34 lines
1.8 KiB
Plaintext
34 lines
1.8 KiB
Plaintext
This set of scripts addresses the need to get a non-postscript printer
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working quickly, so that documentation files and manual pages can be
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printed. The scripts work for printers using or compatible with PCL
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(Hewlett-Packard's Printer Command Language). A few printers (the
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Cannon Bubblejet, for example) use neither PCL nor postscript.
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Some relatively simple scripts for printing a document (qp and qp.awk)
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are provided, as well as qpm for printing manual pages. Basically these
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short scripts convert unix line endings to ones PCL printers understand
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and select a font to use.
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Two more complex awk scripts--pcl.awk and pagin.awk--understand PCL
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printer codes when encountered in a file, and thus it is possible,
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when using these scripts, to change fonts, apply bold, underline, or
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italic to a word or group of words, do footnotes, preserve a table,
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and number pages in a default font. The scripts automatically adjust
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for the font and size of type both horizontally (knowing how many
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letters to print on a line) and vertically (line spacing). Using
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pagin.awk it is also possible to double space, for example.
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Files with printer codes are provided to make it easier to put printer
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codes into documents. It is awkward neverthless, but it does what it
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does in something like 32k of space instead of the multi-megabyte files
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of more elaborate programs, such as the excellent apsfilter, which
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enables the printer to emulate postscript. As WordPerfect becomes more
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available for Unix platforms and maintains its interoperability with
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Windows versions, it should become better and easier to use, as should
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other components of its office suit and that of others.
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In the mean time pclprint is free, takes little space, and does
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a reasonably good job for many tasks.
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-- Annelise Anderson <andrsn@andrsn.Stanford.EDU>
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