d@alice.UUCP (06/01/87)
Help!
I need to know if there is any way of capturing Postscript output
from a Macintosh into a file. I'd like to take such a file, upload
it to a VAX, and pump it out to a Postscript device.
Specifics: I have a school newspaper being produced on a 1MB Macintosh
Plus with PageMaker 2.0. I can build myself a cable if need be
to hook into the Mac's serial port (but I suppose it wouldn't work
in AppleTalk mode). The printers I can use are a QMS PS800+ and
some lesser engines.
Any suggestions appreciated! (And time is running rather short.)
Thanks very much!
--
# Daniel Rosenberg (CE) AT&T Bell Labs, Murray Hill
# disclaimer: These opinions are necessarily mine, not my employer's.
# UUCP: {ihnp4 || research || allegra}!alice!d AT&T: 201/582-6455 (work)
# INTERNET: d%alice%btl@csnet-relay or d@alice.att.comsbb@esquire.UUCP (Stephen B. Baumgarten) (06/01/87)
In article <6937@alice.UUCP> d@alice.UUCP (Daniel Rosenberg) writes: >I need to know if there is any way of capturing Postscript output >from a Macintosh into a file. I'd like to take such a file, upload >it to a VAX, and pump it out to a Postscript device. This is exactly the problem I (and I suspect many other people) were having until the wonderful Brian H. Powell at the University of Texas at Austin posted paintps.shar to comp.sources.mac last week (we received it on 5/27). Paintps takes a MacPaint file uploaded to a mainframe and prints it to a LaserWriter (or other compatible PostScript device, I think). This, by itself is quite useful, but he also includes 3 different LaserPrep header files (for versions 1.1, 3.1 and 3.3 of the Macintosh LaserWriter driver -- this corresponds to System 2.0/Finder 4.1, System 3.2/5.3 and System 3.3/5.4). This means that any program that prints to the LW on the Mac can now print on a remote LW connected to a Vax or whatever. Just collect the PostScript output (by holding down CMD-F when you click OK in the LW Print dialog box), transfer it to your Vax, and use whichever of the header files is appropriate for your version of the LW driver. On a Unix system, that's: "cat header-file postscript-file | lpr -Plw" or some such. I've printed documents from Microsoft Word, Ready,Set,Go! 3, and MacDraw, all without any problems. I'm not sure if PageMaker will work, though, since they use their own Prep file (Aldus Prep) -- at least they did in version 1.2. If they still do, you may have problems. Since our E-Mail doesn't work, I'd be happy to post the shar file to this newsgroup since others may have missed it. I normally don't repost stuff that's just been posted, but in this case I think a great many people could benefit. And Brian, if you're listening, Thank you! Thank you!! Thank you!!! - Steve
John_M@spectrix.UUCP (John Macdonald) (06/02/87)
In article <6937@alice.UUCP> d@alice.UUCP (Daniel Rosenberg) writes: >Help! > >I need to know if there is any way of capturing Postscript output >from a Macintosh into a file. I'd like to take such a file, upload >it to a VAX, and pump it out to a Postscript device. > > [...] >-- ># Daniel Rosenberg (CE) AT&T Bell Labs, Murray Hill ># disclaimer: These opinions are necessarily mine, not my employer's. ># UUCP: {ihnp4 || research || allegra}!alice!d AT&T: 201/582-6455 (work) ># INTERNET: d%alice%btl@csnet-relay or d@alice.att.com I'm sure that lots of people have mailed Daniel the details of the command-option-whatever hidden method for putting postscript into a file. This same information has been requested in this newsgroup at least once a month. I have seen it requested and answered in most Mac magazines. I hope that the message has made it through to program developers - document useful user interface characteristics in the user interface, don't use command-option-stand-on-your-head tricks that are only discoverable by reading the manual. This send-output-to-a-file-instead option should be either an option check-box in the print-setup menu, or a postscript-into-text-file device driver that can be selected with chooser. Either of those methods would be discovered easily by most of the people who request the info (and would probably have been noticed even by people who had no idea that "printing to a file" was a legitimate concept, much less possible to do). -- --------- .signature eater food --------- John Macdonald UUCP: {mnetor,utzoo} !spectrix!jmm internet:Sorry. We're in range, but we're in no domain. Disc-claimer: (noun) any hack's source directory
moriarty@tc.fluke.COM (Jeff Meyer) (06/03/87)
There is a way to have the Apple software dump the Postscript output to a
file called "Postscript" on the disk, instead of to the LaserWriter. I do
NOT know if all the "AldusPrep" stuff works with this too, or not, but it
works with all the other programs (Word 3.0, SuperPaint, etc.). I'm just
nervous as to whether ALdusPrep will screw things up.
INSTRUCTIONS (you're ready to print in PageMaker):
1) Use the Chooser DA to select the LaserWriter driver... even though you
have no LaserWriter hooked up.
