Basic Concepts Of Electronic

Printing
William J. “Bill” McCalpin
EDPP, CDIA, MIT, LIT
The Xenos Group
(972) 857-0776
Xplor Global Conference
Los Angeles, CA 1999

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 About The Speaker
• Mr. McCalpin is Director of Product
Management at Xenos Group
• He received the EDPP from Xplor
International in 1992.
• He received the CDIA from CompTIA in 1996.
• He received the MIT from AIIM in 1997.
• He received the LIT from AIIM in 1998.

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 About The Speaker (cont.)
• Mr. McCalpin writes and speaks
frequently on subjects in the electronic
printing and imaging industries. He has
spoken more than forty times at Xplor,
AIIM, DocuGroup, and Guide meetings.
• Mr. McCalpin is a member of both Xplor
and AIIM. He serves on multiple
committees in AIIM and Xplor.

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A (Very Brief) History Of Printing

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 The Chinese
• By the end of the
2nd century A.D.,
the Chinese had the
three requirements
for printing:
– paper
– ink
– relief surfaces.

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 The Chinese (cont.)

• By the 8th century, wooden blocks were

used for the reliefs. The oldest known
printed works date from this time
– 764-770 - Buddhist incantations printed in
Japan
– 868 - The first known book was made in
China, ‘The Diamond Sutra.”

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 The Chinese (cont.)

• Movable type was invented in China in

the 11th century, but this invention did
not catch on.
• In the early 14th century, a Chinese
magistrate had a set of 60,000 Chinese
characters carved on wooden blocks for
the printing of a treatise on the history
of technology.

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The Arabs Bring Paper To The West
• 8th century - The knowledge of how to
make paper came through the caravan
routes of Central Asia.
• 12th century - Italians begin trading with
the Arabs to bring paper to Europe.
• 13th & 14th centuries - Europeans create
papermaking centers in Italy, France, and
Germany.

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Europe Learned About Paper, But
Not Printing
Despite trade and the travels of people
like Marco Polo, Europeans never
learned the art of xylography
(printing from wood carving) from
the Chinese. The ability to print in
this way was spontaneously learned
by the Europeans no earlier than the
last quarter of the 14th century.

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 The Europeans Start To Print
• The first printed items
were relief images
pressed onto paper,
typically religious in
nature.
• Text was added to the
images, and so the first
real books appeared in
Europe in the first half of
the 15th century.

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 Metallographic Printing
1430-1450 - After 12
centuries, Europeans
finally go beyond the
Chinese by making
durable components for
Metallographic printing:
– the metal die
– the matrix
– cast lead

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 Johannes Gutenberg
About 1450,
Johannes
Gutenberg first
associated the idea
of using die, matrix,
and lead with the
invention of the
printing press.

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 The Screw Press
The ‘screw press’
was used for the
next 350 years with
technological
improvements
allowing such a
press to print up to
250 copies an hour.

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 Technology Improves Printing
19th Century
The 19th century saw the introduction of:
– stereotypy (stereotyped plates allow
several presses to print the same text at
the same time)
– steam power
– cylinder presses
– roll-fed rotary presses
– typecasting machines such as the
Linotype and Monotype.

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 Technology Improves Printing
The 20th century 20th Century
introduced many
more advance-
ments in printing:
offset printing, dry
offset, color printing,
photocomposition,
even three
dimensional printing.

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 At Last - Electronic Printing!

• 1923 - Electrostatic printing was first

demonstrated when the ink of a
cylindrical typeform was attracted to
paper by means of an electronic charge.
• 1948 - two Americans conceived the
idea of using a dry powder rather than
ink, and the first modern office copiers
were born.

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 The 9700
In 1977 or so,
Xerox introduces
the 9700, the
first cut sheet
production
printer, and our
industry starts to
take off!

