Zenographics SuperPrint 3.0 with ZScript
                              
                             BY
                        DONALD JENNER
                              
                         SPECIAL TO
                       Corel Magazine
                              

     PostScript is, without doubt, the standard way for

graphics programs to output information -- sadly.  It's an

old standard, and its a slow standard, and it's an expensive

standard.  Zenographics solves those problems with its new

ZScript / SuperPrint 3.0 combination.

     SuperPrint has been around for awhile; it has been the

preferred host-based rasterizer-cum-device-driver for a wide

variety of hard-copy graphics devices, from lowly dot-matrix

printers to high-end film recorders, and including just

about every Hewlett-Packard PCL-type laser printer.  ZScript

is Zenographics' PostScript interpreter; it captures the

PostScript output from a Windows application such as Corel

Draw or PageMaker, interprets it, and passes it to

SuperPrint.

     SuperPrint 3.0 looks much the same as it did in the

past.  SuperText, the SuperPrint typeface manager, is now

entirely optional; where the last SuperPrint iteration

supported both TrueType and ATM approaches, the new version

is clearly intended to favor these typeface strategies,

using SuperText to provide ancillary support for other

typeface libraries.

     SuperQueue, SuperPrint's print-time manager, gets some

ease-of-use enhancements.  It remains among the most elegant

network printing tools around.  Run SuperQueue on the

printer server, and have each local station direct its

SuperPrint output to the queuing directory on that machine.

SuperQueue "sees" the arriving file, queues it and processes

it.  This is trivial to set up, and greatly improves print-

time throughput over sending raw printer data over the

network.

     The SuperDrivers themselves have been spiffed up; the

suite we saw was limited to those intended for the over-the-

counter version available in software stores.  The bitmap

driver (absolutely the fastest way to save out a Targa, BMP

or TIFF version of a Corel drawing) is still there, as are a

very solid LaserJet driver and PaintJet driver.  If you have

SuperPrint 2.2, with special drivers for equipment supported

through the vendor -- for example, the SuperPrint driver for

the Polaroid Digital Palette -- that driver will most likely

work with SuperPrint 3.0 (ours did).

     ZScript is something entirely new -- and the outcome of

much thought and serious effort at Zeno.  In addition to the

ZScript engine proper, the key elements seem to be a DOS

device driver (yet another line added to the CONFIG.SYS

file; thank Heaven Windows relieves some  base memory

constraints), and a program called Masquerade.

     What Masquerade does, effectively, is to turn any

device for which there is a SuperPrint driver, into a

PostScript device.  Run Masquerade; select a SuperDriver

from the list.  Masquerade makes up suitable PostScript

Printer Descriptions (PPDs), Windows Printer Descriptions

(WPDs) and adds a line to the Windows Printer dialogue,

saying that there now exists a PostScript version of the

SuperDriver (along with the standard one), attached to a

port called "ZPS."

     The Zenographics PostScript Device driver in the

CONFIG.SYS creates a logical "phantom" port -- ZPS: -- for

PostScript output.  PostScript output directed to a

SuperDriver on that port is stored in a file, in the

specified directory.

     The ZScript engine proper, running in the background,

and full multitasking (you can work in the foreground

without significant system degradation), like SuperQueue in

server mode, "sees" the .ZPS file, queues it, and processes

it either to a SuperPrint SuperMetafile, or calls the

SuperDriver and drives it directly (depending on a variety

of simple settings).  Because Zeno has built in a lot of

flexibility, it should be possible to split the PostScript

processing and RIPing jobs up across a network, simply by

determining where the Zscript engine and SuperQueue are

running.

     There are three key advantages to all this:  First,

Zscript is entirely host-based; one program makes all

SuperDriver-compatible output devices into PostScript

devices, more or less transparently.  Among other things,

that means adding PostScript compatibility even on low-cost

or older devices is cheap; a lowly PaintJet or DeskJet 550C

(and according to rumors, the new Fargo Primera low-cost

color wax thermal transfer printer in the near future...)

becomes a true PostScript FPO proofing device.  Second,

ZScript is fast -- even on our slowest test-bench machine,

ZScript processed PostScript faster than output-device based

PostScript.  Third, SuperDrivers often offer some output

capabilities not readily accessed by some applications; for

example, PageMaker cannot altogether access the special

dithering capabilities of some SuperPrint drivers -- useful

for making a better-looking FPO for client presentation.

But pass the the PageMaker output to Zscript, thence to the

SuperDriver, and voilą! -- nifty, smoother Floyd-Steinberg

dithering!

     The version of SuperPrint 3.0 tested was "gold" and

already in manufacturing; the version of ZScript was a late

release candidate, estimated to be about a week out from

being frozen as "final."  We found ZScript worked well with

the new 3.0 SuperDrivers; although our 2.2 Polaroid Digital

Palette driver worked well with SuperPrint 3.0, it would not

connect with this pre-release version of ZScript.  Zeno

expects that problem to go away, and moreover, since the

company has a close tie to its OEM customers, expect drivers

for such products to be available with alacrity.  SuperPrint

3.0 with ZScript is priced at $295.

     

                             ###

Approximately 880 words

Contact:

Zenographics Steve Puntolillo 908-577-8303

                              
Donald Jenner has been writing about computer graphics since
1986, in publications both here and abroad.  He is the
principal of  Donald Jenner Consulting in New York and the
Technical Editor of Corel Magazine.