Konica Minolta Crown II System Features Manual

Crown Book 1—

Crown II Operating

System Features

1800732-001A

Copyright Notice

copied, in whole or part, nor transferred to any other media or language, without written permission of

KONICA MINOLTA BUSINESS TECHNOLOGIES, INC.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or

by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written

permission of KONICA MINOLTA BUSINESS TECHNOLOGIES, INC. The information contained in this

book is intended for use with Crown II printers only.

Trademarks

KONICA MINOLTA and the KONICA MINOLTA logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of

KONICA MINOLTA HOLDINGS, INC.

Crown, CrownNet, CrownAdmin, CrownView, magicolor, and QCOLOR are trademarks or registered

trademarks of KONICA MINOLTA PRINTING SOLUTIONS U.S.A., INC.

PagePro is a trademark or registered trademark of KONICA MINOLTA BUSINESS TECHNOLOGIES, INC.

Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Manual Notice

KONICA MINOLTA BUSINESS TECHNOLOGIES, INC. reserves the right to make changes to this manual

and to the equipment described herein without notice. Considerable effort has been made to ensure that

this manual is free of inaccuracies and omissions. However, KONICA MINOLTA BUSINESS

TECHNOLOGIES, INC. makes no warranty of any kind including, but not limited to, any implied warranties

of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose with regard to this manual. KONICA MINOLTA

BUSINESS TECHNOLOGIES, INC. assumes no responsibility for, or liability for, errors contained in this

manual or for incidental, special, or consequential damages arising out of the furnishing of this manual, or

the use of this manual in operating the equipment, or in connection with the performance of the equipment

when so operated.

This book provides an introduction to the powerful features of Crown II printers. It shows typical examples

of how the Crown II Operating System features can help optimize your printing needs. By using these

recommendations, you will experience the way Crown II technology provides the best price/performance

of any printer available today.

Although this book discusses Crown II printers in general, we predominantly discuss the Crown II

features. Crown II is a technological extension of earlier Crown products. Crown II technology is

implemented into the following printers:

magicolor 2200

magicolor 2210

magicolor 3100

magicolor 3300

magicolor 6100

magicolor 6110

PagePro 9100

Earlier Crown products, therefore, may not have all features discussed here.

Crown Book Part 1 i

Contents

1. Crown II Technology ........................................................................................................ 1

CROWN II CONFIGURATION ...................................................................................................................................................2

CROWN II FIRMWARE ............................................................................................................................................................3

SPOOLING ............................................................................................................................................................................5

INTERPRETATION .................................................................................................................................................................6

RASTERIZATION ...................................................................................................................................................................8

PRINTING ...........................................................................................................................................................................10

2. Crown II Features ........................................................................................................... 11

IMPORTANT NOTES .............................................................................................................................................................11

SERVERLESS PRINTING .......................................................................................................................................................14

AUTOMATIC JAM RECOVERY...............................................................................................................................................14

ELECTRONIC DOCUMENT COLLATION ..................................................................................................................................15

EMULATION CONTEXT SWITCHING ......................................................................................................................................16

OVERLAY PRINTING............................................................................................................................................................17

NUMBER-UP PRINTING (N-UP PRINTING) ..............................................................................................................................19

BOOKLET PRINTING ............................................................................................................................................................20

PRINTER-BASED ACCOUNTING ............................................................................................................................................21

NETWORK CONNECTIVITY...................................................................................................................................................23

COLOR MANAGEMENT ........................................................................................................................................................28

PROOF-THEN-PRINT ............................................................................................................................................................35

PRINTER MANAGEMENT -- CROWNVIEW .............................................................................................................................36

3. Crown II Memory Management.................................................................................... 54

KINDS OF MEMORY ............................................................................................................................................................54

V

IRTUAL MEMORY.............................................................................................................................................................55

E

VALUATION FOR OPTIMIZATION .......................................................................................................................................56

4. Crown II Configuration.................................................................................................. 61

USING THE CONTROL PANEL BUTTONS ................................................................................................................................61

ENTERING THE CONFIGURATION MODE................................................................................................................................62

5. Installation Menus........................................................................................................... 63

INSTALLATION MENU USING THE SECURITY KEY .................................................................................................................63

INSTALLATION MENU (WITH SOFTWARE-ENABLED SECURITY) .............................................................................................65