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 How Electronic Printers Print

• Xerox
Centralized
Printers are
white on black
• HP and other
printers are
black on white

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 How A Xerox 9700 Prints
1.The image is resolved piece of glass at a
into a bit map. rotating, mirrored
2.Each 'scan line' is polygon.
dispatched to the engine. 5.The bits in the scan line
cause the piece of glass
3.A photoelectric drum through which the laser
which is on a circular is passing to vibrate.
belt is charged with a
high voltage. 6.The laser beam hits the
drum for each ‘off’ pixel,
4. A laser is fired through a and discharges that spot
on the drum.

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 How A Xerox 9700 Prints (cont.)
7.Toner is passed over
the drum, and the toner through a fuser,
sticks to the charged which is a set of very
areas. hot rollers (400°F)
8.Paper is passed over which ‘fuse’ the
the drum, and the toner toner to the paper.
now sticks to the paper. 10. The paper is post-
9.The paper, now with processed as
toner applied, passes
needed and placed
into an output bin.

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Definitions In Electronic
Printing
Or, how what Gutenberg did five
centuries still affects you today...

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 Type
Type - from the Greek
word typtein - to
beat or strike. Even
today, the phrase in
Italian for ‘to type’ is
battere a macchina,
literally, to ‘beat
with the machine’.

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 Resources

• Font
• Forms
• Image
• Graphic
• Logo

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 Please Note

• In AFP, a graphic refers only to a

vector representation.
• In AFP, an image refers only to a
raster representation.
• The word logo is a reference to a
Xerox-specific object.
• In AFP, a form is called an overlay.

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 Measurements

• Point • x-height
• Pica Pitch • em space
• Monopitch • en space
• Proportional

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 Point

A
996 points are equivalent
to 35 centimeters, or
one point is equal to .
01383 inches. This
means about 72.3
points to the inch. We in
electronic printing use
72 points per inch

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 Pica
From the Medieval Latin
word for directory,
probably referring to
the usual size of the
type used to print a
A letter-sized sheet of
directory, about 1/6th
of an inch; hence, 12
paper in the U.S. is 66
points make up a pica, picas long.
and 6 picas make up
an inch.

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 x-height
The height of the
lowercase x. Used
in typography as

bxp
the standard height
of the body for all
the characters in
the font, minus
their ascenders
and descenders.

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 em
Originally, a unit of
measure equal to the
width of the capital M,
the widest character in
The default word
a font. Now the em
space for this font is
space is equal to the
1/3 an em space.
height of the font,
hence the em space of
a 10 point font is 10
points (wide).

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 en

Half an em space. Two ens add up to

an em.

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 Pitch

Probably from
Middle English
picchen, to strike -
the number of
characters per
Miwl
inch (applied to a
monopitch font)

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 Monopitch

Referring to a font in
which all the
characters are the
same width.
Miwl
10 pitch is 10 characters
per inch.

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 Proportional
Referring to a font in
which each character
has a width
appropriate to the
size of the character.
Miwl
E.g., in a proportional the ‘M’ is many times
font (like this one), ‘I’ wider than the ‘i’ in
is much narrower a proportional font.
than ‘W”.

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 The Character
• Raster fonts are
fonts whose
characters are
defined by bitmaps
(see right).
• Outline fonts (also
called scalable) are
fonts whose
characters are
defined by strokes.

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Character Anatomy

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 Baseline

Baseline - An
imaginary line upon
which the body of
the character sits.
All characters on a
line of text share
the same baseline,
even characters in
different fonts.

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 Ascender And Descender
• Ascender - strokes
which rise above the
x-height (or body of
the character).
• Descender - strokes
which go below the
baseline (or the
bq
body of the
character).

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 Font Height And Baseline

• Font height - the sum of

bxpW
the length of the longest
descender, longest
ascender, and x-height.
• Line skip - Usually, the
distance from baseline
to baseline. Note, this
value is often larger
than the font height.
pxbM
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 Kern
• Kern - from the French
word carne, meaning
projecting angle or
hinge, ultimately from
the Latin word cardo
(cardinis), a hinge.
Kern is that part of the
face of a letter which
projects beyond the
body.

