0000 0000 0000 0002 0000 0002
Others you could add:
6-up 0000 0001 0000 0003 0000 0002
8-up 0000 0001 0000 0004 0000 0002
9-up 0000 0000 0000 0003 0000 0003
16-up 0000 0000 0000 0004 0000 0004
1000-up (!) 0000 0001 0000 0028 0000 0019
If everything is done properly, the visual effect of N-up in the Page
Setup dialog should work correctly for the choices you've added or changed.
5) DISABLE N-UP BORDERS
Starting at LaserWriter version 8.1.1, it's particularly easy: Open the
PRFS resources by double-clicking on their icon, then double-click on PRFS
-8192. You should be presented with a nice template of yes/no choices.
Change the one labelled "Don't frame n-up pages" from 0 to 1. (I'm not
altogether clear on what the other options do.)
For earlier revs of LaserWriter 8.x, open the PS resources by double-
clicking, then double-click on the PS -8184 resource to open it (using the
Hex Editor). Change the byte at offset 04EB from 0D (carriage-return) to
25 ('%' PS comment character). [In LW 8.1.1, the offset is 051C, but above
method is much nicer.]
6) MODIFY WHICH FONTS ARE INCLUDED IS PS FILES
The resource which contains the list of Excludable Fonts is STR# -8174,
and MENU -8180 is where the "All But Standard 13" text is kept. Let's say
you wanted to make this "All But Standard 35", excluding the LaserWriter
Plus set of fonts. Here's what to do:
Open MENU items by double-clicking on their icon, then double-click on MENU
-8180 to open it (you may have to scroll to see it). Select the "All But
Standard 13" item and change the "13" to "35" in the Text box on the right.
It turns out the pull-down control for this selection is only wide enough
to accommodate "All But Standard 13" and can't handle the slightly wider
"35". To correct this, double-click your way to open the CNTL -8180
resource. Increase its width slightly by changing the rightmost number
from 257 to 265.
Similarly, double-click your way to open STR# -8174. To add new entries,
scoot to the bottom and click on the "14) *****" text; an outline should
appear. Pull down "Insert New Field(s)" from the Resource menu (or type
it shortcut, Command-K). Do this 22 times (35 - 13) to insert enough blank
entries, then fill them in with the following LaserWriter Plus font names:
AvantGarde-Book
AvantGarde-BookOblique
AvantGarde-Demi
AvantGarde-DemiOblique
Bookman-Light
Bookman-LightItalic
Bookman-Demi
Bookman-DemiItalic
Helvetica-Narrow
Helvetica-Narrow-Oblique
Helvetica-Narrow-Bold
Helvetica-Narrow-BoldOblique
NewCenturySchlbk-Roman
NewCenturySchlbk-Italic
NewCenturySchlbk-Bold
NewCenturySchlbk-BoldItalic
Palatino-Roman
Palatino-Italic
Palatino-Bold
Palatino-BoldItalic
ZapfChancery-MediumItalic
ZapfDingbats
An alternative to this method is to use Hugo Ayala's handy shareware
Trimmer control panel, which continues to work with LaserWriter 8.x as it
has with LaserWriter 7.x. This tool lists your installed fonts and easily
lets you select which ones are to be included. (Its checkbox to Include
LaserWriter Header has no meaning with LW 8.x.)
7) DISALLOW PRINTING MULTIPLE COPIES
Here's what to do to prevent users from (easily) printing multiple copies
using LW8. (Users can, of course, print their document more than once, and
if they're going to do this, it's *much* more efficient on network band-
width and printer availability to allow them to specify multiple copies in
the LW driver):
Open the DITL resources by double-clicking on their icon, then double-click
on DITL -8191. Double-click on the boxed field where the number of copies
would be entered (item #10, it should appear with a "1" in it). Change its
type from "Edit Text" to "Static Text" using the pull down menu that should
appear.
This turns out to be all that's needed. However to make it a bit harder
for a bright user to defeat, make the following minor mod as well, so even
if they figure how to specify >1 copy, the PostScript code will ignore it:
Open the STRI resources by double-clicking on their icon, then double-click
on STRI -8188 to open it using the Hex Editor. Pull down "Find ASCII" from
the Find menu. Find ASCII "/copies ^d def copies setcopies"
Change To: "^d pop/copies 1 def 1 setcopies"
8) AVOID UNNECESSARY USE OF Symbol FONT
LaserWriter drivers since the early days have relied upon the Symbol font
for printing the following symbols from the upper half of Apple's standard
roman font encoding:
LW7 LW8 Unnecessarily
Encoding Character Sub? Sub? Substituted
-------- ------------ ---- ---- -------------
A1 degree * * *
A8 registered * *
A9 copyright * *
AA trademark * *
AD notequal * *
B0 infinity * *
B1 plusminus * * *
B2 lessequal * *
B3 greaterequal * *
B5 mu * * *
B6 partialdiff * *
B7 Sigma * *
B8 Pi * *
B9 pi * *
BA integral * *
BD Omega * *
C2 logicalnot * *
C3 radical * *
C5 approxequal * *
C6 Delta * *
D6 divide * *
D7 lozenge * *
E0 applelogo * *
[LaserWriter 7.x used LW7 Sub? list for resident (ROM-based) fonts and
LW8 Sub? list for downloaded fonts (PostScript or TrueType).]
Because of this substitution, these symbols will not print with attributes
like bold or italics (even if they appear that way on-screen). If you've
got a relatively recent printer (certainly any PS Level 2 printer), then
you can alter the LaserWriter driver to not switch to the Symbol font for
the unnecessarily substituted symbols above.
In LaserWriter 8.x, the mapping table is in resource encM -8192; open it
by double-clicking your way into it. It is a table of byte values indexed
by Mac character encoding values starting at hex A0, so the first byte in
the table corresponds to character encoding A0. If the corresponding byte
in the table is non-zero, it represents that character's substitute
encoding in the Symbol font. Change the bytes at the following offsets to
00 in order to prevent unnecessary substitutions:
Offset From To
------ ---- ----
0001 B0 --> 00
0011 B1 --> 00
0015 6D --> 00
0036 B8 --> 00
To save your changes in ResEdit, simply quit ResEdit, answering "Yes" to the
inevitable question about whether you really want to save your changes.
Patches still being sought:
- Allow PostScript file generation to be backgrounded. It is presently
crippled to work only in foreground for consistency with the EPS-with-
Preview modes which can't be backgrounded because of the Preview.
Grateful acknowledgements go to the following folks for their inputs:
- Dennis Chesters, who prompted me to investigate the Symbol font funniness.
- John Kalucki, who sent me some interesting N-up hacks that are too
specialized to include here.
- Edgar Knapp, who suggested a suitable warning accompany hack #2.
- Mike McDuffie, who incorporated some of these into a ResCompare patcher.
- John Rawnsley, who brought the LW 8.1.1 PRFS resource to my attention, and
took it upon himself to update the aging and sometimes cranky MyPageSetup
tool with his recent freeware "Printer Defaults", which as a bonus also
allows you to incorporate some of the above hacks (or remove them).
And special thanks go to:
- Richard Blanchard, who helped design and build LaserWriter 8, for sneaking
many of the hooks needed for these patches into LW 8 knowing there are
folks out there like you and me who might want to exploit them!
- Ric Ford, who courageously publicizes and investigates Mac problems, then
vents our collective frustrations to Apple in a way that's both helpful
and entertaining. I never miss his MacInTouch column in MacLeak!
Happy hacking!
..Don Markuson
Computervision Corp.
201 Burlington Road
Bedford, MA 01730
<dmm@tiger1.cv.com> or
<d.markuson@ieee.org>