Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Printing for the Impatient using ApsFilter

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the putting-words-on-paper dept.

BSD Forums writes "While Unix has roots in document formatting and layout, configuring printers has always required more black-arts arcana. This hasn't been helped by the appearance of low-cost commodity WinPrinters. Fortunately, tools like Ghostscript, gimp-print, and Apsfilter make configuring printers much easier. Michael Lucas demonstrates quick and dirty -- and working -- printer configuration."

50 comments

  1. That's sad.... by Creepy+Crawler · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Back in the old SysV days, you HAD to go through a convoluted filter set and queue system to do about anything. If yoy're still doing it this way, you're insane.

    The best way to print anything now is using CUPS. Easy to set up and administer. Who WOULDNT want to use it?

    --
    1. Re:That's sad.... by edhall · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If you feel that way, install the CUPS port and be happy. When it works for a given situation (about 85% of the time) CUPS is simple and fast to set up. But when things go wrong, you'll see just how complicated CUPS really is. It's nice to have a simpler (implementation-wise) method available to deal with such situations.

      Your post is so typical of what I see on Slashdot these days. Why use BSD when you have Linux? Why use some other processor when you have Intel? Why use another browser when you have Mozilla? It's the high-school herd mentality. It's "geek chic." It's a lazy way to avoid learning in depth and developing your own base of experiences and opinions.

      It's depressing.

      -Ed
    2. Re:That's sad.... by TheRaven64 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      What, exactly, does CUPS give me? To configure my printer under FreeBSD I needed to add two lines to /etc/printcap. How is installing another piece of software easier and better than that?

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    3. Re:That's sad.... by Mekanix · · Score: 1

      Tell me how to print from StarOffice using CUPS and I'll have another go...

    4. Re:That's sad.... by Nickus · · Score: 3, Insightful

      CUPS is nice for a small setup with not that many printers. Add a lot of printers, a lot of different ppd files and you really have a nightmare. We were so happy when Apple decided to go with CUPS as their printing system but ever since then we have had nothing but problems. If someone knows how to solve duplex printing on large OCE printers please let me know.

    5. Re:That's sad.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I tried installing CUPS on my freebsd box. It had far too many dependencies on other packages. I couldn't get it installed and it's not important enough for me (I only print TeX files or ascii text with enscript, so I don't need a print spooler).

    6. Re:That's sad.... by i18rabbit · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Why is this a 5 (or even interesting):

      That's sad.... (Score:5, Interesting)
      The best way to print anything now is using
      CUPS. Easy to set up and administer. Who
      WOULDNT want to use it?

      When this is a 4?

      Re:That's sad.... (Score:4, Insightful)
      Your post is so typical of what I see on
      Slashdot these days ...

      The first comment was totally stupid with no
      substance or relevance, and should be a -1 or
      less. The second comment was very
      substantive and intelligent and deserves
      a book of deep thought and commentary.

      It exposes a small symptom in the technology
      arena that appears to be on the rise
      throughout society; the result of turning
      spankings into "time-outs", republics
      into "democracies", and individualism into
      "collectivism". A symptom of teachers that
      are ignorant of their subjects, kids that
      use calculators to do basic math, and
      graduates that get diplomas for purposes
      of self-esteem. A symptom of the feminization
      of men, the masculation of women, the reverence
      of followers and distain for individual success.

      Most every post (given that this is a hacker
      type forum) is a display of ignorance with
      a promotional cover, and/or a whiny complaint.
      UNIX printing is as simple as could be. No one
      needs CUPS or 'apsfilter' or any of it. Just
      how hard is it to pipe as necessary into 'gs',
      directing output into a printer device?

      With 'jpeg2ps', 'gs', and a few lines of awk
      anyone can print JPEG's, PS/EPS/PDF, DOS(CRLF),
      UNIX(LF) files, and more. And if you have a good
      PS printer, you don't even need the 'gs'.
      Any decent software package that needs
      to print can print PS.

