Command line syntax
(Applies to EscapeE Professional and Batch Automation editions only)
Command line options may be of the form:
/<option>
i.e. a symbol that opens with a / character, or:
/<option> <parameterstring>
where a parameter string follows the symbol and is separated from it by a space character. The parameter may be composed of several values, generally separated by a comma. There should be no spaces before or after a comma separator. If a value contains a space character, that value must be enclosed in quotes.
/<option> <value1>,<value2>,<'value three'>
Options may be concatenated on the command line. Use a space character to end one option before starting the next option with its opening / character, as in this example command line:
escapee C:\MyDocuments\Design.pdf /HP /LOG AV
Alternatively, the options may be contained in an "options" file specified using the /OPTIONS syntax: see below.
The main (export) command line options are:
Export file to IBM-AFP datastream. |
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/AFP M |
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Export data fields to comma separated values. |
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Export file to Forms Description Language. |
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Export file to Hewlett-Packard Printer Command Language format. See also /SUBSET |
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Defines the input specification for files. See also /OUTSPEC |
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Exports a range of pages as a macro. The macro number defaults to 100. |
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Defines the default output specification for files (it is equivalent to /TO). See also /INSPEC |
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Export file to Adobe® Portable Document Format. |
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Export file to Portable Networks Graphic image. |
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The options can be any of: D formats the output and sends it directly to the printer, bypassing the driver. The output format may be appended, see example below; S scales to fit on the paper when printing. EscapeE chooses an appropriate integer factor automatically. or the name of a Windows® printer driver to be used. In this case the whole option string should be enclosed in quotes. Examples: ESCAPEE TEST.PRN /PRINT 'My printer,S' ESCAPEE TEST.PRN /PRINT D /HP |
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Processes the whole file without producing any output. See also 'No output' note. |
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Export Postscript Format level 2. |
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/PS3 |
Export Postscript Format level 3. |
Export file to plain text format. These text options may be used in any combination: Y Extract text. If any options other than Y or N are specified then any default settings are ignored. T Extracted text is to be in UTF8 Unicode. If none of the options T, U or X is specified, the text is extracted in default Windows® Codepage (19U). H Use the font's cell width for determining the spacing when extracting text. For plain text Log files, use C to show the number of sides output. The information is put at the end of the output file. The side count, if requested, is given first: No pages produced (if nothing has been output), 1 page or n pages. |
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Export file to Adobe® Tagged Image File Format. Values of n can be: 1 to create a single page TIFF (the default) or |
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Export data fields to Extensible Markup Language values. |
For convenience, files exported using any of these main options are named, assigned the appropriate extension and placed in the originating folder automatically. Used in conjunction with the /TO option, however, you may set up other names and/or destination folders instead.
The main command line options may be followed by a parameter which may begin with V to request that the pages are shown on screen also. It may also specify a time, t, for continuous operation where a scan is made every t seconds, e.g.:
ESCAPEE *.LSH /TIFF V5
The following options can be used to initialize some of the parameters that could have been set manually using the printer's front panel:
Sets the default output bin. |
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n is the number of copies required. |
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Sets the colour range for HP-GL plotter pens defined by /PC, below. Expressed as three pairs of real numbers defining the lower and upper limits of the red, green and blue values. The default values are 0 and 255, i.e. /CR 0,255,0,255,0,255 Only valid when the number of pen colours is also defined: see /NP below. |
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Sets up a custom paper size; width and height are in inches. For example, you may define paper for a letter (portrait) as: /CUSTOM 11.3,17.1 When a paper type is included in the command, the specified PAPER size is redefined. So a "DL" (landscape) envelope may be changed to 8.4in wide, 3.5in high by: /CUSTOM DL,8.4,3.5 |
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Requests duplex output (the default is to print both sides of the current page); e may take these values: L Long-edge binding S Short-edge binding -L override print file settings, Long-edge binding -S override print file settings, Short-edge binding. See also /DUPSIM, below. |
