Handling Special Printing Modes

A print filter handles special modes and requests to print specific pages. A special printing mode is needed to print any characteristics of print requests that require a customized filter. Filters handle the following characteristics:

• Printer type

• Character pitch

• Line pitch

• Page length

• Page width

• Pages to print

• Character set

• Form name

• Number of copies

The LP print service provides default settings for these characteristics; however, a print filter may handle some characteristics more efficiently. For example, some printers can handle multiple copies more efficiently than the LP print service, and, in this case, you may want to provide a filter for multiple-copy page control.