PrintTools 0.1

Print and scan bridge tools for AmigaOS

Short:        Print and scan bridge tools for AmigaOS
Author:       Denis Costils
Uploader:     Denis Costils <costils denis free fr>
Type:         comm/misc
Version:      0.1
Requires:     AmigaOS 3.x, MUI, TCP/IP stack, Windows PC
Architecture: m68k-amigaos >= 3.0
Distribution: Aminet, GitHub

PrintTools is a small AmigaOS toolbox for using modern PC printers
and scanners from an Amiga.

The Amiga side is written in AmigaE and uses MUI. The PC side uses
Python scripts under Windows.

Included Amiga tools:

  PrintToolsMUI
    Small launcher for the print and scan tools.

  PrintBridgeSpeak
    Generic English client for PrintBridge Server.
    It can print text files, images, IFF/ILBM images, AmigaGuide files
    and PostScript files through a Windows PC.

  ScanBridgeMUI
    Client for ScanBridge Server.
    It can scan images, run OCR when Tesseract is installed, and use
    the copy mode with PrintBridge.

Included PC tools:

  print_bridge_server.py
    Windows print bridge server.

  scan_bridge_server.py
    Windows scan bridge server using WIA.

  print_scan_bridge_server.py
    Combined launcher for both servers.

  pc_tools_launcher
    Optional Windows helper to start the Python servers from a small GUI.
    The Python scripts can still be started manually.

Basic idea:

  Amiga  ->  TCP/IP  ->  Windows PC  ->  modern printer/scanner

The Amiga remains the control machine. The PC only handles modern
drivers, image conversion, PostScript conversion and scanner access.

See Amiga_Setup.txt for the Amiga installation.
See PC_Setup.txt for the Windows server installation.
See PrintTools.guide for AmigaGuide documentation.

The included Install script creates S:PrintTools-startup but does not
modify S:User-startup automatically.

Important:

  Edit all configuration files before use.
  Do not publish personal IP addresses or printer passwords.

Brother version
---------------

PrintBridgeSpeak_Brother is an optional version made for Brother
printers exposing ink and paper status through their internal web page.

The generic PrintBridgeSpeak version should be used first.
Use the Brother version only if you own a compatible Brother printer
and if you have configured BROTHER_IP and BROTHER_PASS in the PC
server configuration.

Credits:

  Program concept, tests and Amiga workflow:
    Denis Costils

  Coding assistance:
    ChatGPT Codex

Notes:

  This is an experimental bridge for retro-computing use.
  Use it on a trusted local network.