Author Topic: Printing Tools (Read 5864 times)

craigtyson · « **on:** February 19, 2005, 04:40:11 pm »

OK I can connect to networks copy files / brows the internet / edit documents / create files sort files delete files / update spreadsheets and then......
I have to copy them onto my PC to print them off. Am I the only one who thinks this i a little lame?. We have a new 3000 Zaurus, it sings it dances it has 4GB storage it still cannot print.
HP had a model that could print, the PSIONS could print why cant the Zaurus.
I know its possable to beam text files to a printer but Im talking about formatted pages, not one or two lines of a config file. Anyone have any ideas ?

stupkid · « **Reply #1 on:** February 20, 2005, 02:35:39 pm »

This thread:

https://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showt...&pid=48043&st=0

is the last discussion I remember on this subject. The bottom line is that until applications can generate Postscript or some other formatted output for printing it won't work well. So even if you have a working printing system on your Zaurus you won't be able to print much. The only app I am aware of that have this option is TextMaker.

In my opinion pdaxrom would be the easiest ROM to solve this problem on, as most of the apps have printing options available. That said I encourage anyone that wants to work on getting a printing system working on the Zaurus. It would be nice to have.

craigtyson · « **Reply #2 on:** February 20, 2005, 03:58:35 pm »

Im soprised the printing code is not in the apps somewhere. Opera on my old PSION REVO could print. Hancom word / sheet are cut down real apps.
its a shame the bits havnt been joined up.

With even a few basic printer drivers you could cover 90% of the printer out there
PS / EPS (to use with post script printers;
HPGL (all those HP laserjets II upwards)
OMNI ie inkjets based on epson ESC P
and a good old IBM dotmatrix for line output

again a real shame our modern PDAs cannot do what a 10 year old PSION could do

C

lardman · « **Reply #3 on:** February 21, 2005, 05:09:06 am »

The problem's not the printer drivers, it the lack of stuff to print.

Si

silvio · « **Reply #4 on:** February 21, 2005, 05:52:45 am »

Quote

The problem's not the printer drivers, it the lack of stuff to print.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=68038\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

Yes - there is a LPRng package available. I've installed it and a textmaker demo version and did some printing tests (postscript laser printer via wlan) - WOW:
It produces much better outputs than a Psion or a Palm (my previous PDAs).
There is a a2ps package also - I don't know why no program make use of it.

craigtyson · « **Reply #5 on:** February 21, 2005, 04:50:26 pm »

Ok to break the problem down. Were looking at what?
A print engine
Printer drivers
And code added to applications to make use of the above. And all across all roms and hw builds. Even if I were a C programmer I'm not sure I would tackle this one

There might be an alternative though..
How about adding a eps file type to existing apps so that a file can be saved in the eps format and that can then be copied to a printer via whatever you like.... Ir / ip or usb printer cable. Or a translation / spooler deamon to output to non PS printers. I used to use somthing similar years ago with OS/2 when printer support was realr bad if you didn't have an ibm printer

craigtyson · « **Reply #6 on:** February 21, 2005, 04:51:07 pm »

Ok to break the problem down. Were looking at what?
A print engine
Printer drivers
And code added to applications to make use of the above. And all across all roms and hw builds. Even if I were a C programmer I'm not sure I would tackle this one

There might be an alternative though..
How about adding a eps file type to existing apps so that a file can be saved in the eps format and that can then be copied to a printer via whatever you like.... Ir / ip or usb printer cable. Or a translation / spooler deamon to output to non PS printers. I used to use somthing similar years ago with OS/2 when printer support was realr bad if you didn't have an ibm printer

craigtyson · « **Reply #7 on:** February 21, 2005, 04:52:05 pm »

Ok to break the problem down. Were looking at what?
A print engine
Printer drivers
And code added to applications to make use of the above. And all across all roms and hw builds. Even if I were a C programmer I'm not sure I would tackle this one

There might be an alternative though..
How about adding a eps file type to existing apps so that a file can be saved in the eps format and that can then be copied to a printer via whatever you like.... Ir / ip or usb printer cable. Or a translation / spooler deamon to output to non PS printers. I used to use somthing similar years ago with OS/2 when printer support was realr bad if you didn't have an ibm printer

craigtyson · « **Reply #8 on:** February 21, 2005, 04:52:30 pm »

Ok to break the problem down. Were looking at what?
A print engine
Printer drivers
And code added to applications to make use of the above. And all across all roms and hw builds. Even if I were a C programmer I'm not sure I would tackle this one

There might be an alternative though..
How about adding a eps file type to existing apps so that a file can be saved in the eps format and that can then be copied to a printer via whatever you like.... Ir / ip or usb printer cable. Or a translation / spooler deamon to output to non PS printers. I used to use somthing similar years ago with OS/2 when printer support was realr bad if you didn't have an ibm printer

lardman · « **Reply #9 on:** February 22, 2005, 08:00:56 am »

Hmm, hit the reply button a few too many times hey? :-)

CUPS will act as spooler, I compiled this a long time ago.

ghostscript can be used for some conversion/printing (though it's rather large), I've also compiled this without troubles.