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 Serif And Sans Serif

Serif
· Serif & Sans Serif -
serif (also spelled
cerif) comes from the
Dutch word schreef,
meaning a stroke or a
line, from schrijve (to
write, cf. German
Sans
schreiben), ultimately
from Latin scribere Serif
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 Leading

Leading - blank dies

made of the metal • This text has
lead were inserted
between been left and
characters on a
line of type to
right justified
enable justifying so the word
the line of text to fit
the print area spaces vary.

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 Upper Case And Lower Case
• The box on the right
hand side contained
individual pieces of type
• The less frequently
used characters would
be at the top - away
from the printer
• Hence, capital letters
were called “upper
case”

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 Mind Your P’s And Q’s

• “p’s and q’s” - the phrase mind your

p’s and q’s comes from the days of
metal type. On metal type, the image
of the character is backwards from
the printed image. Since a ‘p’ and a
‘q’ are mirror images of each other, it
is easy to confuse them, hence the
warning.

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The Family Tree of Printer
Data Streams

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 Philology

• Philology is the study of language,

normally human languages
• One field of study in philology is the
relationship that different languages
have to one another
• What happens if we apply philology
to electronic printing?

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 The Family Tree

Interpress PostScript

ASCII
Line
Data Line data
Escape
w/ printer
sequences
controls

Line Data
AFP and
EBCDIC w/ carriage LCDS
control IPDS

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 In The Beginning

• The first computer created tables

for artillery
• Mechanical typewriters
• ‘Line Data’

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 EBCDIC Versus ASCII

• BCD - Binary Coded Decimal

• BCDIC - Binary Coded Decimal
Interchange Code
• EBCDIC - IBM Extended Binary
Coded Decimal Interchange Code
• ASCII - American Standard Code for
Information Interchange

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 EBCDIC Line Data

• EBCDIC encoded - 8 bit

• Record-oriented because of IBM
OS’s
• Carriage controls
– Machine carriage controls
– ANSI carriage controls

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 ASCII Line Data
• ASCII encoded - 7 bit
• ‘Record’ orientation is not intrinsic to OS
• Text files use print controls to delimit
records
• Common print controls
– x’0d’ carriage return
– x’0a’ line feed
– x’0c’ form feed

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 The EBCDIC Family Tree
• EBCDIC text
• 1403 data - EBCDIC records with a
carriage control
• LCDS - ‘Line conditioned’ data stream
– 3800 Mod I
– 3211 data with Xerox DJDEs
– Others
• AFP and IPDS

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 The ASCII Family Tree
• ASCII text
• ASCII text with print controls
• ASCII text with escape sequences
Epson MX-80 Xerox UDK (XES)
QMS QUIC IBM PPDS
HP PCL Xerox Metacode
• Print programming languages using ASCII
Interpress PostScript

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 Escape Sequences Versus
Programming Language
• For escape sequence data streams,
the host completely formats the
documents - the printer merely
follows the instructions
• For programming language data
streams, the host describes the
document to be printed - the printer
finishes the composition process

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 Escape Sequences Versus
Programming Language (cont.)
• Escape sequence data streams
normally print faster on the printer
• Programming language data streams
enable superior graphics
• Both are capable of printing the
average business document: text,
fonts, graphics, scanned images, etc.

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 Line Data versus APA Data
• Line Data
– Character-based
– Row and column oriented
• All Points Addressable
– Lets you place toner almost anywhere on
a page
– Requires significantly more information to
print or view than “line data”

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 Printing Resources: Basics

• Anything the printer needs to resolve

the print datastream
• Specialized groups of control
records
• Fonts, Forms, and Graphics

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 Fonts
• The file(s) that define how the
characters should appear when the
file is created
• One or more files in a vendor-specific
format
• Contain mappings of specific
codepoints (codepages/symbol sets)
to images of the characters

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 Font Basics
• Serif or Sans Serif
• Weight: UltraLight or UltraBold
• Stress: Roman, Oblique, Italic
• Point Size - 72 points per inch
• Character set / Code page
• Custom Logo and signature fonts
No two shops have exactly the same set
of fonts installed!

