On Sat, Feb 02, 2002 at 12:32:57AM +0800, Gerald Timothy Quimpo wrote: > what libraries, techniques, tips and tricks do you use when you need to > have your program (linux or windows) produce formatted output (text, lines, images, > tabular data, graphs) direct to the printer?
In Linux, generally, what I (used) to do was generate PostScript. The most general printer driver available on Linux and on most Unixes as well is the PostScript driver, which in Linux takes the form of Ghostscript. Take a look at the print option in Netscape or Adobe Acrobat for instance; they usually print by converting to PS first. It's also the easiest way to embed images in a LaTeX document. I once needed some 3D line drawings in an article I was writing; the best quality way I found to do this was to write a simple 3D renderer in Perl that outputted PS. LPRng and its older bretheren all work this way. If you want to output straight to the /dev/lp device, you're going to need to know what escape sequences the printer recognizes. Chances are, this information is hard to come by, and you'll wind up reinventing the wheel mega. -- Rafael R. Sevilla <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> +63(2) 8177746 ext. 8311 Programmer, Inter.Net Philippines +63(917) 4458925 http://dido.ph.inter.net/ OpenPGP Key ID: 0x5CDA17D8 Heute die Welt und Morgen das Sonnensystem! _ Philippine Linux Users Group. Web site and archives at http://plug.linux.org.ph To leave: send "unsubscribe" in the body to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to the Linux Newbies' List: send "subscribe" in the body to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
