Printing from UNIX

This helpfile consists of two sections: Regular printing, and Duplex printing. You will be guided step-by-step with different methods on how to print certain items in unix.

Regular printing

Regular print for plain text documents(.txt, .c, .cpp, .lsp, etc.)

• Goto the directory where your file is located.


• On the command prompt type in: a2ps [filename.txt]



Note:

• This command only works for plain text files.
• This command will print the document in landscape mode. It also adds a border around the text.

• Goto the directory where your file is located.


• On the command prompt type in: lpr -P[printername] [filename.txt]
  e.g. lpr -Pps310 sample.txt



Note:

• This command only works for plain text files.
• This will print your file very close to the margin and thus there are chances of getting a printout cutoff.

Duplex printing

Duplex print for plain text documents(.txt, .c, .cpp, .lsp, etc.)

• Goto the directory where your file is located.


• On the command prompt type in: a2ps --statusdict=setduplexmode:true [filename.txt]



Note:

• This command only works for plain text files.
• This command will print the document in landscape mode. It also adds a border around the text.

• Goto the directory where your file is located.


• On the command prompt type in: enscript -v -DDuplex:true -Ec -MLetter --header=' ' [file.txt]



Note:

• This command only works for plain text files.
• This will print your file very close to the margin and thus there are chances of getting a printout cutoff.

Duplex print for postscript

• Goto the directory where your file is located.


• Open your postscript(ps) file using a text editor you are comfortable with.


• After the first block of lines which begin with "%" add the following line:
  statusdict /setduplexmode known { statusdict begin true setduplexmode end } if


• After editing the file, use the standard UNIX printing commands(lpr,lp) to print it to the printer



Note:

• IMPORTANT: this method will only allow you to print postscript(ps) files. If you wish to print any other type of file please refer to conversion commands given below.
• Some other commands that might be useful:
• a2ps - Converts ascii to postscript.
• gif2ps - Converts a gif image to postscript.
• pdf2ps - Converts Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) file to a postscript file.
• texi2dvi4a2ps - Compile Texinfo and LaTeX files into postscript format.
• tiff2ps - Converts a tiff image to a postscript format.


More information on each of those command can be retrived by typing in man commandname on the command prompt.