hugh@imax.com (Hugh Murray) (08/18/90)
This issue has been common recently, but I have a new slant that has not been addressed by earlier postings that I have seen. My Mac is connected to a DeskWriter which serves me very well, but elsewhere in this organization a LaserWriterII NTX running in PostScript mode has been hooked to a PC. Just for fun I captured some PostScript output on the Mac (using cmnd-K), and copied the file to a PC disk using Apple File Exchange with text translation. On the PC I just copied this file to the printer, which flashed its green light for about a minute then - nothing. Does anyone have any idea what could be missing? It bothers me a little that WordPerfect on a PC generates PostScript which an Apple printer accepts happily, while output from the Mac makes it choke. Hugh Murray hugh@imax.com : These opinions are MINE Imax Systems Corp. Oakville, Ontario, Canada.
cnap73@vaxa.strath.ac.uk (08/20/90)
In article <1990Aug17.181113.13169@imax.com>, hugh@imax.com (Hugh Murray) writes: > Just for fun I captured some PostScript output on the Mac (using cmnd-K), and > copied the file to a PC disk using Apple File Exchange with text translation. > On the PC I just copied this file to the printer, which flashed its green light > for about a minute then - nothing. Does anyone have any idea what could be > missing? It bothers me a little that WordPerfect on a PC generates PostScript > which an Apple printer accepts happily, while output from the Mac makes it > choke. > First of all, in conversion make sure that MacWrite/RCA conversion is off; don't convert CR/LF characters. I suspect that the real reason is that the Postscript file you get is not correct. A Mac generated Postscript file contains a header, the contents of which depend on the application. In this header is a line which says something like : %IncludeProcSet: "(AppleDict md)" 68 0 The contents of the Laser Prep file are supposed to replace this line. The file you get from cmd-K simply appends a PS version of your document to the Laser Prep file. You will probably need some utility (like MACPS for Unix) which puts Laser Prep in the right place. Stewart Fleming, University Of Strathclyde, Scotland. > Hugh Murray hugh@imax.com : These opinions are MINE
wiseman@tellabs.com (Jeff Wiseman) (08/22/90)
In article <42.26cfe840@vaxa.strath.ac.uk> cnap73@vaxa.strath.ac.uk writes: >In article <1990Aug17.181113.13169@imax.com>, hugh@imax.com (Hugh Murray) writes: >> Just for fun I captured some PostScript output on the Mac (using cmnd-K), and >> copied the file to a PC disk using Apple File Exchange with text translation. >> On the PC I just copied this file to the printer, which flashed its green light >> for about a minute then - nothing. Does anyone have any idea what could be >> missing? It bothers me a little that WordPerfect on a PC generates PostScript <<stuff deleted>> >I suspect that the real reason is that the Postscript file you get is not >correct. A Mac generated Postscript file contains a header, the contents of >which depend on the application. In this header is a line which says something >like : > > %IncludeProcSet: "(AppleDict md)" 68 0 > >The contents of the Laser Prep file are supposed to replace this line. The >file you get from cmd-K simply appends a PS version of your document to the >Laser Prep file. You will probably need some utility (like MACPS for Unix) >which puts Laser Prep in the right place. I hate seeing people thrash over this since I went through so much of it myself... :-( Let me give my 2 cents worth. I THINK that the IncludeProcSet statement refered to is actually the laserprep. The real problem has to do with the fact that the mac doesn't just "spool" a file to the printer. It tries to embed parts of the laserprep (if not all) if the printer has not been inititalized. I have seen the exact same behaviour uploading a CMD-K file to a UNIX system and trying to lpr it to the laserwriter. As was mentioned, the MACPS unix utility is the nicest but if you are using just PCs, try prepending the following lines to the BEGINNING of your CMD-K files: %! serverdict begin 0 exitserver It's majik to me but I beleive it overrides this tendancy for the laserprep to try and install itself on the printer. One last note, the CMD-K file has some lines in it that are very Loonnng between CRs. on unix this can create a problem as vi (the editor) blows up with file lines that long. hope this helps -- Jeff Wiseman: ....uunet!tellab5!wiseman OR wiseman@TELLABS.COM