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Reply 101 of 150, by wd

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Ok, now back to the problem (assuming that removing the font
files gives no output, at least not black-on-white):
- try printing on different PCs
- try printing from different applications (some editors etc.)
- view the generated .ps files with different programs/PCs
and compare the output, posting interesting findings here.
Also posting the output .ps file might help.

Reply 102 of 150, by asitnik

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I had requested some help, and what was replied to me was a useless wisecrack. I am frustrated with a situation that is not working, and do not need more aggravation. As you will see from his comment posted 2 down from yours, WD goes back to suggesting useful tips. I will comment on the results later, as they have yet to be tried and tested.

This specific thread is for a feature that is not core of dosbox and, if indeed there was a problem with it, the moderator/s would have stopped it long ago.

If anything, this feature will make dosbox more useful as it will extend the non-commercial capabilities - for example, have you thought perhaps of children's games that give the option to print the picture generated?

Respectfully disagreeing,

AS

Reply 103 of 150, by asitnik

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I actually installed dosbox on 2 different computers (one XP, the other 98SE) and got exactly the same results.
Using the standard DOS "dir > lpt1" gets me a printout, in black 😀 ink, in Courier font from the printer, but nothing from dosbox unless all fonts are both in the root dosbox folder AND in the DLL folder. Notepad printing comes out ok, same as DOS.
The otupout printing from dosbox, on both computers, looks exactly the same!
To make things more bizarre, if I enable printer pooling for my HP multifunction, the device disappears, has to be reinstalled, and the output gets sent to the Brother laser (both USB)! Without printer pooling, it does redirect the output to whichever printer I want, but only giving me an option the first time. Once I choose a printer, I cannot change for the next print jobs.
When I leave the putput selection as "ps", no files get generated anywhere on the dosbox folders.
Attached is the pdf output (using pdfcreator) of all printing jobs. They all look the same

Attachments

  • Filename
    DOSBOX Printer.pdf
    File size
    50.49 KiB
    Downloads
    92 downloads
    File comment
    Printing output
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception

Reply 104 of 150, by h-a-l-9000

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1. in dosbox.conf, do disney=false (it conflicts with the printer patch)
2. the default font is roman
3. I have no problem with only a roman.ttf in the folder here
4. you can only choose the printer at startup, thats how the patch works
5. the missing T seems to be font specific, all leading T are swallowed, with courier.ttf renamed to roman.ttf it shows up

1+1=10

Reply 105 of 150, by DosFreak

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asitnik wrote:

If anything, this feature will make dosbox more useful as it will extend the non-commercial capabilities - for example, have you thought perhaps of children's games that give the option to print the picture generated?

Respectfully disagreeing,

AS

This is why CTRL+F5 (Screenshot capture) was implemented.....

Trust me. This has all been gone over before. Fact of the matter is, Print support is nowhere close to a vital component of gaming. Therefore it's way down on the list...... Most people who post asking for Printer support are not concerned about edutainment titles. They want to run their business applications using a free tool and want the DosBox devs to implement it NOW. This is a free product, the devs are not interested in supporting business applications. They are interested in GAMING and ONLY GAMING in DosBox. (Although they will occasionally be nice enough to fix bugs in DosBox to get peoples applications to run in DosBox)

How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
Make your games work offline

Reply 106 of 150, by vasyl

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There were a few games that did have interesting printing capabilities but those were Win3 games mostly. To name a few, SimTown (could print part of the town as color image or coloring book), SimPark (could print huge multi-page shot of the entire park) and its cousin SimSafari -- all of these are Maxis products but I am pretty sure some Broderbund or Midscape games of the same period had similar capabilities. However, as those were Win3 games, it should be possible to install PS driver and print to file. I vaguely remember that some old games could print "certificate of game completion" but I don't remember any particular examples.

Reply 107 of 150, by eL_PuSHeR

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I remember some SSI RPGs could print out maps and such.

Attic/FanPro's Realms of Arkania could also print character sheets (I think).

Last edited by eL_PuSHeR on 2006-03-13, 09:36. Edited 1 time in total.

