Re: Printing w/o interaction?
Re: Printing w/o interaction?
- Subject: Re: Printing w/o interaction?
- From: Philip Aker <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 14 Feb 2003 05:50:37 -0800
On Thursday, February 13, 2003, at 12:54 PM, Michael Sullivan wrote:
I want the script to simply print, without showing the dialog if
possible.
We just went through this in considerable detail within the last
week. Search the archives for "Re: Printing to PDF via GUI scripting"
posts.
I don't think so. Your solution worked fine for text files but what
if you want to print Word (.doc) files?
Apple is taking care of the formats it considers native. I've tried
.ps, .pdf, .txt, .html, .rtf, .jpeg, and .tif. All is well.
If you need to print (alien) .doc files via a shell script, why don't
you just have Word save the file as an HTML or an RTF? Or maybe run
them through a translator (some come with AppleWorks) or perhaps have
them converted online somewhere before printing?
Look at this for a sec:
/usr/libexec/cups/filter/nstexttopdf 1 philip "PDF_JOB" 1 "" tmp.rtf >
tmp.pdf
The main problem here is that there is absolutely NO FREAKIN'
DOCUMENTATION FOR NSTEXTTOPDF!
Not to mention that I don't know how to set up an lpd filter or
whatever the backend thing is. However we already know that Cocoa
handles .txt and .rtf as well as an assortment of graphics formats
transparently. So I've just pumped in some arbitrary values and it
works.
It just so happens I'm working on this right now. Ideally I'd like to
use Finder scripting (those properties Dennis mentioned) to save a
Word (or whatever) file out as Postscript (i.e. set "Output Options").
I haven't been too thrilled with GUI scripting so I am not using that
(for now). Since I can't get that going (yet) I have set up a
"printer" to save the Postscript files it gets out to disk. Then I
can convert that to PDF and have fun with it. Still very early. I'll
let you all know if I get it working well.
I'd be interested, but my real needs are somewhat different. Currently,
I have an older Apple PostScript serial port printer. Works great when
I have it attached an old Mac on our network and use LaserWriter Bridge
to handle things. But I don't really want that. What I want is to have
the printer work directly through the serial port on the G3 and have
the color USB printer attached to our iMac available as well.
I know it's possible. I've come up with a lot of stuff from NetBSD and
linuxprinting.org but have yet to wade through it or understand it.
Also a very interesting article:
http://www.mcgillis.org/~matthew/printing.html
I picked up the code. It's a driver for a Color StyleWriter 2400. What
I figure is needed is a generic PostScript driver. I can't say if I'd
be able to adapt his code, but if anyone is familiar with the area, the
author has a separate module for the basic serial port interaction and
it's only the 2400 part that would have to be warped to be LaserWriter
oriented.
Boy, this was a lot easier with old Unix printing. You'd just fake
things out with an lpr filter or an lp shell script. Now you need
CUPS drivers and what not. Got it fooled but it's ugly...
Fool away but do let us know.
Philip Aker
http://www.aker.ca
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