The main issue is modifying the apps to provide some form of printed output. They can either do this by rendering to a bitmap (which would be a simple change in the drawing code I presume), or by producing something a little more structured like a ps file or some other input file for one of the markup languages.

The rendering to bitmap shouldn't be too difficult, but wouldn't look to great (though I suppose the printer 'screen' could be made larger and a scaled preview could be produced). Spitting out some form of mark-up lanuage would require more effort.

Take a look at OpenZaurus, and the OpenEmbedded software library. The source is available for all of the apps there, submit some patches to enable this functionality.

Si

P.S. Oh, don't forget that you may also need to add in samba if you want to print to shared printers on a Windows network, etc.

eji · « **Reply #10 on:** February 23, 2005, 06:23:02 am »

Quote

Quote
The problem's not the printer drivers, it the lack of stuff to print.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=68038\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
Yes - there is a LPRng package available. I've installed it and a textmaker demo version and did some printing tests (postscript laser printer via wlan) - WOW:
It produces much better outputs than a Psion or a Palm (my previous PDAs).
There is a a2ps package also - I don't know why no program make use of it.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=68044\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

How exactly did you do this, Silvio? I installed the LPRng package and TextMaker, but no matter how I try to access the printer, my jobs simply vanish. Can you provide a step-by-step?

silvio · « **Reply #11 on:** February 23, 2005, 06:47:13 am »

Quote

Quote
Quote
The problem's not the printer drivers, it the lack of stuff to print.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=68038\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
Yes - there is a LPRng package available. I've installed it and a textmaker demo version and did some printing tests (postscript laser printer via wlan) - WOW:
It produces much better outputs than a Psion or a Palm (my previous PDAs).
There is a a2ps package also - I don't know why no program make use of it.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=68044\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

How exactly did you do this, Silvio? I installed the LPRng package and TextMaker, but no matter how I try to access the printer, my jobs simply vanish. Can you provide a step-by-step?
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=68280\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

Thats the way I've made it:
1. I have a postscript printer with a hardware printserver in my lan. The printserver provides lpd access.
2. I have installed TextMaker and LPRng
3. I have created three dummy files in /etc : lpd.conf lpd.perms and printcap
4. In TextMaker I've opened the settings dialog inside the print dialog and entered "lpr -r -p @myPrinterName" for the commandline

That's all.

If you use a printer shared from a pc, you have to enter a commandline like this: "lpr -r -p printername@hostname".

regards,
Silvio

craigtyson · « **Reply #12 on:** February 23, 2005, 07:50:56 am »

Quote

Quote
Quote
Quote
The problem's not the printer drivers, it the lack of stuff to print.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=68038\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
Yes - there is a LPRng package available. I've installed it and a textmaker demo version and did some printing tests (postscript laser printer via wlan) - WOW:
It produces much better outputs than a Psion or a Palm (my previous PDAs).
There is a a2ps package also - I don't know why no program make use of it.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=68044\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

How exactly did you do this, Silvio? I installed the LPRng package and TextMaker, but no matter how I try to access the printer, my jobs simply vanish. Can you provide a step-by-step?
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=68280\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
Thats the way I've made it:
1. I have a postscript printer with a hardware printserver in my lan. The printserver provides lpd access.
2. I have installed TextMaker and LPRng
3. I have created three dummy files in /etc : lpd.conf lpd.perms and printcap
4. In TextMaker I've opened the settings dialog inside the print dialog and entered "lpr -r -p @myPrinterName" for the commandline

That's all.

If you use a printer shared from a pc, you have to enter a commandline like this: "lpr -r -p printername@hostname".

regards,
Silvio
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=68283\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

What if the printer isnt post script?

silvio · « **Reply #13 on:** February 23, 2005, 08:13:47 am »

Quote

What if the printer isnt post script?
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=68290\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

You need a postscript translator (like gv) and a pc who shares the printer via lpd.

Please don't ask me how to do this - I never wanted to fiddle arround with printers in linux - so I bought an old but cheap postscript printer (HP LJ 4P) and an old LAN printerserver (TROY ExtendedNet SX2841) in ebay.

Using postscript printers via LAN makes your linux everyday life very easy

craigtyson · « **Reply #14 on:** February 23, 2005, 08:54:00 am »

OK sounds like a good decission. Im not even going to mention bluetooth or IR or USB or ESCP or HPGL.......

Il play with testmaker and see what I get

Thanks

Craig.

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Author Topic: Printing Tools (Read 5864 times)