[cups.general] converting NCR Sys-v serial printer filters to Redhat ES4 usb/parallel/network cups

[Johannes Meixner]

Hello,

On Nov 21 00:51 Anonymous wrote (shortened):
> We're currently using a NCR SysV 3.02 server and we have
> two printers connected to it - an Okidata 9-pin matrix and
> two HP LJ4+ printers.
....
> Both printers are currently connected via serial port and
> they have their own filters in /etc/lp/interfaces/[printername]
....
> How can I convert the filter function to our new
> printers using CUPS?

To print plain ASCII text on dot-matrix printers, use a
"System V style interface script", see "man lpadmin", "man filter",
the "CUPS Software Programmers Manual" section "Writing Filters" and
http://portal.suse.com/sdb/en/2003/06/jsmeix_print-cups-filters.html

For PCL and PostScript printers the usual CUPS filtering should result
better print quality and your users would have much more printing
options (except you print also only ASCII text on those printers).

If your application produces readymade printer-specific data,
set up a "raw" queue in CUPS (i.e. no filtering at all).
Note that "raw" means 100% raw, i.e. neither line break is changed
(e.g. no LF -> CR+LF) nor is there a formfeed appended at the end
to eject the last page.


Kind Regards
Johannes Meixner
-- 
SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, Maxfeldstrasse 5      Mail: jsmeix at suse.de
90409 Nuernberg, Germany                    WWW: http://www.suse.de/