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World: r3wp

[Postscript] Emitting Postscript from REBOL

Graham
24-Jun-2008
[1659x2]
I got some notes somewhere that async printing to a postscript printer 
caused me problems.
what sort of printer is it??
Henrik
24-Jun-2008
[1661]
It uses parallel/usb
Graham
24-Jun-2008
[1662]
and which were you using?
Henrik
24-Jun-2008
[1663]
HP Laserjet 1200
Graham
24-Jun-2008
[1664]
parallel or usb?
Henrik
24-Jun-2008
[1665x2]
it can use both.
and I tried both with similar results
Graham
24-Jun-2008
[1667]
what was your code to send the ps to the printer??
Henrik
24-Jun-2008
[1668]
I just echo'ed it through DOS to LPT1:.
Graham
24-Jun-2008
[1669x2]
this is what I do ...

write %//prn content
when printing to lpt1
Henrik
24-Jun-2008
[1671]
interesting... what decides that %//prn is LPT1?
Graham
24-Jun-2008
[1672x2]
dunno
But never had a problem
Henrik
24-Jun-2008
[1674]
interesting... but ok, now my focus is to make it work on any printer. 
as mentioned it is fed through ghostscript. when I read about GSPrint 
it almost seems like it does the same thing. it even uses the same 
driver.
Graham
24-Jun-2008
[1675x2]
%//lpt1 is also possible, but according to google, %//prn diverts 
to the first availabel printer
from Andrew Martin

Printer: func [Text [string!] /Page] [
    secure [
        %//prn [allow write]
    ]
    write %//prn Text
    ; Append Carriage Return (CR) and Page Feed.
    if Page [write/binary %//prn "^(0D)^(page)"]
    Text
]
Henrik
24-Jun-2008
[1677]
so %prn is a DOS/win32 thing that REBOL just uses?
Graham
24-Jun-2008
[1678]
it might not work under Windows 98
Henrik
24-Jun-2008
[1679]
I've been informed that we are not using win98 anymore (yay!)
Graham
24-Jun-2008
[1680x4]
this is what I had to do for usb printers .. http://synapsedirect.com/forums/thread/396.aspx
and so %//prn will still work ...
Maybe this is even going thru the windows printer driver
so might fix your problems as well.
Henrik
24-Jun-2008
[1684]
it's a confusing subject, because there are 20 different ways to 
print :-)
Graham
24-Jun-2008
[1685]
well, if the way you're doing it now is not working ... I suggest 
you try my ways :)
Henrik
24-Jun-2008
[1686]
the problem is that the new printer is not a postscript printer.
Graham
24-Jun-2008
[1687x2]
Huh??
the HP 1200 ?
Henrik
24-Jun-2008
[1689x2]
sorry if I confused you. no the HP1200 one is no longer being used
I ranted about it, because I could not print directly to it, but 
had to use the adobe driver for that.
Graham
24-Jun-2008
[1691]
well, then there is very little option except to use ghostscript
Henrik
24-Jun-2008
[1692x2]
now with a new printer, I have to create a completely different setup 
with ghostscript.
the only problem is the speed. I really wish I could speed it up.
Graham
24-Jun-2008
[1694x2]
faster PC
what printer do you have now?
Henrik
24-Jun-2008
[1696x2]
HP Laserjet 1505.
well, the bitmap it sends is over 2 MB in size. that's pretty huge 
for a pure b/w bitmap I think.
Graham
24-Jun-2008
[1698]
who's decision was it to purchase that?
Henrik
24-Jun-2008
[1699]
mine and budget. we can't afford a better printer.
Graham
24-Jun-2008
[1700]
you need to create a PCL driver :)
Henrik
24-Jun-2008
[1701x2]
it seems gsprint provides many more options... I will have to investigate 
that.
yeah :-(
Graham
24-Jun-2008
[1703]
cheap host based printer
Henrik
24-Jun-2008
[1704]
now if they stopped that winprinter crap and had postscript as standard 
in all printers... the hardware to do that should be fairly cheap 
for that today.
Graham
24-Jun-2008
[1705]
so it will always be slower than a PS printe.
Henrik
24-Jun-2008
[1706]
yes, I don't expect it to be as fast as PS, but this is like... 25-50 
times slower. :-)
Graham
24-Jun-2008
[1707x2]
do you need to print as soon as possible?
You do know that ghostscript can convert ps to pcl ??