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Simulates simplex output using duplex; e may take these values: L Long-edge binding S Short-edge binding See also /DUPLEX, above. |
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Request edge-to-edge printing, so that coordinates are measured from the physical edge of the paper. |
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To configure EscapeE to start in HP-GL mode to emulate a plotter, use HPGL Y. If embedded graphics are rotated, use HPGL R instead. |
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Set landscape orientation. |
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The line-ending sequence: 0 CR -> CR, LF -> LF, FF -> FF (the default) 1 CR -> CRLF, LF -> LF, FF -> FF 2 CR -> CR, LF -> CRLF, FF -> CRFF 3 CR -> CRLF, LF -> CRLF, FF -> CRFF |
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Set initial VMI to allow n lines per page (default is 66). |
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Associate special media with tray number. Note that there is no space between the MEDIA keyword and the name, e.g. /MEDIALETTERHEAD 2 |
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Causes HP-GL mode to default to a two-pen monochrome palette rather than an eight-pen colour palette. See also /NP below. |
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Sets up the number n of pen colours for an HP-GL plotter. See also /MONO, /PW and /CR. |
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Set x equal to: P for portrait, Use * to force that orientation: e.g. /ORIENT *L |
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Set the paper size, where p is one of: |
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Where a number of pens have been defined for an HP-GL printer (see /NP), /PCn sets up relative colour values for each pen. For example: /PC1 255,0,255 The colour values actually used are bounded by the range of values set up using /CR. |
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Where a number of pens have been defined for an HP-GL printer (see /NP), /PWn sets the width of pen n to the specified value in standard HP-GL units of 1/40 mm (~1/1000 inch). E.g. /PW1 40.0 /PW2 25.0 If n is omitted, all the pens are set to the specified pen_width. See also /PCn. |
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Define default font f where f can be the name of an RFF font or an HP-PCL font selection sequence. Note that the ^ character is used in place of the 'Escape' character in a selection sequence, except when used on an MS-DOS® command line with Windows® XP and later systems. A single ^ character has special significance for these systems, so ^^ must be used instead. See also /PNUMFONT, below. |
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PCL shading patterns, where s is: 0 standard |
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Define spot colour as RGB. |
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Sets the default input tray. |
/CAPTURE |
Used in conjunction with the the RedTitan CaptuRedTitan generic Windows® print capture utility, this option is used to pre-define some special fields for creating output filenames using the /TO option. |
/FROM filename |
Read the named control file. If it is a CSV file then the component files will be treated as if they were a single file with reset commands at file boundaries. A "start" and "end" page may be specified as well as a "file name". If a startpagefield is given but no endpagefield, then, if the file name is the same as the previous one, the end page of the previous file is set to one less than the start of the next. In the absence of a filenamefield specification the filename field is used if it exists, otherwise the first field in the CSV file is assumed to contain the filename. Other control files process a list of files and the default is to export them separately unless the /JOIN command is used. |
Use to treat a list of files as a single (composite) document. This is the default for control files which are in CSV format. See also /FROM, above. |
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Use to define an order for processing a list of files (instead of the default order in which they are presented in the control file). Up to three sort levels may be defined. A single level sort is simply the value of 's' shown below. To precede this by a second level of sorting, multiply the secondary level 's' value by 16 then add the 's' value for the primary sort. Similarly, a third level requires 256*s to be added to the value. s sort in order of 1 file path and name, case sensitive 2 file name, case sensitive 3 file extension 4 file size 5 update date 6 creation date 7 access date 8 short 8.3 name 9 uppercase path 10 uppercase name For example, /SORT 2 orders by filename only, whereas /SORT 163 sorts by uppercase name (16*10) then by extension(3). |
/BLANKPAGES y|n |
Show blank pages, Y(es) or N(o). The default is to suppress blank pages. |
Adds borders of specified widths to all four edges when exporting an image or PDF. If only two values are specified, the first is used to set the left and right border and the second to set the top and bottom borders. If only one value is specified, all four borders are set to that width. BORDER 1,0.5 gives 1cm wide side borders and top and bottom borders of 0.5cm, whereas: BORDER 1,0.5" gives 1inch wide side borders and top and bottom borders of 0.5inches. |
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Calculate the font header parameters from the font size rather than using the ones supplied. This is sometimes useful (e.g. for FDL forms generation) because some Windows® drivers supply faulty header parameters for download fonts. |
