Printing via USB Port

[Warren Block]

On Fri, 26 Feb 2010, Bill Tillman wrote:

> Your answers are usually spot on but this is one of those difficult 
> times when the Windows and Linux guys at work laugh their asses off at 
> me for being such a FreeBSD die-hard.

That's like laughing at a chef when fast food is available.

> So I added the standard #!/bin/sh line to the beginning of the ps2pcl

Doh.  Time for me to create an article on this to avoid mistakes like 
that.

> file and nothing printed, not even error messages about what happened.

This probably means it works.  The ps2pcl filter expects PostScript 
input; it doesn't auto-format like apsfilter.  So format your print jobs 
in PS first.  Many applications do that already (OpenOffice), or there 
are conversion programs like enscript (print/enscript-letter) for text.

   % enscript testfile.txt

Will format testfile.txt into PS and send it to the lp printer.

This works for me here--I reconnected my printer via USB to try it.

-Warren Block * Rapid City, South Dakota USA