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Date:      Wed, 23 Apr 2003 17:25:59 +0930
From:      Malcolm Kay <Malcolm.Kay@internode.on.net>
To:        Gary Schenk <gwschenk@socal.rr.com>, Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org>
Cc:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Newbie lpd printing
Message-ID:  <200304231725.59212.Malcolm.Kay@internode.on.net>
In-Reply-To: <200304222140.12401.gwschenk@socal.rr.com>
References:  <200304102145.25225.gwschenk@socal.rr.com> <16022.60289.92289.802228@guru.mired.org> <200304222140.12401.gwschenk@socal.rr.com>

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On Wed, 23 Apr 2003 14:10, Gary Schenk wrote:
> 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 tho=
ught
> that it was to print postscript to a non-postscript printer. It is
> essentisally the same script as in FreeBSD Unleashed.
>
> > Can you print postscript from the command line? If not, the KDE is
> > probably turning everything into postscript, which is then failing.
>
> I can only print text from the command line, everything else is broken.
>
> > If you're only going to print from KDE, then fixing this script might
> > be the way to go. However, installing something like magicfilter - an=
d
> > you've already got the hard parts done - which handles the difference
> > between postscript and flat text properly, and automatically converts
> > a number of formats to postscript for you, might be a better option i=
f
> > you want to print regularly from the command line.
> >
> > =09<mike
>
> The more I read about printing the more confused I get. I'd like to pri=
nt
> 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?
>
> 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?
>
> Should I be content  to print only text? I talked to a friend who has b=
een
> running OpenBSD for three years. he only prints text. Is this common wi=
th
> BSD? I do need to print more than plain text.
>

Until now I thought you had solved your printer problem. Some more
information would probably help:
 Which Epson printer do you have -- is it an inkjet? -- which particular=20
model.
 Do you have ghostscript installed? Aladdin or Gnu?

With this information we can possibly fix the filter script for you.

A relatively simple filter switching between plain text and postscript
should be fairly simple to implement if your printer is supported by=20
ghostscript.

More complex filters are sometimes employed to directly manage output
in other formats -- particularly picture formats -- or to select printer=20
options such as resolution, speed vs quality but I find this overkill.

malcolm




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