I've spent a couple of evenings trying to find out how to configure printcap so it offers the user multiple queues for a single printer device, each queue having a specific reformatting filter. E.g. you could make a queue for 2-up printing, 4-up printing, booklets, scaling, etc. Also page centering calibration can be done this way (still have to try).
The information I found on the web (maybe I didn't look at the right places?) was very unclear and didn't work out for me. Most proposals were using bouncing queues or separate scripts that had to mimic filter behaviour.
Finally, I bumped into the lprng cookbook, where I found this solution to add to the printcap (my 'normal' printer is called 'lp'):
# printcap.local # # This file is included by printconf's generated printcap, # and can be used to specify custom hand edited printers. dubbelop:\ :lp=/dev/null:\ :sd=/var/spool/lpd/dubbelop:\ :if=( /usr/bin/psnup -2 | /usr/bin/lpr -Plp ):\
Just put a pipe into the filter line that applies the reformatting to your input file and redirects it to the normal printer queue using the lpr-command.
Only limitation: the file you send to the printer has to be postscript,
but with nowadays programs, I guess few people are still sending plain
ascii or other formats to the printer (?).
Is it just me that didn't figure out this easy solution, or is there really a good reason not to do this? I'm still open for improving recommendations!
I think, this is a good idea. I CC this to the LPRng mailing list.
Till
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- YOU MUST BE A LIST MEMBER IN ORDER TO POST TO THE LPRNG MAILING LIST The address you post from MUST be your subscription address
If you need help, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] (or lprng-requests or lprng-digest-requests) with the word 'help' in the body. For the impatient, to subscribe to a list with name LIST, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with: | example: subscribe LIST <mailaddr> | subscribe lprng-digest [EMAIL PROTECTED] unsubscribe LIST <mailaddr> | unsubscribe lprng [EMAIL PROTECTED]
If you have major problems, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word LPRNGLIST in the SUBJECT line. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
