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on my printer :)

LOL, nice exchange - where have you expected print to happen? - On 
my printer :-)

Printer driver for REBOL released on Github: https://github.com/dockimbel/printer-driver

See %tests/ folder for a full example.

Fixes and additions are welcome!

Marco (about RebRap): how do you render 3d scene in rebol and how 
do you controll the printer thru rebol, via some DLL?

@Janko: rendering of 3d scene is similar to code in opengl.r found 
in rebol.org, and to control the printer I simpy send ascii gcode 
throu serial port.

Hi Doc, it is a great piece of code! Thanks a lot.
in readme file it says:

http://raw.github.com/dockimbel/printer-driver/master/printer-scheme.r

but it doesn't work. I think it should be https instead of http, 
then it works:

https://raw.github.com/dockimbel/printer-driver/master/printer-scheme.r

MDP style: Well, we need a pretty printer ;-)

I want to get in a Rebol script what I print on a standard windows 
printer.

I use Redmon (part of ghostview) to redirect what the printer get 
to my rebol script
RedMon : http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/redmon/index.htm
I'm under Windows.

How can I get data from the standard input ?

I have tried "copy system/standard/input" and also "input", but get 
nothing !!
plis help ;-)

I wonder if I have the serial printer attached as a windows printer 
and it's hogging the serial port.

the serial port currently has a serial printer attached

which is working.  I am trying to send some commands to the printer

are you trying to communicate with the printer ?

I removed the serial printer from the windows printers and now I 
can open the port

now, how do I send a page feed to the printer ... ?

Maybe you need to terminate your commands.. ?  See if you can find 
the language that the printer understands.

(and maybe there's a "simple mode" and a "windows mode" the printer 
can go into)

the problem is I don't have a windows driver for this printer so 
I am experimenting to see what type of controls it understands.

There is no manual, and the windows drivers are password protected 
on the manufacturer's website!

Give us the printer model. May be someone here...

It looks like it accepts similar escape sequences as esc/pos ... 
but the application I'm using won't flush the printer buffer without 
closing the application down.

Let me rephrase that.  I am using a POS program which I downloaded. 
 When it prints a receipt to my serial printer, it fails to cause 
the printer to print the full printer buffer.  But when I close the 
POS program down, the printer then spits out the rest.


I have downloaded the Builder C++  source ( but it won't compile 
without errors :(    ).  I thought I would try and use Rebol first 
to send commands to the  printer to see what I need to do to force 
the printer to print the contents of it's buffer.  It's not the pc 
buffer as I turned off the fifo buffers in the serial port settings 
to see what the problem was.

Does your printer finish the job, if your POS program sends a new 
page or a new job?
Can you manually force a linefeed on your printer?

Any printer support?

No printer support yet. We're planning to port and integrate CUPS 
in the 0.6.x series, which we will start soon. Basic printer support 
will probably happen in the coming year

50mb and includes.. 


XMMS (MP3, CD Music, and MPEG), FTP client, Dillo web browser, links 
web browser, FireFox, spreadsheet, Sylpheed email, spellcheck (US 
English), a word-processor (FLwriter), three editors (Beaver, Vim, 
and Nano [Pico clone]), graphics editing and viewing (Xpaint, and 
xzgv), Xpdf (PDF Viewer), emelFM (file manager), Naim (AIM, ICQ, 
IRC), VNCviwer, Rdesktop, SSH/SCP server and client, DHCP client, 
PPP, PPPoE (ADSL), a web server, calculator, generic and GhostScript 
printer support, NFS, Fluxbox window manager, games, system monitoring 
apps, a host of command line tools, USB support, and pcmcia support, 
some wireless support.

