postscript purgatory & the callsheet - (long and twisty with links)

[Stewart C. Russell]

David J Patrick wrote:
 >
 > Has anyone got a handle on this ps stuff ?

In a past life, I was a prepress systems hack. Ah, the joys of finding 
the error in 8GB of PostScript ...

> Q#1
> if a2ps is the heart of the psutils

is it? By psutils, I tend to mean the specific package by Angus Duggan 
of Harlequin Systems.

> shouldn't my a2ps-site.cgf have
> something about the HP2100M laserjet, rather than "unknown printer" ?
> where would I get the right printer config file/ data ?

Not unless your HP2100M does something especially unusual for a 
PostScript printer. Most Unix printing utilities treat postscript as 
generic.

> Q#2
> if I want to print out in a boolet form, 2up, I think I should use the
> psutils but in what order ?
> a2ps filename.ps | psnup -2up | psbook -s4 | psmandup _ lpr ???
> or what ? I can't seem to find a working sequence.  

Doesn't a2ps convert ASCII to PostScript? Unless you want to print the 
source to your PostScript, you might not want to do this.

The way I'd do it (from memory, away from a system with psutils) would 
be something like:

psbook -s4 filename.ps | psnup -2 | psselect -o | lp
(flip the paper stack and reload it)
psbook -s4 filename.ps | psnup -2 | psselect -e | lp

I can't remember if the e and o options to psselect are okay -- I want 
to select odd, then even, pages. You might have to drop a '-r' in the 
psselect line to reverse the order if your printer stacks pages in 
reverse order.

> Q#3
> I am starting to /get/ the concept of virtual printers, and would love
> to just fire ant ps document at "printer.callsheet" or whatever. Is
> there an painless way to set that up ?

You could, but it's all dependent on the printing system you use. I'd 
just stick with a script.

If you are printing HTML to PS, you might find htmldoc to be more 
useful. It'll be quicker, at the very least. It may even do the n-up 
stuff you need.

If this becomes more than a proof-of-concept, you really want a real 
duplex printer. I've seen refurbed HPIIIsi's with duplexer for not very 
much, and they are very tough machines. Don't touch the cheapo 
(panasonic?) one you can get in Staples -- there are no linux drivers.

Sounds like an interesting project.

  Stewart

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