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 Forms / Overlays / Macros
• Contain data used repeatedly
• designed to replace preprinted forms
• may contain lines, text and/or graphics
• may be inline or in a separately- called
file
• format is different for each datastream

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 Images / Graphics
• Bitmap images are made of a pattern
of dots
• Vector graphics are mathematical
instructions for drawing lines
• All datastreams support one or more
types of bitmap images
• Not all datastreams support vectors

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 The Datastreams

• What are they?

• What are the pieces? (resources)
• Where do you find the pieces?
• Who uses them?

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 What is AFP?
• Advanced Function Printing (1980’s) /
Presentation (1990’s)
• Publicly documented, open architecture
from IBM - an industry standard
• Provides integration of data and
resources to create pages for printing,
viewing, or archiving
• All Points Addressable datastream

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 AFPDS
• The device independent, object-based
structured datastream
• Contains text, image, forms, fonts, bar
codes, graphics, formatting instructions,
tagging for indexing or finishing
• Uses internal and external fonts,
graphics, & forms
• Resources are centrally controlled

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 Print Services Facility

• Printers are most often attached to a

mainframe or workstation that
maintains control of the print
process via PSF
• PSF transforms device independent
AFPDS to device dependent IPDS
• PSF provides error recovery

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 Flavors of AFP
• Line Data (3211) - usually EBCDIC
– may have CC and/or font index characters
• Conditioned Line Data / Mixed Mode
• Fully Composed - MO:DCA
– Mixed Object Document Content Architecture
– IOCA, GOCA, FOCA, PTOCA, BCOCA
– New objects: multimedia, page grouping, navigation,
non-AFP
• ACIF - resources are bundled in a single file

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 What Creates AFP?
• Script Languages
– DCF, BookMaster, CompuSet
• Industry-specific applications:
– CSF, EZ-Letter, DocuMerge, CBIS
• Transforms
– Xenos’ Meta2AFP, PCL2AFP, etc.
• Report management systems:
– CA, New Dimension, RDS
• AFP Print Driver for Windows, APIs, Toolbox
• Form Design Packages
– Elixir, ISIS, ProForm, DOC1, XPRINT
• User Created programs

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 AFP Wrap-up

• IBM AFP is based on an architecture,

which is published
• AFP printers are centrally managed
from a host
• Resources normally reside on the
host, not the printer

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 Xerox Printer Datastreams
• 2 “languages” for high-speed
centralized printing: Metacode and
DJDE
• UDK/XES for Xerox decentralized
printing
• PostScript (Midrange and DocuTech)
• PCL (Midrange)
• XES/Metacode mixed - 4235

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 Xerox Terms
• Online Printing: Printer is attached to
a host computer which controls the
print job.
• Offline Printing: Printer is not
attached to a host computer. Print
jobs are fed via an attached peripheral
device, usually a tape drive. Some
commands behave differently.

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 What is Metacode?
• Native printer language to Xerox
ESS/Centralized printers
• Fastest way to print on a Xerox
Centralized printer
• Partially documented, proprietary Xerox
Format - not an architecture
• A set of ASCII formatting controls that
more closely resembles stream I/O

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 Metacode / DJDEs
• Printer control commands may be
interspersed with print data; sometimes
the printer control commands appear
within the same record as the print data.
• The Metacode printer may switch
between EBCDIC and ASCII data modes
between print jobs, or within jobs as
required.

