1.2 A Change in the Printer-Driver Interface
The original Windows printer-driver interface required that a driver
developer code, test, and debug the 24 required driver functions. This was
a time-consuming task that required a thorough understanding of Windows,
the Windows graphics-device interface (GDI), the printer hardware, and the
printer command set. Developers continue to use this interface to develop
Windows printer drivers for pen plotters, daisy-wheel printers, Adobe
PostScript(R) printers, and printers that use printer-control languages
which are similar to PostScript.
The new Windows printer-driver interface provides two dynamic-link
libraries: UNIDRV.DLL and DMCOLOR.DLL which contain the 24 required
functions. (The functions in DMCOLOR.DLL support color printers). By
providing these functions, a driver developer no longer needs a thorough
understanding of Windows and GDI in order to develop a printer driver.
Using the new interface, a developer who understands the hardware and
command set for a printer can develop a driver with comparatively little
effort. In addition to providing the two dynamic-link libraries, Microsoft
also provides the source code for a minidriver. A minidriver is an
executable file that forwards calls from the Windows GDI to UNIDRV.DLL. In
addition to forwarding GDI calls, the minidriver maintains a collection of
data structures which are referred to as the printer's data table. A data
table contains data such as the printer's resolution, color capabilities,
metrics for device fonts, and so on. A data table also contains the strings
which correspond to various printer commands. Using the new Windows
application, UniTool (UNITOOL.EXE), a driver developer initializes the
structure members in a printer's data table.
It is possible and sometimes necessary for a developer to create a second
type of minidriver which contains data and private code. A developer must
provide private code whenever the Universal Printer Driver does not provide
functionality required by a printer. For example, UNIDRV.DLL expects the
pins on a 9-pin dot-matrix printer to be ordered such that the topmost
addressable pin corresponds to bit-seven in a byte of graphics data and the
bottommost addressable pin corresponds to bit-zero. However, some printers
(such as the older Okidata dot-matrix printers) reverse this ordering. The
only solution to this and similar problems is to provide developers with
the ability to supply private callback functions which perform
device-specific operations. A callback function is a developer-supplied
function which executes in addition to or in place of one of the
Microsoft-supplied Universal Printer Driver functions. For a complete
description of the various callback functions, see Appendix A, Minidriver
Callback Functions.