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V4 Print Class Driver Rendering

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Important

We recommend that you use Microsoft's IPP inbox class driver, along with Print Support Apps (PSA), to customize the print experience in Windows 10 and 11 for printer device development.

For more information, see the Print support app design guide.

For rendering, the v4 printer driver can utilize the existing rendering capabilities of a Print Class driver.

To utilize the existing rendering capabilities of a print class driver, a v4 printer driver can use the RequiredClass v4 manifest directive. Using the RequiredClass directive causes the driver to include all the files from the specified class driver, using the driver/friendly name of the device and its GUID as key. That is the mechanism for linking a print class driver to a model-specific printer driver.

For example, a company called Fabrikam with a print class driver named PCL5e, could use the following sample print driver manifest to link their print class driver to their printer driver:

[DriverConfig]
DataFile=FAPDL.gpd
RequiredFiles=UNIRES.DLL,STDNAMES.GPD,STDDTYPE.GDL,STDSCHEM.GDL,STDSCHMX.GDL,MSXPSINC.GPD
RequiredClass="Fabrikam PCL5e Class Driver",{9343720D-B67E-4451-B93F-6F721C439771} ; This links the print class driver to this printer driver
ResourceFile=FARC.dll
PropertyBag=FAProperty.dpb
PrinterDriverID={GUID}
DriverCategory=PrintFax.Printer
ConstraintScript=faconst.js
EventFile=faevents.xml
PrinterExtensionUrl="https://www.fabrikam.com/download.asp?uiapp=120"

[BidiFiles]
BidiSPMFile=FABidiSPM.xml
BidiWSDFile=FABidiWSD.xml
BidiUSBFile=FaBidiUSB.xml
BidiUSBJSFile=FABidiUSBJS.js 

[DriverRender]
PageOutputQuality.Draft=MxdcImageType.JPEGHigh
PageOutputQuality.Normal= MxdcImageType.JPEGMedium
PageOutputQuality.High=MxdcImageType.PNG

[PrinterExtensions]
DriverEvent=FAapp.exe,{GUID}
PrintPreferences=FAapp.exe,{GUID2}

The RequiredClass directive cannot be used by a class driver. When you use RequiredClass, you should avoid file name collisions between the printer driver and the print class driver to which you're linking. Although files with similar names won't overwrite each other, it may be difficult during troubleshooting, to distinguish between the class driver package file and the file from the v4 printer driver.

For more information about v4 printer driver manifest directives, see V4 Driver Manifest.

V4 Driver Manifest