SUMMARY: DVI printing on HPLJ III

From: AVD Boogaart (sgbc220@sghms.lon.ac.uk)
Date: Mon Dec 28 1992 - 10:03:04 CST


Hi all,

A very long time ago I posted a cry for help to this list:

when I want to print a dvi- file from the Sparc to the HP LaserJet III,
then I need to specify the -d font-file option with lpr
(lpr -d title.dvi). However, to succeed, I must have a filter-option
entry for -d in my /etc/printcap file, i.e. #df=<place_where_to_find>
Where should I have the df-option in the /etc/printcap entry pointing
at?

to be clear: printing dvi files from a Sparc IPC running SunOS 4.1.1
the HP LaserJet III printer was NO PostScript printer

I received quite a few responses, of which one seemed most clear to
me. Eckhard R"uggeberg offered me a complete set of a printcap entry
plus filter file plus filter file driver binary plus binary libraries.
Too good to be true. I took me a long time to get it right (also because
of an intervening conference - but mostly because of much trial and much
more error) but now it works smoothly, printing out my TeX dvi output
file on the command "lpr -Pdviout file.dvi". All credit comes to
Eckhard R"uggeberg so I give his e-mail address rather than mine for
people who are interested:
eckhard@ts.go.dlr.de

More thanks go to the other responders

>From daf@uk.ac.man.cs Wed Dec 2 15:55:20 1992
    PC - The emtex package mentioned in question 19 contains a driver for
       the LaserJet, dvihplj. The driver is available by itself from
       ymir.claremont.edu (134.173.4.23) in [.tex.ibm_pc.drivers.emtex]
       in the files dvidrv[123].zip.
    Version 2.10 of the Beebe drivers support the LaserJet. These drivers
    will compile under Unix, VMS, and on the Atari ST and DEC-20's. They
    are available from science.utah.edu (128.110.198.2) in ./pub/tex/dvi
    and from ymir.claremont.edu (134.173.4.23) in
    [.tex.drivers.beebe2_10].

>From chris@org.worldbank.invmms Wed Dec 2 20:28:13 1992
A work around could be to do a dvips.

From: baum@de.dlr.go.es.kirk (Peter Baumann)
dvips is a public domain program that will convert a DVI to a ps file.
There is a whole TeX DVI driver family by Nelson Beebe (Beebe@Science.Utah.Edu).
It also includes a driver for HP Laserjets. This package can normally be found
on ftp sites which carry TeX. Maybe you can contact archie for finding one.
(DVIware.tar.Z ca. 2,6 MB). dvips.tar.Z is also relatively large, so it should
be faster to get it from a server.
We use a alias called dviprint which points to dvips, a filter for converting
dvi to ps files. Our printcap:
hplj|lp|postscript|PostScript|ps:\
        :lp=/dev/hplj:sd=/var/spool/hplj:\
        :lf=/var/spool/hplj/hplj-log:af=/var/spool/hplj.acct:\
        :br#19200:rw:ms=litout,ixon:mx#0:sb:\
        :fc#0000374:fs#0000003:xc#0:xs#0040040:\
        :if=/usr/tran/sparc/lib/psif:\
        :of=/usr/tran/sparc/lib/psof:gf=/usr/tran/sparc/lib/psgf:\
        :nf=/usr/tran/sparc/lib/psnf:tf=/usr/tran/sparc/lib/pstf:\
        :rf=/usr/tran/sparc/lib/psrf:vf=/usr/tran/sparc/lib/psvf:\
        :cf=/usr/tran/sparc/lib/pscf:df=/usr/tran/sparc/lib/psdf:
The printcap entry was generated by the Tr5ansscript installation, but somehow
most of the filters are missing, means we don't use them.

From: Trevor Morrison <trevor@uk.ac.liv.ssci>
I am afraid this does not directly answer your question but may be useful.
It probably is possible to create find/create a filter to convert dvi to
HPGL or whatever and name it in you printcap file but my own knowledge is
of using TeX which also produces dvi output. When we installed it, you get
a load of programs which can be run over the dvi file by the user which
convert it into an appropriate printer format and offer loads of other
options such as page range to print etc. In our case we use the program
dvips which does a conversion to PostScript. You could put a form of
that command into the printcap file maybe but it might be easier to
make a script which prints via the filter then you can leave the other
options open. lpr and lp are a bit terse in what they will feed from
the command line to a filter so you will lose the options capability
otherwise.
Try logging into archie at imperial college and doing a search
for a copy of dvi2hp or dvihpgl or something and you should find
something. Failing that ask a TeX expert for a hand as they can
probably find a copy. If your HP has PostScript then you can
have our dvips.

From: mau@BEATLES.CSELT.STET.IT
you should have a program which performs dvi-->HPLG conversion (I for example
use dvilj2p); then /etc/printcap points to this, or maybe to a script file
which inwokes it with sensible options.

-- 

+-----------------------------+---------------------------------------+ | Aad van den Boogaart | e-mail: a.boogaart@uk.ac.lon.sghms | +-----------------------------+---------------------------------------+ | St. Georges Hospital Medical School (University of London) | +-----------------------------+---------------------------------------+ | Division of Biochemistry | phone : +44 (0)81 672 9944 | | Cranmer Terrace | ext : 55809 | | London SW17 0RE | fax : +44 (0)81 784 7092 | | United Kingdom | | +-----------------------------+---------------------------------------+



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