forcing grayscale output on colour printer

[Helge Blischke]

Donald wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> We have a networked Tektronix Phaser 850, which we can happily send postscript print jobs to using a raw HP JetDirect connection. I'm running Ubuntu Linux 5.10, and I want to be able to force a grayscale output from the printer. This is to save toner - colour cartridges are expensive. I thought I'd be able to select the default grayscale postscript PPD file, but that doesn't work. I saw somewhere else that might be due to the fact that it will leave documents already supplied as PostScript untouched. Is there any way to pre-filter the postscript file to convert it to grayscale before it is actually sent to the printer?
> 
> Any help appreciated.
> Thanks
> Donald.

If the PostScript file explicitely selects a color space other than DeviceGray, or uses
operators like setcmykcolor, the only way to force gray scale output is to intercept all
color related operators and redefine them accordingly. You may put this redefining stuff into
the PPD as a JobPatchFile to avoid modifying the PostScript job by a special filter.

Helge

-- 
Helge Blischke
Softwareentwicklung
SRZ Berlin | Firmengruppe besscom
http://www.srz.de