Red Hat Linux 7 Unleashed

By William Ball

• Table of Contents
  • Copyright
  • About the Lead Authors
  • About the Contributing Authors
  • Acknowledgments
  • Tell Us What You Think!
  • Introduction
  • I. Red Hat Linux Installation and User Services
  • Chapter 1. Introduction to Red Hat Linux
  • Chapter 2. Installation of Your Red Hat System
  • Chapter 3. LILO and Other Boot Managers
  • Chapter 4. Configuring the X Window System, Version 11
  • Chapter 5. Window Managers
  • Chapter 6. Connecting to the Internet
  • Chapter 7. IRC, ICQ, and Chat Clients
  • Chapter 8. Using Multimedia and Graphics Clients
  • II. Configuring Services
  • Chapter 9. System Startup and Shutdown
  • Chapter 10. SMTP and Protocols
  • Chapter 11. FTP
  • Chapter 12. Apache Server
  • Chapter 13. Internet News
  • Chapter 14. Domain Name Service and Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
  • Chapter 15. NIS: Network Information Service
  • Chapter 16. NFS: Network Filesystem
  • Chapter 17. Samba
  • III. System Administration and Management
  • Chapter 18. Linux Filesystems, Disks, and Other Devices
  • Chapter 19. Printing with Linux
    • Printer Devices
    • What Printer Should I Use with Linux?
    • How Do I Print?
    • printtool The Red Hat Linux Print System Manager
    • Linux Printing Commands
    • Other Helpful Printer Programs and Filters
    • Infrared Printer Support
    • Other Helpful Programs
    • Troubleshooting and More Information
    • Summary
  • Chapter 20. TCP/IP Network Management
  • Chapter 21. Linux System Administration
  • Chapter 22. Backup and Restore
  • Chapter 23. System Security
  • IV. Red Hat Development and Productivity
  • Chapter 24. Linux C/C++ Programming Tools
  • Chapter 25. Shell Scripting
  • Chapter 26. Automating Tasks
  • Chapter 27. Configuring and Building Kernels
  • Chapter 28. Emulators, Tools, and Window Clients
  • V. Appendixes
  • A. The Linux Documentation Project
  • B. Top Linux Commands and Utilities
  • C. The GNU General Public License
  • D. Red Hat Linux RPM Package Listings

Other Helpful Printer Programs and Filters

Printer filters work by defining and inserting printer definitions into your /etc/printcap file. Embedded in each printer description is a pointer (pathname) to a script or program containing the filter to be run before output to the printer. This section introduces several ancillary printer filter systems you can try with Red Hat Linux.

Apsfilter

Even if you're spoiled by the printtool program, you will at times need to use other programs or scripts to help set up or manage printing. If you can't or don't want to run X, but want to easily install printing services for HP or PostScript printers, one great solution is the printing filter package called Apsfilter, by Andreas Klemm and Thomas Bueschgens. Installing Apsfilter is a snap, and it's even easier to use.

Apsfilter works well with all Linux printing applications. Two added benefits are that it prints two formatted pages in Landscape mode on a single page when you print text documents, saving you paper, and "automagically" recognizes the following documents and graphic formats: fig, bmp, pbm, pnm, ppm, PDF, tiff, jpeg, gif, Sun rasterfile, PostScript, dvi, raw ASCII, and gzip and bzip2 compressed files.

You'll find the Apsfilter available through its home page at http://people.freebsd.org/~andreas/apsfilter/index.html.

magicfilter

Another printer filter similar to Apsfilter is H. Peter Anvin's magicfilter (also maintained by David Frey for the Debian Linux distribution), which detects and converts documents for printing through a combination of a compiled C filter and a printer configuration file. You'll find a copy at http://www.debian.org/packages/unstable/text/magicfilter.html.

LPRMagic

Michele Andreoli's LPRMagic is another printer filter you can set up under Red Hat Linux. All configuration for the filtering is contained in a /etc/lprMagic.conf file. Some of the features of LPRMagic include file type recognition (even .wav and MIDI!), delayed printing, and Samba and LPRng support. Installation is via a set of shell scripts (executed as root). You can download a copy from http://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/printing/.

HPTools

Have a Hewlett-Packard printer? If so, you might want to try Michael Janson's HPTools to manage your printer's settings. The main tool is the hpset command, which sports more than 13 command-line options you can use to control your printer. For example, to save money on print cartridges by using less ink, you can use hpset to tell your printer to print in the economy mode with this code:

   # hpset -c econ | lpr

The hpset command also has an interactive mode, so you can test your printer, set different default fonts, or perform other software control of your printer, such as bi- or unidirectional printing.

You can find HPTools through its home page at http://www.uni-karlsruhe.de/~ujps/hptools.html.

PostScript Printers

If you want a print spooler specifically designed for PostScript printers, give Dave Chappell's PPR a try. PPR works with printers attached to parallel, serial, and AppleTalk (LocalTalk) ports, along with other network interfaces. PPR also works much like other non-PostScript printer filters and converts a number of graphics file formats for printing.

You can find PPR at ftp://ppr-dist.trincoll.edu/pub/ppr/.

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