[gentoo-user] {OT} Printing text with lpr

[gentoo-user] {OT} Printing text with lpr

[Grant]

I have a Brother QL-570 label printer printing on 29x90mm labels.  My
goal is to have 6 characters printed across the center of the label.
It prints like this:

$ echo 123456 | lpr

but the text is in the upper corner of the label, it has the wrong
orientation, and the font is too small.

It also prints like this:

$ lpr test.png

but the text doesn't come out very crisp, and I'd rather not create a
file with imagemagick for each label to print.  Is there another way
to print large, properly oriented text on the fly?

- Grant

Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} Printing text with lpr

[Joseph]

On 03/31/09 19:40, Grant wrote:
>I have a Brother QL-570 label printer printing on 29x90mm labels.  My
>goal is to have 6 characters printed across the center of the label.
>It prints like this:
>
>$ echo 123456 | lpr
>
>but the text is in the upper corner of the label, it has the wrong
>orientation, and the font is too small.
>
>It also prints like this:
>
>$ lpr test.png
>
>but the text doesn't come out very crisp, and I'd rather not create a
>file with imagemagick for each label to print.  Is there another way
>to print large, properly oriented text on the fly?
>
>- Grant

It is not very well supported under Linux:
http://openprinting.org/show_printer.cgi?recnum=Brother-QL-570

-- 
Joseph

Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} Printing text with lpr

[Stroller]

On 1 Apr 2009, at 04:25, Joseph wrote:
> On 03/31/09 19:40, Grant wrote:
>> I have a Brother QL-570 label printer printing on 29x90mm labels.  My
>> goal is to have 6 characters printed across the center of the label.
>> It prints like this:
>>
>> $ echo 123456 | lpr
>>
>> but the text is in the upper corner of the label, it has the wrong
>> orientation, and the font is too small.
>>
>> It also prints like this:
>>
>> $ lpr test.png
>>
>> but the text doesn't come out very crisp, and I'd rather not create a
>> file with imagemagick for each label to print.  Is there another way
>> to print large, properly oriented text on the fly?

With some printers it's possible to add control codes to the text  
you're printing to do stuff like this.

EG:
http://www.sturec.com/help/printing/printers.htm
http://printers.necsam.com/public/printers/pclcodes/pcl5hp.htm

But it depends whether your printer driver supports them, and I very  
much doubt any of the above will work for you. In some printers that  
sort of stuff is implemented in hardware (firmware), but yours appears  
to be a winprinter. I would look at the .ppd files first, to try & see  
if the author has implemented anything like this.

I really understand where you're coming from not wanting to mess with  
imagemagick, but at the end of the day *something* has to raster the  
ASCII into little pixels, so it's not really that dirty & shameful if  
you have to write a little wrapper script to do so. On my trusty olde  
HP LaserJet 4000 it may be the onboard hardware PostScript™ which  
converts the text into character shapes, but your little printer  
doesn't have so much processing power, so the computer has to do the  
rendering for it.

Thus a wrapper script that calls imagemagick and converts $1 into an  
image file may merely be considered a "userspace driver". If you make  
the image larger, is this reflected on the printer's output, or does  
it perhaps get sharper? Is it possible to change the DPI of  
imagemagick's output? If you run lpr on images of other formats, do  
they print? You may find a different file format might be sharper, or  
you might find that postscript files work (handled by CUP's built-in  
software renderer) and that you can use Ghostscript or something to  
manipulate the output.

I assume you've read all of this guy's pages:
http://etc.nkadesign.com/Printers/QL550LabelPrinterPerl
http://etc.nkadesign.com/Printers/QL550LabelPrinter

> It is not very well supported under Linux:
> http://openprinting.org/show_printer.cgi?recnum=Brother-QL-570

Have you found these pages useful in the past? My experience is that  
hardly anyone ever bothers to update such pages. :(

I'm not saying it's exactly a wonderprinter, famed in fable & song,  
but the only thing I find helpful on there is the link to a page which  
links to the etc.nkadesign.com pages. From the looks of those one  
should be able be able to do something fairly useful with this  
printer, depending upon one's mad skillz.

Stroller.

Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} Printing text with lpr

[Grant]

>>> I have a Brother QL-570 label printer printing on 29x90mm labels.  My
>>> goal is to have 6 characters printed across the center of the label.
>>> It prints like this:
>>>
>>> $ echo 123456 | lpr
>>>
>>> but the text is in the upper corner of the label, it has the wrong
>>> orientation, and the font is too small.
>>>
>>> It also prints like this:
>>>
>>> $ lpr test.png
>>>
>>> but the text doesn't come out very crisp, and I'd rather not create a
>>> file with imagemagick for each label to print.  Is there another way
>>> to print large, properly oriented text on the fly?
>
> With some printers it's possible to add control codes to the text you're
> printing to do stuff like this.
>
> EG:
> http://www.sturec.com/help/printing/printers.htm
> http://printers.necsam.com/public/printers/pclcodes/pcl5hp.htm

Yeah, that's the type of thing I'd like to do.

> But it depends whether your printer driver supports them, and I very much
> doubt any of the above will work for you. In some printers that sort of
> stuff is implemented in hardware (firmware), but yours appears to be a
> winprinter. I would look at the .ppd files first, to try & see if the author
> has implemented anything like this.

As you guessed, I just looked in the PPD but I don't see anything like
that.  The driver's page says:

"It consists of a raster-to-printerdata filter, and XML data files for
the foomatic database."

I think that means this thing is basically a raster printer?

> I really understand where you're coming from not wanting to mess with
> imagemagick, but at the end of the day *something* has to raster the ASCII
> into little pixels, so it's not really that dirty & shameful if you have to
> write a little wrapper script to do so. On my trusty olde HP LaserJet 4000
> it may be the onboard hardware PostScript™ which converts the text into
> character shapes, but your little printer doesn't have so much processing
> power, so the computer has to do the rendering for it.
>
> Thus a wrapper script that calls imagemagick and converts $1 into an image
> file may merely be considered a "userspace driver". If you make the image
> larger, is this reflected on the printer's output, or does it perhaps get
> sharper? Is it possible to change the DPI of imagemagick's output? If you
> run lpr on images of other formats, do they print? You may find a different
> file format might be sharper, or you might find that postscript files work
> (handled by CUP's built-in software renderer) and that you can use
> Ghostscript or something to manipulate the output.

Ah, postscript works!

> I assume you've read all of this guy's pages:
> http://etc.nkadesign.com/Printers/QL550LabelPrinterPerl
> http://etc.nkadesign.com/Printers/QL550LabelPrinter

Yep.

>> It is not very well supported under Linux:
>> http://openprinting.org/show_printer.cgi?recnum=Brother-QL-570
>
> Have you found these pages useful in the past? My experience is that hardly
> anyone ever bothers to update such pages. :(
>
> I'm not saying it's exactly a wonderprinter, famed in fable & song, but the
> only thing I find helpful on there is the link to a page which links to the
> etc.nkadesign.com pages. From the looks of those one should be able be able
> to do something fairly useful with this printer, depending upon one's mad
> skillz.

I've got a QL-550 also anyway.  I should have gotten a Zebra 2824
though so I could just use EPL2.  Thanks a lot for the info and I'll
get to work on a postscript script.

- Grant

Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} Printing text with lpr

[Stroller]

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On 1 Apr 2009, at 17:52, Grant wrote:
> ...
> Ah, postscript works!
> ...
> Thanks a lot for the info and I'll
> get to work on a postscript script.

Looks like text2ps might be worth a look.

http://pwet.fr/man/linux/commandes/text2ps

I can't find the Gentoo package, but `eix -S postscript` finds a  
number of similar-looking tools.

Stroller.
  

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Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} Printing text with lpr

[Grant]

> ...
> Ah, postscript works!
> ...
>
> Thanks a lot for the info and I'll
> get to work on a postscript script.
>
> Looks like text2ps might be worth a look.
> http://pwet.fr/man/linux/commandes/text2ps
> I can't find the Gentoo package, but `eix -S postscript` finds a number of
> similar-looking tools.
> Stroller.

Thanks a lot Stroller.  I've got a simple 8 or so line postscript file
with a single variable in it which I can lpr straight to the printer.
Very glad.

- Grant