ppmtomd README file
-------------------

SOURCE

The latest version of this program should be available at
http://www.stevens-bradfield.com/ppmtomd/

INTRODUCTION

This program drives the Alps Micro-Dry series of printers, including
the Citizen Printiva series, Alps MD series, and Oki DP series (but
not yet the DP-7000).

In the current release, the program drives the standard mode fairly
well; the dye sublimation mode very well; and the VPhoto mode
reasonably well.

It supports all the colours available up to the DP-5000, including the
foil colours.

COPYING

This program is free software, distributed under the terms of the GNU
General Public License, version 2 or any later version at your
discretion. The GPL may be found as the file LICENCE in this
directory.

DISCLAIMER

This program has NO WARRANTY; in particular there is no implied
warranty of fitness for any given purpose.
It may be possible to damage your printer using this program.
[I don't know how, but it may be possible...]

INSTALLATION

On most Unix systems, it should suffice to check the Makefile for
appropriate settings, and do  make install .

USAGE

See the man page for usage.

BUGS

Please report bugs to jcb+alps@inf.ed.ac.uk

USING UNSUPPORTED RIBBONS

This is a note for those who have the old Citizen Printiva printers.

The original Printiva 600 supports the following ribbons:
Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black
Metallic Cyan, Metallic Magenta, Metallic Gold.

The Printiva 700 and 1700, and 600s that have been upgraded,
also support
Metallic Silver.

If you have followed the Alps/Oki line, you naturally want to use
the other exciting ribbons. Unfortunately, most of them don't work.
Here is what I know so far about what works.

First, a general note. If you put an unsupported ribbon into the 600,
it will not recognize it, and the associated light will not light on
the control panel. However, it will load the cartridge if told to do
so via the -datamode Cassette option. But, there is a catch: it will
only load an unrecognized cartridge as the first cartridge in a job;
if you load a recognized cartridge, it will ignore any attempt to load
an unrecognized cartridge. (This makes the Cassette data transfer mode
basically useless. This clearly cannot be what is intended; maybe it
works properly on later models than the 600.) If you want to make
extensive use of unrecognized cartridges, I suggest that you fake the
barcodes on them to be those of recognized cartridges. However, even
here there is a catch: if two slots hold cartridges with the same
barcode, you are not guaranteed to get the specified cartridge loaded
even if you use -datamode Cassette.

Also, note that currently the  -datamode Cassette  option is supported
only with the CMYK components (given by the  -colours  option), not
with the spot colours (given by the  -spotcolours  option).

Now, which ribbons work?

Metallic Silver, works fine on an unmodified 600, though not recognized.

Econoblack: This more or less works, provided that the  -phadj -50
option is given. The result is a bit faint, but I don't know how this
compares with the Alps printers. However, it's OK for printing out
drafts, mail messages, etc.

Gold Foil, Silver Foil: Unfortunately, these do not work. If you lay
down a heavy undercoat of (e.g.) black, and then overprint with 
-phadj -50 -highres (which requires faking the cartridge barcode to be
black), you may get partial adhesion, but it is essentially
useless. It might be worth trying the vphoto primer as an undercoat,
but I haven't done this. (I guess that the later Alps models have
a hotter printhead.)

White: this works better, but not perfectly. You probably need
to lay it down twice (with -phadj -50, of course) to get reasonable
results. Curiously, it seems to make a better undercoat for foil than
the usual inks, but it still doesn't make foil work completely.
(Which is just as well, since white is also very expensive.)

Vphoto primer: Doesn't work. There is imperfect adhesion, and bits of
primer go all over the place.

Finish: not tested, but according to Alps will not work, and will
probably break the printer.

New OKI ribbons: Process C/M/Y/K, spot Red, spot Green.
Not tested. (I would expect these to work; question, how do the
new Process CMYK inks differ from the standard CMYK inks?)
