Support
Support Services
SDSI provides free support services to active resellers and customers who have
a maintenence agreement that includes techical support. We also provide free
pre-sales assistance to users who are evaluating our products.
At our discretion, we may also provide free support to other users of our software.
Note that SDSI maintains support forums
for our products on Google Groups.
This provides peer support as well as SDSI-monitored responses. The support forums are free.
Support Database
Before requesting support, please review our on-line support data base to see
if we have already answered your question. Enter a simple search phrase, or
leave the filter empty, and press Search.
Printer Compatibility
UnForm produces PCL5 print streams by default. In addition, UnForm 7
can produce PostScript print streams with the "-p ps" command line option.
When looking for a compatible printer, look at the printer specifications
for supported print languages.
- A specification of PCL5, PCL5e, or PCL5c, coupled with a mention of PCL fonts,
is a good indication that the printer will be compatible with all versions of UnForm.
Unfortunately, not all printers that support PCL5 include PCL fonts. Without
such fonts, all text output produced by UnForm is rendered in Courier and is
not scaled. Therefore, verify that the specifications mention PCL fonts, or at
least verify the printer is returnable if it turns out not to handle PCL fonts.
- A mention of PostScript 2 or higher indicates compatibility with UnForm 7.
- A specification of PCL6 does not indicate PCL5 support, as
PCL6 is a poorly named, entirely different, print language that is not
compatible with UnForm's PCL5 output.
- If no print languages are mentioned in the specification, the printer
is probably a host-based (also called GDI) printer. This type of printer
has no capability to render print streams, and is incompatible with any form of
UnForm output.
- UnForm 8+ can utilize Ghostscript to produce output that is compatible
with PCL6, using -p pcl6 or -p pcl6c. Note that when using this technique,
there is no support for bin, tray, or duplex printing, as PDF is used as
an interim format before Ghostscript processing.
If you have any questions about the compatibility of a specific printer with UnForm,
send us an email with the printer manufacturer and model, and the UnForm version,
and we can review the printer specifications and respond.
In addition, if you have access to the printer, you can send it the unform_pcl5.pcl test file contained in
this file, and see if the print appears correct, with proportional
fonts and proper alignment. To send this file to a printer, use lp -dqueue unform_pcl5.pcl
on Unix/Linux (you may need to add an operating-system specific raw or passthru option, such as -oraw), or
copy unform_pcl5.pcl \\server\sharename on Windows.
For information about PostScript printing with UnForm, read this Microsoft PowerPoint presentation from our 2007 conference.
Printer Compatibility Database
SDSI maintains a database of known compatible and non-compatible
printers from user comments and our own research. Our intent is that
this information will assist users in purchasing new printers.
PostScript PPD Files
PostScript printer features, such as tray, bin, and duplex control, vary be printer model.
Manufacturers publish files, known as PPD files, for each of their PostScript printers.
Sometimes these files are available via their web site or a CD, sometimes they can be found
by installing their PostScript driver on Windows and searching for *.ppd files on the Windows
system.
We have also found that many manufacturers publish PPD files on the
Linux Foundation
web site.
Once you have located a PPD file, it should be installed in the UnForm server's ppd directory, and the PPD file
specified in the client command line with the -m model option, where model is the name of
the PPD file without the .ppd extension.
Note that naming conventions vary for things like tray names and bin names, so you may want to customize the
manufacturer's PPD file to enforce your own consistent naming conventions. For example, one manufacturer may call
the first paper tray "Tray1", and another "UpperTray". Further, traditional PCL tray numbers which are typically
used in UnForm rule files are simply "1", "4", "5", and so on.
To customize a tray to match rule set tray numbers, look for a line like this:
*InputSlot Tray1/Tray 1: "<> setpagedevice"
To make a rule set work with tray 1 commands, add a line like above, using "1" in place of
"Tray1/Tray 1", like this:
*InputSlot 1: "<> setpagedevice"
UnForm will locate *InputSlot 1 and use the same printer control as a PostScript "Tray1" command.
Current Release Notes
Download the current release notes for
UnForm 9.0
Download the current release notes for
UnForm 8.0
Download the current release notes for
UnForm 7.1
Download the current release notes for
UnForm 7.0
Tech Tip Article Index
Our quarterly newsletters contain technical tips on various topics. Here is the
article index.
Support Request
SDSI uses a support ticket system hosted by FreshDesk. This system requires
user registration, which will be automatic the first time you use the system.
Use this system to
create a new ticket, or
view existing tickets.
UnForm and CirrusPrint are registered trademarks of SDSI. General and
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