For other information, see the Ghostscript overview and the usage documentation.
"How do I set up Ghostscript to provide PostScript queues in a standard lpr environment on Unix systems?" is a Frequently Asked Question amongst Ghostscript users. The two shell scripts described by this document are designed to make this task a little easier. They are
unix-lpr.sh- a flexible, multi-option print filter
lprsetup.sh- A shell script which sets up soft links and creates a template insert for the
printcapfile
The print filter resides in the Ghostscript installation directory (often
/usr/local/share/ghostscript, but may be something else at
your installation), together with a dummy filter directory containing
various soft links which point to the filter. It offers the following
features:
pac command)
The lprsetup.sh script needs to have two lines edited
before running, to set the printer devices to use and the list of filters
available. With this information, it
filt" subdirectory under the
Ghostscript installation directory
printcap entries which should
need only a little editing before adding to your system
printcap file
At the top of lprsetup.sh is a line of the form
DEVICES={list}. Replace the example list with
your own list of devices. Each entry is the name of a device, followed by
three more optional fields, separated by dots ".".
The first field is required only if the printer device understands the -dBitsPerPixel=
switch, which applies only to colour devices. For a particular number
N of bits per pixel, add the suffix .N to
the device name, for instance cdj500.3,
cdj500.24, etc.
The second field is required only if the printer device understands the
setting of the Colors device parameter (as in
-dColors=), which applies only to colour devices (and at
present is only supported by the bjc* family of drivers).
For a particular number N of colours, suffix
.N to the device name, such as bjc600.24.3,
bjc600.8.1 etc.
The third field is required in order to use two separate queues for the
device, a "raw" queue and a PostScript queue (see
"Single or dual queues" below). If you want
dual queues, add the suffix .dq ("dual queue") to the name,
whether or not a bits-per-pixel suffix has already
been added.
Thus the following list supports a cdj550 device at three
different bit depths (24 bpp, 3 bpp and 1 bpp), with a dual queue (that is,
a separate queue for the raw data); a monochrome deskjet
device with a single queue; and a djet500 device using a
separate queue:
DEVICES="cdj550.24.dq cdj550.3.dq cdj550.1.dq deskjet djet500.dq"
The standard list contains only the generic "if" filter,
but a commented-out list shows other filters which may be available. If
you wish to use the support for these filters, you may need to edit the
bsd-if file to add to the PATH the
directories where the translators are stored, or to change the names of the
filters if yours are different. The bsd-if script is
supplied with an example setup using Transcript (a commercial package from
Adobe), and PBMPLUS, a freeware package by Jef Poskanzer and others.
You can set the port and port type (parallel or printer) for an attached printer, but for remote printers you'll have to modify the printcap.insert file yourself.
Running lprsetup.sh generates a file
printcap.insert which has a template setup for your
printer queues. It cannot guarantee to do the whole job, and you will
probably need to consult your system documentation and edit this file
before you add it to your printcap file. The file has good
defaults for serial printers, as these often cause problems in getting
binary data to the printer. However, you may need to change the baud rate,
or the handshaking method. Only a small change is required in the
printcap file to use a networked remote printer instead of
an attached printer, and an example is given in
printcap.insert.
If you wish to provide a PostScript-only queue (for example, so that all
pages printed go through accounting), and the printer port is local to the
host machine, a single queue is appropriate -- Ghostscript simply converts
PostScript into the printer's native data format and sends it to the
port. But if the printer is on a remote networked machine, or if you need to
send raw printer data to the printer, you must use two queues. Simply
specify the ".dq" option above.
You must have write access to the Ghostscript installation directory for
lprsetup.sh to create the filter directory and soft links.
If you have several different values of bits per pixel for the same device,
you must list all instances of that device as adjacent items in the
DEVICES device
list. If you do not, printcap.insert will contain multiple
entries for the same device, which is not supported.
This material was contributed by George Cameron. Yves Arrouye <yves.arrouye@usa.net> is responsible for the number-of-colours part of the script.
Copyright © 2000-2006 Artifex Software, Inc. All rights reserved.
This software is provided AS-IS with no warranty, either express or implied. This software is distributed under license and may not be copied, modified or distributed except as expressly authorized under the terms of that license. Refer to licensing information at http://www.artifex.com/ or contact Artifex Software, Inc., 7 Mt. Lassen Drive - Suite A-134, San Rafael, CA 94903, U.S.A., +1(415)492-9861, for further information.
Ghostscript version 9.22, 4 October 2017