Guide to UNIX Printing

There are four general purpose network printers available for UNIX printing. Their location, description and print queue names are listed below.

LOCATION DESCRIPTION QUEUE NAME

Room 135, Soc/Psych - PC cluster HP LaserJet 5Si MX - 24 ppm clus

Room 258, Soc/Psych - 2nd floor copy room HP LaserJet 4100 - 26 ppm copy2 (default)

Room 330MR, Soc/Psych - 3rd floor copy room HP LaserJet 5M - 12 ppm copy3

Room 014, Languages - graduate student office HP LaserJet 4Si - 17 ppm lang

LOCATION	DESCRIPTION	QUEUE NAME
Room 135, Soc/Psych - PC cluster	HP LaserJet 5Si MX - 24 ppm	clus
Room 258, Soc/Psych - 2nd floor copy room	HP LaserJet 4100 - 26 ppm	copy2 (default)
Room 330MR, Soc/Psych - 3rd floor copy room	HP LaserJet 5M - 12 ppm	copy3
Room 014, Languages - graduate student office	HP LaserJet 4Si - 17 ppm	lang

By default, all UNIX printing is directed to the printer located in the second floor copy room. This includes the following common types of output:

Email messages printed from pine
Statistical output printed from interactive sessions
Files printed with lpr and enscript commands

If you wish to permanently alter the default network printer to which all of your output is sent, please indicate to Bob Jackson which printer you would like to become your new default. [Be aware that the convenience of alternate printers must be weighed against the lesser vigilance with which other printers are monitored and output is organized and secured.]

Control of Printed Output with lpr and enscript Commands

The lpr and enscript commands are used to send files to a printer. The lpr command sends output without altering it. If the file is text, then text is printed. If the file is stored in a graphical or PostScript format, lpr directs it to the printer in that format and the printer attempts to handle it. Some examples of the use of lpr are:

Print a text file to the default printer:
Print a text file to a designated printer (in this case the one in Room 135):
Print a copy of the cat command manual page by piping it to lpr:
Print a PostScript file (such files usually have a .ps extension): Note: if a PostScript file fails to print when directed to the printer in this fashion (usually only a banner page comes out when this occurs), try directing it to the printer with an alternate form of the above command where you designate the printer specifically and append a "ps" to the name of the printer. This will send the output to an alternate internal queue within the designated printer that often produces better results. In the above example the printer name is changed from "copy2" to "copy2ps". The same technique can also be used when trying to print web pages from UNIX Netscape that refuse to print. For example, when you select the print option under Netscape, a print dialog box appears which by default directs your output to "lpr" (your default printer). This specification may be modified as follows:

The enscript command is used to convert text into PostScript formatted output which is then directed to the printer. This allows for labeling, indention, font control, landscape printing, multi-column printing and other variations which add to the flexibility and convenience of output preparation. Output from interactive UNIX SAS sessions, for example, is configured to print by default using enscript landscape, 2-column printing. Following are some examples of the use of enscript:

Print named file to the default printer: Each page of output will contain a bold header that contains the filename, the date, the time and a page number.
Print named file to a specific printer (copy3 from above table):
Print two copies of named file:
Print named file with left indention 8 characters more than normal:
Print named file with fancy headers:
Print named file without headers:
Print named file in landscape mode:
Print named file in landscape mode with two columns per page:
Print named file in landscape, 2-column mode with fancy headers to a designated printer:
Print two files with one enscript command:
Print using Times-Roman 9 point font: Both font and point size may be controlled. The default font for portrait printing is Courier 10 point (a mono-spaced font where each character occupies the same amount of space). The default for (-2r) landscape, two column printing is Courier 7 point.
Print using N-up printing - in this case 4 logical pages are printed per physical sheet in a condensed font, which is useful in some instances for creating archival copies of large documents:
Print selected pages of named file:

You may combine several of the above illustrated options to produce tailored printing effects. For full discussion of enscript, see the enscript man page. Note that if you apply the enscript command to a file that contains PostScript language, you will get a listing of the PostScript code, which is probably not what you want.

Last Updated September 18, 2002
Bob Jackson