I just want to send some postscript to the attached postscript printer 
on the parallel port.

however, you need permissions to write there and you need to know 
that the printer is actually attached to lp0

using lpr you can print on any attached printer as long as it is 
configured (ghostscript will take care of rendering on non-ps printers)

My current Debian has an lp device at /dev/lp0, but alas I have no 
printer to test open %/dev/lp0

How can I check to see that a printer on a usb port is turned on?

if confirm "Do you see a little green light on the printer" [..] 
;)

graham: I actually have one of those for my old Amiga. The mat was 
not in good shape when I got it so I scanned the pattern and printed 
it again on a sheet of paper. unfortunately the pattern was a bit 
too high resolution for the old 300 dpi laser printer, so the mouse 
got slow, but it was still quite reliable.

Ashley, can you explain in a little more detail how your setup works 
for you?

 Sure. I run a home office with two studies. Each has a Mac mini (plus 
 Cinema display) for day-to-day work. My study also has a TabletPC 
 connected to a 1280x1024 VGA LCD display. I use this for REBOL development 
 and demos away from home.


The iBook is located in the other study and is used by my better 
half when running Windows software related to our finance company 
(CRM/Sales software distributed via the professional body we belong 
to, no Mac or Linux option available). We also use the iBook when 
showing non-IT people stuff (e.g. a spreadsheet showing how much 
their portfolio could be worth if they geared it) and when attending 
training sessions.


The ADSL modem has an ethernet connection to Airport express, which 
in turn has the MFC plugged into its USB slot. The Mac's pick up 
the printer automatically, the TabletPC runs Bonjour and does the 
same. Everything, including the TabletPC, detected the Network without 
issue. It really has been as simple as, 1) Unpack, 2) Plug-in, 3) 
Use. I've also noticed that WinXP running on the iBook is a lot faster/smoother 
than on the TabletPC as it installs 'clean' (i.e. piggy-backs off 
the Mac's Network and Hardware support).


Large screens are a must if you write and or read a lot of documents. 
A 1920x1200 screen lets you do a slideshow on a PDF document and 
read the pages side-by-side. On wide screens I always have the task-bar/dock 
on the right to maximize the vertical display area.

I won't have a chance to try it out till tomorrow when I get a printer 
attached.

On issue 2, I've done some more testing this time with VB script 
and same result - just one print.  However, trying a different printer 
- multiple prints work using VB script and REBOL/comlib. So it may 
be the printer driver that is causing me problems.

Henrik: and don't forget HP on huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge drivers 
size (near 400MB for a printer driver! Go crazy)

PDF is also only a subset of postscript, created so you don't need 
to compile your docs everytime they need to be displayed. PDFs are 
static. You still need postscript to do the actual printing AFAIK. 
The trick would be not necesarily to generate a PS file, but the 
data that could be fed to the printer through LP.

PDFs are more "sexy" yes, but this is really only about the brains 
and brawns required to send graphical data directly from rebol to 
a printer in a proper way.

Henrick print PS files only works if the printer has PS support. 
Not every printer has this, and Apple move NextStep from PS to PDF 
because the PS rendering engine of Adobe is expensive. So PS printing 
will only work for PS printers. I think that is sort of ok, but not 
sure everyone has a PS printer.

Not to discourage you. I think PDF is more universal and the PDF 
viewer can print to any printer, inkjets and lasers.

printing to html and then printing to printer is just not good enough 
for many things.

pekr, reading your comments seem to focus on a PS viewer. This is 
completely uninteresting to me. I want tools that are native to REBOL 
to allow me to print graphics directly to a printer with the fewest 
amount of 3rd party tools. How many shrinkwrapped apps out there 
need third party tools for something as basic as printing?

I've got a colour laser printer on my network which I think supports 
postscript.  I presume to print a postscript file, I just send it 
to the ip address of the printer?

That was pretty easy ... create the postscript  file, and send it 
directly to the printer, or print server.

So, for example, if we used to plot dialect to draw a graph, we can 
then emit postscript and send directly to the printer.

I also tried it with a pdf, as the printer supports direct pdf printing, 
but nothing happened.

