Subject: [netatalk-admins] Problems sending binary data to parrallel port postscript printer

From: Bill Hart <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 19:37:56 +0100

Hi I'm desperate,
	this must be a common problem, but I can't find a reference to it anywhere. 
Anyway the situation is
Macs running Laserwriter 8.5.1 printing images from photoshop via netatalk to
a Linux (Red Hat 4.2) or FreeBSD (2.2.5) box with a Tektronix Phaser IIIPXi
printer connected via a parrallel port.  Spooling works fine (the whole idea
of doing it was to get the printer off localtalk).  Printing files with only
ascii in them works fine, printing images (which are binary encoded) causes
the printer to choke..

printing images to a file and encoding as ascii then "cat"ing to the printer
port also works fine.  Reading the documentation it seems as though there
should be no problem with parallel ports...

Anybody have any ideas ?? (a hundred students arrive next week, and I've no
money for a new printer or an ethernet interface)

thanks

-Bill

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From: David Foster <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 04:36:11 -0500

>ascii in them works fine, printing images (which are binary encoded) causes
this is indeed an old problem, but I've never seen an adequate solution.
There's 
two different ways to encode binary postscript, Macs use one way, and almost
everyone else uses the other.  Many printers thus assume that if the jobs
coming
over an appletalk port, then it must be encoded in the Mac way, and if it's
coming
over a parallel port, then it's encoded in the PC way.

It's all pretty dependent on what you're printing, some can run for years
without ever
hitting a problem, others hit the problem right away.

Some printers let you configure this, but most don't.  As you've seen,
ascii postscript 
files work fine, if you can get folks to stick to them.  Someplace there
must be a "standard
protocol to tagged binary" filter.

>should be no problem with parallel ports...

However you're encoding them as ascii, why don't you set that up as a
filter on the printer
port?  This isn't a problem with the port itself, it's just in the nature
of postscript printers.

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From: Gregor Retti <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 11:05:07 +0100

>money for a new printer or an ethernet interface)

maybe there is an option in the ppd-file for your tektronix phaser
concerning the binary data transfer, which can be changed to ascii.

good luck
gregor

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