On Wed, Oct 22, 2003 at 03:57:05PM +0000, skidmore@macconnection.net wrote:
> On Tuesday, October 21 2003 at 18:33 PM -0500, Richard Rauch wrote:
> I put back the '\' at the end of the 'if' line, and I am now printing again,
> however with stair-stepping.  My printcap now looks like this:
> 
> lp|local line printer:\
>         :sh:\
>         :if=/usr/libexec/filters/hpif:\
>         :rm=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:rp=lj:sd=/var/spool/lpd:\

Drop the last \

lp|local line printer:\
        :sh:\
        :if=/usr/libexec/filters/hpif:\
        :rm=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:rp=lj:sd=/var/spool/lpd:


The \ at the end of the line is only needed if your printcap entry
is continued on the next line.

You could also just write it as:

lp|local line printer:sh:if=/usr/libexec/filters/hpif:rm=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:rp=lj:sd=/var/spool/lpd:

all on one line, but breaking it up makes it more readable.

Magicfilter is nice though, lets you print lots of things w/o having to
manually convert them first.

ex:

% lpr foo.jpg

Instead of:

% djpeg foo.jpg | pnmtops | lpr

... if you've got a printer/printcap that understands PS, otherwise,
you'd need another set in there to call gs with the options for your
printer.

Personally, I rarely print ascii files directly, I run them through mpage(1):

mpage -2o -P foo.txt

prints nice, 2 pages in one version of the file, but since it converts the file
to PS first, you don't have the stair-stepping problem.  If you want 1 page/page:

mpage -1o -P foo.txt

-- 
Michael Parson
mparson@bl.org