6. Operator Control Menu ................................................................................................. 67

COPIES ...............................................................................................................................................................................68

DUPLEX .............................................................................................................................................................................68

COLLATION ........................................................................................................................................................................68

ORIENTATION.....................................................................................................................................................................68

INPUTBIN ...........................................................................................................................................................................69

OUTPUTBIN ........................................................................................................................................................................69

MULTIPURPOSE SIZE ...........................................................................................................................................................69

CHAIN INPUTBINS ...............................................................................................................................................................69

CHAIN MAIL BIN OR CHAIN OUTPUT BINS .............................................................................................................................70

COLOR SEPARATION ...........................................................................................................................................................70

COLOR MODEL ...................................................................................................................................................................70

MEDIA MODE......................................................................................................................................................................70

COLOR MATCHING..............................................................................................................................................................71

MEDIA ...............................................................................................................................................................................73

ACCOUNTING .....................................................................................................................................................................73

PROOF-THEN-PRINT ............................................................................................................................................................75

CONSUMABLES...................................................................................................................................................................76

7. Administration Menu...................................................................................................... 78

COMMUNICATIONS .............................................................................................................................................................79

EMULATIONS....................................................................................................................................................................106

SPECIAL PAGES.................................................................................................................................................................114

ii Part 1 Crown Book

STARTUP OPTIONS ............................................................................................................................................................117

MEMORY..........................................................................................................................................................................119

ENGINE ............................................................................................................................................................................125

CONSUMABLES.................................................................................................................................................................129

MISCELLANEOUS ..............................................................................................................................................................130

DISK OPERATIONS ............................................................................................................................................................132

D

OWNLOADING SYSTEM SOFTWARE ................................................................................................................................136

Appendix A - Standard Interfaces..................................................................................... 141

A.1 PARALLEL INTERFACE .............................................................................................................................................141

A.2 S

ERIAL INTERFACE ..................................................................................................................................................142

A.3 E

THERNET INTERFACE .............................................................................................................................................143

A.4 USB ........................................................................................................................................................................143

Appendix B - Crown Accounting....................................................................................... 144

B.1 ACCOUNTING FILES..................................................................................................................................................144

B.2 A

CCOUNTING FILE FORMAT DESCRIPTION................................................................................................................145

B.3 J

OB ACCOUNTING FILE RECORDS .............................................................................................................................146

B.4 P

APER ACCOUNTING FILE RECORDS.........................................................................................................................150

B.5 S

TATUS ACCOUNTING FILE RECORDS.......................................................................................................................151

Crown Book Part 1 1

1. CROWN II TECHNOLOGY

Crown II is a printer document-processing technology that provides advanced multitasking

and networking capabilities across a full range of print systems. Crown II technology takes

advantage of multitasking to receive, interpret, and process multiple documents while another

document is printing. Crown II printer technology is divided into four major segments:

• Spooling

• Interpretation

• Rasterization

• Printing

The illustration shows the internal structure of the Crown II printer. In this chapter we discuss

the function of these segments.

 A serial interface may be an option. Refer to your Crown II printer documentation for

the actual interfaces available.

2 Part 1 Crown Book

CROWN II CONFIGURATION

Direct communication with a Crown II printer is

possible by means of the control panel menu.

To get an overall impression, the illustration

shows an example menu for a Crown II printer.

Crown II printers build the control panel menu

dynamically at power on time, according to the

configuration (model, options installed, etc.).

This means that your Crown II printer may not

show all the menus discussed here.

 Refer to your Crown II printer

documentation for the actual configuration

menu.

There are three main menus:

1. Installation (or Security) Menu—Use this

menu to protect printer settings by means of

passwords (security). If passwords were

assigned, you may access the Operator

Control and/or Administration menu only

after entering the correct password(s).

 Accessing the Installation Menu may require the use of an optional security key.

2. Operator Control Menu—Use this menu to select default document processing options

such as the copy count, input and output media bins, chain input bins, and duplex (if a

duplex unit is available and installed). The submenus of the Operator Control menu may

vary according to the specifications of the particular Crown II printer.

3. Administration Menu—Use this menu to configure default settings for printer

emulations and printer interfaces, configure special pages, calibrate the print engine, and

configure hard disks (if installed).

