Bitmap Driver for Windows NT 4.0
The Windows NT Printing architecture is a modular system, which allows vendors to customize the component in order to integrate their specialized components into the system. The Printing architecture is shown below.
The actual flow of control through the printing subsystem from the moment the application gives a print call till the user obtains the print output is as given below:
Developing each of these is a separate task by themselves. They are explained in the subsequent sections.
The flow of logic through the system is pretty straightforward.
A printer minidriver is written for our custom printer in whom we specify the escape sequences for the printer. When the print job is initiated by the application the application makes GDI calls to the GDI rendering engine. The engine with the help of the printer driver file then generates the raw job. The printer driver (of which the data file is a part) provides the information about the printer, like the resolutions supported by the printer, paper sizes etc.
