Adding new dot shape names to the GUI

This page applies to Harlequin v13.1r0 and later; both Harlequin Core and Harlequin MultiRIP.

In the GUI version, the screens added to sf.ps can be made available to the end user in the Dot Shape menu within the Screening dialog box.

This is done by associating the internal name of the screen in sf.ps with the external name, which is to appear in the menu, in the file Config/Screen Names. This file is created when the RIP is first run. The file is structured like this:

            /Screening [
              <<
                ... information about first dot shape on menu ...
              >>
              <<
                ... information about second dot shape on menu ...
              >>
              ...
            ]

Each entry on the menu is described by a dictionary. Note, however, that these files are not processed through the PostScript-language compatible interpreter, though they can be for other purposes. Only constants are allowed in the file: no operators may be used, and no calculation can be done to arrive at the entries. Changes will only be acted on when the RIP is next started.

The file already contains entries for the most common built in dot shapes. If some of these are not required, rather than remove them, simply set the Enabled entry to false.

To add a new dot shape, edit the file to insert a new dictionary in the position where it is required to appear on the menu. For example, to add the threshold screen for the previous section in second place on the menu, we could have:

  /Screening
  [
  <<
  ... original first entry...
  >>
  <<
    /InternalName (Round)
    /ExternalName (Round)
    /Type (SpotFunction)
    /Enabled true
    /DefaultValues
    [
    ]
  >>
  <<
    ... former second entry ...
  >>
  ...
  ]

The entries in these dictionaries are described below.