Date: Sun, 8 Oct 2000 13:38:54 +0100 From: Mark Ovens <marko@freebsd.org> To: Chris Hill <chris@monochrome.org> Cc: Matthew Rochlin <rochlin@mediaone.net>, FreeBSD Questions List <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: HP Laserjet with JetDirect Network card -- how-to Message-ID: <20001008133854.C253@parish> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.96.1001008005728.69903A-100000@localhost>; from chris@monochrome.org on Sun, Oct 08, 2000 at 01:24:29AM -0400 References: <4.3.2.7.2.20001007140207.0189db68@pop3.norton.antivirus> <Pine.BSF.3.96.1001008005728.69903A-100000@localhost>
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On Sun, Oct 08, 2000 at 01:24:29AM -0400, Chris Hill wrote:
> 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.
>
Not sure if this will work with a PS HP printer but since they also support
PCL it should do. Add
:if=/usr/local/libexec/hpif:
to the /etc/printcap entry and put this in /usr/local/libexec/hpif:
#
# Read first two characters of the file
#
read first_line
first_two_chars=`expr "$first_line" : '\(..\)'`
if [ "$first_two_chars" = "%!" ]; then
#
# It is PostScript; use Ghostscript to scan-convert and print it.
#
# Note that PostScript files are actually interpreted programs,
# and those programs are allowed to write to stdout, which will
# mess up the printed output. So, we redirect stdout to stderr
# and then make descriptor 3 go to stdout, and have Ghostscript
# write its output there. Exercise for the clever reader:
# capture the stderr output from Ghostscript and mail it back to
# the user originating the print job.
#
exec 3>&1 1>&2
/usr/local/bin/gs -dSAFER -sPAPERSIZE=a4 -dNOPAUSE -q \
-sDEVICE=cdj550 -sOutputFile=/dev/fd/3 - && exit 0
else
#
# Plain text or HP/PCL, so just print it directly; print a form
# at the end to eject the last page.
#
printf "\033&k2G" && echo $first_line && cat && \
printf "\033&l0H" && exit 0
fi
ESC&k2G is the PCL escape sequence to make the printer to interpret LF as
CR/LF and ESC&l0H resets it.
Since this is a PS printer you will need to change the line starting
``/usr/local/bin/gs'' to something like:
echo $first_line && cat && exit 0
> > 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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