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Set the Unprintable area with parameters as follows: Y Crop. |
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Creates up to 26 dedicated fields per page, solely to hold the PJL JOB command line and PJL comment lines. EscapeE assigns each a letter: 'a to z' or 'A to Z'. These are output when exporting to PCL, PDF, PDF/A and PostScript. N No comments - the default P Plain text format, e.g. X XML format, e.g. (the UNICODE hex code 34 outputs the double quote character). See also /REM, below. |
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Defines a field with the given fieldname and assigns it the specified value. |
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Display the page whilst outputting TIFFs, PDFs, Postscript etc. |
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Specifies drawing mode, where x is: 2 rotates images and PDFs through 180°. The default is to use strokes for all lines and no merge. This option supersedes the /USELINES option. |
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Use the printer driver's defaults when printing a file. This means that the paper type, duplexing and bin selection are all as chosen by the user from File | Printer Setup... Properties... rather than what is in the original PCL file. |
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Action on drag-and-drop. Y causes file to be exported, N merely views it. |
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Erase input files after successful processing (otherwise the default is to rename them; see /RENAME). |
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Use to create an error log file for recording errors (a /REPORT is also generated to place an error summary in the Document Information notebook). For example, See also Running EscapeE from a program. |
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or /ERROROK ALL |
Use to ignore specified errors, where a, b, c etc. are return codes that are to be treated as acceptable and ignored when setting the error return code from EscapeE. In the special case of /ERROROK ALL, all non-vital errors are ignored. See Return codes. |
When creating FDL forms convert the page into a single RIF image. |
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Defines the colour of field data area - such that c is the colour number: c = 65536 * blue + 256 * green + red where R, G, B values run from 0 to 255. |
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Gives the default file to be used when no /FIELDS option is given. |
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Use file f as the field definitions (defaults to x.EE where x is the data file name stem, or DEFAULT.EE if x.EE is not found). |
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Highlights the first occurrence of the string in the document's text. To include a single quotation mark in the string itself, enclose the string in double quotes. To include a double quotation mark in the string itself, enclose the string in single quotes, e.g. |
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When creating FDL forms generate flowed text rather than using absolute placement. This may result in less than perfect alignment but does allow the text to be changed and reformatted more readily. |
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or /HEADER filename+ |
Allows a file to be processed before the main file. This may contain printable pages but is more often used for defining some fonts or macros to be used by the main file. It overrides the Header file specification in the ".EE" field definitions file as set up in the 'File' page of the Field Definitions dialog. If the filename is followed by a "plus" sign then the PCL state is preserved after reading the file. Any fonts defined in a such file are retained when reading subsequent files. See also To set up a header file. |
To extend the 'History list' at the foot of the 'File' menu, specify the number of files n to be shown. If n is set to 0, the history list is empty. |
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Define the host name or IP address for LPR output, e.g.: /HOST \\mainserver\ourprinter or /HOST 192.168.7.15 |
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Where x equal to: I ignores images, For example /IGNORE IS sets printer to ignore images and shading. |
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Set 'x' to B to omit blank pages. |
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Sets the size, in Mbytes, of the cache which ADDIMAGE plugin may use to retain images in the printer after the end of a page. |
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Uses the specified .ini configuration file. |
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Define name or number of TCP/IP input port. |
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The input format, where x is one of: PCL, PS, PDF, EPSON (or ESCP), RTF, TIFF, DCX, BMP, PNG, GIF, JPEG, IMG, IDF, XL (or PCL6), PCC. This is useful when the extension or initial bytes of a file are non-standard so that the file may not be recognized. For example, use ESCAPEE /INPUT PCL |
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Define the font library search path. |
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Define the minimum vertical difference between the baselines of two words for them to be deemed on different lines. The value of 'n' is measured in the currently defined user units: dots, dot600, de, cm or in. |
