Specifications

Microsoft provides various ways for vendors to receive digital signatures for their device drivers; there-
fore, over time, the use of unsigned drivers is likely to diminish.
Note
“Whistler,” the Microsoft code name for the next release of Windows due in late 2001, is designed to be a cross
between Windows 9x/Me and Windows 2000 in hardware and software support, along with a major redesign of the
user interface. Because of fundamental differences in driver support between Windows 9x/Me and Windows 2000,
some Windows 9x/Me-compatible hardware might not work properly with “Whistler.”
Windows Driver Configuration
The Properties dialog box for a particular printer typically contains numerous settings apart from
those for selecting the port that the printer is to use. The features and the appearance of this dialog
box depend on the printer driver you have installed; however, in most cases it enables you to select
items such as the size and orientation of the paper the printer will use, the tray in which the paper is
loaded, and the number of copies of each page to print.
Many printer drivers provide settings that enable you to adjust the way the driver handles print ele-
ments, such as fonts and graphics. A typical Graphics page such as that for the HP LaserJet 5P driver
might contain the following parameters:
■ Resolution. Enables you to select from the print resolutions supported by the printer. A lower res-
olution provides faster printing and uses less printer memory. This setting doesn’t affect text
quality on most recent laser printers; the text will still print at the printer’s maximum resolu-
tion (600dpi on this model).
■ Dithering. Enables you to select various types of dithering for the shades of gray or colors pro-
duced by your printer. The various dithering types provide different results depending on the
nature of the image and the resolution at which you are running the printer.
Note
You might find that choosing “coarse dithering” for graphics that will be photocopied later actually produces a better qual-
ity copy than “fine dithering.” This is because normal (nondigital) copiers tend to smear the dots making up the photo-
graphic image. If you plan to photocopy your original for distribution, always make a test copy and evaluate it before you
make your high-volume copy run. You might need to adjust your printer options and reprint the original to get acceptable
results by varying dither, darkness, contrast, and other options.
■ Intensity. Enables you to control how dark the graphic images in your documents should be
printed.
■ Graphics mode. Enables you to select whether the driver should send graphic images to the
printer as vectors to be rasterized by the printer or should rasterize the images in the computer
and send the resulting bitmaps to the printer. If you’re printing complex slides from a program
such as Lotus Freelance Graphics to an HP LaserJet printer, you might find that the layers
become “transparent” if you use the default vector graphics setting but print as intended with
the bitmap setting.
Caution
If you’re planning to use the printer to produce multiple copies of pages with vector graphics from presentation or draw-
type software, such as Freelance Graphics, Microsoft PowerPoint, CorelDRAW, or Adobe Illustrator, do a single-copy test
print first to see whether you have problems before running your high-volume print job.