Administration

Communications

Emulations

Special Pages

Startup Options

Memory

Miscellaneous

Disk Operations

Engine

Consumables

Chain Inputbins

Color Separation

Color Model

Color Matching

Media

Accounting

Consumables

Multipurpose size

Duplex

Copies

Collation

Orientation

Inputbin

Outputbin

Offset Stacking

Operator Control

Use Operator

Password

Use Administrator

Password

Installation

Admin Password

Operator Passwrd

MENU

Crown Book Part 1 3

CROWN II FIRMWARE

Crown II Operating System software resides inside the Crown II

printer and is referred to as printer firmware. The Crown II

firmware is stored either in flash ROM or on the internal hard

disk.

 Flash ROM is nonvolatile memory. When the power is

switched off, this kind of memory holds the data previously

stored.

Updating new Crown II firmware is performed via one of its

interfaces. The illustration shows an example using a PC

connected to a Crown II printer by means of an interface. The

Crown II firmware is downloaded to the printer. The printer

recognizes the nature of the code and replaces the older

firmware with the new one that is downloaded. After

downloading, the printer restarts with the new firmware resident and active.

When your Crown II printer is switched on, by default it prints a startup page. This page is

generated internally by the Crown II Operating System. Below is a list of the Crown II

information pages that may be printed by the Crown II Operating System.

CROWN II

INFORMATION PAGES

REMARK(S)

Startup

Each time your Crown II printer is switched on, it prints a

startup page. This is particularly important to verify the

functionality of your printer and installed options.

 You may disable printing a startup page by means of the

control panel.

Status

There are two kinds of status pages:

Standard: A one-page overview of the most common printer

settings. This page shows the current Crown II Operating

System, the memory configurations and the CrownNet

network firmware version installed.

Advanced: The Advanced Status Page gives information

about printer parameter settings, fonts, and emulations

available. The document may have many pages, depending on

the fonts installed.

Statistics Page

This page gives statistical information about the usage of the

printer and the current status of the consumables.

MEMORY

4 Part 1 Crown Book

Network Configuration

The network configuration page gives full information of the

network interface setup. Up to two network interfaces may be

installed (one is standard and one is optional) in a Crown II

Print System and each network interface has its own network

configuration page.

Registration

(Color printers only)

This page shows the registration of the four colors of a Crown

II color printer in respect to each other.

Calibration

This page is used to verify the adjustment for the amount of

toner (density) of the engine for calibration purposes.

CMM Profile

(Color printers only)

CMM (Color Management Module) – This page gives

information about all ICC profiles and color device links.

Header

A header page is a job separator page that can be enabled to

print prior to a print job. It may give information about the

printer language, the user, the document name, the interface,

and the start print time. It is possible to specify the media bin

for the header page, so you may use a different media type

than is used for the rest of the print job.

Trailer

A trailer page is similar to a header page, but it prints after a

print job and gives information, such as total number of pages

in the print job (including a header page but excluding the

trailer page) and how long the job took to print. Also the

media bin for this page can be specified, as with the header

page.

Crown Book Part 1 5

SPOOLING

Each active Crown II printer interface has an

exclusive input buffer. The size of the input

buffer needed should be dictated by the nature

of that interface. An Ethernet network interface

may receive data at a high speed and, therefore,

may need a large input buffer. A serial interface,

however, is a relatively slow interface and may

not require a large input buffer.

 A serial interface may be an option. Refer

to your Crown II printer documentation for

the actual interfaces available.

The Simultaneous Interface Operation (SIO)

takes the print data from each active interface

simultaneously and stores it in the host input

buffer. The host input buffer functions as a

temporary storage area between the interface

and the next stage of the print process. The data

from each active interface is kept in logical

order.

 Non-Crown II printers can focus only on one interface at a time, until completion of that

print job, even though all interfaces are considered active. This principle is called

hot-port interfacing.

When the last data packet from a particular interface is received (symbolically denoted in the

illustration by ⌧), that same interface becomes immediately available for the next print job.

 Crown II printers are shipped with the host input buffer and the input buffers set to a

preconfigured optimum value. However, you may manually select other values to further

optimize the Crown II printer for your specific environment.

 Crown II printers are shipped with all standard interfaces active.