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Specifies which fields are to be logged when outputting images or PDFs; see Setting Log file options. E write a log record at end of file. H header-line containing field-names to be omitted from CSV log files. V make one log file entry for every page of output: the default for CSV and XML log files (see also -). # include page numbers in log file: the default for XML format (see also P and B). For example, use /LOG AX to output all fields to XML. See also /SAVE |
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Specifies the name of the log file. If the <spec> begins with a plus sign the new data are appended to any existing file. The <spec> can be a full path and name or a wildcard e.g. |
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Inserts a message in a TXT log file. The string must be enclosed in a pair of single or double quotes, and may contain Special fields in composed strings within it. See also /LOG, /SAVE and Examples: Command lines. |
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Used to specify that the size of the file is unknown. n specifies value (likely user) 0 0 default (Xerox, nQ) -1 9999999 (HP) -2 hex7fffffff maximum positive integer. |
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Where hostname specifies the name or ip address of the host providing LPD service. This is usually a network printer or a spooling system e.g.: escapee test.txt /hp /lpr 192.168.1.13 /x |
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Specifies the LPR job class identifier. The string may include the name of a field from which the class may be derived. Field names must be enclosed in braces. E.g.: ESCAPEE XX.PCL /PDF /LPR 123.45.67.89 /LPRC C{classfield} If the field named classfield contains the value 12 when the first page is output then the LPR class would be C12. |
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Specifies the name of an LPR output job. The string may include field names in braces, e.g.: /LPRJOB AB{field1}CD{field2}EF if field1 contains xxxx and field2 contains yyyy, the job name would be ABxxxxCDyyyyEF. |
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A string defining the name of LPR output queue, e.g. /LPRQ HeaderPaper. |
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A string to set LPR User name. The string may include field names in braces. |
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Create a new directory (folder) if necessary when exporting. |
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Use p as the next page number. A positive number assigns that number to the first page of the file and starts numbering the next document where it left off. A negative value ensures that the page number is not saved for the next document and that the number is adjusted by any offset in the /PAGE option. |
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Ensures that EscapeE does not cache any images, which may reduce memory requirements in some cases, though possibly at the expense of speed. |
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Used only for calling EscapeE from the RedTitan spooler nQ. Use /LPRQ to specify destination spooler folder. To force an exit from EscapeE on completion, use the /X option. |
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If an error is found with a file from an nQ spooler, then /NQERROR moves it to folder 'xxx'. If 'xxx' is null then the output file is left in the input folder, so effectively ignoring the error. See also /NQLOG below. |
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Specifies the path of a folder to contain any faulty input file and the error log file. Error log files are created with the extension '.log'; for example, if DFAyyy is the input file name the error log file will be called DFAyyy.log. |
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Specifies an options file which contains a list of one or more options - see Examples|Command lines. Each line of the file should be of the form: option=value |
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Defines the image data mode, where p is: 0 byte aligned (default) 1 unpacked (raw) 3 CCITT group 3 fax compression 4 CCITT group 4 fax compression 5 LZW compression Flag bits may be added to p: 16 bit reversal 64 End Of Line markers 128 single strip 256 carry odd bits over to next row Use p = -1 to set Packbits compression. |
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or /PAGES n-m*s or /PAGES firstpage,lastpage |
Process pages n to m inclusive, broken into sets s pages long. Used in conjunction with /FROM, fields containing the numbers of a "starting" and an "ending" page may be specified to process logical sets of pages. E.g.: ESCAPEE /FROM CONTROL.CSV /PAGES STARTPAGE,LASTPAGE /PDF /X See also /NEXTPAGE. |
Define PCL options; n is the number made by adding the following flag values (they are common to PCL, PS and PDF): 256 Compress the output 512 Combine words into longer text strings where possible 2048 All fonts are to be substituted by standard Acrobat® or Postscript fonts 4096 TrueType fonts are to be included in the output file 8192 Use substitutes instead of any True type fonts 16384 Use substitutes instead of any bitmap fonts 32768 Do not use substitute fonts even a substitute font has been specified in the font library 65536 Image the whole page as a graphic 131072 Image all but the text 262144 Download fonts before use (not sensible for PDF output) 524288 Allow inverse orientations to be displayed upside down 8388608 Suppress reordering of shading and graphics. -1 Resets export options to their default values. |
