Printing with the mp Utility

A new and enhanced mp(1)print filter is available in the Solaris 8 environment that can print various input file formats including flat text files written in UTF-8. This filter uses TrueType and Type 1 scalable fonts and X11 bitmap fonts available on the Solaris operating system.

The output from the utility is standard PostScript, and can be sent to any PostScript printer.

Starting with the next release of the Solaris environment, zutops (10) will be obsolete.

To print with the mp utility, type the following:

system% mp filename | lp

You can also use the utility as a filter, as the utility accepts stdin stream:

system% cat  filename | mp | lp

You can set the utility as a printing filter for a line printer. For example, the following command sequence tells the printer service LP that the printer lp1 accepts only mp format files. This command line also installs the printer lp1 on port /dev/ttya. See the lpadmin (1m) man page for more details.

system% lpadmin -p lp1 -v /dev/ttya -I MP
system% accept lp1
system% enable lp1 

You can add the lpfilter utility for a filter by using the lpfilter(1M) command as follows:

system% lpfilter -f filtername -F pathname

The lpfilter command tells LP that a converter (in this case, xutops) is available through the filter description file named pathname. The pathname can be determined as follows:

Input types: simple
Output types: MP
Command: /usr/bin/mp 

The filter converts the default type file input to PostScript output using /usr/bin/mp.

To print a UTF-8 text file, use the following command:

system% lp -T MP UTF-8-file

For more details on the mp(1) command, refer to the mp(1) man page.