Custom Paper Sizes on HP 5M in UNIX

[Steve Nixon]

I have an HP 5M printer that I want to use to print out checks. The check form is 8.5" X 7". At 6LPI, this works out to 42 LPP.

Since the printer does not have an option for 7" long forms, how can I get this type of form to print?

The best I could come up with was to set FORM=42 LINES, PAPER=LETTER, and print to a regular letter size page, but this "stretches" the check output to fit the whole page, resulting in a 5.5" check and 5.5" voucher stub.

Is there a better way, or can I get the 42 lines to print out in 6LPI on letter size paper and leave the bottom 4" blank?

My ASCII check template is included for demo purposes.

[A. Clay Stephenson]

Hi Steve,

I assume this is a JetDirect connected printer.
This does not appear to be too difficult.

I'll assume you are using 'myprinter'.

Do this first,
ls | lp -dmyprinter -ooptions

This will either print a page with all the options listed or direct you to a man page for the same information.

You will then choose which options you need when you invoke the lp command.

e.g. lp -dmyprinter -o portrait -o tm11 -o vsi5 -o lm3 myfile

(These -o options are all made up but you get the idea.).

If you are really doing strange stuff (and this does not appear to be) the you will need to edit the interface file and add/modify an appropriate option. The interface file will be located in /var/spool/lp/interface/model.orig/myprinter.

This should get you started, Clay

[A. Clay Stephenson]

Hi again,

I don't have a 5M but I did this on several HP models and this worked:

cat ${yourfile} | lp -dmyprinter -o tl42 -olpi6

you may need to add some -o lmnn and -o rmnn options to set the left & right margin.