Hugo Bouckaert wrote:
> We are running a RedHat 6.0 printserver and have had some very annoying
> problems printing postscript files generated by latex (Tex Version: TeX
> (Web2C 7.3) 3.14159)
>
> The problem is that postscript files generated by latex often have lines
> of instructions starting with double percentage marks (%%). (This is
> apart from other lines starting with single percentage marks (%).)
Lines starting with a % are comments. Lines starting with %% are
special comments which contain document metadata according to the
PostScript Document Structuring Conventions. They provide information
about page numbering, bounding box etc which can be used by programs
which manipulate PostScript files (e.g. psutils).
They shouldn't have any impact upon the interpretation of the
PostScript, as they are ultimately still just comments.
> When
> sent to the a laser printer, the printer simply hangs and refuses to
> print. If lines starting with %% are taken out, most often printing
> works, but in some cases it doesn't, presumably because in some cases,
> although lines starting with %% stop the print job, these lines also
> contain instructions necessary for printing without which printing stops
> also.
If your printer behaves differently depending upon the presence and
content of %% lines, then it's time to replace the printer with one
which genuinely supports PostScript.
> Presumably the printfilters cannot handle lines starting with %%, but I
> really can't do much about that as both input and output filters are
> binary files.
Is the problem with the printer or with the filters? What happens if
you send the file directly to the printer?
> If I look at the server's printcap file, input and output filters are
> the following:
> /usr/lib/atalk/filters/ifpap
> /usr/lib/atalk/filters/ofpap
>
> Both files belong to netatalk-1.4b2+asun2.0a18.2-phh4
Do you know what these filters do? You shouldn't normally need any
filters for a PostScript printer.
--
Glynn Clements <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
