Re: printer recommendations

[Malcolm Herbert <mjch%mjch.net@localhost>]

On Wed, Jan 30, 2008 at 09:05:55AM +1100, Daniel Carosone wrote:
|CUPS, period.

I have never gotten cups working satisfactorily for me ... I stick
with the standard lpd as provided under NetBSD by default as it
Just Works without needing anything else ... 

If you need to print PostScript files to a non-PostScript printer,
then GhostScript is your friend in most instances and can easily
be added as an output filter to lpd.

The following is my setup at home to print to a networked non-PostScript
LaserJet 4.  It has been given hplj4.internal as a network name and
we're using JetDirect (port 9100) to talk to it:

/etc/printcap:
|lp|local printer:\
|       :sh:lp=9100%hplj4.internal@localhost:sd=/var/spool/output/lpd:\
|       :lf=/var/log/lpd-errs:of=/usr/local/bin/ps2ljet4

/usr/local/bin/ps2ljet4:
|#!/bin/sh
|
|GS=/usr/pkg/bin/gs
|GSFLAGS="-q -sPAPER_SIZE=a4 -sDEVICE=ljet4 -dNOPAUSE"
|
|exec $GS $GSFLAGS -sOutputFile=- -

/etc/rc.conf:
:
:
|lpd=YES
:
:

This same setup will work with most printers these days, although
if you have a real PostScript interpreter embedded in the printer
you can omit the 'of' entry in the printcap record and not use a
local GhostScript interpreter, otherwise it's the same ...

-- 
Malcolm Herbert                                This brain intentionally
mjch%mjch.net@localhost                                                left 
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