Re: Re[2]: tlug: Help! Stupid Japanese printing question.

[Craig Oda <craig@example.com>]

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tlug note from Craig Oda <craig@example.com>
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On Thu, 28 Aug 1997, Matthew C Gushee wrote:

matt>Well now, *that* is a good question. Until now it's never occurred to me that 
matt>the internal fonts of a postscript printer might be anything but postscript.
matt>
matt>>Is it one of those expensive Epson printers?
matt>
matt>It's one of those cheap OKI Microline 400 PSII printers. Incidentally, it's 
matt>connected to my machine via the parallel port. I checked the printer manual and 
matt>it doesn't clearly state whether the fonts are PS or not; I got the exact names 
matt>of the fonts, though---they are:

I think that it may be Japanese PCL or something proprietary to
Oki.  My Kyocera ended up being similar to PCL I think. 

matt>Thanks. Unfortunately, I no longer have a Windows partition (needed the space 
matt>to build XEmacs w/ Mule); I think this is the first time I've really regretted 
matt>the decision to go Microsoft-free.

There are several Linux Japanese PostScript converters.  Look in the the 
printer package of the JE distribution for the psconv program.

  # psconv  your_file.euc > your_file.ps

Then as root, cat the Japanese PostScript to /dev/lp1 (probably)

 # cat your_file.ps > /dev/lp1

It should print.

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Alternately, Netscape on Linux can save a Japanese file to
PostScript.

Look at a Japanese page with Netscape such as http://www.twics.co.jp

Save the file as PostScript.  Cat the file to your printer.

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If you can cat an ASCII PostScript file to your printer, but a Japanese
one gives gomi or strange pages, you might want to give GhostScript 
a try.

matt>Oh well. I'll manage somehow. I downloaded the Wadalab fonts and am steeling 
matt>myself for the Ghostscript ordeal. 

Look at RedHat or Debian.  Installation takes about 5 minutes with the
pre-built packages.  The problem in the past was that there was mainly
the JE distribution which was built around Slackware which doesn't
have package dependenices.  Thus, you ended up with a mixed hacked
system with different versions of things GhostScript around.  I have
only one copy of GhostScript on my system.

BTW, excellent decision to go Microsoft free.  With Linux, there
is always a way.


Regards,
Craig


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Next TLUG meeting is Saturday October 11, 1997
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