Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!lll-winken!unixhub!shelby!neon!rokicki
From: rokicki@Neon.Stanford.EDU (Tomas G. Rokicki)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Re: Landscape on HP--Need driver supporting special command
Message-ID: <1990Nov30.180200.8506@Neon.Stanford.EDU>
Date: 30 Nov 90 18:02:00 GMT
References: <1990Nov30.163110.3101@cs.dal.ca>
Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University
Lines: 31

> I am looking for a DVI to HP LaserJet series II (or Plus) driver which
> supports the \special command so that I can print from TeX in landscape
> mode.  The Beebe driver which I have on our VAX/VMS system (DVIJEP) does
> not support \special's.  (I have version 2.10).
> If I had such a driver, I could simply place the escape sequence to put
> the HP into landscape mode, include it with a \special command, and voila!
> my TeX document gets printed in landscape mode.  Then all there is to do
> is make sure that the margins are set properly--a trivial task.

Note that it's really not quite this simple for most HP LaserJet printers.
Specifically, the downloaded font specifies whether it is landscape or
portrait, and the characters need to `rotated' for one or the other.  So
it's not just a matter of putting the machine in landscape mode.

The newer LaserJet printers will even rotate the characters for you if you
want, but this takes extra memory---it's usually faster to rotate the
characters in the host machine.

I have such a driver, but it only works on the Amiga (native and Unix);
I have no plans to port to platforms such as VAX/VMS.  But converting
Beebe's driver should be straightforward; just get the tech docs from HP
and away you go.

If you do this, it might be worthwhile to get the docs for the Plus rather
than the newer III's, so you can make the driver work with the older
printers (which will make it work with the newer ones automatically.)

And if you think this is a hassle, you would not believe the hacks necessary
to get TeX to work on the QMS Kiss/SmartWriter printers back in '85 . . .

-tom