On Sat, Jan 26, 2013 at 06:51:17AM -0800, Rich Shepard wrote: RS> Also, strangely enough, HP no longer has (if they ever had) a RS> driver for the LJ 5; they do for 5L, 5M, etc. but not the basic 5. ... RS> I have a PS module in my LJ5.
http://www.openprinting.org/printer/HP/HP-LaserJet_5 CUPS handles the translation from internal Postscript to the native PJL language as well. The question is what level of Postscript? 1? 2? 3? Some of the newer pdf viewers expect to talk to a newer version of Postscript. I guess programmers buy newer equipment than we do. In any case, sometimes the solution is to use PJL and translate through CUPS. I expect that doesn't handle manual feed for envelopes, though. Keith Lofstrom writes: KL> The more "interesting" trick is printing labels. I have a KL> few files with "for" loops in them RS> I used OO.o to set up pages of labels and saved them as .pdf files. I have RS> return address labels for home and business and shipping labels. These I RS> print with lpr from the command line. The reason for the "for" loops is that I can use one copy of the content (typically inside a "def") and then loop it in X and Y, making tweaks on the spacing in the loop, not moving stuff around on a screen. If I use different labels with a different size or pitch, I can adjust scale, spacing, and offsets with a few parameters. I can use the same geometry for different contents. For example, here is a script that prints alternating columns of two different labels on sheets of 5x22 (I have a lifetime supply): - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Cut Here - - - - - - - - - - - - - - %!PS-Adobe-2.0 %% 1.685 by 0.5 inch, 5 by 22 labels %% /#copies 12 def %% statusdict begin /manualfeed false def 3 setpapertray end 0 1 4 { 121.6 mul dup 0 2 22 { 36.4 mul gsave translate /Helvetica-Bold findfont 13 scalefont setfont 12.0 12.0 moveto (Wilma Flintstone) show 14.0 48.4 moveto (Fred Flintstone) show /Helvetica-Bold findfont 8 scalefont setfont 44.0 4.0 moveto (503-555-1212) show 44.0 40.4 moveto (503-555-1212) show grestore dup } for pop } for showpage ^D - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Cut Here - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Stack languages like Postcript make my head hurt, but this script just-sorta-evolved from simpler forms. I calibrated the "121.6" and "36.4" starting with the alleged 72 dpi of the printer and the alleged 1.685 x 0.5 inch spacing of the labels, then tweaked the numbers until things were exactly lined up. Now I can use the same spacing for different label content. I recently changed my black-and-white printing from a venerable HP4M to an HP4050 with a duplexer. I probably need to recalibrate my spacings. Time to write that Perl script! I could go crazy fancy and make it a CGI back-end for a moinmoin wiki page. Then I could go down a list of addresses or contents on the house wiki and click a few to generate a page of labels. This might be good for Christmas package mailings. And terrible for support if I pre-decease (or pre-gork) my wife. Ah well. Though I live in vi, there is probably an emacs macro for this. Keith -- Keith Lofstrom [email protected] Voice (503)-520-1993 _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list [email protected] http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
