Date: Sun, 8 Oct 2000 01:24:29 -0400 (EDT) From: Chris Hill <chris@monochrome.org> To: Matthew Rochlin <rochlin@mediaone.net> Cc: FreeBSD Questions List <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: HP Laserjet with JetDirect Network card -- how-to Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.96.1001008005728.69903A-100000@localhost> In-Reply-To: <4.3.2.7.2.20001007140207.0189db68@pop3.norton.antivirus>
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On Sat, 7 Oct 2000, Matthew Rochlin wrote:
> Thanks for your suggestion...
>
> It works (mostly), but only on postscript files. (I don't have ghostscript
> or any other postscript generating tool on my BSD machine at the moment,
If you have a Postscript printer, you don't need ghostscript, except
maybe for viewing PS on-screen. gs allows a non-PS printer to print PS
files. PS printers used to be very expensive due to Adobe's high
licensing fees.
> lpr test.prn
>
> Printed out the document (your email, actually) fine. But if I try to
> print plain text, I get just the first line, somewhat garbled at the end
> (the next two lines print out shifted to the far right and the rest of the
> document doesn't print at all).
The infamous stairstep effect! This happens because a unix newline is a
single LF character, where the printer is probably expecting a CR and an
LF like what DOS produces. I'll bet if you try to print a plain text
file with one word per line,
it
will
look
like
this.
Having said that, I don't remember how to fix it but if you search the
archives under "staircase" or "stairstep" you should turn up something.
It was a simple fix, I just don't recall what it was.
> Is there maybe something I need to do to distinguish plain text from
> postscript?
Not on my printer; it seems to recognize the Postscript header and deal
with it automagically. PS or plain text, I just do a 'lpr filename' and
it works.
> Thanks!
> (PS -- I also had to enable the printer spool daemon in
> /etc/rc.conf ... lpd_enable="YES" ... per the Almost Complete
> FreeBSD. Not enabled by default on my system. Maybe an installation
> option I missed?)
Woops, I forgot about that - sorry! It's been a while. I think the
reason it's not on by default is that a) most things aren't in FreeBSD
and b) lots of systems, e.g. servers, don't have or need a printer.
PS - you should copy replies to the list (which I have done here). Most
of these folks know a lot more than I do.
--
Chris Hill chris@monochrome.org
[1] Bus error netscape
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