yfisher@gandalf.nosc.mil (Yuval Fisher) (07/19/90)
I wonder if anyone can help me with a horribly annoying problem I am having printing out a postscript file on an apple laserwriter. I convert a dvi file to postscript using dvi2ps on a sun. The original TeX has PS figures included, some are Mac generated and some are raster images I converted to postscript. I can print out short documents with both types of figures, and I can print out longer documents with only the Macintosh generated postscript included. But when I try to print out the whole thing, the laserprinter stops printing mid-way through. I guess this means I am running out of memory in the laserprinter, somehow. Has anyone encountered this type of problem? Any suggestions ? Thanks buckets and buckets in advance... Yuval Fisher.
hess@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (Caleb Hess) (07/19/90)
You didn't mention what your host system is. If you are using a Unix system, there may be a maximum job size limit for the printer. Look in /etc/printcap for a field like :mx#1000:. The number is the maximum number of blocks that will be printed in a single job. Changing this field to :mx#0: allows unlimited job size (not necessarily a good idea, as the spooler will require disk space for a copy of the file).
bin@primate.wisc.edu (Brain in Neutral) (07/20/90)
How old is your LaserWriter? Early models are notorious for not being able to print large ps-from-dvi files. You have to have the original dvi and convert pieces of it at a time, printing each piece separately, and cycling the power on the printer at odd intervals since it still locks up now and then (blinks but does nothing). I've not seen this problem at all since I got an NTX II. Paul DuBois dubois@primate.wisc.edu
bochner@flare.harvard.EDU (Harry Bochner) (07/20/90)
In article <2785@uakari.primate.wisc.edu>, bin@primate.wisc.edu (Brain in Neutral) writes: > How old is your LaserWriter? Early models are notorious for not being > able to print large ps-from-dvi files. You have to have the original > dvi and convert pieces of it at a time, printing each piece separately, > and cycling the power on the printer at odd intervals since it still locks > up now and then (blinks but does nothing). Another possible solution is to get a better dvi->ps converter. We used to have this problem regularly when printing large dvi files to old LaserWriters, when we were using dvi2ps (which the original poster says he's using). We've eliminated the problem by switching to dvips (w/o the '2'), by Rokicki at stanford: it can be configured so it knows about how much room each printer has for downloaded characters, and will flush the memory and start over if it's running out of room. When properly configured it should be able to send any dvi file to any printer in one operation (unless there's a single page that's too complex to handle). It's got other great features too: I recommend it. Harry Bochner bochner@endor.harvard.edu
chris@sage1.gsfc.nasa.gov (Chris P. Ross) (07/20/90)
In <51457@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> hess@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (Caleb Hess) writes: >You didn't mention what your host system is. If you are using a Unix system, >there may be a maximum job size limit for the printer. Look in /etc/printcap >for a field like :mx#1000:. The number is the maximum number of blocks >that will be printed in a single job. Changing this field to :mx#0: >allows unlimited job size (not necessarily a good idea, as the spooler will >require disk space for a copy of the file). Unless, of course, you do an "lpr -s"... This will create a symbolic link in the printer's spool directory to the file to be printed. Always a good idea with big files... - Chris -- -=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=- Chris P. Ross (301)/286-7242 | InterNet: chris@sage0.gsfc.nasa.gov EGRET Programmer, NASA / GSFC | chris@olgao.umd.edu -=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-=*=-
wilker@euclid.math.purdue.edu (Clarence Wilkerson) (07/22/90)
You might check the size of the spool file available on the SUN. 1 meg limits are not uncommon.
shaig@mush.huji.ac.il (Shai Guday) (07/23/90)
In article <2518@nosc.NOSC.MIL> yfisher@gandalf.nosc.mil or yfisher@UCSD.edu (Yu val Fisher) writes: % %I guess this means I am running out of memory in the laserprinter, %somehow. % %Has anyone encountered this type of problem? Any suggestions ? % %Thanks buckets and buckets in advance... One simple solution that comes to mind is to use the dvi2ps page numbering flags and break the postscript file into two smaller files. That should enable you to get around the memory problem on the laserwriter. % Yuval Fisher.
yfisher@gandalf.nosc.mil (Yuval Fisher) (07/25/90)
In article <2518@nosc.NOSC.MIL> yfisher@gandalf.nosc.mil (Yuval Fisher) blathers: >I wonder if anyone can help me with a horribly annoying problem >I am having printing out a postscript file on an apple laserwriter. . . . Later he responds, red faced: It turns out that it was a problem with the actual PS file, not its size (which was a not insignificant 1.8 Meg). Since I am not the only idiot in town, it may be worth while explaining the problem. I used \psfig to include the postscript into my TeX document. The syntax I used was : \psfig{figure=psfilename, height=hsizeyouwanthere} The correct syntax is: \psfig{figure=psfilename,height=hsizeyouwanthere} It is not too different, the distinction being that innocent looking space. But it was enough to hang the printer. Thanks for the many buckets of useful suggestions anyway. Yuval Fisher