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Used for PJL preamble in PCL documents, see PCL export options. |
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Define the initial dot resolution (default is 300). |
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Defines the author of a PDF document. The 'name' parameter is terminated by a space, so if a name includes spaces it must be enclosed in quotes. |
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Defines the list of keywords associated with a PDF document. The 'keyword' parameter is terminated by a space, so if there is more than a single word the string must be enclosed in quotes. |
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Defines the subject of a PDF document. Since parameters are terminated when a space is encountered, if the description string includes spaces it must be enclosed in quotes. |
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Defines the title of a PDF document. Since parameters are terminated when a space is encountered, if the title string includes spaces it must be enclosed in quotes. |
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Define PDF options. A number made by adding the following flag values: 1 Disables printing the document 2 Disable changing the document other than by adding or changing text notes 4 Disable copying of text and graphics from the document 8 Disable adding and changing text notes 256 Compress the PDF using Flate compression 512 Combine words into longer text strings where possible See /PCLOPTS for other flags. |
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Define password required to have full access to a PDF. PDFs encrypted this way cannot be decoded if the password is lost. |
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/PDFPASSR p |
Define password required to have full access to a PDF. RedTitan can recover this type of password if lost. |
Defines which features of a PDF reader are to be displayed on the screen. Add the flag values: 1 Hide the tool bars 2 Hide the menu bar 4 Hide the window interface, i.e. scroll bars and other navigation tools 8 Resize the window to fit the first page 16 Position window to centre of screen 32 Put document title in title bar instead of filename 64 Use the full-screen display mode 128 Opening display to fit horizontal width 256 Opening display to fit vertical height (use 384 for fit-page) See also PDF Viewer Preferences |
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/PDFREADPASS p |
Defines a password for PDF input (independent of the password for output). |
Define password to have specified access to a PDF; see /PDFOPTS. |
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Define the page number template. See also /PNUMFONT below. |
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or /PNUMFONT * |
Defines the font to use for printing the page number. f is the full HP-PCL font selection sequence, with ^ used to denote the 'Escape' character, e.g. /PNUMFONT ^(19U^(s0p10h12vsb3T Note on Windows® XP and later systems, ^^ must be used to denote the 'Escape' character. (A single ^ character has special significance when used on an MS-DOS® command line for these systems.) * is a special case: it suppresses page-numbering by nullifying the font. |
Define PostScript options. See /PCLOPTS for flag numbers. |
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Used for XRX preamble in PostScript documents, see PS export options. For example if re-exporting a PS file, the original XRX commands can be propagated to the output using ESCAPEE filename /PS /PSPREAMBLE {RT_XRX} |
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Automatically reloads a file if it changes (normally the user is asked whether it should reload the file of not). |
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Enables a comment to be included which is not interpreted by EscapeE. See also /COMMENTS, above. |
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Specify the new filename to be given to input files after they have been processed e.g. See also /ERASE above and ERASE configuration symbol |
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Puts an error summary into the Error Log when errors occur in batch or automatic mode. This gives more details of errors such as missing fonts. |
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or /RES x,y |
Sets the resolution for image generation (default is 300dpi). Different resolutions may defined for 'x' and 'y' directions by specifying two numbers in the range 25 to 600dpi. For example /RES 204,198 |
Specify that pages are to be rotated as follows: 0 not rotated (default). |
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/RUN Y runs the associated program on outputting the file, even in timed mode. ESCAPEE /RUN myprog |
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This parameter defines which fields are to be output during export to CSV, XML or TXT. Most are identical to the /LOG options: A All defined fields Note that: R Renames the main output file (not the log file) on completion. In addition, /SAVE can also take these options: D Discard list of files previously created; a new output file will overwrite one of the same name created in this run |
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Set viewing scale for when a file is first opened. The scale may be defined as a percentage from 20% to 600% or a scale factor where: -2 View full width of page -1 View all printed data 0 View full page 1 600% 2 300% 3 200% etc. |
