Newbie lpd printing

[Gary Schenk]

On Friday 11 April 2003 09:21 am, Mike Meyer wrote:

> I suspect your script is broken for printing postscript files. The
> hpif script in the handbook doesn't handle those at all, so I assume
> you added that code.
>

No, I did not add anything. This is the script from the handbook. I thought 
that it was to print postscript to a non-postscript printer. It is 
essentisally the same script as in FreeBSD Unleashed.

> Can you print postscript from the command line? If not, the KDE is
> probably turning everything into postscript, which is then failing.
>

I can only print text from the command line, everything else is broken.

> If you're only going to print from KDE, then fixing this script might
> be the way to go. However, installing something like magicfilter - and
> you've already got the hard parts done - which handles the difference
> between postscript and flat text properly, and automatically converts
> a number of formats to postscript for you, might be a better option if
> you want to print regularly from the command line.
>
> 	<mike

The more I read about printing the more confused I get. I'd like to print 
form a word processor, but don't seem to be able to in FreeBSD. I tried 
installing apsfilter, but it is broken. I have no clue as to how to fix 
it. Perhaps installing Star Office would help, and use its printer 
interface? Or is the best solution to buy a postscript printer?

As for magicfilter, I'm still working on it. I ran make install in 
/usr/ports/print/magicfilter. However locate magicfilter shows nothing, 
except for the above directory. There is nothing in the /usr/local/bin 
directory indicating anything was installed. A google search sent me to 
http://newbiedoc.sourceforge.net/peripherals/printer-magicfilter.html , 
which is for Debian Linux. It talks about running magicfilterconfig. I 
assume there is nothing like this in FreeBSD?

Should I be content  to print only text? I talked to a friend who has been 
running OpenBSD for three years. he only prints text. Is this common with 
BSD? I do need to print more than plain text.

Gary Schenk