HELIOS PrintPreview UB User manual

4 Preferences

This chapter lists all preferences that are pertinent to PrintPreview. Find a description of how to set, view, change or delete preferences, with the HELIOS utility programs "prefdump", "prefvalue", and "prefrestore", in the Base manual.

Important: Make sure that preference keys DO NOT start or end with a slash ("/") character, and note that they are case-sensitive! Also, if any preference key or preference value includes spaces, that key or value must be enclosed in quotes.

Key: Printers/<printer queue>/<preference>

Preference

Type Default (""=empty string)

separations

bool FALSE

(Admin option Include Separations)

The parameter controls whether or not you want to have previews of the separation plates of your document.

inripseparations

bool FALSE

(Admin option In-RIP Separations)

If set to TRUE, PrintPreview generates separated raster data for process and spot colors, directly from a composite PostScript job. See also A 1.4 ,Using in-RIP separation with PrintPreview".

combine

bool TRUE

(Admin option Include Color Preview)

This parameter controls whether or not the composite view of your document is included in the preview file.

wait

bool TRUE

(Admin option Suppress Forward to Hold Queue)

This preference will induce PrintPreview to keep the preview file in the preview queue instead of forwarding it to a hold queue. Set this preference to FALSE if you want to activate automatic forwarding of print jobs.

antialias

bool TRUE

(Admin option Antialias)

This parameter controls whether or not smoothing of contours should be applied to the preview files. It should only be switched to FALSE if the preview resolution (see resolution) exceeds the monitor resolution.

infopage

bool TRUE

(Admin option Info Page)

By default, PrintPreview generates an info page for each job on a preview queue and adds it to the preview file. Set this parameter to FALSE to switch off the insertion of the info page.

resolution

int 72

(Admin option Resolution)

This preference lets you specify the resolution (in dpi) you want to have for your preview files.

pdfcompression

str "none"

(Admin option Compression)

Allowed strings for defining the compression of preview files are none, zip, and jpeg. none is the default. zip is best-suited, because it guarantees lossless compression. The jpeg quality of compression depends on jpegquality (see below).

jpegquality

int 75

(Admin option Compression)

This parameter lets you specify the JPEG compression quality of preview files in a range from 1-100.

JPEG Low Quality 20
JPEG Medium Quality 50
JPEG High Quality 75
JPEG Maximum Quality 100

thumbnails

bool TRUE

If set to TRUE, preview files will contain thumbnails of all pages you have printed.

thumbnailresolution

int 8

You can define a resolution for the thumbnails. The default resolution is 8 dpi.

ppdlanguagelevel

bool TRUE

PrintPreview uses for PostScript interpretation the PostScript level that is stated in the queue's PPD file. In case no PPD file has been assigned, the default language level is 2. If this parameter is set to FALSE it induces PrintPreview to ignore the PPD file entry and to use the default PostScript Level 2.

languagelevel

int 2

With this option, you can force PrintPreview to use a specific PostScript language level. Possible values are "1", "2" and "3". If you set languagelevel, this will override the PPD file setting, and the option ppdlanguagelevel - if it is specified at all - will be ignored as well.

logpserrors

bool TRUE

Usually, PostScript errors - if there are any - are added to the printer log file. You can switch off the recording of PostScript errors by setting the flag to FALSE.

swopcrd

bool FALSE

A preview queue can be regarded as an RGB or CMYK PostScript device. When rendering a job on a preview queue, a so-called CRD (Color Rendering Dictionary) is required for the transformation of PostScript CIE-based colors in a job. Two CRDs are initialized by default - one for the transformation of CIE-based colors into RGB and one for the transformation into CMYK. The RGB CRD corresponds to EBU-RGB, the CMYK CRD corresponds to Euroscale CMYK. The swopcrd flag can be used to change the CMYK standard and select SWOP instead of Euroscale. Particularly customers with SWOP printing inks should set this flag.

vmsize

int 30720000

This parameter controls the PrintPreview virtual RIP memory (in bytes) for creating screen previews in layout files. You should use the parameter to enter a value higher than the default - lower values are not recommended.

gvmsize

int 5120000

This parameter controls the PrintPreview global virtual RIP memory (in bytes) for creating screen previews in layout files. You should use the parameter to enter a value higher than the default - lower values are not recommended.

pdfdir

str ""

(Admin option Directory)

This parameter may be used to save new preview files automatically into an already created "pdfdir" directory on the server. The value for this preference must be a full UNIX path name, e.g. "/data/previews". The hold queue contains a symbolic link to the preview file in the "pdfdir" directory.

Note: If the print job is renamed or removed from its original location the link does not work anymore and you will not be able to access the preview from HELIOS Admin.

Note: Preview files that are saved into a UNIX directory (using this parameter) will automatically be assigned a file name extension, namely ".pdf".

pdfresolve

bool TRUE

If a file is sent to a preview queue, with this option set to FALSE, the print job remains "untouched" and is processed without any changes.

pdfprefix

str ""

(Admin option Name Prefix)

This parameter will only be recognized if pdfdir is specified as well. With "str", you can define a file name prefix for all preview files that are sent to the selected directory. This can help you classify your previews if you have several preview queues and save all preview files into the same directory.

pdfnotifyprog

str ""

(Admin option Notify Program)

This parameter will only be recognized if pdfdir is specified as well. It lets you enter the path to a UNIX program, e.g. "/usr/local/bin/pdfnotify". This program will be started automatically after printing has been finished successfully.

"viewif" exports the following environment variables during the program call:

HELIOSDIR=
<environment variable for the HELIOS install path>

HELIOS_JOBFOR=
<user name (if available) of print job creator>

HELIOS_JOBUSER=
<user name (if available) as known to "lpd">

HELIOS_JOBHOST=
<name (if available) of server which hosts the printer queue>

HELIOS_JOBTITLE=
<print job title (if available)>

HELIOS_PRINTERNAME=
<logical (UNIX) name of the printer queue>

HELIOS_JOBPAGES=
<expected number of pages. This value may differ slightly from the actual number>

HELIOS_JOBSIZE=
<expected print job size (in bytes). The stated value is often smaller than the actual size>

HELIOS_VFFILE=
<name of created PDF file>

pdfuserdir

bool FALSE

(Admin option Create folder for each user)

Specifies if the PDF files are stored in a separate folder per user.

compatibility

int 3

Specifies the Acrobat compatibility level of the generated PDF files. There are two values available:

3=PDF 1.2 (Acrobat 3)
4=PDF 1.3 (Acrobat 4)

If the compatibility level is set to 4, and the preview queue has a printer or proof profile attached, then this ICC profile will be included in the generated PDF file, and the generated bitmaps use ICC-based color spaces.