Specifying text file encoding to lpr/lp?

[John A. Murdie]

Is it possible to specify the encoding of a file to be printed with lpr(1)/lp(1)? What is the default encoding for text printing? (I can't see anything under the CUPS web printer management 'Set Printer Options' page for a printer, and the manual pages say nothing.)

Of course, once I know the default encoding, I can use iconv(1) or piconv(1) to do the necessary translation.

As an experiment, I tried printing (CUPS 1.3.7) an ISO 8859-1 text file containing an umlaut - the printing stopped with the character before the umlaut. Bug or misconfiguration on my part?

John A. Murdie