Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!chinacat!chip From: chip@chinacat.Unicom.COM (Chip Rosenthal) Newsgroups: comp.unix.xenix.sco Subject: Re: Problems with troff output on a laser printer Message-ID: <1819@chinacat.Unicom.COM> Date: 29 Jan 91 21:09:50 GMT References: <2984@hsi86.hsi.com> Distribution: usa Organization: Unicom Systems Development, Austin, TX Lines: 43 In article <2984@hsi86.hsi.com> rao@hsi86.hsi.com (Ananth Rao) writes: >Has anyone got 'troff' to work with a laser printer, specifically the >HP Laserjet III? Yes...and they tend to use Chris Lewis' psroff to do so. Trying to redirect C/A/T typesetter commands to your LaserJet is about as productive as sending PCL commands to a plotter. You need something which converts the C/A/T codes into something the device understands, and psroff does this. Note that this is a nontrivial operation -- it's more than just translating a raw byte stream. The typesetter needs some sort of knowledge of the target device (in particular the font widths) to produce reasonable output. Other things to look into... - If you've got g++, you might want to look into groff. I've heard good things about it - but have no first hand experience. - If you get your hands on a vanilla DWB, such as the one Interactive distributes, it is quite usable with `jetroff' as the backend. The main difficulty is that ISC distributes on filesystem floppies, so you will need access to a SysV/386 machine to unload the stuff. Also, I ran all the executables through `coffconv' to make them x.out formats (which in retrospect I'm not sure is required), and they all ran fine except for `pic' which dumped core. - Myself, I'm using Elan's eroff which is a pricey but solid package. Even though it includes LaserJet support, I ended up chucking it and using `jetroff' as the backend. Jetroff is so much superior and flexible. - There are other third party DWB's ranging from the inexpensive (e.g. Leverage) to pricey (e.g. Xroff). I wish I had some good things to say about psroff - but the simple fact of the matter is that I haven't used it. On paper, it looks exactly like what you need, and Chris is active in supporting the package. You should be able to find it at a comp.sources.unix archive site. Patches have been released to comp.sources.bugs. -- Chip Rosenthal 512-482-8260 | If software look-and-feel can be protected, Unicom Systems Development | then I'd like to claim a copyright upon | `Memory fault - core dumped'.