SUMMARY Re: Multi-page printing in Solaris 10 X86

Hi,

I was not able to determine if I can enable MP printing at the command 
line but :

* Paper handling (duplex, tray selection) are printer things.
* What goes on the paper (pictures, text) are user things.

and most folks use third party extras such as :

* mpage, enscript, and the "psutils"
utilities.
* a2ps (strongly recommended)
* "I usually use
  enscript -2r
to get this effect.  That prints 2 pages/sheet and
in landscape mode."  
Available from sunfreeware.com 

Mpage also available from sunfreeware.com. I have not been able to find psutils pre-compiled for Solaris.

With these tools I should be able to make my own filter.

Thanks to :

* Barry Callahan
* Bill Williams
* Ric Anderson
* Brad Morrison

Steve

Steve Franks wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have Sol 10 X86 U3 on a laptop.  I want to print two (or 4 or 8) 
> pages per sheet (I am not interested in duplexing here as the printer 
> I have can't do it) to an HP LJ 4200.
>
> The print queue works just fine - but I can't work out the multi-page 
> side.
>
> Firstly, is this function a printer option or a spooler function? 
>
> Secondly, how do I make it happen (in both cases)?
>
> I have experimented with mpage et al & this seems to work but to my 
> mind, I should not need these things since Solaris adopted PPD / 
> foomatic printing.  I do not pretend to be an expert in these things 
> though.  If I wanted to print just text, would I be forced to make my 
> own filter with mpage to solve the problem?
>
> I have ratted thru the ppd file for the printer & can't actually see 
> any function / attribute that appears to match what I want to do.  I 
> do see Duplex in there though.  This leads me to wonder if the feature 
> is not actually spooler-side, rather than printer-side.
>
> Looking at netstandard-foomatic interface script I see this :
>  # The IPP/PAPI attributes are handled by the foomatic-rip filter so
>         # all we need to do here is ignore them so that they don't 
> invoke the
>         # "unrecognized option" message.
>         #
>         finishing=* | page-ranges=* | sides=* )
>                 ;;
>         number-up=* | orientation-requested=* | media=* )  
> <<<<<<<<============  I think number-up is what I want
>
> But this tells me to look at the rip engine.  OK :
> <... extract from foomatic-rip ...>
>  # we ignore the following IPP attributes in this filter:  
> <<<<<<<<<<======= OK, we *don't* do it here after all!!!!
>                 #   - all job-* attributes
>                 #   - 'copies' attributes in the filter as this is handled
>                 #     by the backend script
>                 #   - multiple-document-* is not supported
>                 #   - 'number-up' attribute as this is handled by mode 
> 'group=n'  <<<<<<<======= What about "group"?
>                 #     in the filters.
>
> lp -d hp4200 -o group=2 file
>
> makes no difference; the job prints perfectly - but as single page per 
> sheet.  
>
> Aside : when we are dealing with printer or manufacturer-specific 
> options, is there a simple way to dump out the list rather than 
> working thru all the relevant scripts?
>
> Note on IPP - I am using raw to TCP port 9100 on the printer as this 
> is what is recommended by all refs on HP printer setup on Solaris 
> although to be honest, I am not sure how to use IPP & how it works.
>
> No doubt this would be trivial if I could use Jet Direct Printer 
> Installer - but this is not available for Sol x86 :(
>
> Any feedback greatly appreciated - by me /and/ the world's forests!
>
> Steve
>
>
>

-- 

STEVE FRANKS

SENIOR SYSTEMS ENGINEER

 

FRONTLINE SYSTEMS AUSTRALIA

20 BUSINESS PARK DRIVE NOTTING HILL VIC 3168

T. 03 8545 3000  F. 03 8545 3022  M. 0437 306 027

www.frontline.com.au

 

 

CONFIDENTIALITY


This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential 
and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity

to whom they are addressed. The content and opinions contained in this 
email are not able to be copied or sent to

any other recipient without the author's permission. If you have 
received this email in error please contact the sender.
_______________________________________________
sunmanagers mailing list
sunmanagers@sunmanagers.org
http://www.sunmanagers.org/mailman/listinfo/sunmanagers