Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2001 10:46:28 -0500 From: Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> To: Bill Moran <wmoran@iowna.com> Cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: connecting postscript network printer Message-ID: <15150.8788.445523.840597@guru.mired.org> In-Reply-To: <49848917@toto.iv>
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Bill Moran <wmoran@iowna.com> types: > outlawtx@bga.com wrote: > > I have a Hewlett-Packard IIISi printer connected directly to my local area > > network. It is a postscript printer. How do I get FreeBSD to talk to > > it. I am running version 4.2 of FreeBSD. > > If it's a network printer (connected via ethernet) check to see if it > does LPD print spooling, if so, you can use the native LPD daemon. > Then look into either magicfilter or apsfilter - both of which will > automagically convert print jobs to the correct postscript format for > you. Personally, I use magicfilter, but I don't know if there's any > advantage to one or the other of these. Assuming the IIISi is similar to other hp laserjets, then apsfilter has one disadvantage: it treats everything as if it were a postscript only printer. So it can't handle files in the HP printer languages at all, while magicfilter can. Likewise, apsfilter translates ascii text to postscript via a2ps before sending it to the printer, while magicfilter will send them directly to the printer, setting the printer to the proper mode for printing Unix text files. If the IIISi is postscript only, then the only difference is that magicfilter defautls to enscript instead of a2ps to print flat text files. Changing the magicfilter script file to use a2ps is trivial; I'm not sure how hard it would be to change apsfilter to use enscript. <mike -- Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/ Independent WWW/Perforce/FreeBSD/Unix consultant, email for more information. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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