[cups.general] Re: A line printer to print text directly

[Johannes Meixner]

Hello,

On Mar 30 06:35 Helge Blischke wrote (shortened):
> Mohit Kumar wrote (shortened):
> > print to a line printer which understands text as it is
> > bypass the filter chain provided by CUPS
> 
> You need a (minimal) PPD for your printer which contains the line
> 
> *cupsFilter: "text/plain 0 -"
> 
> which tells CUPS that the document format "text/plain" is the
> native format for your printer and doesn't require any other
> processing.

This is correct according to what Mohit Kumar wrote
but I assume, the line printer may in fact not understand
to 100% the text as it is.

For example character encoding may be different or a formfeed at
the end of the job may be wanted to get the last sheet out of the
printer.

In this case
  *cupsFilter: "text/plain 0 -"
should be
  *cupsFilter: "text/plain 0 TextToPrinter"
with an appropriate filter /usr/lib/cups/filter/TextToPrinter

But for a line printer I wonder whether anything else than
text/plain makes sense.

If only text/plain should be printed to 100% as it is,
a "raw" queue would be sufficient.
If only text/plain should be printed with a simple filtering
(e.g. printer specific encoding or a formfeed at the end),
a "System V style interface script" would be sufficient.

See for example
http://portal.suse.com/sdb/en/2003/06/jsmeix_print-cups-filters.html
"Printing Plain ASCII Text in Printer-Specific Encoding"


Kind Regards
Johannes Meixner
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