PostScript dialect test ready. Try this:
do http://home.tiscali.dk/postscript/postscript.r
s: postscript [font ["Times-Roman" 20] ["Hello World!"]]


s is now the PostScript output, that can be saved to a PS-file or 
sent to a printer.

well we can convert a draw block to-image and then send that out 
directly.. but its very slow to print... I mean sending 300 dpi or 
more bitmaps to a printer is tedious.

300dpi = 300 ticks in an inch.  if you know the printer edges to 
be 1/2 inch, then you can juste calculate a 2250 wide bitmap (using 
US letter size paper)  and send it .  this works.  simple math .

I've seen a problem with a barcode reader that could not read codes 
printed from one expensive printer and it would read them fine if 
printed from another cheap printer

turned out the expensive printer was able to separate two parallel 
lines just by a hair's width, where they should appear as a single 
line at double width of one line. that made the barcodes unreadable.

it relied a printer deficiency to work.

I didn't discover the error until I tried it on the expensive printer. 
besides the size and position of the line was supposed to be correct. 
the barcode was created with PDF Maker

even when you drill down on the bars to high resolution?  Remember 
screen res is only 72 dpi .. lower than your cheap printer.

so it's probably a problem with the printer, but still one that should 
be solvable by setting the width of the line jsut a few hair's width 
thicker

well, my postscript printer printed out a gray box!

I know.  It tells the printer what is coming.

Well, the dialect doesn't take PS as input, it produces PS. A PS 
file can be printed from REBOL in a way, Graham showed. Like:
>> port: open/direct tcp://192.168.1.253:9100
>> insert port read %boys-0-36-length-weight.ps
>> close port


192.168.1.253 is the IP of the printer, 9100 is the port, where the 
printer get data.

John, postscript uses a number of defined fonts.  Ignore the fonts 
on your system. The ones important are the ones in your postscript 
printer.

The output postscript file from the dialect can be sent to a postscript 
printer, so no driver is needed.

works fine with barcode readers. have tested with both cheap and 
expensive ones. just need a good printer

So, my aim is to preview a page on screen in this dialect and using 
a different parser on the same dialect, create postscript which I 
can send to the printer.

the print button, unimplemented, would send the post script file 
to your printer.

At work today, and got a chance to try out the postscript printers. 
 It's amazing .. I can print from my draw preview to either the network 
colour postscript printer, or to the old HP Laserjet 4MP on the lpt1:

I remember that NeXT printers were so cheap because all the postscript 
processing was done by the NeXt OS, and so the printer was just a 
bare engine.

If you don't have a postscript printer .. I recall in the old days 
you created a large bitmap in memory, and then printed it all out 
dot by dot.

I remember driving my dot matrix printer like that.

this version allows you to print to a network printer, to lpt1, or 
to a disk file, and then it calls the RoPS viewer.

it just spools documents to the printer

and, if you had a ps printer, ps files

then, ghostscript got put in between lpr and the printer, so that 
you could always use ps even for non-ps printers

well, if this is accurate, I don't use ghostscript at all. this 150$ 
printer here must be able to handle postscript natively then :-)

I was most upset seeing images cut in half by my colour printer when 
printing out the view docs.

PCL is printer control language

The idea here is to produce postscript as the last thing, just before 
sending the data to the printer. We shouldn't produce postscript, 
that we then need to preview before printing, because we then need 
to solve the problem of converting postscript to something viewable 
on the screen. It's better to work with DRAW or whatever developers 
use to visualize their content and have preview at that level. Then 
in the end, the user wants to print and now, finally the content 
is converted to postscript to be sent to a printer.


Having a postscript printer is a huge benefit, because you can say 
goodbye to printer drivers and all the trouble, those cause. The 
REBOL postscript dialect is your driver. :-)

A postscript printer is a printer, that understands the postscript 
format. It reads the text commands, a postscript file is, and print. 
Data like images is inside the postscript file as hex or something.

Then the million dollar question: Why do printer manufacturers make 
printer drivers filling up 10s or 100s of MB on users harddiscs? 
Why do those drivers need to be so huge, if it's such a simple task 
to print (using postscript)?

