IPS
™
DDK
Driver Development Kit for Windows
Imaging
Software
Driving the Digital Lifestyle
Processors
Quatro SOCs
Solutions
Product Brief
Zoran Corporation
1390 Kifer Road
Sunnyvale, CA 94086-5305
www.zoran.com
IPS DDK, Zoran’s feature-rich high performance driver
development kit, is targeted to color and monochrome printers
and multifunction peripherals (MFPs). IPS DDK supports raster,
JBIG, PCL 5, PCL XL (PCL 6) and PostScript on laser, inkjet and
other marking technologies. In the past, only monolithic drivers
met OEM requirements for features, customization, performance
and print quality. By extending the capabilities of the standard
Microsoft Unidrv and PScript provided in Windows, IPS DDK
eliminates the requirement for developing both monolithic and
Unidrv/PScript based drivers. This can now be accomplished in
one development effort. In addition, IPS DDK offers user
interface consistency across Windows operating systems
including Windows Vista and print language technologies.
Benefits
• Conforms to Microsoft Unidrv/PScript architecture; fully Windows-
compatible (x86 and x64 versions) and WHQL compliant; prepares
development for future Windows releases including Windows Vista
• Full customization capabilities and control over user interface
design and feature set
• Easy integration of OEM intellectual property: proprietary color
management, halftone algorithms (error diffusion and screens)
and other image quality improvement algorithms, finishing options,
document processing and other device features
• Source code availability provides independence, design flexibility
and facilitates value-added customization
• Single code base for worldwide distribution that can be localized
to all native Windows languages and locales; only one executable
to distribute
Key Features
• Easily customized user interface design, portable to both Unidrv
and PScript, and compliant with both Microsoft in-box and OEM UI
specifications
• Full range of feature enhancements to standard Unidrv and
PScript: page and device preview, watermark generation, N-up
formatting, complex booklet printing, reverse ordering, manual
duplex, scaling features and more
• High-fidelity color and quality, object-specific rendering and digital
halftoning
• Integrated high-speed, assembler-optimized, JBIG compression
module for raster page devices
• Reference implementation for page (e.g. laser) and serial (e.g.
inkjet) raster devices and PDL devices
Description
IPS DDK Driver Development Kit
Zoran's IPS DDK is specifically designed to comply with Microsoft's
Printing Architecture to ensure complete compatibility with Windows
operating systems. It takes full advantage of the standard spool
system, I/O architecture and OS-supplied components in Windows
2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, including x64 editions.
Using IPS DDK, OEMs can create drivers using:
•
•
•
•
Microsoft's Unidrv-based PCL 5 and PCL XL emitters
Microsoft’s PScript-based PostScript emitter
Zoran's JBIG and inkjet raster emitters
Their own proprietary formats
Plug-In Architecture
Zoran has built on the Unidrv and PScript architecture with an
innovative plug-in model that takes full advantage of the Microsoft core
components and adds powerful functionality and customization
capabilities. The IPS DDK plug-ins are implemented as a small number
of DLLs.
User Interface Plug-In
Full customization of the driver's user interface is provided by the User
Interface Plug-In. Various OEM custom designs are possible: rich
graphics in the user interface such as logos, printer configuration
images, page preview, etc. are standard. The user interface is
controlled through a combination of extended Generic Printer
Description (GPD) files or PostScript Printer Description (PPD) files;
more complex UI constraints are supported by easily debugged source
code.
Feature Plug-Ins
Features that are not natively supported by Unidrv or PScript are
implemented using advanced controls and processing options in the
Feature Plug-Ins:
• Document Transformation features add functionality to application
features, including zooming, watermarks, N-up, booklet and more.
• An enhanced Page Preview allows the user to see at a glance what
print options are active (e.g. watermarks, N-up, booklet printing,
binding options, etc.)
The DDK supports both color and monochrome output in bitonal, multi-
bit, N-color or contone format for laser, inkjet and other marking
technologies.
Windows Vista Ready
IPS DDK is compatible with the legacy print path in Windows Vista,
adding extensible support for PrintTicket and PrintCapabilities in the
new operating system. Because IPS DDK leverages standard
Microsoft interfaces, print drivers developed with IPS DDK can
seamlessly migrate between past, current and future operating system
releases.
x64 Edition Support
IPS DDK was designed from the ground up with 64-bit computing in
mind. It is the ideal platform for OEMs looking to support Windows XP
x64 Edition and Windows Server 2003 with full-featured print drivers.
Both 32-bit and 64-bit drivers can be generated from a single source
code project.
09/06-MMCP
Imaging-IPS DDK-PB-2.1
ZORAN [ ZORAN CORPORATION ]
