MS DOS Command: GRAPHICS.COM

Reference from Microsoft MS-DOS cmd help

Description

Loads a program into memory that allows MS-DOS to print the information displayed on your screen. Use the GRAPHICS command only if you are using a color or graphics adapter.

The GRAPHICS command supports the CGA, EGA, and VGA graphics display modes.

Syntax

GRAPHICS [type] [[drive:][path]filename] [/R] [/B] [/LCD] [/PRINTBOX:STD|/PRINTBOX:LCD]

Parameters

type

Specifies the type of printer. The following list shows each valid valuefor this parameter and gives a brief description of its meaning: COLOR1 An IBM Personal Computer Color Printer with black ribbon COLOR4 An IBM Personal Computer Color Printer with RGB (red, green, blue, and black) ribbon COLOR8 An IBM Personal Computer Color Printer with CMY (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) ribbon HPDEFAULT Any Hewlett-Packard PCL printer DESKJET A Hewlett-Packard DeskJet printer GRAPHICS An IBM Personal Graphics Printer, IBM Proprinter, or IBM Quietwriter printer GRAPHICSWIDE An IBM Personal Graphics Printer with an 11-inch-wide carriage LASERJET A Hewlett-Packard LaserJet printer LASERJETII A Hewlett-Packard LaserJet II printer PAINTJET A Hewlett-Packard PaintJet printer QUIETJET A Hewlett-Packard QuietJet printer QUIETJETPLUS A Hewlett-Packard QuietJet Plus printer RUGGEDWRITER A Hewlett-Packard RuggedWriter printer RUGGEDWRITERWIDE A Hewlett-Packard RuggedWriterwide printer THERMAL An IBM PC-convertible Thermal Printer THINKJET A Hewlett-Packard ThinkJet printer

[drive:][path]filename

Specifies the location and name of the printer profile that contains information about all supported printers. If this parameter is omitted, MS-DOS looks for a file called GRAPHICS.PRO in the current directory and in the directory that contains the GRAPHICS.COM file.

Parameters

/R	Prints the image as it appears on the screen (white characters on a black background) rather than reversed (black characters on a white background). The latter occurs by default.
/B	Prints the background in color. This switch is valid for COLOR4 and COLOR8 printers.
/LCD	Prints an image by using the liquid crystal display (LCD) aspect ratio instead of the CGA aspect ratio. The effect of this switch is the same as that of /PRINTBOX:LCD.
/PRINTBOX:STD or /PRINTBOX:LCD	Selects the print-box size. Check the first operand of the PRINTBOX statement in your GRAPHICS.PRO file. If that operand is STD, specify the /PRINTBOX:STD switch. If that operand is LCD, specify the /PRINTBOX:LCD switch. You can abbreviate PRINTBOX as PB.

Related Command

For information about printing text files, see the PRINT command.

Remarks

Printing the contents of the screen

To print the contents of the screen, press the SHIFT+PRINT SCREEN key combination. If the computer is in 320 x 148 x 200 color graphics mode and if the printer type is color1 or graphics, the GRAPHICS command prints the screen contents with as many as four shades of gray. If the computer is in 640 x 148 x 200 color graphics mode, GRAPHICS prints the screen contents sideways on the paper (landscape orientation). You cannot use the SHIFT+PRINT SCREEN key combination to print the contents of a screen to a PostScript printer.

Effect on memory

The GRAPHICS command decreases the amount of available conventional memory.

Loading a new profile

If you have already loaded a printer profile and you want to load another one by using the GRAPHICS command, the new profile must be smaller than the one already loaded.

To load a new profile that is larger than the one currently loaded, you must restart your system and then use the GRAPHICS command to load the new profile.

If you try to use only the GRAPHICS command to load a new profile that is larger than the currently loaded profile, MS-DOS displays the following message:

Unable to reload with profile supplied

Examples

To prepare to print a graphics screen on your printer, type the following command:

graphics

After you display the information you want to print, press SHIFT+PRINT SCREEN. MS-DOS scans the information displayed on the screen and sends it to the printer.