Re: Printing

[Mike Pfleger <pfleger@pfleger-precision.com>]

* Alanna White (alanna.white@webspinning.com.au) wrote:
> I'm a newbie.
> I've just installed Debian and I can't work out how to print.
> 
> I've looked up the man pages and I've looked at my /etc/printcap file,
> but I don't know what changes I'm supposed to make.
> 
> When I print, all the connections work - the printer spews out words
> that look like program instructions and they are stepped down across the
> page.
> 
> I am using Star Office 5.2 and it offers a dialogue for printer setup,
> but I don't know what I should write.  I have a Canon Bubble jet BJC
> 255SP, but I don't know how to change the setting from "Generic
> Printer".
> 
> I have the feeling I've missed something really obvious...??

Well; from my experience with SO 5.2, there isn't much to do there.
Your system printer setup, on the other hand, needs to have that
"stair-stepping text" corrected by inserting a carriage return at the
end of each line.  This is an option in the printtool utility that I
had to use for my LaserJet, which did the same thing at first.  If
you're spewing raw postscipt out at your printer, it would look like
a program, since postscript is, in fact, a programming language of
sorts.  So that needs to be fixed with an appropriate printer filter.
StarOffice assumes that any printer it talks to is postscript, IIRC.

I suppose it would be good to ask which Debian release you're using
before recommending configuration tools?

Cheers,
Mike Pfleger

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Where are they hiding?
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