      A few lines of awk can do everything
      all these programs can do (and more): /usr/bin/lp /usr/bin/lpq /usr/bin/lpr /usr/bin/lprm /usr/sbin/lpc /usr/sbin/lpd /etc/printcap /usr/libexec/lpr/lpf

      You can even have your script page number
      text files, etc. When I set up a system
      for printing, I need to change one 'gs'
      variable in an awk script, and that's it.
      What makes that so hard? UNIX printing
      has been utterly simplistic for years.

    7. Re:That's sad.... by thanjee · · Score: 1

      I don't have the opportunity to use cups. My FreeBSD box sits in a Macintosh computer lab at a music research centre. The printer is a remote ethernet printer. It is postscript though, so it was easy to set up using LPR, and I just send documents straight to its ip address. Considering how easy it was to set up, I don't see the need for CUPS anyway, even if it could have been done that way :p

      --
      Saying your OS is the best because more people use it is like saying MacDonalds make the best food
    8. Re:That's sad.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Junior, BSD is dead. This implies FreeBSD is dead. What part of dead don't you understand?
      1. Grieve.
      2. Get over it.
      3. Move on.

      You're a big boy now. High time you started acting like one.

    9. Re:That's sad.... by Creepy+Crawler · · Score: 1

      >>>The first comment was totally stupid with no
      substance or relevance, and should be a -1 or
      less. The second comment was very
      substantive and intelligent and deserves
      a book of deep thought and commentary.

      The second comment had just as much substance as I did.

      >>>It exposes a small symptom in the technology
      arena that appears to be on the rise
      throughout society; the result of turning
      spankings into "time-outs", republics
      into "democracies", and individualism into
      "collectivism".

      Let me guess.. A liberal arts major? You sure pull a lot out of your arse for "no substance" text.

      >>>bla ba bla useless diatribe trimmed

      >>>Most every post (given that this is a hacker
      type forum)

      This sure as hell isnt a hacker-type forum. This place is a "Windows Hater" forum. All people do is monger about how Linux will rescue us from the evils of properitary software, while many of us fawn over the same damned lockin of Apple's OSX. If any category hit this place, it's full of hipocrites.

      >>>is a display of ignorance with
      a promotional cover, and/or a whiny complaint.
      UNIX printing is as simple as could be. No one
      needs CUPS or 'apsfilter' or any of it. Just
      how hard is it to pipe as necessary into 'gs',
      directing output into a printer device?

      Unix printing is simple with decent printers that support PS. Just try getting these winprinters to print using this same subsystem. You'll spend at least 5 days figuring out the correct filterset to run it through, if you can do it at all.

      >>>With 'jpeg2ps', 'gs', and a few lines of awk
      anyone can print JPEG's, PS/EPS/PDF, DOS(CRLF),
      UNIX(LF) files, and more. And if you have a good
      PS printer, you don't even need the 'gs'.
      Any decent software package that needs
      to print can print PS.

      >>>You can even have your script page number
      text files, etc. When I set up a system
      for printing, I need to change one 'gs'
      variable in an awk script, and that's it.
      What makes that so hard? UNIX printing
      has been utterly simplistic for years.

      Cheap printers means the computer has to take control of more. But since you're a master haxx0r, I'll spare telling you why.

      It's people like you that don't want easy configurations for the end-user to use. It's what's wholding back Linux from popular usage.

      --
    10. Re:That's sad.... by i18rabbit · · Score: 1

      >Let me guess.. A liberal arts major?

      you guess wrong.

      >This sure as hell isnt a hacker-type forum. This place is
      a "Windows Hater" forum. All people do is monger about how
      Linux will rescue us from the evils of properitary software,
      while many of us fawn over the same damned lockin of Apple's
      OSX. If any category hit this place, it's full of hipocrites.

      http://bsd.slashdot.org

      1. This is supposed to be a BSD forum.
      not a "Windows Hater" forum, nor a Linux forum. BSD's
      have never held the acquirement of the MS Windows user
      base as a goal. The goal is/was simply to create the best
      system; organized, segmented, trim, well thought out, and
      speedy.

