Guys,
Sorry about not posting this earlier work has gotten a little crazy!
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This is how it works and what is involved. I learned most of this from a guy called Jim Derry that published similar instructions for an HP Printer. Most of this is based on his previous work with a few differences.
If you are not comfortable being administrator don't bother reading any further!
If you have a networked inkjet printer (Sorry I have not looked into USB; such as an Axis 1440 for Epsons, HP Jetdirect for HPs, something else for Canon) OS X can already send jobs to the printer. For an example of this see the terminal commands: atprint, atlookup, and atstatus. You can send a text file to a networked printer right now using the atprint command.
Most of us want to print straight from applications, sending text files to the printer and printing using the terminal is not exactly exciting. In order to achive this goal we need to overcome a few problems:
First, OSX prints to postscript and most inkjets don't speak postscript. This is where Ghostscript comes in... Ghostscript will convert postscript to many printer languages.
Second, not all versions of Ghostscript are created equal. Some versions of Ghostscript have been enhanced by the linux/gimp guys to support the high quality photo features of the epson printers. We are going to make use of these features!
So what can these instructions do for you:
1) You will be able to select your Epson, HP, or Canon inkjet from the printcenter application or the print dialog box. When you print you will see the job get spooled to the printer.
2) You will get high quality photo level printing! Unfotunately I have not had time to setup a Printer Description file for each option for each printer made by Canon, Epson, or HP
What I will tell you is how to setup (3) printers in the print center application called EpsonStylusPhoto BW, EpsonStylus Color, Epson Stylus Photo. This setup is just my suggestion. You can setup any combination you wish. When printing you can pick the setup you want. All the jobs will go to the same printer, with different quality/speed settings.
What you need to know before you start:
1) Three basic steps are required. Most of them involve administrator or root access. If you are not comfortable fooling around the command line or with the NetInfoManager utility stop now! I am not responsible for damage to your computer! Proceed at your own risk.
The steps
1) The first step is to install Ghostscript. I will be making a tar archive file in my public itools folder (userid csoledade). Remember Ghostscript will be used
to convert postscript to your printers language.
Look for a file called sw.tar in my itools public folder. Download it to your machine. Move it to the / directory using the terminal. For example if I had downloaded it to my Documents directory for a userid carlos the commands would be:
sudo mv ~carlos/sw.tar /
This command will ask for your administrator's password. Then type the following commands:
sudo tar xvf sw.tar
This will create a directory tree with ghostscript in your root directory.
2) The second step involves creating the first printer entry in NetInfoManager. I will post a word document with screenshots and instructions this weekend in my itools public directory. This takes about 5 minutes but is easy to screw up.
3) The third step involves creating some files and directories and chosing your printers configuration options. Again I will post the details this weekend. The files a directories will take a few minutes, picking you printer options may take a while if you really want to customize your setup.
If you really care about all the output options (like paper type and resolution) checkout the README file available in my public itools directory now. Becoming familiar with the options for your printer will make this easier later on.
For those that do not care about printer configuration, I will make some basic examples available with my instructions this weekend.
Thanks, go to Jim Derry who got me started down this path! I wish I had time to package all of this into an installer...
Carlos
Sorry about not posting this earlier work has gotten a little crazy!
-----------
This is how it works and what is involved. I learned most of this from a guy called Jim Derry that published similar instructions for an HP Printer. Most of this is based on his previous work with a few differences.
If you are not comfortable being administrator don't bother reading any further!
If you have a networked inkjet printer (Sorry I have not looked into USB; such as an Axis 1440 for Epsons, HP Jetdirect for HPs, something else for Canon) OS X can already send jobs to the printer. For an example of this see the terminal commands: atprint, atlookup, and atstatus. You can send a text file to a networked printer right now using the atprint command.
Most of us want to print straight from applications, sending text files to the printer and printing using the terminal is not exactly exciting. In order to achive this goal we need to overcome a few problems:
First, OSX prints to postscript and most inkjets don't speak postscript. This is where Ghostscript comes in... Ghostscript will convert postscript to many printer languages.
Second, not all versions of Ghostscript are created equal. Some versions of Ghostscript have been enhanced by the linux/gimp guys to support the high quality photo features of the epson printers. We are going to make use of these features!
So what can these instructions do for you:
1) You will be able to select your Epson, HP, or Canon inkjet from the printcenter application or the print dialog box. When you print you will see the job get spooled to the printer.
2) You will get high quality photo level printing! Unfotunately I have not had time to setup a Printer Description file for each option for each printer made by Canon, Epson, or HP
What I will tell you is how to setup (3) printers in the print center application called EpsonStylusPhoto BW, EpsonStylus Color, Epson Stylus Photo. This setup is just my suggestion. You can setup any combination you wish. When printing you can pick the setup you want. All the jobs will go to the same printer, with different quality/speed settings.What you need to know before you start:
1) Three basic steps are required. Most of them involve administrator or root access. If you are not comfortable fooling around the command line or with the NetInfoManager utility stop now! I am not responsible for damage to your computer! Proceed at your own risk.
The steps
1) The first step is to install Ghostscript. I will be making a tar archive file in my public itools folder (userid csoledade). Remember Ghostscript will be used
to convert postscript to your printers language.
Look for a file called sw.tar in my itools public folder. Download it to your machine. Move it to the / directory using the terminal. For example if I had downloaded it to my Documents directory for a userid carlos the commands would be:
sudo mv ~carlos/sw.tar /
This command will ask for your administrator's password. Then type the following commands:
sudo tar xvf sw.tar
This will create a directory tree with ghostscript in your root directory.
2) The second step involves creating the first printer entry in NetInfoManager. I will post a word document with screenshots and instructions this weekend in my itools public directory. This takes about 5 minutes but is easy to screw up.
3) The third step involves creating some files and directories and chosing your printers configuration options. Again I will post the details this weekend. The files a directories will take a few minutes, picking you printer options may take a while if you really want to customize your setup.
If you really care about all the output options (like paper type and resolution) checkout the README file available in my public itools directory now. Becoming familiar with the options for your printer will make this easier later on.
For those that do not care about printer configuration, I will make some basic examples available with my instructions this weekend.
Thanks, go to Jim Derry who got me started down this path! I wish I had time to package all of this into an installer...
Carlos