Mark_Gray@mindlink.UUCP (Mark Gray) (03/12/91)
In an earlier posting, I asked if anyone knew how to stop or over-ride the LaserWriterUs printing a test page each time it starts up. I was pleased to receive direct replies from several people (my respondents are listed at the end of this note). The responses fell into three categories: mechanical solutions; commercially available programs; and simple, downloadable PostScript files. Following is a summary: Mechanical Solutions: ------------------------------ Leon Campbell pointed out that leaving the paper tray out a few inches prevents the test page from printing. He also noted that he leaves his printer turned on all the time. Commercially Available Programs: ----------------------------------------------- Sienkiew (I got his address, but not his actual name) and Leon Campbell pointed out that Widgets, (part of CE Software's MockPackage PlusUtilities) has the ability to turn off/on the test page, as well as to do many other things. Downloadable PostScript File: ----------------------------------------- I was really looking for a simple solution and Sienkiew, Eric Behr and Ben Lieberman all provided the same solution, which is to download the following simple PostScript file to the LaserWriter: serverdict begin 0 exitserver statusdict begin false setdostartpage end To re-implement the test page printing substitute the following third line and download: true setdostartpage The following suggestions for downloading the file were made. Sienkiew and Rick McCormack suggested using SendPS, available at Sumex-aim and Eric Behr suggested Downloader from Sumex. Since I didnUt know about any of these, I came up with another solution which I think is simpler. I used the Font Downloader utility which comes with Adobe Type Manager (which I suspect many people have). To download the file, you just: 1. save the above mentioned four-line file as text using your word processing program. 2. select RDownload PostScript FileS from the Files menu of Font Downloader. Two cautions were added by Eric Behr. First, "...some people say [downloading] shouldn't be done too often - it can apparently kill the EPROMs, which have a limited number of cycles." Second, and very important in my mind: "Be careful downloading just anything - there are some stupid people who may slip you a postscript program which changes the password - then you are stuck...". I took this to heart, but since three people offered the same solution, I felt confident. By the way, it works. My respondents, who I thank, were: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ---- sienkiew@nsslsun.gcn.uoknor.edu L. Leon Campbell, University of Delaware in Newark, DE Internet: campbell@brahms.udel.edu AppleLink:U1401 Compuserve: 75410,124 Eric Behr, Illinois State University, Mathematics Department Internet: ejbehr@rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu Bitnet: ebehr@ilstu Ben Liberman USENET:magik@chinet.chi.il.us GEnie,Delphi: MAGIK Rick McCormack Rick_McCormack@MindLink.uucp ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ---- Regards, -- Mark Gray Vancouver B. C. Canada UseNet: Mark_Gray@MindLink.uucp