controling postscript printer from HP-UX

[Matthias Oswald]

Hello,

I'm trying to print postscript files on a Minolta copier in A3 and A4 size.
Is there a way to force the printer to use a certain tray ?
The lp command allows some options separated by -o, but these seem to depend on the interface file under /etc/lp/interface.
There are no postscript options defined.
Is there maybe a special software required ?

[Shannon Petry]

Most printers and plotters have their own PJL (Print Job Language) or PS (Postscript) command set for selecting trays.

You will have to contact the vendor for their magic codes, and prepend their command to print jobs for things outside of the default.

I have had to do this with Xerox, Lexmark, Ose(sp?).

You can search the site here for either PJL or PS commands for HP printers for tray selection, and try them. I can not say that Minolta will be the same as HP, and historically find the opposite to be true.

Regards,
Shannon

[Bill Hassell · Accepted solution]

Since you are printing to the Minolta over the network, -o options are meaningless. That's because the pritner is a "remote printer" and there is no local printer script that has special options. Even if the Minolta were local, HP does not supply printer scripts for non-HP printers.

In order to control the paper tray selection, you first need a technical reference manual for the printer which will contain the Postscript JobControl commands understood by this printer. Then you can look at the postscript model script in /usr/lib/lp/model. You'll see an example of how this is done in that script. The Postscript commands for duplex (double sided printing) are:

statusdict begin
true setduplexmode
false settumble
end

and these have to be inserted in front of the main Postscript print job.

There are two languages for 99.99% of all printers in the world today, Postscript and PCL. PCL is actually plain ASCII with some escape sequences to control things like fonts and graphics, but Postscript is a page definition language and if you read one, you'll see how different the language is. Most manufacturers (including HP) provide almost nothing to support printers on Unix systems.