Baslinux mailing list

[sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>]

On Mon, 10 Jan 2005 cce.zizkov AT volny.cz wrote:

> On 10 Jan 05 at 17:57, 3aoo-cvfd AT dea.spamcon.org wrote:
>
> > sindi keesan wrote:
> > > Is there some simple way to set up BL2 to type and
> > > print Cyrillic
> > >
> > > kdb.tgz has the keyboard and font programs, but how
> > > does one print with downloadable fonts in linux?
> >
> > Is your printer capable of printing Cyrillic characters?
> > By that I mean: character code in - Cyrillic character out.
>
> Capable means:
>
> 1. either internal fonts - I do not know such a printer, is there
> somebody on the list who knows whether there is any printer
> who prints Russian as hardware default?

I don't know of any.  I looked at the standard HP fonts and they are all 
just decorated versions of Latin.


> 2. or downloadable fonts - You send the character definition to the
> printer once, switch it on with a short code sequence. Then every
> 8bit character (ASCII 128-255) will be printed with the uploaded
> font. I own some for HP Laserjet but not for EPSON :-( Only old and
> sentimental DOS veterans in the furthest Eastern countries may still
> have such fonts on some floppies they forgot to throw away.

I have done this with 9 and 24pin dot-matrix printers and will look in my 
printer manual for the code - but how would I send the printer this code,

cat file-with-code-sequence > /dev/lp0 ?

How do you do it with dos, include the printer command in a file?
If so, could I do that in linux?

> 3. graphical - this is what we probably do not want on older
> hardware.
>
> > > Graphical printing is at least 8 times as slow
> >
> > If the printer has no Cyrillic capability (either
> > built-in or as an add-on), then dot-by-dot printing
> > (in graphics mode) is your only option.

One of the two DOS program  was designed to work on ANY printer with 
graphics capability, the other could use graphical or downloadable-font 
printing (9 or 24-pin Epson).  My printers all do downloadable fonts.

 >
> If there is some interest I can upload Russian fonts for DOS charset
> cp866 on HPLJ compatible printers. They contain Courier, Times and
> Helvetica typefaces in a sufficient number of sizes.

That would be interesting.  Do you think these printer fonts would also 
work in linux?  The VGA screen fonts for DOS work in linux, apparently.
Could you give the printer the command to load the fonts in DOS and then 
load linux and print Russian instead of the usual extended ASCII?

> After having uploaded the fonts to the printer you, however, need
> to select typeface/size with code-sequences. But this can easily
> be done by linux scripts. Translating to charset cp866 should not
> be a problem either (sed script). Difficulties will appear
> with text alignment, columns, etc. of proportional typefaces.
> This is what a wordprocessor usually does.

No need for proportional fonts, or typeface size selection, just a default 
monospaced font.  My HP 500s actually have hardware settings for choosing 
number of columns.

I would love to amaze my Czech and Macedonian friends with typed letters 
(especially since my handwriting is not too legible).

> Zdravím, Christof Lange
>
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keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org
SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org