Printing for UTF-8

An enhanced mp print filter that can print various input file formats including flat text files written in UTF-8 is available in the current Oracle Solaris environment. This print filter uses TrueType and Type 1 scalable fonts and X11 bitmap fonts available on the Oracle Solaris system. The filter can also make use of printer resident fonts and can act as an X print server client.

The output from the utility is standard PostScript and can be sent to any PostScript printer. The mp utility can also output any page description language when configured as an X Print server client, mp is supported by the print server.

To use the utility, type the following command:

system% mp filename | lp

You can also use the utility as a filter, since mp 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 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

Using lpfilter(1M), you can add the utility for a filter as follows:

system# lpfilter -f lp1 -F pathname 

The command tells LP that a converter (in this case, mp) is available through the filter description file named pathname. pathname contains the following information:

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

Refer to the mp(1) man page for more detail.