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1.1 root 1:
2:
3: printer Technical Information printer
4:
5:
6:
7:
8: The printer is the device that transfers human-readable data to
9: paper. It can be plugged into either a parallel or a serial
10: port, depending upon how your printer is designed. The former is
11: faster, whereas the latter permits the printer to be positioned
12: farther away from the computer. The following descriptions
13: assume that you have your printer plugged into a parallel port.
14:
15: COHERENT permits you to have up to three parallel ports on your
16: computer. Devices /ddeevv/llpptt11, /ddeevv/llpptt22, and /ddeevv/llpptt33 control,
17: respectively, parallel ports 1, 2, and 3 in cooked mode. The
18: device /ddeevv/llpp is normally linked to the above device that you
19: wish to use by default as your line printer. See the Lexicon
20: article llpp for more details on these devices.
21:
22: COHERENT can print text on all ``dumb'' printers that have no
23: special text-formatting features. It also supports text
24: formatting on three varieties of printers: Epson-compatible dot-
25: matrix printers; laser printers compatible with the Hewlett-
26: Packard LaserJet family of printers that implement the Hewlett-
27: Packard Page Control Language (PCL); and all printers that have
28: implemented the PostScript language.
29:
30: ***** Dumb Printers *****
31:
32: To print on a ``dumb'' printer plugged into the parallel port,
33: use the command llpprr. This command performs some formatting on a
34: file, and invokes the line-printer daemon llppdd to spool the file
35: for printing. Using the line-printer daemon is necessary in a
36: multi-user environment to ensure that print requests from
37: different users do not arrive at the printer at the same time,
38: causing the printer to output a jumbled mess (if it prints
39: anything at all).
40:
41: For example, if FFOOOO is a text file, the command
42:
43:
44: lpr FOO
45:
46:
47: prints it on your dumb printer. You should use the llpprr command
48: to print ``simple'' text (such as program listings) on any
49: variety of dot-matrix printer. To print listings or other simple
50: text on a laser printer, see below.
51:
52: The output of the text-formatting command nnrrooffff can also be
53: printed, with some success, on dumb printers. To represent an
54: italicized character, it prints the character, followed by a
55: backspace, followed by an underscore character; to represent a
56: bold-face character, it output the character, followed by a
57: backspace, followed by the character again (in the hope, perhaps
58: naive, that presenting the same text twice will make it appear
59: bolder).
60:
61:
62:
63:
64: COHERENT Lexicon Page 1
65:
66:
67:
68:
69: printer Technical Information printer
70:
71:
72:
73: ***** Epson-Compatible Printers *****
74:
75: The command eeppssoonn massages text into a form that uses some of the
76: text-formatting features of the Epson MX-80 printer and clones
77: thereof. It is especially to be used with text that has been
78: formatted with nnrrooffff, as described above; there, it turns the
79: ``character/backspace/character'' sequence into the Epson escape
80: sequences for emphasized text and italics. It then directs its
81: output to the line-printer device /ddeevv/llpp, which it assumes has
82: an Epson-style printer plugged into it.
83:
84: The following example uses nnrrooffff to format file FFOOOO and prints
85: the output on an Epson-style printer:
86:
87:
88: nroff -ms FOO | epson
89:
90:
91: ***** LaserJet-style Printers *****
92:
93: COHERENT includes a large suite of commands to support the
94: Hewlett-Packard LaserJet family of printers, as well as clones
95: that run Hewlett-Packard's PCL.
96:
97: To begin, these commands use the HP devices /ddeevv/hhpp and /ddeevv/rrhhpp.
98: When you installed COHERENT on your system, you may have created
99: these devices; if you did not, however, you should create them by
100: simply using the command llnn to link /ddeevv/llpp to /ddeevv/hhpp and to
101: link /ddeevv/rrllpp to /ddeevv/rrhhpp, as follows:
102:
103:
104: ln /dev/lp /dev/hp
105: ln /dev/rlp /dev/rhp
106:
107:
108: You must log in as the superuser rroooott to execute these commands.
109:
110: The daemon hhppdd spools files to be printed on your laser printer.
111: It works like the line-printer daemon llppdd, as described above.
112:
113: The command hhpp prepares files to be printed on a laser printer.
114: You should use it to prepare ``simple'' text, such as program
115: listings, for printing on your laser printer. Like the command
116: eeppssoonn, hhpp also massages the output of nnrrooffff into PCL-style escape
117: sequences; unlike eeppssoonn, however, it does not automatically spool
118: the file for printing.
119:
120: The command hhpprr spools files to be printed on a laser printer.
121: It works like the command llpprr, except that it includes a number
122: of special features; for example, you can use it to download
123: LaserJet ``soft fonts'' into your printer.