 Crown II printers equipped with an internal hard disk may use a part of the hard disk as

an overflow spool buffer.

t

6 Part 1 Crown Book

INTERPRETATION

The print data from the spool buffer is examined by the

Emulation Sensing Processor (ESP). Each printer

emulation (like PostScript, PCL, GL, etc.) is recognized

by examining the nature of the data. The Emulation

Sensing Processor tries to find a match within the first

part of the print data by comparing the print code to

specific printer language patterns stored within the

printer.

The Emulation Sensing Processor assigns a criteria-

dependent value to a resident printer emulation when it

finds a match. Each emulation is weighed, and either an

emulation is selected or the printer defaults to a user

configurable option.

This avoids the need of selecting an emulation in the printer configuration menu each time.

Moreover, selecting an emulation for each print job would be impossible if the printer is in a

remote network location, serving a group of users.

Two situations may occur:

1. No clear match is found. The Emulation Sensing Processor selects the default ESP

emulation (usually PCL5).

 Crown II printers are shipped with the default ESP emulation set to PCL5. You may

select another resident emulation as the default ESP emulation.

2. A clear match is found. The Emulation Sensing Processor activates the appropriate

resident emulation.

The print data is then interpreted, and a special format is generated and stored in the

Display List. Display List data is stored in a compressed format.

There is an important advantage of having a Display List: the pages of a particular print job

stay in the Display List until the print job is completely printed. This automatically enables

two major Crown II features:

1. Automatic Jam Recovery. If a media jam occurs, and if the printer power remains on, the

Crown II printer is able to reprint the page or pages in the engine at the time of the jam

after the jam has been cleared. This enables you to collect your document(s) from the

printer without missing pages and without resending the print job. See A

UTOMATIC JAM

RECOVERY on page 14 for additional information.

Crown Book Part 1 7

2. Electronic Document Collation. Since all pages of a particular document are stored in the

Display List, it is not necessary to send a print job multiple times from the software

application to print multiple copies. This feature enhances printer performance and

decreases network traffic dramatically. For more details, see

ELECTRONIC DOCUMENT

COLLATION

on page 15.

 Crown II printers equipped with an internal hard disk are shipped with a preconfigured

segment value for the Display List on the hard disk. However, you may manually select

other values to further optimize the Crown II printer in a specific application. This

allows the Crown II printer to receive and store many print jobs, and it allows print jobs

to be spooled. The process of storing documents before printing is referred to as

Compile-Ahead technology.

8 Part 1 Crown Book

RASTERIZATION

Each time the print engine is ready to print a new page, the

Display List provides the compressed blocks for that particular

page. The Rasterizer translates the compressed blocks very

rapidly into a bitmap version that is stored in the Frame

Buffer. From the Frame Buffer, the print engine reads this

bitmap data.

A bitmap is a graphic representation of a page. All characters

and art representations are printed using tiny dots.

For monochrome Crown II printers, the Frame Buffer contains

a black bitmap only. Crown II color printers translate the

Display List blocks into either four separate bitmaps, (one for cyan, one for magenta, one for

yellow, and one for black) or a black bitmap only for monochrome output.

The illustration demonstrates the color rasterization process with bitmap representations. The

rasterizer processes the data from the Display List into four bitmaps, one for cyan, one for

magenta, one

for yellow, and

one for black.

The print

engine

processes these

bitmaps and

fuses the four

toner layers

onto the media

to produce a

printed output.

 Cyan combined with yellow produces green, cyan combined with magenta produces

blue, and yellow combined with magenta produces red. Cyan, magenta, and yellow

combined produce black. In our example, the black is produced by fusing all four toner

colors.

 The Frame Buffer always resides in RAM (Random Access Memory = volatile memory).

It is not possible to assign (a portion of) the internal hard disk as Frame Buffer. The

print engine reads Frame Buffer bitmap data continuously at a very high speed, not

allowing delays caused by search mechanisms of relatively slow devices, such as a hard

disk.

Crown Book Part 1 9

The maximum resolution of printing is calculated

directly from the size of the Frame Buffer. The table

below shows the minimum amount of Frame Buffer

memory required for some media sizes and resolutions.

All values are rounded in megabytes (MB).

The printable area is defined as the media size minus

the nonprintable edges around the media. The value of

the nonprintable edges is dependent on the particular

Crown II printer. Some Crown II printers also allow

edge-to-edge printing, which means that the nonprintable area is zero.

