Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 18:55:17 -0700 From: Gary Schenk <gwschenk@socal.rr.com> To: Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Newbie lpd printing Message-ID: <200304231855.17449.gwschenk@socal.rr.com> In-Reply-To: <16039.3305.100129.716727@guru.mired.org> References: <200304102145.25225.gwschenk@socal.rr.com> <200304222140.12401.gwschenk@socal.rr.com> <16039.3305.100129.716727@guru.mired.org>
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On Wednesday 23 April 2003 03:00 pm, Mike Meyer wrote: > In <200304222140.12401.gwschenk@socal.rr.com>, Gary Schenk <gwschenk@socal.rr.com> typed: > > On Friday 11 April 2003 09:21 am, Mike Meyer wrote: > > > I suspect your script is broken for printing postscript files. The > > > hpif script in the handbook doesn't handle those at all, so I assume > > > you added that code. > > > > No, I did not add anything. This is the script from the handbook. I > > thought that it was to print postscript to a non-postscript printer. > > It is essentisally the same script as in FreeBSD Unleashed. > > Where did you find that script? It's pretty badly flawed, and if it's > in the handbook, that should be fixed. > I got it from the handbook, and a similar script is in 'FreeBSD Unleashed'. cd / > > The more I read about printing the more confused I get. I'd like to > > print form a word processor, but don't seem to be able to in FreeBSD. > > I tried installing apsfilter, but it is broken. I have no clue as to > > how to fix it. Perhaps installing Star Office would help, and use its > > printer interface? Or is the best solution to buy a postscript > > printer? > > Buying a postscript printer is certainly a good idea - it takes the > load of processing postscript off your CPU, and puts it on the > printer. That should save comm bits as well, as lots of things on Unix > generate postscript by default, so you don't wind up shipping bitmaps > to the printer. Something like magicfilter or apsfilter is still > useful, as they work by turning various other formats - images, text > formats, etc - into postscript, then rendering that on your box or on > the printer. > > > As for magicfilter, I'm still working on it. I ran make install in > > /usr/ports/print/magicfilter. However locate magicfilter shows > > nothing, except for the above directory. There is nothing in the > > /usr/local/bin directory indicating anything was installed. A google > > search sent me to > > http://newbiedoc.sourceforge.net/peripherals/printer-magicfilter.html > > , which is for Debian Linux. It talks about running magicfilterconfig. > > I assume there is nothing like this in FreeBSD? > > I don't know what's in the Debian docs are talking about. In > particular, there's a rewrite of magicfilter from the ground up that > bills itself as magicfilter 2.0 that they may be talking about. That's > irrelevant to the magicfilter port. The magicfilter should install > /usr/bin/magicfilter. It also installs printer filter scripts in > /usr/local/libexec/magicfilter/. I have no /usr/bin/magicfilter, but there are filter scripts in /usr/local/libexec/magicfilter. Strange that "locate magicfilter" did not show that. And I did run periodic and weekly. > > > Should I be content to print only text? I talked to a friend who has > > been running OpenBSD for three years. he only prints text. Is this > > common with BSD? I do need to print more than plain text. > > No, it's not common with BSD - or Unix - systems. Most programs on > Unix - like, for example, wp programs - generate Postscript > output. If you have a postscript printer, you can probably just output > directly to the printer. Magicfilter provides a "postscript" filter > that appends a control-Z to the output to signal the end of the job, > which some printers/printer configurations require. If you don't have > a postscript printer, you need to arrange for the postscript to be > sent to ghostscript, then the output of that to be sent to the > printer. Magicfilter and apsfilter both can do that for you. > > I've got one postscript printer and one deskjet, and use magicfilter > for both. I can print from Mozilla, my word processor, the gimp, and > similar tools directly to either printer, and it work just > works. Those tools all generate postscript. I can also print various > document types from the command line - including images - and those > will print properly as well. > > <mike Interesting. It sounds like you have it working superbly. I'll research magicfilter some more. I need to see what is going on with /usr/bin/magicfilter being missing, I suppose. Thanks for replying. I appreciate everyone's help, and hope to be able to return the same someday. Gary
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