Linux Desktop Hacks

288

|

Chapter 11, Hardware

#95 Print to Unsupported Printers

HACK

Because steps 4 and 5 are where the magic happens, the rest of this hack

covers setting up Ghostscript as a pseudoprinter.

Creating a Redirected Printer

The first step in getting the redirected printer working is to install Ghost-

Script and some supported programs on Windows. Download and install

the following programs:

• Ghostscript (http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/doc/AFPL/get814.htm)

• RedMon (http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/redmon/)

• GSview (http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/gsview/index.htm)

GSview is sometimes packaged with Ghostscript, so you might not need to

install it separately.

Within the directory containing gsprint.exe (C:\GS\GSVIEW, by default),

create the file gsprint.cfg with the following content:

-noquery

-color

-printer

windows_printer_name

-ghostscript

"C:\GS\GS8.14\BIN\GSWIN32C.EXE"

You can remove the -color line if you are using a black-and-white printer.

The path in the last line should be the actual path to gswin32c.exe. The line

windows_printer_name must exactly match the name the real Windows

printer has in the control panel. Be careful about spaces; there must not be

any trailing or leading spaces on any of the lines, and there must not be any

blank lines in the file (including at the end).

Next, create a new printer in the control panel that uses the Apple Laser-

Writer II driver (this driver is for a PostScript printer). ...