      2. Linux people may monger about
      rescues, BSD people tend to work on solving problems which
      is why BSD forums tend to be sparse - we got better things
      to do then "monger" and "fawn". BSD people (more so in
      the past) were, in general, people involved in the "full
      use and exploitation of talents, capacities, potentialities,
      etc..", a process of self-actualization. Their goals
      weren't based upon petty grievances with MS or socialist
      agendas; but simple goals of engineering quality.

      3. I don't even know why Linux posters
      are allowed here. I'd rather see http://bsd.slashdot.org
      empty (a good sign that BSD developers are hard at work).
      Linux posts should be considered way off topic. When I
      come to a BSD forum, I'd like to see the classic hacker
      intelligence BSD developers are known for, or nothing at
      all. If I wanted to read the rants and ravings of Linux
      kiddies, I'd go to http://www.peewee.com, not
      http://bsd.slashdot.org.

      The only reason I bothered to post is because I am getting
      tired of checking out Slashdots BSD section, only to find Linux
      kiddies on a consistent and overwhelming basis, particularly
      the "BSD is dead" garbage. It's a turn off to anyone with any
      maturity at all, and is a deterrent to intelligent discussion.

      >Unix printing is simple with decent printers that support
      PS. Just try getting these winprinters to print using this
      same subsystem. You'll spend at least 5 days figuring out
      the correct filterset to run it through, if you can do it
      at all.

      I wouldn't buy a "WinPrinter". And anyone that does is only
      casting their consumer vote for such devices. That's why BSD's
      don't support "WinModems" and "WinPrinters". They are intelligent
      enough to understand that you don't vote for things you don't
      like - or you will get more of it.

      In general, the "smart thing" to do is to research OS hardware
      support BEFORE buying a device, not AFTER.

      Linux people want WinThis and WinThat because they want to
      compete with MicroSoft. BSD people don't. They aren't
      interested in being "a better monopoly". BSD people just want
      a good OS. That's historically been their agenda.

      >>UNIX printing has been utterly simplistic for years.

      >Cheap printers means the computer has to take control of
      more. But since you're a master haxx0r, I'll spare telling
      you why.

      Thank you. But do tell me how you can have knowledge of bad
      engineering, and yet willingly participate in it's promotion
      - only to then complain.

      It's somewhat akin to the saying: "if you were conservative
      in your 20's, you didn't have enough fun; and if you were a
      liberal in your 30's, you didn't have enough brain cells".

      Linux is for 20 year old hackers. BSD is for hackers 30+.

      >It's people like you that don't want easy configurations for
      the end-user to use. It's what's wholding back Linux from
      popular usage.

      Yes, "Insightful", 5 points. BSD people don't care about
      "popular usage". We care about integrity and quality. That's
      all. We are happy MS provides an OS for the McDonalds and
      CompUSA t

  2. apsfilter: Old but good by BrokenHalo · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Apsfilter has been the default UI on Slackware for years. Takes 5 minutes to setup printers (even over networks).

    CUPS is fine if it works out of the box. If it doesn't do that, you can be stuck without a working printer for a long time while you ramble through woefully inadequate documentation.

    1. Re:apsfilter: Old but good by kirkjobsluder · · Score: 1

      I had major problems setting up apsfilter with an HP5550 (selected because of claimed compatibility). I could get good but not great output through aps filter. I find that both of them have really bad documentation (although half of the problem was with a bug in the hpijs port.) In both cases printing was a bit harder than it needed to be.

    2. Re:apsfilter: Old but good by BrokenHalo · · Score: 1

      Looks like your printer is a bit more upmarket than mine. My hp deskjet works perfectly with apsfilter. Did you build your ijs drivers from source?

    3. Re:apsfilter: Old but good by kirkjobsluder · · Score: 1

      Yes, but apsfilter could not see the new driver settings for the printer and the documentation was no help in figuring out where to copy the configuation files.