2) Pull down the "PRINT" Menu.
3) Hit print as you normally would -- and immediately after, HIT Command-F
and hold it down (Hit Command-K if you want to save the
LaserPrep/AldusPrep(?) code in front of the PostScript commands). A
message will come up saying "Saving Postscript to disk".
4) You know have a text file on disk full of PostScript, which can be
uploaded to vaxen, etc. You can then just send the text file to the
printer via the Vaxen print command, after uploading it.
5) Oops -- oh, yeah. I always use Command-K, saving the LaserPrep with the
code... but there's something else you have to do to get the LaserFonts
to be preserved (otherwise, you get all courier). This is assuming you
have a LaserWriter+... these statements need to be placed before the
"%EndProlog" statement (again, I know you have an "%EndProlog" statement
when you save via Command-K -- but I don't know about Command-F. If
you're not using a LaserWriter+, I assumed Command-F would be better.
Here are the statements...
% Place this before the EndProlog statement.
/|______Helvetica /Helvetica T rf
/|______Helvetica-Bold /Helvetica-Bold T rf
/|______Helvetica-Oblique /Helvetica-Oblique T rf
/|______Helvetica-Bold-Oblique /Helvetica-Bold-Oblique T rf
/|______Courier /Courier T rf
/|______Courier-Bold /Courier-Bold T rf
/|______Courier-Oblique /Courier-Oblique T rf
/|______Courier-Bold-Oblique /Courier-Bold-Oblique T rf
/|______Times-Roman /Times-Roman T rf
/|______Times-Italic /Times-Italic T rf
/|______Times-Bold /Times-Bold T rf
/|______Times-BoldItalic /Times-BoldItalic T rf
/|______Symbol /Symbol F rf
/|______AvantGarde-Book /AvantGarde-Book T rf
/|______AvantGarde-BookOblique /AvantGarde-BookOblique T rf
/|______AvantGarde-Demi /AvantGarde-Demi T rf
/|______AvantGarde-DemiOblique /AvantGarde-DemiOblique T rf
/|______Bookman-Light /Bookman-Light T rf
/|______Bookman-Demi /Bookman-Demi T rf
/|______Bookman-LightItalic /Bookman-LightItalic T rf
/|______Bookman-DemiItalic /Bookman-DemiItalic T rf
/|______Helvetica-Narrow /Helvetica-Narrow T rf
/|______Helvetica-Narrow-Bold /Helvetica-Narrow-Bold T rf
/|______Helvetica-Narrow-Oblique /Helvetica-Narrow-Oblique T rf
/|______Helvetica-Narrow-BoldOblique /Helvetica-Narrow-BoldOblique T rf
/|______NewCenturySchlbk-Roman /NewCenturySchlbk-Roman T rf
/|______NewCenturySchlbk-Italic /NewCenturySchlbk-Italic T rf
/|______NewCenturySchlbk-Bold /NewCenturySchlbk-Bold T rf
/|______NewCenturySchlbk-BoldIItalic /NewCenturySchlbk-BoldIItalic T rf
/|______Palatino-Roman /Palatino-Roman T rf
/|______Palatino-Italic /Palatino-Italic T rf
/|______Palatino-Bold /Palatino-Bold T rf
/|______Palatino-BoldItalic /Palatino-BoldItalic T rf
/|______ZapfChancery-MediumItalic /ZapfChancery-MediumItalic T rf
/|______ZapfDingbats /ZapfDingbats F rf
Hope this helps...
"Calling J-Man Kink. Calling J-Man Kink. Hash missle sighted, target
Los Angeles. Disregard personal feelings about city and intercept."
Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
INTERNET: moriarty@fluke.COM
Manual UUCP: {uw-beaver, sun, allegra, sb6, lbl-csam}!fluke!moriarty
CREDO: You gotta be Cruel to be Kind...
<*> DISCLAIMER: Do what you want with me, but leave my employers alone! <*>brian@ut-sally.UUCP (Brian H. Powell) (06/08/87)
Concerning the ability of maclaser (the Unix program for printing Mac output on Unix LaserWriters) to print PageMaker output: In article <94@esquire.UUCP>, sbb@esquire.UUCP (Stephen B. Baumgarten) writes: > I've printed documents from Microsoft Word, Ready,Set,Go! 3, and MacDraw, all > without any problems. I'm not sure if PageMaker will work, though, since > they use their own Prep file (Aldus Prep) -- at least they did in > version 1.2. If they still do, you may have problems. PageMaker 2.0 has the ability to generate output using either their Aldus Prep or Apple's LaserPrep. If you set this option to LaserPrep, you can use cmd-F to generate the PostScript and use maclaser as is. I haven't taken much of a look at the new Aldus Prep, but I think you could also persuade it to work in this situation also. (There are sometimes advantages to using AldusPrep instead of LaserPrep, and vice-versa.) Brian