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 Other Flavors of “Metacode”
• Conditioned Line Data: DJDE
– line data with DJDE records to change fonts,
and call forms and images
– The bulk of all Xerox printing
• Mixed Mode
– Metacode and line data in the same print file,
sometimes in alternating records
– Usually generated by 3rd-party products
– “page interleaved” files slow the printer down

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 What Creates Metacode?
• Script Languages
– DCF/BookMaster with DCF/PLUS, CompuSet/XICS
• Industry-specific applications
– CSF, EZ-Letter, or DocuMerge
• Transforms
– Xenos’ AFP2Meta, PCL2Meta, etc.
• Forms design packages
– Elixir or Intran, Proform
• User created programs (rare)
• Application of DJDEs to legacy line data

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 Metacode Wrap-up
• Metacode is not an architecture
• There is no PSF to monitor resource
usage
• Resources are usually stored on the
printer
• Data and printer commands can be
either ASCII or EBCDIC

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 What is PCL?
• All Points Addressable Datastream
• Publicly documented, owned by HP
• Provides integration of data and resources to
create pages for printing
• ASCII data with escape sequences to
designate printer commands
• Many levels, newest is Level 6
• Levels 4 and 5 are most commonly used

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 What Creates PCL?

• A variety of programs such as

PeopleSoft
• User created programs
• Print Drivers
• Transforms such as Xenos’s
AFP2PCL, Meta2PCL, XES2PCL,
PDF2PCL

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 PCL Wrap-up
• PCL is an ASCII datastream most
often generated by PC-based
programs
• PCL uses very few external resource
files
• PCL fonts are often stored on the
printer either in ROM or on cartridges

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 What is PostScript?
• Adobe’s Document Formatting
Language
• All Points Addressable
• Complex Language with standard
computing operators
• Still changing
• Designed for flexibility, not speed

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 What Creates PostScript?
• Adobe and 3rd Party Software packages
• Many graphics and page layout
programs
• User created software (rare)
• Windows Print Drivers
• Transforms such as Xenos’s AFP2PS,
Meta2PS, PCL2PS, XES2PS

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 What is PDF?
• Adobe’s Portable Document Format
• NOT exactly PostScript -No math or GOTOs
• Self-contained for easier sharing
• Designed for rapid Viewing
• Designed to support Acrobat Reader and Acrobat
Exchange.
• Supported by web browsers via plug-in
• Designed for cross-platform compatibility (Windows,
MAC, UNIX, WWW)

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 What Can You Do with PDF?
• Post documents on the WWW
• Create viewable versions of business
documents
• Index, annotate, link and bookmark
documents
• Combine, extract, and manipulate
document pages
• View Thumbnails of pages

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 What Creates PDF?
• Created from PostScript files by Adobe
Distiller
• PDF Writer (emulates a print driver)
• Transforms such as Xenos’s AFP2PDF,
Meta2PDF, PCL2PDF, and XES2PDF
• A growing number of other software
packages

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 The Other Pieces - Adobe Fonts
• Define how the characters should
appear when the file is created
• Printer-resident fonts used for most
PostScript jobs.
• TrueType and Type 1 scaleable fonts
may reside on the host and be sent to
the printer with the job
• May also use Type 3 bitmapped fonts

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 PDF Fonts - Base 14
• All Acrobat installations contain 14 base fonts:
Helvetica Helvetica-Oblique
Helvetica-Bold Helvetica-BoldOblique
Times-Roman Times-Italic
Times-Bold Times-BoldItalic
Courier Courier-Oblique
Courier-Bold Courier-BoldOblique
Symbol ( ZapfDingbats ()

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 PostScript Wrap-up

• PostScript in a complex printer

language that allows inline
programming
• PostScript is evolving into a
language which can be used in high
volume printing applications

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 PDF Wrap-up

• PDF is optimized for online viewing

and offers many features not available
with printed paper.
• PDF is changing …. PDF 1.3 was
announced earlier this year.

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 What is XES?
• Xerox Escape Sequences, also called
UDK for User Defined Keys
• Proprietary Xerox text-based
formatting for Xerox low-speed
decentralized (departmental) printers
• Usually ASCII
• Obsolete - these printers have been
“end-of-life’d” by Xerox

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 XES Pieces

• Bitmapped font files are usually

stored on the printer
• Forms are usually defined inline
• Bitmapped image and logo files are
usually stored on the printer
• Vector Graphics (Line Draw) may be
defined inline

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 What Creates XES?