 Refer to your Crown II printer documentation for the actual printable area(s).

Minimum Frame Buffer size for single-sided media

Resolution Monochrome 4-Color

(Horizontal x

Vertical)

A4

(210x297 mm)

A3

(420x297 mm)

A4

(210x297 mm)

A3

(420x297 mm)

(dots per inch)

Letter

(8½"x11")

Ledger

(11"x17")

Letter

(8½"x11")

Ledger

(11"x17")

300 x 300

1 MB 2 MB 4 MB 8 MB

600 x 600

4 MB 8 MB 16 MB 32 MB

1200 x 1200

16 MB 32 MB 64 MB 128 MB

 You may calculate the minimum Frame Buffer memory required for any media size by

applying the following formula. The value F is then rounded to the next integer.

8,388,608

h

25.4

v

25.4

x

( )

x H x V x S x C

F =

F = Frame Buffer size in MB

h = Horizontal dimension of media in mm

v = Vertical dimension of media in mm

H = Horizontal resolution in dpi

V = Vertical resolution in dpi

S = Number of sides:

Enter 1 for Simplex, 2 for Duplex

C = Number of colors:

Enter 1 for Monochrome, 4 for Color

Using Millimeters

8,388,608

(

h x v

)

x H x V x S x C

F =

F = Frame Buffer size in MB

h = Horizontal dimension of media in inches

v = Vertical dimension of media in inches

H = Horizontal resolution in dpi

V = Vertical resolution in dpi

S = Number of sides:

Enter 1 for Simplex, 4 for Duplex

C = Number of colors:

Enter 1 for Monochrome, 4 for Color

Using Inches

*

10 Part 1 Crown Book

PRINTING

The printing segment is the hardware, often

referred to as the print engine.

To become familiar with the basic functions of a

print engine we demonstrate with a color print

engine.

1. Laser Unit - The laser unit is controlled by the contents of the

Frame Buffer (for each color). For each dot color of the Frame

Buffer bitmap that is turned on, the laser is switched on and

‘writes’ an electrical dot onto the OPC.

 An electrical dot is an isolated area on the surface of the OPC.

The OPC is initially charged. When the laser beam strikes the

surface, that area is electrically neutralized.

2. OPC (Optical Photo Conductive) Belt (also called ‘Drum’) - The

laser unit ‘writes’ the dots from one side to the other, while the

rotation of the OPC is responsible for the vertical movement (lines

of dots).

3. Toner - Each toner cartridge transfers its toner (one color at a time)

to the neutral areas on the OPC by means of electrostatic attraction

(the toner carries a negative charge). Each OPC belt rotation

transports one color image.

4. Transfer Belt - The Transfer Belt collects all four color images in

succession (on top of each other). Then the total combined toner

image is transferred from the Transfer Belt to the media drawn

from the media cassette. The transfer is also obtained by

electrostatic attraction.

5. Fuser Unit - The fuser unit contains pressurized hot rollers. As the media passes the fuser,

the toner images are melted and fused onto the media. The printed media is then

transported to the output area of the print engine.

The various print engine units are controlled by the Crown II firmware. To detect the status

of these modules, the print engine provides specific sensor signals.

C

M

Y

K

Crown Book Part 1 11

2. CROWN II FEATURES

The previous chapter explained the Crown II printer and introduced some of the Crown II

features. This chapter explains the Crown II features in more detail:

 Refer to your Crown II printer documentation for the actual features available.

IMPORTANT NOTES

Before discussing the Crown II features in detail, several important words need to be defined.

ABOUT OUTLINE FONTS AND BITMAP FONTS

A font is a subset of a typeface with a certain size, style (such as italic), and stroke weight

(such as bold). A typeface is the design of a set of characters and usually carries a name, like

Helvetica or Times. The size is expressed in points (1 point = 1/72 inch = 0.35 mm). There

are two basic methods of storing fonts in a printer:

a. Bitmapped Fonts

These fonts are stored as a collection of dots within a matrix. Principally, each font

is designed separately for the best appearance according to the size and resolution

used (the higher the resolution and/or size, the more dots are needed). This

approach has the disadvantage that a separate bitmapped font must be stored for

each size, style, stroke weight, and resolution to be used, occupying much memory.

