Re: Cups, Gutenprint, and Plain Text

[John Hasler <jhasler@newsguy.com>]

Brian writes:
> The question is whether the gray bar is an artifact produced by CUPS
> (unlikely), by cups-filters (possible, but unlikely), the Gutenprint
> driver (could be) or the printer (one never knows). Or it could be
> part of the original file. We assume the file is something produced by
> a text editor, vim etc.

The file is:

qwertyuiop
asdfghjkl

Produced by vi.

> Your printer is a PostScript printer. Obtain the URI of the parallel
> port with
> lpstat -v

Ok:
toncho/~ lpstat -v
device for HPLJ5: parallel:/dev/lp0

> and set up a print queue with
>  lpadmin -p HP5M-test1 -v <URI> -E -m drv:///sample.drv/generic.ppd

Ok:
toncho/~ lpadmin -p HP5M-test1 -v parallel:/dev/lp0  -E -m drv:///sample.drv/generic.ppd

> Print with
>  lp -d HP5M-test1 <text_file>

Ok:
toncho/~ lp -d HP5M-test1 text
Second LED comes on, first LED blinks a few times, second LED goes off.
Nothing prints, though the Cups Web interface says it did.

> You could also try
> lpadmin -p HP5M-test2 -v <URI> -E -m lsb/usr/cupsfilters/textonly.ppd

Ok:
toncho/~ lpadmin -p HP5M-test2 -v parallel:/dev/lp0 -E -m lsb/usr/cupsfilters/textonly.ppd
toncho/~ lp -d HP5M-test2 text
Produces same result as above except that both LEDs stay on.

I wrote:
> There is no difference in using lp or lpr.
> ...
> Yes.  That's unimportant.

Brian writes:
> Not for the people who think there is a significant difference.

In this context it is unimportant.

The requirement is to type "lpr filename" on a workstation and have the
file print correctly regardless of whether it is a pdf or plain text.
Works now but only for pdfs.  I have no need to print directly from the
server: its function is to provide a parallel port.
-- 
John Hasler 
jhasler@newsguy.com
Elmwood, WI USA