• XES only has about 20 commands so

it is usually hand coded or built by
user-created programs

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 What Do We Do With XES?
• Since XES printers have been “end-of-life’d”
by Xerox, users will have to:
– Convert applications generating XES to PCL or
PostScript (usually), or
– Acquire 3rd party transforms such as Xenos’
XES2PCL or XES2PS, or
– Find someone willing to support these obsolete
printers

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 XES Wrap-up

• XES is an obsolete Xerox format for

low-speed printers
• Most XES users are looking for a way
to convert to less-costly PCL or
PostScript printers

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 AFP and Xerox Discussion Lists
• Discussion lists are for people interested in
particular things to exchange information
• Discussion lists communicate via e-mail to
registered users, rather than public bulletin
boards.
• Xerox list-serve: xerox-lcds-
subscribe@topica.com
• AFP list-serve: afp-l-subscribe@topica.com

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 Additional Sessions This Week
• CAV 01 - A broad view of document
standards
Marilyn Wright
WED 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM
• FOC 21 - Moving your legacy documents to
new media
Pat McGrew, EDPP
WED 7:15 AM - 8:15 AM

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 Additional Sessions This Week
• FOC 32 - The EDPP certification
process revealed
Stephen Wowelko, EDPP, Diana
Hillman, EDPP
WED 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM
• INT 20 - XML update - Where is XML
going and how will it affect you? Bill
McCalpin - EDPP
THU 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM

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 Additional Sessions This Week
• FUN 06 - From hardcopy to electronic
delivery: making the migration
Stephen Poe, EDPP
WED 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM
• FUN 04 - Buzz word central
David Weinberger and Stephen Poe,
EDPP
TUE 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM (right now!)

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 Additional Sessions This Week
• KNO 07 - What knowledge management
is and isn't
David Weinberger
THU 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM
• ORG 25 - Is the document dead?
Bill McCalpin, EDPP, and Bill McDaniel,
EDPP
THU 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM

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 Credits
• ‘Kern’- graphic from IBM’s Font Object
Content Architecture manual found at
http://booksrv2.raleigh.ibm.com:80/cgi-
bin/bookmgr/bookmgr.cmd/BOOKS/HA
3F2M00/4.2.9
• Many data stream slides courtesy of
Linda McDaniel, EDPP, Xenos Group

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 Credits
• Gutenberg Bible graphic - found at
http://www.huntington.org/LibraryDiv
/GutenbergPict.html
• ‘A...History Of Printing’ (Japanese
character for vigor) - found at
http://www.j-
mac.co.jp/amusement/steve/kanji/kan
jiframe.html

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 Credits
• ‘Technology..20th Century’ (actually a
SM102 Heidelberg press) - found at
http://www.heidelbergaus.com.au/Smaster
/SM102/SM102P.HTM
• History of Printing - Encyclopaedia
Britannica
• ‘Screw Press’ (actually the first stop-
cylinder press) - Encyclopaedia Britannica

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 Credits
• ‘Type’ - graphic from The Imperial
Dictionary Of The English Language
• ‘The Character’ (raster A) - from ‘In-
House Publishing In A Mainframe
Environment (McGrew/McDaniel)
• ‘Character Anatomy’ - from ‘The New
York Public Library Writer’s Guide To
Style And Usage’

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 Credits
• ‘The 9700’ (actually a 4090) - from a
PC graphics package
• ‘Chinese print shop’, portrait of
Gutenberg, image of single page of
manuscript, woodcut of a European
print shop, and the outside of the
Gutenberg Museum are all found at
http://www.gutenberg.de

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 Credits
• All other graphics
created by Bill
McCalpin, EDPP,
and Chris Halicki,
EDPP
• On the right, the
Gutenberg
Museum in Mainz,
Germany

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 Bill McCalpin
EDPP, CDIA, MIT, LIT
Director of Product Management
Xenos Group
3010 LBJ Freeway Suite 1500
Dallas, TX 75234
(972) 857-0776 (voice) (972) 857-0979 (fax)
bmccalpin@xenosgroup.com
www.xenosgroup.com