From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([208.92.234.80] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1LosZ9-0005JT-Ie for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Wed, 01 Apr 2009 05:00:43 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 45D24E03E1; Wed, 1 Apr 2009 05:00:42 +0000 (UTC) Received: from smtpout.karoo.kcom.com (smtpout.karoo.kcom.com [212.50.160.34]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 02529E03E1 for ; Wed, 1 Apr 2009 05:00:41 +0000 (UTC) X-IronPort-AV: E=Sophos;i="4.39,305,1235952000"; d="scan'208";a="86141903" Received: from unknown (HELO compaq.stroller.uk.eu.org) ([213.152.39.90]) by smtpout.karoo.kcom.com with ESMTP; 01 Apr 2009 06:00:41 +0100 Received: from [192.168.1.71] (unknown [192.168.1.71]) by compaq.stroller.uk.eu.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4F0B51335C2 for ; Wed, 1 Apr 2009 06:00:39 +0100 (BST) Message-Id: From: Stroller To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org In-Reply-To: <20090401032513.GA6276@syscon4.inet> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=WINDOWS-1252; format=flowed; delsp=yes Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v930.3) Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} Printing text with lpr Date: Wed, 1 Apr 2009 06:00:35 +0100 References: <49bf44f10903311940i516470b4rcb212aa8bbc13629@mail.gmail.com> <20090401032513.GA6276@syscon4.inet> X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.930.3) X-Archives-Salt: d0e78d78-68ba-4efa-9f89-12f2a3ab2b74 X-Archives-Hash: 3a3642dd076e7d66eb602a1d624630cf 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 =20 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 =20 much doubt any of the above will work for you. In some printers that =20 sort of stuff is implemented in hardware (firmware), but yours appears =20= to be a winprinter. I would look at the .ppd files first, to try & see =20= if the author has implemented anything like this. I really understand where you're coming from not wanting to mess with =20= imagemagick, but at the end of the day *something* has to raster the =20 ASCII into little pixels, so it's not really that dirty & shameful if =20= you have to write a little wrapper script to do so. On my trusty olde =20= HP LaserJet 4000 it may be the onboard hardware PostScript=99 which =20 converts the text into character shapes, but your little printer =20 doesn't have so much processing power, so the computer has to do the =20 rendering for it. Thus a wrapper script that calls imagemagick and converts $1 into an =20 image file may merely be considered a "userspace driver". If you make =20= the image larger, is this reflected on the printer's output, or does =20 it perhaps get sharper? Is it possible to change the DPI of =20 imagemagick's output? If you run lpr on images of other formats, do =20 they print? You may find a different file format might be sharper, or =20= you might find that postscript files work (handled by CUP's built-in =20 software renderer) and that you can use Ghostscript or something to =20 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=3DBrother-QL-570 Have you found these pages useful in the past? My experience is that =20 hardly anyone ever bothers to update such pages. :( I'm not saying it's exactly a wonderprinter, famed in fable & song, =20 but the only thing I find helpful on there is the link to a page which =20= links to the etc.nkadesign.com pages. =46rom the looks of those one =20 should be able be able to do something fairly useful with this =20 printer, depending upon one's mad skillz. Stroller.