188 lines
5.1 KiB
HTML
188 lines
5.1 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2 Final//EN">
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<HTML>
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<HEAD>
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<META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="SGML-Tools 1.0.9">
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<TITLE>The Linux Printing Usage HOWTO: Printing files</TITLE>
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<LINK HREF="Printing-Usage-HOWTO-4.html" REL=next>
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<LINK HREF="Printing-Usage-HOWTO-2.html" REL=previous>
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<LINK HREF="Printing-Usage-HOWTO.html#toc3" REL=contents>
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<BODY>
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<A HREF="Printing-Usage-HOWTO-4.html">Next</A>
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<A HREF="Printing-Usage-HOWTO-2.html">Previous</A>
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<A HREF="Printing-Usage-HOWTO.html#toc3">Contents</A>
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<HR>
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<H2><A NAME="s3">3. Printing files</A></H2>
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<P>
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<!--
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printing!by file type
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-->
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This section covers printing the kinda of files that you'll run across in a
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Linux setup.
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss3.1">3.1 Printing graphics files</A>
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</H2>
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<P>
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<!--
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printing!graphics files
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-->
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Printing graphics files through a printer usually depends on the kind of
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graphics you're converting, and the kind of printer you want to send to. Dot
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matrix is usually out of the question due to differences in the way
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dot-matrix handles graphics. Your best bet in this situation is to see if
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your printer is compatable with an Epson or an IBM ProPrinter, then convert
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the graphics file to PostScript, then use Ghostscript (see next section) to
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print the graphics.
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<P>If you have a laser printer, things are a bit easier since many are
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compatable with PCL. This now gives you a few options. Some programs may
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output directly in PCL. If not, programs like <EM>NetPBM</EM> can convert
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into PCL. Last option is to use ghostscript (see next section).
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<P>Your absolutely best option is to install packages like NetPBM and Ghostscript
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then installing a magic filter to process the graphics files automagically.
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss3.2">3.2 Printing PostScript files</A>
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</H2>
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<P>
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<!--
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printing!Postscript files
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-->
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<!--
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Postscript!printing
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-->
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Printing PostScript files on a printer that has a PostScript interpreter
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is simple; just use <EM>lpr</EM>, and the printer will take care of all
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of the details for you. For those of us that don't have printers with
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PostScript capabilities, we have to resort to other means. Luckily, there
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are programs available that can make sense of PostScript, and translate
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it into a language that most printers will understand. Probably the most
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well known of these programs is Ghostscript.
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<P>Ghostscript's responsibility is to convert all of the descriptions in a
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PostScript file to commands that the printer will understand. To print
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a PostScript file using Ghostscript, you might do something like
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<P>
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<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
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<PRE>
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$ gs -dSAFER -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=deskjet -sOutputFile=\|lpr thesis.ps
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</PRE>
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</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
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<P>Notice in the above example that we are actually piping the output of
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Ghostscript to the <EM>lpr</EM> command by using the -<B>sOutputFile</B>
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option.
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<P>Ghostview is an interface to Ghostscript for the X Window System. It allows
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you to preview a PostScript file before you print it. Ghostview and
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Ghostscript can both be swiped from
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<A HREF="ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/">ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/</A>.
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss3.3">3.3 Printing PDF files</A>
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</H2>
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<P>
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<!--
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printing!PDF files
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-->
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<!--
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printing!Acrobat files
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-->
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<!--
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PDF files!printing
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-->
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<!--
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Acrobat files!printing
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-->
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Adobe has released an Acrobat reader for Linux, and it's available on the
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Adobe home page
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<A HREF="http://www.adobe.com">http://www.adobe.com</A>. Its predecessor, xpdf, is
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also available. Both should print to a postscript device.
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss3.4">3.4 Printing TeX files</A>
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</H2>
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<P>
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printing!TeX files
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-->
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<!--
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TeX files!printing
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-->
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One of the easiest ways to print TeX files is to convert them to PostScript
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and then print them using Ghostscript. To do this, you first need to
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convert them from TeX to a format known as DVI (which stands for
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device-independent). You can do this with the <EM>tex</EM>(1) command. Then
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you need to convert the DVI file to a PostScript file using <EM>dvips</EM>.
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All of this would look like the following when typed in.
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<P>
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<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
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<PRE>
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$ tex thesis.tex
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$ dvips thesis.dvi
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</PRE>
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</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
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<P>Now you are ready to print the resulting PostScript file as described above.
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss3.5">3.5 Printing <CODE>troff</CODE> formatted files</A>
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</H2>
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<P>
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<!--
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printing!troff files
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-->
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<!--
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troff files!printing
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-->
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<P>
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<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
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<PRE>
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$ groff -Tascii thesis.tr | lpr
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</PRE>
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</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
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<P>or, if you prefer,
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<P>
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<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
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<PRE>
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$ groff thesis.tr > thesis.ps
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</PRE>
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</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
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<P>and then print the PostScript file as described above.
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss3.6">3.6 Printing <CODE>man</CODE> pages</A>
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</H2>
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<P>
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<!--
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printing!man pages
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-->
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<!--
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man pages!printing
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-->
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<P>
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<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
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<PRE>
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$ man man | col -b | lpr
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</PRE>
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</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
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<P>The man pages contain pre-formatted <CODE>troff</CODE> data, so we have to strip
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out any highlighting, underlines, etc. The 'col' program does this just
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nicely, and since we're piping data, the <CODE>man</CODE> program won`t use
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<CODE>more</CODE>.
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<HR>
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<A HREF="Printing-Usage-HOWTO-4.html">Next</A>
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<A HREF="Printing-Usage-HOWTO-2.html">Previous</A>
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<A HREF="Printing-Usage-HOWTO.html#toc3">Contents</A>
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