On Mon, Jan 13, 2003 at 09:14:53PM -0600, Alan Jackson wrote: >I support some software on CPAN that builds mailing labels in PostScript. > >I just got a query from a fellow who has a continuous-feed tractor printer >(an Okidata) who wants to print labels on it from Linux. > >I think I gave away my old dot matrix a few years ago so I can't do any >testing. I suspect that creating a postscript file is probably not the way >to handle a continous feed printer - probably just want to send it raw >printing commands and text. Does anyone have experience with continuous >feed on Linux? How does it work? What sort of drivers do you need? Am I >making this too complicated?
Yup. I don't know about CUPS and the other fancy stuff, but printing text under normal *ix is just a matter of a filter that basically sends the input directly to the printer without massaging it at all. Typically pages are 66 lines of ascii text, and most of the Okidata printers can also set other page lengths so you can use the FF (form feed, ctrl-L) character to jump to the top of form. Printing labels is just a matter of formatting ascii text into columns with the right number of lines in each label. The default setting on the Oki is most like 6lpi (lines per inch). You can get a lot fancier with laser labels. There I usually typeset them with groff into multi columns to get pretty text and decent fonts. Bill -- INTERNET: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Bill Campbell; Celestial Software LLC UUCP: camco!bill PO Box 820; 6641 E. Mercer Way FAX: (206) 232-9186 Mercer Island, WA 98040-0820; (206) 236-1676 URL: http://www.celestial.com/ ``A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.'' Robert Heinlein _______________________________________________ Linux-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe/Suspend/Etc -> http://www.linux-sxs.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-users
