This information compiled by Andrew Daviel for want of anyone else to do it. Volunteers, please! mailto:advax@triumf.ca

Printing at TRIUMF

Users should copy the TRIUMF standard printcap-v7 file to /etc/printcap. Old machines may use printcap.txt

There is a list of printers here

Most public printers at TRIUMF are PostScript capable. Typically, a PostScript file may be printed by using a command such as

lpr -Plas4 myfile.ps

The default printer may be set as $PRINTER, e.g. (in /etc/csh.cshrc) "setenv PRINTER las4" or (in /etc/profile) "PRINTER=las4".

If there are two variants of a printer name, one with "ps" appended, use that, e.g. "las6ps" instead of "las6". The printer may require a special escape sequence to enter PostScript mode which is automatically sent when the correct queue is used.

Many Unix programs generate PostScript output. To print a plain text file, the programs "mpage" or "a2ps" may be used to print in multiple columns.

The program "hprint" may be used to select builtin fonts if a text file is printed directly, otherwise the printer will inherit fonts from the last job. Note that some printers may have been set in DOS mode and give stairstepped output for plain text.

Non-PostScript printers such as some HP models may be used in bitmap mode using the program "gs" (GhostScript). Custom filters may be created using "printtool" to handle this case. Note that it is best to determine if Linux can use a particular printer before buying it!