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[Sheflug] Printer drivers
>>>>> "Keith" == Keith Powell <Keithp [at] g4jvx.screaming.net> writes:
Keith> As usual, any help/advice gratefully received.
Richard's advice is unsystematic but otherwise perfectly valid, too.
And may be quicker than reading this post. :-)
Keith> Can the SuSE printer drivers be used with Star Office, or
Can somebody who knows what they're talking about (by which I mean can
write a correct /etc/printcap entry for one ;) explain what a "SuSE
printer driver" is? I only know about Ghostscript drivers and the
many special-purpose tools for processing DVI files.
Keith> is this a daft question?
Yes and no. Normally drivers for one package cannot be used with
another package (an extreme example is the Linux kernel, where it is
possible to arrange that modules from one of two separate builds of
nearly identical .configs can't be used with the kernel from the other
build).
However, in Unix, it's best not to think of "drivers" outside of the
kernel as hardware interfaces; it's better to think of them as
"communications protocols" which can be "stacked" (the preferred
jargon for network protocols, several of which are normally
implemented in layers in a single process or internal kernel thread)
or "piped" (for communicating processes on the same system).
This naturally leads to the question "what protocols does my system
offer?" On Windows, all printers must provide a Windows driver by
Microsoft fiat; this means that all programs which use Windows
standard printing services (and naturally almost all do) can print to
them. So it's natural to think of your program as talking to the
hardware via a universal driver. But it's not; in fact, it's talking
to a "Windows printer" which offers certain capabilities defined by
the Windows API; the driver is just a translator, and typically does
not offer any features not defined in the Windows API.
On Unix, the de facto standard "API" for talking to printers is
Postscript. Almost all programs offer output to Postscript "devices"
(which need not be a Postscript printer or even a printer at all, and
in fact is normally software---the printer spooler program---or a
network port). And all Linux distros offer the Ghostscript program,
which can be used to convert Postscript into most printers' native
languages (either before sending it to the spooler or the network, or
it can be automagically invoked by the spooler).
Other protocols that often have direct-to-printer drivers for them are
HPGL (the HP printer graphics language; Aladdin, the Ghostscript
people, have this under development, I don't know if there are others
freely available), TeX DVI, some drawing programs, and Tektronix
graphics (xterm, sort of a joke but intended to make the point about
viewing these things flexibly).
Keith> If so, how do I install them into Star Office to add
Keith> missing printers? The ADD PRINTER DRIVER box in the Star
Keith> Printer Setup is empty and no path is given.
My guess is that if Star Office-specific drivers for a given printer
exist, you probably have to buy or at least download these from Sun.
Have you tried their web site?
You can probably get satisfactory output by choosing Postscript as the
output format from Star Office, and running it through Ghostscript
(which is my bet as to what the "SuSE" printer driver is; this will
probably automatically "just work" with the default SuSE lpr/lpd
configuration).
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