A further disadvantage is that scaling is not possible without causing a jagged

appearance, although special software routines may help. The illustration shows a

bitmapped font of the italic character ‘I.’

b. Outline Fonts

These fonts are size- and resolution-independent since they describe only

the outline of the characters, not the individual dots. The illustration

shows the italic character ‘I’ stored as vectors. You may describe this

character as follows:

• Draw a line from a (X = 1,Y = 0) to b (X = 2½, Y = 7) to c

(X = 3½, Y = 7) to d (X = 2, Y = 0) to a (X = 1, Y = 0).

• Fill the enclosed outline with dots (resolution dependent).

✓ Serverless Printing ✓ Printer-Based Accounting

✓ Automatic Jam Recovery ✓ Network Connectivity

✓ Electronic Document Collation ✓ Color Management

✓ Emulation Context Switching ✓ Proof-Then-Print

✓ Overlay Printing ✓ Printer Management

✓ Number-Up printing ✓ Memory Management

✓ Booklet Printing

12 Part 1 Crown Book

This vectored description is independent of the size and resolution. The raster being used in

our example is a matrix of 4 x 7 units (a unit does not have a fixed dimension). When such a

character needs to be printed, the unit number is translated into dots by multiplying the unit

by an integer, according to the required point size and resolution. Only one character

description needs to be stored for all sizes and resolutions used.

 An outline font can be scaled and rotated easily. A bitmapped font cannot. Scaling

and/or rotating bitmapped fonts may cause a loss of dots, giving the character a jagged

appearance.

 The examples used have small matrices for clarity. Normally, these matrices are much

larger.

ABOUT PRINTER LANGUAGES

The printer receives commands from the computer, which tell the printer how to format the

document being processed. The structure of the print data is called a printer language. There

are basically two kinds of printer languages: PDL and non-PDL. A PDL (Page Description

Language) describes the contents of a page rather than supplying print data from left to right

and from top to bottom. PostScript is a PDL. A PDL may start the data stream with a

prologue. A prologue describes how the contents of the following data (the script) must be

handled. This may invoke routines to handle outline fonts, images, etc.

Another important industrial printer language is PCL (Printer Command Language). PCL

commands are escape sequence codes embedded in the data of the print job being transmitted

to the printer. These escape codes define special features to be executed, such as setting fonts,

point sizes, etc.

ABOUT HARD DISKS

Internal hard disk-equipped Crown II printers may be used extensively for memory clients

and printer-related files. A memory client is a Crown II memory function for one of its

specific segments, like the Spool Buffer, Display List, Emulation, and Emulation Temp

buffer. The corresponding files are in restricted areas of the hard disk. Printer-related files

include optional fonts, emulations, forms, and macros.

Crown Book Part 1 13

 Memory clients should be assigned to the internal hard disk, since an external hard disk

is attached outside the interior of the printer and, therefore, an accidental disconnection

may cause a malfunction of the printer.

One internal hard disk may be installed and has a logical name ‘SYS:.’ A maximum of three

external hard disks may be attached.

 Attaching one or more external hard disks requires the installation of the (optional) SCSI

interface.

ABOUT THE FEATURES

Some features of a Crown II printer depend upon the installation of a particular option. In

addition, a certain option or environment may be recommended, although not absolutely

necessary, to take full advantage of the feature. To clearly identify this, we use the following

symbols.

Required Recommended Description

This icon is shown when the situation applies to

networked environments.

This icon is shown when the situation applies to Crown

II printers equipped with a duplex unit. The duplex unit

may be an option.

This icon is shown when the situation applies to

PostScript emulations. Crown II printers are shipped

with the KONICA MINOLTA PostScript Drivers for

Windows 95/98/Me and for Windows XP/2000/NT4.

This icon is shown when the situation applies to Crown

II printers equipped with an internal hard disk.

This icon is shown when the situation applies to Crown

II color printers.

This icon is shown when the situation applies to

Internet or web browser applications.

14 Part 1 Crown Book

SERVERLESS PRINTING

The illustration shows a simplified section of a typical

network environment. A workstation (WS1) generates

print data from a software application and transmits it

via the network to the network server. The network

server stores the data on its hard disk (in what is called

a print queue). After the data transmission is

completed, the network server sends the print job to the

printer via the same network.