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Set up Zoom menu scale list. A scale of 1 corresponds to 600 dpi, 2 to 300 dpi etc. |
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Set up gray-scaling of scaled images to improve appearance when they are scaled down in size, where n = c x 4 + m. 0 simple scaling For example /SCALING 9 would request four-bit shading for coloured output and two-bit for monochrome. |
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Defines the colour of highlighted text such that c is the colour number: c = 65536 * blue + 256 * green + red where R, G, B values run from 0 to 255. |
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Moves the whole page, where "r" is the distance right and "d" is the distance down. Use negative values to move the page left/up. Units: 1/600 of an inch. Alternatively, use a double-quote character after the number to denote "inches". For example, /SHIFT 1",-2.5" moves the page 1 inch right and 2.5 inches up. |
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Source of data: R RedTitan software e.g. Dynamic Document Formatter, |
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Sets the minimum width of space required to separate two words. |
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Default stem of filename. This is substituted for = in any output file spec if not overridden by a field or special PJL COMMENT. |
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Gives the name of a file containing font substitutions to be used in the current run, and may contain wildcards. See also /SUBSTDEF, below. |
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Gives the default file to be used when no /SUBST option is given. |
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Set default symbolset. Commonly used values for s are 2, 3, -29. To set up automatic symbolset recognition, set s to * |
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Defines the colour of search tag area, such that c is the colour number: |
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Defines the colour of tag+field area such that c is the colour number: c = 65536 * blue + 256 * green + red where R, G, B values run from 0 to 255. Defaults to yellowish-green. |
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Define the extension to be used for temporary files. |
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Specifies the inter-line spacing for text extraction, where v is the line spacing in the currently configured units. |
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Define orientation for TIFFs, where 'r' is: 0 no rotation |
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Define the time, t, for continuous operation where a scan is made every t seconds. See Exporting files automatically. |
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Define the default output specification. For example: c:\MyFolder\*.pcl /TIFF /TO c:\Images\*.tif exports PCL files found in MyFolder to the Images folder in TIFF format. See also /OUTSPEC above and Filenames and wildcards. |
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or /TRIM m or /TRIM m,w,h |
Remove white space from around any generated images (i.e. printed region only). The value m sets up the trimming mode: 0 No trimming Specifying w and h too produces an image w units wide, h units high. |
Defines a specific database to be used by EEfonts, e.g. ESCAPEE /TTLIB TEMP.TTK |
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Uninstalls EscapeE. |
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Specifies the dimensions for the mouse coordinates, where x is: IN for inches If x is preceded by an asterisk then mouse coordinates are not shown on the page view. |
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Allows the name of a script file to be given separately from the data file e.g. ESCAPEE DFA0001 /USING MAILSHOT.RS2 /NQ /X |
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Turn hints on and off. If v is N then no hints are shown. |
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Sets the page extent with parameters as follows: P Printable area. |
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Specifies state of window on startup: s 0=Normal, 1=Minimized, 2=Maximized |
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Exit after processing the specified file(s). |
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Defines the XML encoding scheme, x, where: 1 = "UTF8" the most compact Unicode encoding (XML default) |
There are a number of options which are obsolete or used for special purposes:
/1BIT |
Use Windows® scaling for images rather than 2-bit scaling. |
/FIELDCLR c |
Colour of field area (default is yellow). |
/NOCAMP |
Do not use the Windows option to camp on a directory (folder) waiting for changes. |
/NOFONTS |
Ignore download fonts; use /IGNORE F instead. |
/NOIMAGES |
Ignore downloaded images; use /IGNORE I instead. |
/PCL |
This command for exporting files to Hewlett-Packard Printer Command Language format is now obsolete. Use /HP instead to create the PCL output afresh. |
/RFFS |
Scan the RedTitan fonts rather than using font information files. |
/SELCLR c |
Colour of highlighted text (default is cyan). |
/SHORTCUT |
Call up the shortcut creation dialog at once. |
/SPACEFILL |
Space-fill fields. |
/TIFFORIENT O |
Defined the orientation for TIFFs. Default was P for portrait (i.e. no rotation), L (landscape), I (inverse P) or J (inverse L). Use /TIFFORIENT r instead. |
/TIFFRES |
A synonym for /RES. |
/USELINES x |
Superseded by /DRAW. |
Links
Running EscapeE from the command line