124:
125: The following command uses nnrrooffff to format file FFOOOO, then prints
126: on a Hewlett-Packard style laser printer:
127:
128:
129:
130: COHERENT Lexicon Page 2
131:
132:
133:
134:
135: printer Technical Information printer
136:
137:
138:
139:
140: nroff -ms FOO | hp | hpr -B
141:
142:
143: Note that the -BB option to hhpprr suppresses the printing of a
144: banner page.
145:
146: The text-formatting command ttrrooffff can create proportionally
147: spaced text to be printed on either a PCL or PostScript printer.
148: In PCL mode, ttrrooffff can make full use of all ``soft fonts'' that
149: you have loaded onto your printer. For example, this manual was
150: printed by COHERENT ttrrooffff in PCL mode driving a Hewlett-Packard
151: LaserJet III with soft fonts. See the Lexicon for details on how
152: to use ttrrooffff with laser printers.
153:
154: ***** PostScript Printers *****
155:
156: COHERENT includes two commands that can drive PostScript style
157: printers, such as the Apple LaserWriter.
158:
159: The command pprrppss is a PostScript version of the COHERENT command
160: pprr. It paginates text, and supplies each page with a simple
161: header. See its Lexicon entry for details.
162:
163: As noted above, ttrrooffff, the COHERENT text formatter, can create
164: proportionally space text for either PCL or PostScript printers.
165: In PostScript mode, ttrrooffff can handle all 35 fonts available with
166: most PostScript cartridges; it supports full font scaling and
167: features such as outlining and shadowing. It also permits you to
168: embed ``raw'' PostScript within your file, to create effects not
169: already available with the ttrrooffff text-formatting language. For
170: details on using ttrrooffff with PostScript printers, see its entry in
171: the Lexicon.
172:
173: ***** Printer Problems *****
174:
175: The following paragraphs describes the problems most commonly
176: encountered with printers, and suggests some solutions.
177:
178: If you are trying to access your parallel interface printer via
179: special files /ddeevv/llpp or /ddeevv/llpptt11 and receive an error message
180: of the form
181:
182:
183: cannot open device /dev/lp
184:
185:
186: this means that your printer is not attached to the device that
187: COHERENT associates with /ddeevv/llpptt11. Your printer is at either
188: attached to /ddeevv/llpptt22 or to /ddeevv/llpptt33. To discover which one, log
189: in as the superuser rroooott and use ccdd to enter directory /ddeevv. Make
190: sure that your printer is plugged in, turned on, and on-line;
191: then enter the command:
192:
193:
194:
195:
196: COHERENT Lexicon Page 3
197:
198:
199:
200:
201: printer Technical Information printer
202:
203:
204:
205:
206: cat _f_i_l_e > lpt2
207:
208:
209: _f_i_l_e can be any readable file that you specify (e.g.,
210: /eettcc/ppaasssswwdd). If your printer does not print _f_i_l_e, then repeat
211: the command for device /ddeevv/llpptt33:
212:
213:
214: cat _f_i_l_e > lpt3
215:
216:
217: The command that works indicates the device into which your
218: printer is plugged.
219:
220: The final step is to ``link'' the actual location of the printer
221: to devices /ddeevv/llpp and /ddeevv/rrllpp, so that the COHERENT utilities
222: know how to print a file. Enter the appropriate commands:
223:
224:
225: ln -f lpt2 lp
226: ln -f rlpt2 rlp
227:
228:
229: if your printer is attached to /ddeevv/llpptt22, or
230:
231:
232: ln -f lpt3 lp
233: ln -f rlpt3 rlp
234:
235:
236: if your printer was attached to /ddeevv/llpptt33.
237:
238: If you have an Hewlett-Packard LaserJet or compatible printer,
239: perform the above ``link'' operation again but substitute hhpp for
240: llpp and rrhhpp for rrllpp. This allows the command hhpprr to find your
241: printer.
242:
243: If you are using a serial printer, note that flow control via CTS
244: (clear-to-send) is not supported in the ccoomm11 through ccoomm44 family
245: of devices, but is available in devices hhss0000rr through hhss0077rr. See
246: Lexicon articles ccoomm, hhss, and tteerrmmiinnaall for details.
247:
248: ***** See Also *****
249:
250: eeppssoonn, hhpp, hhppdd, hhpprr, llpp, llppdd, llpprr, pprrppss, tteecchhnniiccaall iinnffoorrmmaattiioonn,
251: ttrrooffff
252:
253:
254:
255:
256:
257:
258:
259:
260:
261:
262: COHERENT Lexicon Page 4
263:
264:
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