apsfilter(8)
NAME
- apsfilter - magic print filter with auto file type recogni
- tion
SYNOPSIS
lpr [-Pprinter] [-C option1:...:optionN] [file ...] (lpd style) lpr [-Pprinter] [-Z option1:...:optionN] [file ...] (LPRng style) lp [-d printer] [-o option1:...:optionN] [file ...] (Solaris style)
DESCRIPTION
- Apsfilter is a magic print filter which allows you to print
- different
document types ``automagically'' without having to convert - them manually
into a document format which is understood by your printer - hardware.
- Apsfilter uses third-party software to convert every sup
- ported file type
into PostScript (PS) first. If you have a real PS printer, - the data
stream is then sent directly to the PS printer, otherwise it - is piped
through the famous PS interpreter gs(1) which supports a - wide range of
output devices. - Thus the question whether a particular printer is supported
- by apsfilter
is actually the question of it either understanding PS di - rectly, or being
supported by gs(1) in some way (possibly using some emula - tion of another
printer's software interface, like Epson's ESC/P2 or HP's - PCL).
- Another important thing to remember is that the required
- driver support
has to be present in the installed gs(1) binary. gs -h - lists (among others) which drivers are currently compiled in. SETUP warns
- when a selected
driver is missing and guides in choosing another driver. - The FreeBSD ports collection offers an easy and comfortable
- framework for
FreeBSD users to configure and install apsfilter, gs(1), gs - third-party
driver and filter programs for their personal needs. - The apsfilter script is designed to avoid temporary files as
- much as possible. So it is very efficient in use and doesn't fill up
- filesystems
even when printing large printjobs in high resolution and - best print
quality. - Apsfilter offers a wide range of customization options
- through config
files and lpr(1) command line options, see below. - Advantages over other magic filters
- Apsfilter and its SETUP is completely written in a script
- language (see
sh(1) ). So it is easy to understand and modify even for - users and admins
who are quite new to the Unix business. - Apsfilter is highly customizable and its developement since
- 1994 has
shown that it scales very well with the still growing demand - of additional features.
- Supported printers
- Apsfilter supports locally connected serial, parallel and
- USB printers.
- Remote printing cababilities: Unix remote printing (lpd pro
- tocol), printing to an AppleTalk remote printer via pap(1) as well as
- Windows remote
printing via SAMBAs smbclient(1) on Windows 95/98/NT/2000 - printer as
guest user or using a real password protected Windows ac - count.
- Apsfilter 's SETUP utility supports in installing all sup
- ported printer
types, no matter if local or remote printer, into the print - er capability
database /etc/printcap. - Supported file types
- ar, arc, arj, ASCII, BMP, CAB, cpio, DATA, DVI, FBM, FIG,
- FITS, GIF,
Group 3 FAX, HTML, IFF ILBM, JPEG, Kodak Photo CD (PCD), - LHA, MGR, MIFF,
PAM, PGM, PBM, PNM, PPM, PDF, PNG, Postscript (PS), RAR, - RLE, RPM, SGI,
Sketch, Sunraster, TAR, Targa (TGA), TIFF ROFF, WMF, WorPer - fect graphics,
XCF, X Pixmap (XPM), X Window dump (XWD), ZIP, ZOO. Note - that actual
support depends on the installed filter programs. - Installation
- Extract the tarball and execute ./configure in the apsfilter
- directory
(maybe with some options; use ./configure --help to see a - listing).
- After that, login as root and call make install; then you
- can set up
printers with /usr/share/apsfilter/SETUP. - SETUP adds the printer to the /etc/printcap database to make
- it available
to the lpd(8) print spooler, and configures apsfilter for - operation with
that printer. - After successfull installation, SETUP remembers its previous
- configuration settings in a file called SETUP.cfg.
- Command line options
- Several command line options to apsfilter are available
- which allow the
user to influence the printing quality, color mode, paper - size etc. The
handbook includes a detailed listing. - draft Draft quality.
- lo|low Low quality.
- med|medium Medium quality.
- hi|high High quality.
- photo Photo quality.
- uni|bi Uni-/bi-directional sweeps.
- plain Plain paper.
- coated Coated (inkjet) paper.
- glossy Glossy paper.
- premium Premium (photo) paper.
- trans Transparencies.
- color|colour Color printing.
- gray|grey Gray printing.
- mono B/W printing.
- auto Automatic filetype recognition and
- data conver
sion.
- ascii Force printing as ASCII document. For
- example to
- print Postscript source code without
- actually
interpreting it. - raw Pass-through mode, your print data
- won't be
- changed by any filter.
- a3|a4|legal|ledger|tabloid
- Paper size.
- a2ps|mpage|enscript|recode
- Text file filter to use, when print
- ing ASCII documents.
