dot matrix printer formfeed

[Cheng Ngan]

Hi,

I've set up our dot matrix printer with HP Jetadmin using a 'dumbplot printer with CR' and everything prints out fine. The problem we have is that we need to send a form feed to the printer once the job has been completed.

I've contacted HP support and they've pointed me in the right direction. They said to modify the /var/spool/lp/interface/model.orig/printername file.

I've attached the printer file. Any help with modifying this file to add the formfeed to the end of the print job would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Cheng Ngan

[Julio Yamawaki]

Cheng,

try this:

while [ $i -le $copies ]
do
for file in $files
do
cat "$file" | sed 's/$/\
/' 2>&1
done
i=`expr $i + 1`
done
echo "\014"

[Cheng Ngan]

Thanks Julio.

I tried this but it only sent an extra line feed at the end of the job and not a form feed.
Any ideas on what code I should add to send a form feed (or a Control-L)?

Cheng

[Julio Yamawaki · Accepted solution]

Cheng,

try changing \014 by \014\c.
If this won't work, try changing to \n

[A. Clay Stephenson]

The echo "\014" sends a FF plus a LF (implicit); add a \c to not echo the LF.
echo "\014\c" but even better is:
echo "\f\c"; man echo for details.

This is what I would do:

TDIR=${TMPDIR:-/var/tmp}
T2=${TDIR}/P${$}_2.cmd
echo "\f\c" > ${T2}

...
...

for file in ${files}
do
cat "${file}" ${T2} 2>&1
done

....
....
rm -f ${T2}

Note that you could also create a "T1" file to do printer initialization and then
cat ${T1} "${file}" ${T2} 2>&1

to send both an initialization sequence and a termination sequence to the printer.

[Leif Halvarsson_2]

Hi,
The dumbplot script is intended for pen-plotters. Try the dumb model script instead, it sends by default a formfed after each file.

[Cheng Ngan]

Got it working with the \014\c. option.
Thanks everyone.