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Reply 108 of 150, by asitnik

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Thank you, thank you, thank you! It seems to work normally now!

Next is the "real world" situation! I will keep everyone posted on it!

Attached is the printout I got after those suggestions. Please compare!

Attachments

  • Filename
    DOSBOX Printer.pdf
    File size
    46.83 KiB
    Downloads
    95 downloads
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception

Reply 109 of 150, by `Moe`

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SimCity (original) can print the city map, and el_PuSHeR is right about Realms of Arkania (not by Sir-Tech, btw -- that was Wizardry 😉 ), these games could print Character sheets, maps and (part 3) documentation. There is at least one other strategy game in my collection with printing, but I can't recall which one it is.

Reply 110 of 150, by vasyl

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Realms of Arkania (not by Sir-Tech, btw -- that was Wizardry Wink )

Hmm, I have Shadows over Riva and it clearly says Sir-Tech on the box. Was it published by somebody else in Europe? I would not be surprised, Sir-Tech had rather inconsistent distribution outside of the North America.

Reply 111 of 150, by mirekluza

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Sorry for an off-topic explanation...
Sir-Tech published "Realms of Arkania" games (English versions of the German PC "Schwarze Auge" games).
Sir-Tech was only publisher, it did not make these games.
BTW: there are some "Schwarze Auge" Java games for mobile phones - but now the English translation is the "The Dark Eye"...

Mirek

Reply 112 of 150, by `Moe`

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Realms of Arkania is a german production under license of Schmidt Spiele (creators of the pen&paper RPG), created on the PC by FanPro and Attic Entertainment. I never heard of Sir-Tech distributing it, but it sounds plausible. Few german games were distributed by their creators in other countries (Blue Byte games are another example).

Reply 117 of 150, by QuietGuy

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Qbix wrote:

hmmm not sure if it's a good idea to allow to host printing at all.
I think sticking to png in all cases is more approate.

PNG is at least more appropiate then BMP, that's for sure, but why not making it possible to send it to the windows printer driver? Don't know how to solve this for the linux/OS2-ports, but I suggest adding something like this in the config file (a little like the serial-part):
[printer]
printer1=image
printer2=windriver
printer3=dummy
printer4=dummy
printpath=.\printouts

Maybe direct communication with a LPT-port can be added, but that's not emulation. Besides it's a pain in the ass to find a driver for a modern USB printer for WP5.1 🙄

-edit- I see it's already been suggested before, have to read further then page one 🤐

Reply 118 of 150, by william

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First of all, thank you fizzban for the excellent patch for printing. I was struggling with win98se to print some files of a old dos medical program.
I managed to print the graphs and text but so far I can only get to print in black and white. The program I have is a pain in the #$ because it comes with the printer drivers integrated and some printers drivers work and some dont with the patch. Without Dosbox it was crazy to find a modern printer compatible with dos and win98 The emulation works perfectly for the 24-pin printers listed in the program THANK YOU!!!

When can we expect the color version patch debut.?

Here I send pictures of old printer names in the program so that we can all remember those beautiful times of the screeching symphony and the old printer paper, those where the classic times! !this young boys today have it easy! 😁

Attachments

  • image001.png
    Filename
    image001.png
    File size
    15.8 KiB
    Views
    1199 views
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception
  • image003.png
    Filename
    image003.png
    File size
    12.84 KiB
    Views
    1199 views
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception
  • image005.png
    Filename
    image005.png
    File size
    13.5 KiB
    Views
    1199 views
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception
  • image007.png
    Filename
    image007.png
    File size
    13.67 KiB
    Views
    1199 views
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception
  • image009.png
    Filename
    image009.png
    File size
    10.18 KiB
    Views
    1199 views
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception

Reply 119 of 150, by iampiti

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William, does that program support redirecting the printing to a file?
If it does, you could try to print using the postscript color driver and print the ps file in windows.
(Question to dos experts: is it possible to redirect printing to a file in DOS so that every program will print to a file?)

Iampiti