The local print provider contains an interpreter, which reads commands from a separator file and produces one or more pages of text and/or graphics. These pages are then added to the front of the print job. These pages typically show who submitted the job, when the job printed, what server it printed on, and so on. Separator pages are sometimes called header pages or burst pages.
By default, separator page files are stored in the \systemroot\SYSTEM32 directory. To use a separator page file, type its name in the Separator File text box of the Printer Details dialog box in Print Manager. To use no separator file, leave this text box blank.
The following table lists the separator files included with Windows NT. This table supersedes similar tables in the Windows NT Server System Guide and the Windows NT Server Concepts and Planning Guide.
Table 6.5 Separator 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 your own separator file, you can copy and rename one of the supplied separator files. The following table shows the escape codes you can include in a separator file. The first character of the separator page file must always be the escape character. This character is used throughout the separator page file in escape codes. The separator file interpreter replaces these escape codes with appropriate data, to be sent directly to the printer.
Table 6.6 Escape Codes
Escape code | Function |
\N | Prints the user name of the person that submitted the job. |
\I | Prints the job number. |
\D | Prints the date the job was printed. The representation of the date is the same as the Date Format in the International section in Control Panel. |
\T | Prints the time the job was printed. The representation of the time is the same as the Time Format in the International section in Control Panel. |
\Lxxxx | Prints all the characters (xxxx) 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 any 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; the maximum width is 256. Any printable characters beyond this width will be 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 printing to the next line. |
\B\M | Prints text in double-width block characters until \U is encountered. |
\U | Turns off block character printing. |