  3. There are a wide variety of tools. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting
    When I was just starting out, getting the printer configured was actually the hardest part of working with the operating system. All these filters, and trying to figure out how to pipe the stuff properly to the device or use something like lpq.

    It's definitely time for an all-in-one one stop solution to the problem. Some sort of program that configures these filters automatically on your dead or dying operating system, and now it looks like there's a bit of hope. Creating and working with Word documents was perhaps the other pitfall, but now that OpenOffice can do that and support PDF writing I might have to take a second look at this neo of a system.

    How does installation go?

    1. Re:There are a wide variety of tools. by JShadow · · Score: 0

      The installation of any of the BSDs is very simple and straight-forward. I've heard of very few that have had much trouble installing Free, Open, or Net...However Some say that Net is a little convoluted, although I haven't tried that one.

  4. I can tell you who! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Who WOULDNT want to use it?

    Brett Glass.

  5. interesting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    We were so happy when Apple decided to go with CUPS as their printing system

    I was a 'happy user' of LPRng 'till I heard Apple was making CUPS thier print engine of choice.

    Then I moved to CUPS, hopin for a 'eaiser' printing future. The comment about having Add a lot of printers, a lot of different ppd files and you really have a nightmare prompts me to ask - what is 'another' option?

    Straight BSD lpr is a non-option. AIX had a 'nice' print spooler, if you didn't SMIT and reboots. (and, well, it was AIX) So other than LPRng, what is other useful choices?

  6. CUPS gives you choice by Sits · · Score: 3, Insightful

    C'mon tr, you should know better than this. A quick dig on the CUPS website would quickly reveal an overview page detailing a raft of features that differentiate it from a standard LPR set up. Here's a brief run down of some of the feaures provided:

    Cross platform system for network printing (did you know that CUPS is available for Windows as well as OS X, *BSD and Linux?).

    The ability for printers to shared in such a way that a remote machine can automatically discover and print to a remote printer without having expliclty been configured to see it (Windows has been doing this for years. It's good to see this simplicity spreading elsewhere) while still announcing the capabilities of that printer.

    Support for many (non postscript) backends that other printing systems may not (including things like samba for printers shared via Windows).

    Queueing systems so that you can set documents to be printed to the first available printer on a network.

    If your printer is non postscript (which many are), configuring CUPS may be a whole lot easier than trying to set up a magicfilter chain to do the right thing.

    Sure, in your case perhaps editing printcap was "better and easier" but that doesn't mean that choice shouldn't be there for those not so fortunate to have a postscript printer, need sophisticated queing or have to set up a dozens of computers to print.

  7. cups by luphus · · Score: 1

    Maybe I didn't poke through the documentation enough, but I never figured out how to make cups accept remote jobs. I figured it'd be a snap to get a cups based OS X box to print to a cups printserver... Anyway, after much messing around I finally settled on magicfilter and lprng, although I'm sure apsfilter would work. Magicfilter had an script using the gdi driver that I was able to tweek to make my goofy samsung laser (ML1710) happy.

  8. Hard Times for *BSD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Sure, we all know that *BSD is a failure, but why? Why did *BSD fail? Once you get past the fact that *BSD is fragmented between a myriad of incompatible kernels, there is the historical record of failure and of failed operating systems. *BSD experienced moderate success about 15 years ago in academic circles. Since then it has been in steady decline. We all know *BSD keeps losing market share but why? Is it the problematic personalities of many of the key players? Or is it larger than their troubled personas?

    The record is clear on one thing: no operating system has ever come back from the grave. Efforts to resuscitate *BSD are one step away from spiritualists wishing to communicate with the dead. As the situation grows more desperate for the adherents of this doomed OS, the sorrow takes hold. An unremitting gloom hangs like a death shroud over a once hopeful *BSD community. The hope is gone; a mournful nostalgia has settled in. Now is the end time for *BSD.