km@emory.UUCP (Ken Mandelberg) (03/28/85)
Does anyone know a way to capture what a Mac plans to
send to its printer, in a file? I am particulary interested
in doing this for Laserwriter output. I would like to
be able to generate Postscript output, transfer it to
a Vax, and spool it from there to a Laserwriter.
--
Ken Mandelberg
Emory University
Dept of Math and CS
Atlanta, Ga 30322
{akgua,sb1,gatech,decvax}!emory!km USENET
km@emory CSNET
km.emory@csnet-relay ARPANETcrum@utah-cs.UUCP (Gary L. Crum) (03/30/85)
The following is from the "Programming and Debugging aids" section of the
"Inside LaserWriter" document from Apple Computer:
***
Instructions for Spooling, Editing and Downloading a Postscript file from
a Macintosh application.
In normal use, the Macintosh Print Manager sends a Postscript file to
the printer each time that it wants to print a document on LaserWriter. It
is possible to spool that file to disk and look at the result for debugging
purposes. It is also possible to edit the spooled file and then transmit
it to the printer. This feature allows advanced users to add features to
Macintosh documents that are not supported by the current Macintosh Print
Manager (translation and rotation on the page or rotated text, for example).
The syntax for this spooled Macintosh file will be defined in the final
release of Inside LaserWriter, but it is not currently available.
To Spool a Postscript File.
When a Macintosh application is run to print a document on LaserWriter,
the Postscript output that is generated can be spooled to a disk file instead
of sending it to the printer by using the following procedure:
1. Select "Print" from the application's file menu in the usual way.
2. When the print dialog appears, click OK in the usual way.
3. Immediately press the Control and F keys simultaneously and hold
them down until the message "Creating Postscript file" appears on the screen.
4. Quit from the application.
5. A file labelled "Postscript" should be on the desktop. (If there was
a previous file labelled "Postscript" on the desktop, it will have been
destroyed.)
6. Rename the file as something other than Postscript if you want to
keep it so that it is not destroyed the next time that you spool a Postscript
file.
***
The "Inside LaserWriter" package includes the PostScript Language Manual,
PostScript Cookbook, Adobe font information, and some information about the
LaserWriter and AppleTalk protocals. It also includes two diskettes
that contain 'Programming and Debugging Aids' and 'Screen Fonts'. The
package costs $75 (+ sales tax for CA residents), and is available from:
Apple Computer Mailing Facility
467 Saratoga Avenue, Suite 621
San Jose, California 95129
There is another document which describes AppleTalk in more detail,
called "Inside AppleTalk" (not surprisingly). It also costs $75, from
the same source. It is necessary for developing peripherals which connect
directly to AppleTalk, such as a standalone file server.
Gary Crum, crum@utah-cs
University of Utah
PostScript is a trademark of Adobe Systems, Inc.
LaserWriter and AppleTalk are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc.crum@utah-cs.UUCP (Gary L. Crum) (03/30/85)
Fine. Perhaps I should'nt have left out the other sections of the
spooling instructions. Here they are:
***
To Edit the Postscript File.
The Postscript file created above can be edited using MacWrite as
follows:
1. Open the file labelled "Postscript" with MacWrite available on one
of the disk drives.
2. A message saying "should a Carriage return signify a new paragraph
or a line break?" will appear. Select "Paragraphs".
3. A message saying "This document is being converted and will open as
Untitled" will appear. Select "OK". (This is because the file generated is
a Text Only file, not a full MacWrite file.)
4. The Postscript file will appear as a MacWrite document. This file
is in Postscript using the QuickDraw translation routines predefined in the
Apple Printer Initialization File (LaserPrep) that is downloaded to the
printer whenever the printer is powered on. The syntax of this file is
defined in Appendix J of Inside LaserWriter.
5. Edit the Postscript file in the usual way.
6. Save the Postscript file by selecting "Save As" from the file menu.
7. Select "Text Only" from the save dialog.
8. Save the document in the usual way. When a dialog comes saying
"Should a Carriage Return be put at the end of each line or only between
paragraphs?", select "Paragraphs".
[note from crum: The above text file could be transfered to a different
system for editing (via macput), of course]
To Download the Postscript File and run it.
(usually resulting in printing)
The Postscript file created above can be run on a LaserWriter as
follows:
1. Open the application on the diagnostic disk entitled "Downloading
Program".
2. Select "Start" from the file menu.
3. Select the Postscript file that you want to transmit to the printer
and select "Open". The Downloading Program will load the Postscript file
and transmit it to the LaserWriter named "LaserWriter". If your LaserWriter
is not named "LaserWriter", you will have to use the application "Namer"
that comes on the Installation disk to rename the printer back to the name
"LaserWriter".
4. When the wristwatch disappears from the screen, select "Quit" from
the File menu to get back to the desktop.
[note from crum: Perhaps a different downloading technique could be used
(like MacTerm) if the user doesn't have the 'Download" program.]
***
You might wonder why I would possible take the time to type all of these
(rather inconcise) instructions in, rather than simply providing a pointer
to the documentation. Well, I don't mind the typing practice, and besides,
I'm only a little undergrad in my second year. I hope that Apple doesn't
mind me quoting the manual.
Gary Crum; crum@utah-cs
University of Utah