srh@docwrk.UUCP (Steven R. Houser) (10/10/90)
I'm trying to print files with troff on a UNIX pc with v. 3.51 UNIX. I have a Hewlett-Packard DeskJet connected to the machine. When I used nroff, I just piped the output to lp. But when I print troff files from ua or pipe them to lp, the DeskJet just prints raw troff output like this: x T post x res 720 1 1 x init V0 p1 x font 1 R x font 2 I x font 3 B x font 4 BI x font 5 CO x font 6 H x font 7 HI x font 8 HB x font 9 S1 x font 10 S s10 f1 H720 V480 h4270c1 Why does my printer just print this instead of interpreting it? Do I need to pipe it to another device? Or doesn't the DeskJet understand trofftroff? The DeskJet is supposed to be LaserJet compatible. I have my ua printer setup configured for the LaserJet, and never had any problem printing nroff on it. Steve -- ========================================================================== Steven R. Houser The Document Workshop | "No man but a blockhead ever uunet!osu-cis!n8emr!oink!docwrk!srh | wrote except for money." CompuServe 76004,3212 | Samuel Johnson
mhw@fithp.uucp (Marc Weinstein) (10/20/90)
From article <74@docwrk.UUCP>, by srh@docwrk.UUCP (Steven R. Houser): > have a Hewlett-Packard DeskJet connected to the machine. When I used > nroff, I just piped the output to lp. But when I print troff files from ua > or pipe them to lp, the DeskJet just prints raw troff output like this: > > x T post > ... > > Why does my printer just print this instead of interpreting it? Do I > need to pipe it to another device? Or doesn't the DeskJet understand > trofftroff? I'm not a troff expert, but troff itself produces fairly "unprintable" output, as opposed to nroff which creates pretty much ASCII output. In other words, troff output doesn't usually resemble the text you desire. My understanding is that troff output needs to be piped through a translator which knows your printer's language. I recently bought a HP Laserjet IIp and plan to use Device-Independent Troff (ditroff) piped through a package called Jetroff, which converts the troff output to Laserjet language. Jetroff comes with a set of downloadable fonts and knows HP's proprietary printer language, so it can select fonts, set line spacing, do bold/italics, etc. I've also heard that the new groff supports Laserjets as well. The OSU archives may have copies of these... Marc Weinstein