Separator pages—also called burst pages, header pages, or banner pages—print before each print job. They typically identify the computer that created the job, the time it was created, and so on. The local print provider contains an interpreter that reads commands from a separator page file to produce separator pages.
By default, separator page files are stored in the %systemroot%\system32 directory. To use a separator page file, click the Separator Page button on the General tab of the printer's Printer Properties sheet. Either type the name of the Separator Page file, or browse through the directories and select a file. Windows NT provides four separator page files; you can use them as is, or modify them to create your own custom separator page files.
The following table lists the separator page files included with Windows NT.
Filename | Purpose | Compatible with |
Sysprint.sep | Prints a page before each document | PostScript |
Pcl.sep | Switches dual-language HP printer to PCL printing | PCL |
Pscript.sep | Switches dual-language HP printer to PostScript printing | PostScript |
To create a custom separator page file, copy and rename one of the supplied files, and then edit it. The following table provides the escape codes you can use. The separator file interpreter replaces these escape codes with appropriate data, which is sent to the printer.
Escape code | Function | |
\ | The first line of the separator file must contain only this character. The separator file interpreter considers this the separator file command delimiter. This table assumes that character is a \ character. | |
\N | Prints the user name of the person who submitted the job. | |
\I | Prints the job number. | |
\D | Prints the date the job was printed. The representation of the time is the same as the Time Format in the International section on the Control Panel. | |
\Lxxx | Prints all the characters (xxx) following it until another escape code is encountered. | |
\Fpathname | Prints the contents of the file specified by path name, starting on an empty line. The contents of this file are copied directly to the printer without processing. | |
\Hnn | Sets a printer-specific control sequence, where nn is a hexadecimal ASCII code sent directly to the printer. To determine the specific numbers, see your printer manual. | |
\Wnn | Sets the width of the separator page. The default width is 80 characters; the maximum width is 256. Any printable characters beyond this width are truncated. | |
\B\S | Prints text in single-width block characters until \U is encountered. | |
\E | Ejects a page from the printer. Use this code to start a new separator page or to end the separator page file. If you get an extra blank separator page when you print, remove this code from your separator page file. | |
\n | Skips n number of lines (from 0 through 9). Skipping 0 lines simply moves priting to the next line. | |
\B\M | Prints text in double-width block characters until \U is encountered. | |
\U | Turns off block character printing. | |