Form Feed Problem

[Anonymous]

Helge Blischke wrote:
> Anonymous wrote:
> >
> > I have Red Hat Linux ES with a high speed band printer configured under CUPS. The only way I could get this to work was to use a "Generic" driver with the "Raw Print Queue" model. This actually works well.
> >
> > The only problem is that I need it to do a form feed after each print job (something like the "Send Form-Feed (FF) driver option) but there are no options for this under Driver Options. Any ideas on how I can get this to do a form feed?
> >
> > I have been looking at the CUPS documentation and wonder if I can:
> >
> > 1. Setup a filter for this
> > 2. Create a custom banner page which forces FF before banner prints
> > 3. Create a custom PPD file. This looks like it might be rather difficult:)
> >
> > As one last note, the printer in question emulates an Epson FX-1050, so I tried this driver. After playing around with cpi,lpi, Left and Right margins in the "Queue Options", I have the pages sized right and selecting the FF option in the printer driver solves the form feed problem BUT now the printer is terribly slow!!! Almost like the printer is forced into Letter Qualtiy mode? Is there anyway to address this speed issue? Lastly, in looking at the "Queue Options",
> > I am wondering if I can do something about FF in here. Is there an Option Name for this?
> >
> > Any answers to these questions and/or suggestions would be greatly
> > appreciated!!
> >
> The printer in question is probably a text-only device. If it really
> emulates an Epson
> FX-1050, the printer's control "language" is either ESC/P or the IBM
> Proprinter XL. But it
> may well be that you printer has a native "language" which is much more
> performant than
> the FX-emulation.
>
> Perhaps you post more details on vendor, model etc. of your printer; I
> guess it may be
> worth to think about a specialized backend (think of high speed!).
>
> Helge
>
>
> --
> H.Blischke at srz-berlin.de
> H.Blischke at srz-berlin.com
> H.Blischke at acm.org

Thanks for replying Helge!
The printer is a Unisys UMS1000-CAB. I can't believe this is so difficult:) I think the PPD process is somehow forceing letter quality mode but I can't see where to shut this off! The easiest solution may be to not use the PPD and either use a special banner or implement a filter for a Raw Print Queue. In the old days, the simpel fix would be to put an option like "fo" or "fq" in the printcap file to force a form feed:) Any ideas on how to do this with CUPS? (CUPS overwrites/ignores printcap?) If this is not possible, can you give me an example of a banner page which just does a form feed before printing? Any help on this is greatly appreciated!

Thanks Again!