- tray0...tray9 Paper feed tray number.
- pretty=N highlight level for pretty-printing
- (N=0,1,2)
- header|noheader Whether you want headers in your text
- prints.
- border|noborder Whether you want borders in your text
- prints.
- 1pps|2pps|4pps|8pps Pages per sheet.
- landscape|portrait Paper orientation.
- book Output pages in "book" format, im
- plies
- "2pps,duplex,shortbind"
- duplex|simplex Whether to use duplex mode or not.
- shortbind|longbind Paper binding edge.
- copies=N Number of copies.
EXAMPLES
- lpr -C high:color:glossy file.gif tex.dvi.gz file.html
- ...
- prints some files of different types no matter whether com
- pressed or not
on the Unix default printer (see lpr(1) ). - The -C option to the lpr command sets additional ghostscript
- driver-specific options. Here, 'high' means high resolution (e. g.
- 600 dpi for an
HP Printer using gs's ``cdj850'' printer driver), color - output (e.g. 32
bits per pixel), and the paper type is set to glossy paper
lpr -C duplex somefile- enables pseudo duplex printing by halting the print queue
- after printing
a documents even pages and so giving the user a chance to - flip paper and
restart printing after executing a special user command on - the command
line. - User gets a notification mail containing a session oriented
- magic wakeup
command and key which restarts printing of the odd pages of - the print
job. - The so called magic command makes sure that only the initia
- tor of the
print job is able to restart printing after reinserting the - paper.
- Beware, if you have nasty users, this can cause print jobs
- to hang, filling up the print queue and at least the /var file system.
FILES
- /etc/printcap printer capability
- data base
/usr/share/apsfilter/bin/apsfilter apsfilter script
/usr/share/apsfilter/SETUP printer installation - script, cre
- ates/updates
- /etc/printcap
- /usr/share/apsfilter/SETUP.cfg saved settings from
- last printer
- setup
- /usr/share/doc/apsfilter/handbook.html the apsfilter hand
- book in HTML
- format
- /etc/apsfilter/ configuration direc
- tory
/etc/apsfilter/apsfilterrc global configuration - file
/etc/apsfilter/apsN/ printer specific - configuration
- directory
- /etc/apsfilter/apsN/apsfilterrc printer specific
- configuration
- file
- $HOME/.apsfilter/apsfilterrc.apsN user definable
- printer specific
- configuration file
- /etc/apsfilter/apsN/smbclient.conf smbclient config
- file for print
- ing on Windows re
- mote printer
- /etc/apsfilter/apsN/pap.conf pap config file for
- printing on
- AppleTalk printer
- /etc/apsfilter/apsN/lpr.conf config file for re
- mote printer
- that needs special
- treatment
SEE ALSO
- aps2file(1), apsfilter-bug(1), apspreview(1), gs(1), gs
- hpdj(1), lpr(1),
smbclient(1), apsfilterrc(5), printcap(5), lpd(8)
BUGS
- See apsfilter software center - http://www.apsfilter.org/
- for new versions, bugfixes and known bugs.
- Please use the new tool apsfilter-bug(1) to release bug- or
- problem
reports. It automatically presents you a form in an editor - window which
asks you some standard questions. If you save and quit the - editor session, then this report is sent automatically via e-mail to
- the proper
apsfilter mailinglist. - If apsfilter fails to print something or prints it in a way
- you wouldn't
expect and you want to report an apsfilter error then please - save the
debugging output of one print session using the new - aps2file(1) utility
by typing aps2file -D -Z options file > /dev/null 2> - file.debug and
including the debugging output in the file file.debug into - the edit session of the apsfilter-bug utility, so that it is included
- into the mail
to the apsfilter mailinglist. - Please note that you need to run /bin/sh (Bourne Shell),
- bash or a compatible shell, so that the above mentioned output redirec
- tion works.
Under C-shell (/bin/csh) or tcsh it would't work. If you - don't know, then
simply make sure you use the Bournce shell by typing /bin/sh - or bash,
then you should have no problems with redirection of stdout - and stderr (>
/dev/null 2> file.debug).
DOCUMENTATION
- See official apsfilter homepage
http://www.apsfilter.org/handbook.html Apsfilter Handbook - including the
- Frequently Asked
- Questions (FAQ)
USER FORUM
- Please send questions to the official apsfilter help channel
apsfilter-help@apsfilter.org. The above section BUGS and - the file
HOWTO-BUGREPORTS tells you how to report bugs. If you want - to know how
to troubleshoot your apsfilter installation, please read the - manpage
aps2file(1) and apsfilter-bug(1) as well as the Apsfilter
Handbook
fully.
HISTORY
- The apsfilter manpage appeared first in apsfilter V 5.4.0.
- BSD May 19, 2001