FYI ...
If the printer configuration was setup using 'printmgr' and ppd
(PostScript Printer Description) files then the system uses 'a2ps' to
filter the input file to ps (PostScript). This is then passed to
foomatic-rip to reformat the output to that required by the physical
printer (GhostScript (gs) and friends actually do the conversion).
In the case of accented characters in a text file, a2ps should convert
the file to ps with the appropriate accented character code embedded in
it. But on Solaris 10 & 9 a2ps uses the /usr/bin/file utility to work
out what file type the input is, but gets it wrong. It thinks the input
file is a binary data file so a2ps refuses to convert it to ps; hence
nothing is printed. Ie. there is a bug in Solaris's /usr/bin/file utility.
This can be got around by telling a2ps to use the GNU gfile utility
instead of /usr/bin/file. To do this:
1) install the Companion CD package SFWfile (from
http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/freeware/), this installs
/opt/sfw/bin/gfile (or you can get gfile from your favorite
Solaris opensource site (blastwave, sunfreeware, etc)).
2. Modify the a2ps configuration file /etc/sfw/a2ps.cfg (take
a copy of it first though, say to /etc/sfw/a2ps.cfg.orig) and
change the "FileCommand:" lines so that it uses
/opt/sfw/bin/gfile (or which ever one you have) instead of
/usr/bin/file. See my diff ...
@@ -413,7 +413,8 @@
# 7) Your local settings
##############################################################
# How to call file(1), and if possible, follow the links
-FileCommand: /usr/bin/file
+FileCommand: /opt/sfw/bin/gfile
The Solaris print system should then print the accented character okay
as long as the physical printer supports the appropriate character set.
Accented characters in HTML files printed from a web browser should
print okay without doing the above if the physical printer supports the
appropriate character set.
If the Solaris installation does not have the correct PPD for your
printer make/model you might be able to get it from the
linuxprinting.org web site at ...
http://www.linuxprinting.org/printer_list.cgi
and installing that file appropriately in /usr/lib/lp/model/ppd/user.
You also need to update the /usr/lib/lp/model/ppd/ppdcache file so
'printmgr' knows about it.
You may also be able to extract the PPD file from the printer's
MSWindows installation disk and use that.
>>> kcm <e.decre at fintel.ch> wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>> I configured a new printer HP on Solaris 10. It works fine until I
>>>> want to print documents with ??? accent style. Those caracter are lost
>>>>
>>>> I assumed their is a link with ISO latin 1
>>>> Does someone has an idea?
>>>> This message posted from opensolaris.org
>>
>>
>>
>> Brian McCafferty <bmccafferty at cogeco.ca> wrote:
>>
>>> Maybe its the character set that the printer is using(not
>>> ISO-8859-1). Can you change it on the printer or is it
>>> possible to convert your document before printing?
>>> This message posted from opensolaris.org
>
>
> Martin Cerveny <M.Cerveny at iol.cz> wrote:
>>
>> some programs (for example netscape) do not set charset
>> encoding correctly to postscript output.
>> Try to reformat postcript file (use print to file) with
>> "/usr/sfw/bin/ogonkify" utility and then send to printer.
>>