This method has two major disadvantages:

1. The print data is sent two times across the network,

increasing the network traffic.

2. It also takes much longer to print from the time the

workstation sends the data until the print job is

completely printed.

Not only do you have to wait a relatively long time before the printer starts to process the job,

but all other users on the network experience a slower response time as well.

Crown II technology offers a better solution:

A workstation sends the print data directly to the

printer, omitting the network server routing.

 All Crown II printers may still print through a

print queue on a network server if you need to use

this method.

All Crown II printers behave like network servers when

connected to a network, decreasing unnecessary

network traffic. This becomes a major benefit when

multiple Crown II printers are active in the same

network. Everyone experiences a much faster

throughput of their print jobs.

AUTOMATIC JAM RECOVERY

Crown II printers provide automatic jam recovery (when enabled through the

Administration/Engine/Page Recovery menu). After you remove any jammed media,

printing automatically resumes from the page the printer stopped at when the jam occurred.

 For automatic jam recovery to work, it is necessary to leave the printer turned on when

you remove the jammed media.

Crown Book Part 1 15

ELECTRONIC DOCUMENT COLLATION

Many software applications (in

particular Microsoft Office) offer a

collation button in the Print menu.

Activating this button causes the

application to send the document

multiple times to the printer. This not

only increases network traffic, but the

sending workstation also dramatically

slows down due to the unknown

amount of the print data. For example,

if 3 copies and collate are selected for a

4-page document, the application

generates 3 x 4 = 12 pages of print data.

 Note that this 12-page file is nothing more than THREE IDENTICAL 4-page documents.

When collate is not selected and the copy count is set to 3, the application sends the 4-page

file once, with a copy count of 3 embedded in the data stream. A non-Crown II printer

usually prints page 1 three times, followed by page 2 three times, page 3 three times, and

page 4 three times. You must manually collate the pages afterward to obtain the documents.

The example discusses what happens when only three copies are selected. In some cases,

many more copies are needed.

Crown II technology offers a better solution:

With a Crown II printer,

you do not have to select

collation in the software

application when you need

multiple copies of your

document. If the driver

collate setting is turned on,

just enter the number of

copies you need in the driver. The print data is sent once, regardless of the number of copies

you selected. The Crown II printer prints and automatically collates the specified amount of

documents, with the pages in the correct order for each copy of the document. This Crown II

feature allows a very efficient way of producing multiple documents while keeping the

network traffic at a minimum and saving you from manually collating the printed pages into

documents.

 Crown II printers are shipped with the collate feature switched off. You are advised to

switch it on after completely setting up your Crown II printer.

16 Part 1 Crown Book

EMULATION CONTEXT SWITCHING

Both workstations WS1 and WS2 are independently

creating a document. Workstation WS1 uses a PCL

printer driver, and workstation WS2 uses a

PostScript printer driver. Assume the printer is just

switched on, and each page is sent as a separate print

job. The following is received by the printer in

succession:

1. Print job C is received from WS1.

2. Print job A is received from WS2.

3. Print job D is received from WS1.

This sequence causes the following actions:

1. The Emulation Sensing Processor activates the resident PCL

emulator after print job C was received. The PCL emulator starts

from its default condition. Assume that in print job C some special

features were selected, like downloaded PCL fonts and PCL macros.

2. The next print job arriving at the Emulation Sensing Processor

causes the resident PostScript emulator to be activated. Prior to

activation, the current emulation context (downloaded fonts and

macros previously used) of the PCL emulator is saved in memory.

Then the PostScript emulator is activated and processes the print

job A.

3. Following, print job D from WS1 is received. The PCL driver located in

WS1 still assumes that all emulation context selected during the

previous page is still active. Therefore, before the PCL emulator is

activated, the Crown II printer first uploads the previously stored

emulation context from the Emulation Temp buffer.

 Without the Crown II emulation context switching feature, WS1

would have to download the fonts and macros used with each print

job.

This Crown II feature ensures the correct handling of any multi-

environmental situation, utilizing multiple printer emulations. Although this

feature is predominant in networked environments, the same situation occurs when using

multiple Crown II interfaces, each receiving data with a different printer emulation.

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Konica Minolta Crown II System Features Manual

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