hsd@uvacs.CS.VIRGINIA.EDU (Harry S. Delugach) (08/22/88)
Thanks to all who responded to my query about printing Mac PostScript on
a UNIX-hosted LaserWriter. It turns out that there were several technical
problems which needed to be solved. Fortunately, Brian Powell of U-TEXAS has
solved them, including several updates for current versions of the LaserWriter
driver. Many thanks to Brian, wherever you are.
The following were among the necessary changes:
Critical first line (whether Adobe appears, whether 1.0, or 2.0, etc.)
Password
Not taking over the printer's RAM permanently
Extra long lines truncated
The solution is available in the form of a PostScript header file, to precede
Mac's command-F output in UNIX's lpr pipe. I got a copy from SUMEX-AIM --
in UTILITY-PAINTPS-*. Using this header, I actually got
output that was indistinguishable from an all-Mac system's output, even with
a bitmapped picture included, using a LW 4.2 driver.
Two words of advice for those who would try this method:
1. Command-F only works with the LaserWriter driver, which must be selected
with the Chooser. Since I have no laser printer on my Mac SE, I always get
warnings about Appletalk. If I am persistent, I will eventually get it to
settle down. The same sort of behavior may occur when I re-select the
Imagewriter.
2. Remember that many Mac fonts are just Imagewriter fonts, and look only
slightly better on a laser printer (if it uses smoothing). Your best bet
is to use those fonts that are the standard LaserWriter or LaserWriterPlus
fonts, since those will employ the downloaded (better) fonts.
--
Harry S. Delugach University of Virginia, Dept. of Computer Science
INTERNET: hsd@cs.virginia.edu BITNET: hsd2x@virginia
UUCP: ..!uunet!virginia!uvacs!hsd CompuServe: 72727,2363brian@natinst.UUCP (Brian H. Powell) (08/24/88)
In article <2636@uvacs.CS.VIRGINIA.EDU>, hsd@uvacs.CS.VIRGINIA.EDU (Harry S. Delugach) writes: > Thanks to all who responded to my query about printing Mac PostScript on > a UNIX-hosted LaserWriter. It turns out that there were several technical > problems which needed to be solved. Fortunately, Brian Powell of U-TEXAS has > solved them, including several updates for current versions of the > LaserWriter driver. Many thanks to Brian, wherever you are. Well, I suppose I should rear my head. I no longer work for the Department of Computer Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin. I now work for National Instruments, working on LabVIEW (see the August 23rd MacWeek, for instance), and I'm also the UNIX (SunOS 4.0) and network (ethernet<->appletalk) administrator. National Instruments is a company that specializes in IEEE-488 Data Acquisition and Instrument Control hardware and software for Macs, PCs, Suns and _lots_ of other computers. We're headquartered in Austin and have two sales offices, in Japan and France. Enough about me. I've recently hacked together a laser-prep-68.pro, which is for use with LaserWriter 5.2, part of the System 6.0 distribution. I don't think the LaserWriter driver will be changed in System 6.0.1, so it should work for that also. I also plan to make further changes to the paintps distribution to more correctly handle the various laser-prep versions. (Instead of looking at the first line of the cmd-F file, it should look at the IncludeProcSet line.) When I get around to making that change, I'll issue another upgrade. If you're really desperate to get hold of laser-prep-68.pro, I can send it to you. Currently, it is not available for ftp from anywhere, nor do I plan to make it available for ftp until the complete upgrade package is ready. Feel free to contact me for further information. Brian H. Powell National Instruments Corp. brian@natinst.uucp 12109 Technology Blvd. cs.utexas.edu!natinst!brian Austin, Texas 78727-6204 AppleLink:D0351 (512) 250-9119 x832 or if that doesn't work, you can use brian@cs.utexas.edu.