W-ELP - Enhanced Laser Printing

stethos Enhanced Laser Printing System (ELP) is an intelligent, modular, scalable and very efficient Output Management System. One of the main objectives of ELP is the easy usage and the very small training period. ELP offers different possibilities to enhance and modify the printer data stream without interfering in existing processes.

ELP installed on VMS, Unix or AS/400 operates as a filter and on Windows NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008 (support for 64Bit Windows, Cluster server and Terminal server is available as well) as a print processor. This guarantees that ELP does not need any system resources in idle mode. The following graphic gives an overview illustrating the most important functions such as controlling print functions (non carbon copies, tray pulling, electronic forms, bar codes and much more), distributed printing (e.g. using email PDF attachment), archiving and accounting.

Base version

Search and replace (or delete or add) function offers a simple manipulation of the print data stream (PCL5, but PCL6 and Postscript as well). This allows the selective usage of forms and the correction of inappropriate print commands in the source data stream.
Admin software for configuration and generation of electronic forms.
Soft flash: automatic use of static electronic forms as overlays for usage within PCL 5x macro escape commands.
The following settings can be me made in general, per printer, per user and/or using the 'search' capability in the printer data stream. Although the target printer must support the appropriate functionality: Use toner economy mode; Allow only grayscale on color printers; Print only from predefined applications
Tray mapping allows the remapping of paper trays using existing tray pull commands.
Variable management: ELP controlled print e.g. date and time stamp or user name/document name on the printout. Additional values such as invoice numbers can be found using the 'search' capability and then stored for logging purposes.
Export of variables to an external file.
Import of variables from an external file. This allows e.g. the creation of a customer specific pricelist.
Conversion of symbol sets: e.g. EBCDIC to ASCII
Compression of the print stream (decompression inside the HP printer or in an external box just before the printer).
Secure printing support (HP PIN printing or FollowMe and SecureJet)

Bar code for 2D codes (PCL5 and PostScript)

Support of PDF 417, UPS Maxicode and Data Matrix.

Bar code for 1D codes (PCL5, PostScript and Kyocera Prescribe)

Support of all well known 1D codes.
Free Escape function allows an alternative escape character (useful e.g. when printing from an IBM AS400).

ELP module

Support for OMR codes for mail inserter from Francotyp-Postalia, Stielow, Hefter, neopost and PFE.
Trigger functions dependant on the data stream allow dedicated actions to be taken.
Automatic copies in different orders: e.g.123, 123, 123 or 111, 222, 333
Every page (regardless if it's an original or a copy) can be pulled from a specific input tray. You can print using up to 10 different (coloured) paper types using the TowerFeed/TowerTray solution.
Every page can be stored in a separate output tray (up to 9 different output trays are possible using HP mailbox). For example the copy for the accounting department can be stored in a specific output tray.
Automatic print of macros (company logos and watermarks etc.) on the original and copies (carbon copy function). The forms can be created using any kind of software such as MS Word or OpenOffice.
Automatic switch from simplex to duplex printing (and back).
Printing in reverse order (page n, page n-1, page n-2, ...., 3, 2, 1) .
Simplex or duplex prints from different input trays with pre-printed or pre-punched paper.
Download from soft fonts (e.g. Greek or OCR for check printing).
Modify the margins of the printout.
Reportline generator which prints reading lines (like formerly seen on z-fold continous paper used on dotmatrix printers)

PCL raster compression mode 8 (fax group 4)

Some printer manufactures developed their own compression mode and implemented that in the base firmware of their laser printers. ELP can emulate the compression mode for printers which do not have the necessary firmware support.

