Working with Printer Drivers |
Printer drivers are programs that enable printers and applications to communicate, in the same way that a translator helps two people who speak different languages to communicate. The translator takes what the first person says and translates it into a language that the second person can understand.
A printer driver's job is to take the print information, created by Windows applications, and change it into data that the printer can understand. Windows applications create print jobs that are submitted to a standard print interface. (It is easier and cheaper to program to a standard interface than to try to program to each individual printer.) The printer driver takes that standard print interface output and changes it into the language that the printer can understand.
Seagull designs printer drivers to take all of the printer's unique features and capabilities and couple them with all of the robust features that BarTender uses to create and print items. The result is a printer driver that takes the print data created by BarTender from the standard interface and sends it to the printer in the most efficient format possible, enabling the printer to quickly take the data and produce the items. Drivers by Seagull™ also come with a complete help system designed to enable you to configure your printer driver for the best performance possible. Refer to the Printer Driver online help for detailed instructions about how to configure your driver.
Rather than installing many Seagull printer drivers on Print Portal to facilitate printing, you can now install Print Portal OneDriver on the Print Portal server. Having Print Portal OneDriver on the Print Portal server enables printing to client machines without having to install other printer drivers on the Print Portal server.
Print Portal OneDriver is a server side print code generator for BarTender to use when a local driver is not installed. Print Portal OneDriver can only be installed on the Print Portal server and while it replaces a host of printer drivers on that server, the client machines must still have the actual target printer drivers installed. Print Portal OneDriver replaces the target printer drivers on the Print Portal server only. BarTender works in conjunction with Print Portal OneDriver to generate efficient print code.
When a print is requested from BarTender, it checks the local environment for the necessary driver. If BarTender can’t find one, and if the driver is a supported printer, BarTender uses the Print Portal OneDriver print code generator to create the print code and send it to the client printer. If the printer is not supported by Print Portal OneDriver, BarTender sends a PDF to the client printer.
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Though you may see the Print Portal OneDriver in your Devices and Printers dialogs in Windows, you should refrain from renaming it. Seagull recognizes that some organizations have naming conventions for their printers and drivers; however, if you rename Print Portal OneDriver you will break the functionality and won't be able to use it.
Seagull recommends against renaming Print Portal OneDriver. |
Supported Printer Families
