Printing gripe

[stopthegop]

This is a minor gripe but I would like to find a generic laser printer driver for the Amiga which will allow me to print only even and odd numbered pages at a time.  I own Turboprint7, but I cannot find that particular option anywhere.  Does anyone else know how I can do double sided printing of simple text files without resorting to doing it one sheet at a time using the manual feed?  That gets really **cking old with a 70 page document..     :lol:    I guess the other option is Pagestream (which I also have), but that requires a lot of fiddling and formatting to set up a large file to print double sided..  These are simple but big text files that I want to print -- fast, double-sided and with not much fuss.   Anyone know a good way to go about this?  Thanks

[pjhutch]

Its certainly possible, I could modify my Laserjet driver to use the Duplex (Esc&l1S) option for all prints.

[stopthegop]

That would be great if you wouldn't mind!?  I have a Brother 1240..  I think it is HP compatible..  Not 100% sure about that

[InTheSand]

Hi,

I also have a Brother HL-1240... It's HP-compatible to the extent that it uses the same PCL layout language, so you might be in luck.

However, I never had it directly connected to my Amiga (only ever printed to it across the network via a Linux box with CUPS running the lpr daemon, and the generic PostScript driver on the Amiga side).

 - Ali

[pjhutch]

Yes, your Brother HL-1240 is HP PCL 4 compatible but it is NOT a duplex printer, you can only duplex manually via the manual paper feed tray. You need a hardware addon to do automatic duplexing (w/o manual intervention).

My Brother HL -1270N does not do auto duplex either so I cannot test the driver. I will let you know when its ready, it will be uploaded to Aminet.

[stopthegop]

Yes, your Brother HL-1240 is HP PCL 4 compatible but it is NOT a duplex printer

Thats why I want to be able to print just ODD numbered pages first, then to just reorient the pages in the auto feeder and print EVEN numbered pages.  Call it "auto" duplex printing on a budget.    :-)

[pjhutch]

IF you want to print just Odd pages and then Even pages, then a new driver will not help. That is down to the application to specify which pages to print, a driver prints text or graphics, it knows nothing of pages other than a form feed or to print on other side. You normally specify which pages to print in the Print dialog box, a driver cannot do that. Sorry.

[stopthegop]

When I select "Print..." (with elipses) from a program's menu options and I get a popup with three choices such as "print" (no elipses), "settings...", and "cancel", what is it I'm changing when I select "settings..."?   Are any changes I make to these settings unique to the application I'm using or are they global, affecting the way all applications will print?  This is where I would expect to find the option to print either EVEN, ODD, or ALL.  My understanding is that these settings are options for the printer "driver", affecting the way all applications print (assuming the changes are saved and not "applied")?  Is this not right?  If this dialog where I change printing options is not part of the application and it isn't "the driver", what is it?  

[pjhutch]

These settings are unique to the application such as Even, Odd, page no to page no or All. Sometimes the setting will equate to a printer preference such as the color or orientation but usually its application specific.

Settings for a printer driver globally are set in the Printer or PrinterGfx preferences program such as color or b/w, portrait or landscape, dithering, density, the port, the text quality and so on. Those settings can be converted to the drivers own commands usually in ESC/P2, PCL or Postscript.
These printer settings can be stored in memory in the printer preferences defined in AmigaOS which can be applied to any kind of printer - inkjet, dot matrix, laser and so on.

[Hyperspeed]

Neither the original Workbench printer prefs program or Turboprint will allow you to print odd/even pages.

I just loaded Wordworth 6 and when you click 'print' it gives a small window to confirm a few things before you send it to the printer:

Range
· All
· Pages  [    ]  (1-45 for example)
Copies [    ]

Options
Print >
Odd and even pages
Odd pages only
Even pages only

Shade >
Black and White
Colour
Greyscale 1
Greyscale 2

[]Draft Printout
[]Collate Copies
[]Reverse Order
[]Background Printing

You can get Wordworth 6 on the Wordworth Office 6 CD-ROM including Digita Datastore, Organiser and Money Matters. You could try Wordworth 7 too.

:-)

[Cass]

However, I never had it directly connected to my Amiga (only ever printed to it across the network via a Linux box with CUPS running the lpr daemon, and the generic PostScript driver on the Amiga side).

I`ve been searching for a solution like that, is there a guide on how to print via eth ?

WinUAE supports Laser printing with Ghostscript on the PC side and PS driver on the Amiga side... (never tried this, so I don`t know if it works).

[pjhutch]

I have uploaded a new Laserjet_D (PCL 5) printer driver onto Aminet. I just appear in listings in a day or so.

The driver is based on my older Laserjet III driver but it now supports 600 dpi on highest density settings and will print on both sides of paper (if the printer supports auto-duples), and will eject the paper correctly this time, even in Winuae. Tested on Multiview and Wordworth 5.

[Cass]

I have uploaded a new Laserjet_D (PCL 5) printer driver onto Aminet

Is it compatible with the HP-1018 Laser printer?

[lurkist]

You can get Wordworth 6 on the Wordworth Office 6 CD-ROM including Digita Datastore, Organiser and Money Matters.

I have this CD which I would really like to use, but it requires a password.  (I got it in a pile of second-hand stuff).

[pjhutch]

No, the HP-1018 is a Host based printer and will not work with the Amiga Printer driver system.

Specs are here (see http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF06a/18972-18972-3328059-14638-3328066-1814092.html)