Print distribution und archiving module

MyPrintArchive: Gathering of print jobs per user, project, workstation name, ... The release of these jobs can be done by a simple click, by an event on a selective basis e.g. reprinting of student material for classrooms.
Copying of received print streams or generated print streams to different printers which are spooled locally or remote.
Distribution of print jobs depending on the number of pages or the size of the paper to different printers.
Print clustering: Job splitting of PCL5 print files and sending them to multiple printers.
Storing of received print steams or generated print streams to different folders for archiving purposes.
Symmetric encryption of the print stream (decryption inside the HP printer or in an external box just before the printer).
Generation of index files per print file (HPS).
Invoking of external programmes at the end of the print job or after every page. Thereby sending data using FTP, LPR or IPCOPY directly to a predefined printer or to a printer which is specified in the data stream based on a name or IP address.
Conversion of the archived data to Adobe searchable PDF format.
Conversion of the archived data to TIFF format.
Archived data can be deleted after a predefined number of days.
The supplied PPAdmin program has a retrieval module to search within the archives.

Accounting and monitoring module

ELP can gather certain information per print job and then stores in a CSV files for further processing e.g. MS Excel: Username; printer name; workstation name; document name; amount of pages; printer language; page size; page orientation; resolution; multi page document; date; time;
Triggers and search values can be used to monitor only certain prints. For example only users or documents that contain the word 'secret' are monitored.
ELP can add variables such as invoice number from the data stream to the log file or the other way round i.e. delete specific variables.
Automated (scheduled) retrieving of page and copy counters for assessment or billing purpose.

database support

Perform queries within an unlimited number of databases based on selected data within the printer data stream
Inserting and processing of data values from any database like e.g. variables, e-mail addresses, and/or the amount of needed non carbon copies.

Postal mail optimization

Gathering, sorting and collecting of documents for optimized priinting according to postal mail requirements.

e-mail module

Sends the data stream as an attachment.
E-mail addresses can be predefined or sent within the data stream.
Multiple body texts can be predefined based on different rules (e.g. sending invoices in different languages).
The data stream can be converted to Adobe PDF format.
The data stream can be converted to TIFF format.
If required, the physical printout can be suppressed.

Emulations

Most of the emulations are developed based on customer data streams. The printout can generaly be scaled in X/Y direction (not the graphic elements). In cases where the printout is wrong, please send us the source data streams including a scanned proof on the original printer.

PDF direct prints Adobe PDF documents directly to PostScript printers.
TIFF direct prints TIFF documents directly to PostScript printers.
EPSON 9 needle
Proprinter 9 needle, PPDS
PGL and VGL
LG / Philips
Hex-output.
CALS (rastergraphic format) prints direct to TIFF or PostScript printers.
Kyocera Prescribe (incl. support for barcode printing)

Other features

QueueControl: monitoring of print queues. Actions can be defined in case of an error e.g. delete the print job or resend the print job to another queue.
Admin software for easy configuration. Important settings (e.g. for error handling) can be enabled by invoking a macro.
2 byte support.
Functions such as Pass-Through or No Printing.
Multiroll support for HP Designjet's (LFP) ensures the correct support for a specify paper roll according to the size of the selected paper .
Converts a predefined string to HEX value (e.g. \x1B to ASCII 27).
Integration of external documents e.g. data sheets (PDF, MS Word, MS Excel, etc.) or graphics (EPS, TIFF, JPEG, etc.).
Can be used with almost every operating system using LPR protocol.
100% compatible with PCL5e and PCL5c (HP LaserJet).
Partial support of PCL3GUI (HP Business Inkjet).
Acts as a print processor running within Windows, as a filter running in a Unix environment and for IBM AS/400 as a queue plugg-in.

Enhanced Laser Printing (must be licensed per queue or per printer)	Order no.
For Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, 2008, Cluster Server, Terminal Server, 64Bit Windows	please ask
For Linux, Solaris, HP-UX, AIX, True64 (others please ask)	please ask
For VMS	please ask
For AS/400 (supports only for the following modules: Base, ELP, bar codes)	please ask
For HP LaserJet based on flash technology	please ask
External Appliance for PCL5, PCL5e and PCL5c printer/MFP with LAN as input and LAN or USB as output	AP-ELP