pnp2ppa-1.13, December 2009.
Overview
--------
This file contains some quick notes on installation in general.
For more information on pnm2ppa, see INSTALL.REDHAT.txt or
INSTALL.REDHAT.html, which (despite its name) has a lot of
non-RedHat-specific information.
Configuration
-------------
Run 'configure' to setup the package. Run it with the following switches
to get the same result as in the previous releases:
./configure --sysconfdir=/etc
add:
'--enable-debug' to get a more verbose program (default is no). This switch
is intended for developers.
'--disable-syslog' to disable the syslog feature. Its checked by default, if
the system supports a syslog feature.
This optione replaces the previous Makefile -D__NO_SYSLOG__ modification
'--with-language=[EN | CZ | ES | FR | IT | NL]' to select one of the compiled
in languages. 'EN' is the default.
'--enable-vlink' to also build the 'parse_vlink' tool
Compilation
-----------
To build pnm2ppa, simply cd to the source directory, and type:
make
If you wish to do any further development of pnm2ppa, or study how it works
so you can write a PPA backend to some other print system such as gimp-print,
there is a useful tool called parse_vlink (and some documentation)
that can be built in the ppa_protocol subdirectory.
Installation
------------
Two binaries are created: calibrate_ppa and pnm2ppa (and on demand parse_vlink).
calibrate_ppa is used to calibrate your printer (center the printed page,
adjust the offset between black and color ink cartridges after changing them,
etc.) See the CALIBRATION.* file for details.
The other binary created, pnm2ppa, is a converter from a PNM
image to a stream of PPA data that can be sent directly to the printer.
The PNM image will be aasumed to have a resolution of 600 dpi (or 300dpi
if the --dpi300 command line option is used). (Input at higher/lower
resolutions will print with an incorrect larger/smaller size, if it
is within the allowed page size limits.) These files can be generated
with ghostscript. The binary-output pbmraw, pgmraw, ppmraw devices
are supported (the text-output pbm, pgm, ppm devices are also supported, but
the raw devices are MUCH faster!).
The pnmraw and pgnmraw devices are switches that will try to select among
the raw formats, as appropriate for the document, but do not always make
the correct choice.
You should now type
make install
to install the binaries (by default, in /usr/local/bin/) ,
the manpage (in /usr/local/man/man1), and the sample
configuration file (/usr/local/etc/pnm2ppa.conf). You may change these
locations by using the --sysconfdir/--prefix parameter when running the
'configure' step.
*** IMPORTANT ***
The default configuration file /usr/local/etc/pnm2ppa.conf sets the printer model
to "version 0" (NULL printer). Unless you use the -v command line option
to set the printer model (as is usually done by CUPS, lprNG, etc. scripts that
call pnm2ppa), you must edit the configuration file to change this line and
choose the correct printer version (720, 820, 1000, etc).
If the printer version is unspecified, it defaults to "720" (valid for
HP710C/712C/720C/722C).
Other things you can do are documented in the sample configuration
file /usr/local/etc/pnm2ppa.conf
Usage
-----
To print a postscript file with this program, You may use a simple
shell script:
#!/bin/sh
cat $1 | \
gs -sDEVICE=ppmraw -sPAPERSIZE=letter -q -dNOPAUSE -r600 -sOutputFile=- - | \
pnm2ppa $2 $3 $4 $5 $6 $7 -i - -o - | lpr -l
Any valid ghostscript papersize like "legal", "a4", etc.
can be substituted for "letter"
(in fact, "letter" is the default, so the "-sPAPERSIZE=letter" is
not really needed.)
If this script is placed in /usr/local/bin/ppaprint ,
ppaprint file.ps
will print the postscript file file.ps in high quality color. Other
options are:
ppapprint file.ps --eco // economy color ink mode
ppaprint file.ps --bw // black and white
ppaprint file.ps --bw --eco // black and white economy mode
etc. In the example, up to six pnm2ppa options can be added (see
"man pnm2ppa" to list options, or "pnm2ppa --h" ).
You may wish to replace the ghostscript output device "ppmraw" with
"pbmraw" for only black and white printing - it is somewhat faster -
or "pgmraw" for greyscale images.
an ascii file could be printed in black and white with the script
#!/bin/sh
enscript -2rj $1 | \
gs -sDEVICE=pbmraw -sPAPERSIZE=letter -q -dNOPAUSE -r600 -sOutputFile=- - | \
pnm2ppa --bw $2 $3 $4 $5 $6 $7 -i - -o - | lpr -l
Integration into Printing Systems
-----------------------------------
(A) lpr, LPRng systems
You can set up printer filters. See the documentation for
your print spooler for information on how to do that.
The subdirectory lpd of the pnm2ppa distribution contains a
printer description file "printcap" and so filters to go with it.
See the README.lpd file there.
The subdirectory ppaSet of the pnm2ppa distribution contains a
software to help configuring the printer (and better, for each user in the
system), for both GTK and ncurses. Just see README file there. This
software is fully compatible with the previous one, not a replacement.
On some Linux distributions, (RedHat, Mandrake, ... etc.), packages
that install pnm2ppa and appropriate printer filters will be available
to do all this for you. On others, you must do this manually, for
example using the files in our lpd subdirectory. See lpd/README.lpd
in the pnm2ppa source distribution.
Note: the "foomatic" data base at http://www.linuxprint.org now supports
pnm2ppa, and produces scripts for configuring lpd-based systems. RedHat
use this system since RedHat 7.2
An older printfilter system for lpd systems that also supports pnm2ppa is
apsfilter (http://www.apsfilter.org).
---------------
(B) PDQ ("Print, Don't Queue")
PDQ is an alternative, spooler-free printing system
available from http://pdq.sourceforge.net
The pdq subdirectory of the pnm2ppa source provides a pdq driver, gs-pnm2ppa
----------------
(C) CUPS ("Common Unix Printing System")
pnm2ppa is now integrated into the CUPS printing system:
see http://www.cups.org. The "cupsomatic" scripts from the
http://www.linuxprinting.org site support pnm2ppa on CUPS.
"ppaSet": a Graphical User Interface for configuring pnm2ppa:
-------------------------------
There is also a new graphical (gtk-based) utility for creating
a pnm2ppa.conf configuration file and also can act as a front end to the
calibration utility calibrate_ppa. It is written by Javier Sedano,
and called ppaSet. Find it at http://sourceforge.net/projects/pnm2ppa.
