printing files from within Unix(i.e., Terminal) to printer attached to Mac

Helge Blischke h.blischke at srz.de
Tue Apr 15 10:45:37 PDT 2008


Bobby Goodwin wrote:
> How do I print an ordinary Unix ascii text file created in Unix (i.e., Terminal) with any of the standard Unix text editors (ex, vim, etc.), to the Canon PIXMA MP460 printer attached to my Mac Pro? I need to do this by such means so that NO alteration or interpretation of any type, especially page formatting and font processing, is performed, AND so that ordinary ascii control characters perform their usual functions (e.g., form feed character causes a page eject, because I need to do my own pagination). In other words, I think I need to print in some type of raw mode to the printer, which may require that I print the file from within Unix. How do I do this?

If your ASCII control characters are only Tab, Formfeed and Endofline, you could
easily write a little script that prepends a special PostScript procset
to your text file and force the use of this filter by a "*cupsFilter: ..."
line in the printer's PPD.

The procset in question is available from me; it emulates a (configurable)
line printer. Let me know if you are interested.

Helge

PS: the procset currently handles only iso8859-1 encoding.

-- 
Helge Blischke
Softwareentwicklung

H.Blischke at acm.org




More information about the cups mailing list