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Our new product, ScriptServer PAN, runs on Linux and other Unix operating systems and supports:
Take a look at ScriptServer PAN!
ScriptServer is a software package that provides full-function printing
capabilities under OpenVMS. It allows you to connect virtually any PostScript-
and/or PCL-based printer to your VAX or Alpha AXP system, without having
to sacrifice printer functionality or performance.
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ScriptServer software integrates seamlessly into the OpenVMS environment. The central component of ScriptServer is the symbiont, which acts as the 'processor' for an OpenVMS queue. The user interface, the SCRIPT facility, uses the same command qualifiers as the standard PRINT command, plus many more that access the enhanced functionality available to ScriptServer users. When printing PostScript, PCL, and ASCII files that don't require special formatting, the standard PRINT command can be used to enter jobs into ScriptServer queues.
ScriptServer gives you the freedom to choose your OpenVMS printers without having to worry about whether your printing software will support the particular capabilities of the printer. In addition, it lets you:
ScriptServer supports any printer based on the PostScript and PCL page description languages. Since the software automatically determines your printers' capabilities, such as page description language(s), color, duplexing, fonts, etc., you can be sure your users get the most of your printers with a minimum of configuration.
Digital's DCPS (DECprint Supervisor) was originally created to support Digital LPS series printers using Digital's proprietary CPAP (DECnet-based) network printing protocol. It supports a limited number of third-party printing products over conventional serial and LAT connections.
ScriptServer software consists of the print symbiont, which handles communication with the printer, the SCRIPT facility, which provides the menu interface for faxing and ASCII translation, the EPS2FORM utility, which converts EPS files to PostScript Level 2 forms, a configuration utility, and the Network Console, which allows the management and monitoring of ScriptServer queues from a Windows 95 or Windows NT computer.
ScriptServer Electronic Forms allow you to replace your pre-printed business
forms with PostScript software forms that are generated automatically on-the-fly.
ScriptServer software includes the EPS2FORM utility, which takes your Encapsulated
PostScript (EPS) file and converts it to PostScript Level 2 form, which is used
as a backdrop to your ASCII print file.
A major advantage of Electronic Forms, in addition to the savings in pre-printed
forms, is that the form resides in your printer (either permanently or for the
duration of the print job) and is transmitted to the printer only once.
There are a variety of licensing options for ScriptServer software. The
most frequently used is per-node licensing, in which a single OpenVMS computer
is licensed for any number of ScriptServer print queues. If the computer
is a member of a VMScluster, the entire cluster must be licensed, since
all nodes in the cluster have access to the print queues throughout the
cluster. License options include the Network Option, which supports printing
to most network-based printers, and the DQS option, which supports Digital's
Distributed Queueing System software.
Site-based and company-wide licensing is also available.
When a ScriptServer queue starts up, it conducts a dialog with the printer,
determining its various capabilities, and associating the capabilities with
the print queue in the form of OpenVMS queue characteristics. This allows
print jobs to be automatically routed to the printer with the required capabilities.
Among the capabilities determined at queue start-up are:
The SCRIPT facility allows you to control how files are converted from ASCII to PostScript during printing. Its default mode of operation is menu mode, but also allows you access to all of its features from the command line. Among the over forty parameters you can access in the SCRIPT facility are:
Furthermore, the SCRIPT facility can be used to associate SCRIPT settings with print queues, OpenVMS forms, or on a system-wide basis so that users can access these features using the PRINT command.
ScriptServer provides full access to printer-based PostScript fonts. It also supports font downloading to printer RAM and to the printer's hard disk, if present. Permanently downloaded fonts are checked at queue startup, and only downloaded if not already present in the printer. Also, fonts can be downloaded on a job-specific basis using the PRELOAD parameter with the PRINT command.
With ScriptServer software you can copy an OpenVMS file to a printer
hard disk. You can also rename and delete files on the disk. Also, PostScript
files can be executed and fonts can be downloaded to the hard disk so that
they are permanently available.
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ScriptServer allows you to select paper trays using the SHEET_SIZE parameter with the PRINT command. Using the SCRIPT facility, you can also associate paper sizes with OpenVMS form names, so that they can be accessed using the PRINT/FORM command.
ScriptServer gives you direct access to virtually any feature available on your printers, including duplexing, fonts, envelope feeders, and paper trays. Because ScriptServer uses a device control library that you can add your own commands to, you can extend and modify how the ScriptServer print symbiont accesses printer features.
One of ScriptServer's greatest strengths lies in its communications flexibility. You can connect to printers using the following types of connections:
You can also perform output from ScriptServer to other print queues (using foreign queue support) and to OpenVMS directories (using repository queue support.)
The ScriptServer Network Console allows you to monitor all of your ScriptServer
queues network-wide from a Windows 95 or Windows NT computer. With the Console,
you can see the current status of all print queues that are online, and
view the active print jobs.
You can also create, delete, and reconfigure print queues, and you can delete
the active job on any print queue.
When a problem occurs that causes a print queue to stall, you receive an
alarm message that details the cause of the stall, such as paper out or
paper jam.
Furthermore, you will receive all OPCOM messages generated by ScriptServer
queues throughout your network.
Whenever a queue-specific problem occurs (such as a paper jam) it alerts
the system administrator by generating an OPCOM message, and it sends both
the OPCOM message and an alarm message to the Network
Console.
When a job-specific problem occurs (such as a PostScript error) the ScriptServer
print symbiont generates a Print Log at end of the job that tells what error
occured and when it was detected by the symbiont.
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