Windows NT Raster Printing Architecture

Figure 11.1 shows the system components required to print to a raster printing device on Windows NT.

Figure 11.1 Raster Printer Components in Windows NT

This figure identifies the components that comprise a raster device driver as:

• The rasdd.dll graphics driver.

• The rasddui.dll printer interface driver.

• A minidriver that contains printer-specific information for RasDD and its user interface.

RasDD customizes its operation for specific printer models through minidriver files. In many cases, support can be extended to a new printer simply by creating a new minidriver rather than creating an entirely new printer driver.

Printer drivers and their components are discussed in Printer Drivers.