print £ signs from HPUX 11.00

[it_3]

Hi All,
I need to print the £ sign to an HP4000 and have set up the printer in Jet Direct on the network. We run Informix which feeds the print job through a script which formats layout to Landscape or Portrait. The script does no filtering.
I have tried the # which appears ok and $ is ok. What do i need to do , either put a code in the print job[ mainly rent statement letters] or can I run a filter that will accept the £ sign?

Hope you can help.

Bob Br

[Mister_Z]

Hi,

you can check the file
/var/spool/lp/interface/

to ensure it's using 8 bits. The pound sign correspond to an extended ASCII code.

Also ensure the the terminal accepts this sign by typing:
#stty -istrip -parenb cs8

HTH,

[Antoniov.]

Assumed I don't understand what symbol you need to print, I try to explain using '£' (pound symbol).
The real difficult is what code has pound?
If you are using old (very old standard) you have to configure the printer as UK country charset and send it 0x23 (or Dec 35) but if you use this way, you never print sharp (because local pound in UK substitute sharp)
Also your terminal could be set as UK country and if you copy file to windows you will see sharp :-O
If you use CP850 pound symbol is 0x87 (dec 134), and so on.
Look here (the most common codeset):
Code set____Hex___Dec
UK ANSI......23....35
CP850........87...134
CP437........9C...156
ISO_LATIN1...93...147
I prefer ISO_LATIN1 but you could read printer documentation and see terminal type.
For more detailed infor you could see
http://www.iso.ch
http://www.ansi.org
http://www.ecma.ch

Bye
Antoniov

[it_3]

Hi Juan,

Thanks for the reply. i had a look at the file but could not see any reference to 8bit. I am technical in that i come from an engineering/network background but have had little experience with HP porinter scripts.

Is there a particular entry I need to look at or should I run the HP Jet Direct software and try to set it up here?

Thanks again

Bob

[it_3]

Hi Antoniov,

Thanks for the reply.

I can see what you mean and understand the code differences but cannot see how I can force the print job to print correct. i can add any code to the 4gl program that produces the letter but currently the HP box appears to ignore most. I have checked in Hp Jet direct and can see it uses net_ljx000 script [shows is valid up to hp8000].

The informix program does send the print job through a script which enables landscape and portrait by forcing column width and page length but there is no filtering for characters.

Thanks again,

bob

[Jean-Luc Oudart]

Hi Bob,

we use to have this pb for *one* report that runs once a month. we used a post-batch script that tr $ to # and obtain right £ on the printer.

Since then we changed over to euro.
We just had the dev guys to remove the currency to the report as that did not bring any added value, only technical headaches ...

Rgds,

[Jean-Luc Oudart]

Hi Bob,

we use to have this pb for *one* report that runs once a month. we used a post-batch script that tr $ to # and obtain right £ on the printer.

Since then we changed over to euro.
We just had the dev guys to remove the currency to the report as that did not bring any added value, only technical headaches ...

Rgds,

[it_3]

Jean-Luc,
Thanks for the reply.

We have set up the letter to print just the amounts without the sign. Another one has the text 'pound' so it can be overcome. But I would like to be able to other characters [wingdings or special codes] and if I can find a solution I can apply it to all our lasers[majority HP or emulated].

Tahnsk again,

Bob Briggs

[Antoniov.]

Hi Bob,
I'm not expert in unix so I can tell you details.
If you can add code before printing and you are using HP printer (PCL4 or PCL5) add this codes:
ESC ( 0 N
escape left-paren zero N
that means setup ISO_LATIN1
Using standard VT100 you could use and print pound.
Alternativly you can send
ESC ( 1 E
escape left-parn one E
to setup code 23 (sharp) as pound.
I can help you with various esc sequence for printer, terminal, etc. but you have known how load theese information on system.

Bye
Antoniov

[it_3]

Hi Antoniov,

Thanks for the reply.


Tried a few experiments with some test documents. Will accept the escape code now and that is useful but still cannot get the pound sign.
I suspect the script the housing management company uses must stop HP UX filtering.

I'll have to try this next as well as some raw prints to the print queue.

Thanks again

Bob