(Of course if the printer isn't a postscript printer, and you want 
to print a postscript file, you need a driver to convert from postscript 
to the format, the printer understands. So people without a postscript 
printer can still print from postscript-producing REBOL programs. 
They then just need a printer driver.)

Yes, it happens alot to me too and is a waste of paper. Good that 
many websites has that little printer-friendly-version icon.

That's how it looks in draw and also when printed to a postscript 
printer.

But they print fine to the printer.

I had a quick look at XPS API, but it looked more complicated and 
required more work than GDI API. There was also the compatibility 
issue, I needed a solution that would work with any printer. I'll 
gave a deeper look at XPS latter.

It might have had problems, but it would have been a much better 
starting point, had Microsoft embraced postscript from the start. 
There would have been a common starting point and a much larger incentive 
for building hardware postscript printers at the time. If that had 
been done, printer drivers would not be necessary under any platform 
today, or they would be limited to being postscript rasterizers.

Remember that the procedural model of Postscript meant that a Postscript 
printer was a computer, and definitely a more powerful and more expensive 
computer than most people could afford. Even faking Postscript support 
required a computer of at least the same scale.

And I think it sucks that Microsoft choose to invent yet another 
printer driver mess, rather than converge with existing systems.

First test release of Printer scheme for direct printing on Windows 
platforms : http://softinnov.org/tmp/printer.zip

I highly recommand the excellent Bullzip free PDF Printer for testing 
: http://www.bullzip.com/download/pdf/BullzipPDFPrinter_5_0_0_609.zip

Btw, the printer dialect use milimeters as unit for positioning and 
size.

Possible additionnal features :


- Support for preview View window is possible, but requires some 
fine tuning first in Printer scheme, for WYSIWYG support. 


- Support for Windows standard printer dialog window could be added.


- Support for setting page orientation, page copies, etc...could 
be added.

Gregg: I must admit that I missed the good old VB printer object. 
So now, who wants to clone Crystal Reports ? ;-)

I'm unable to test it here, but what about bringing up the printer 
dialog? Does that happen?

Btw, it's possible to list the available printers using : probe printer/enum

mine focuses more on the UI side, offering various methods of printing 
postscript. there is also a printer queue system as well as a printer 
server.

Update on the work-in-progress : http://softinnov.org/tmp/test-page.zip


Both files are printed from the same Draw dialect source, using my 
printer:// scheme. The PDF file is printed through Bullzip PDF Virtual 
printer. The PS file is directly generated by the printer scheme 
(for UNIX/Cups direct printing).


Most of the PostScript support is done (see %test-page.ps), but there's 
still a lot of details to enhance/fix/add: 

o Add center/right alignement support

o Add underline style for fonts

o Fine-tune positionning and bold level.

o Fix minor differences with the GDI version.

I'm about to release a new version of the printer lib with multiplatform 
support, so if anyone noticed something to fix or improve that I'm 
not aware of, that's the right time to report ;-).

Nope, that's too high-level, it's not a feature of Draw dialect. 
The printer scheme provides a cross-platform low-level layer to build 
such higher-level frameworks.

Making text flow from one page to another is a job for a word-processor 
like MSWord or LaTeX. The printer scheme aims to be general purpose, 
so it can be used to print anything (not only output from word-processors).

you should try to pipe the draw output to the printer scheme

Thanks for the food for thought, I think that I could reuse several 
routines from gonzo. But PS is just a low-level layer for my printer 
dialect, doing too sophisticated things at PS level is not an option 
for me. All the calculation and fancy things (like good justification) 
have to be done in Draw dialect, so that WYSIWYG can be achieved.

I've uploaded the 35 gnu ttf so that you can use postscript fonts 
for draw http://rebol.wik.is/Protocols/Printer

You can often choose to get this extra info printed as an option 
in the writing program, Notepad, Word or whatever. Or maybe as an 
option in the printer config.