Selecting a File Content Type (System Administration Guide: Advanced Administration)

System Administration Guide: Advanced Administration

Selecting a File Content Type

In releases prior to Solaris 9 9/04, Solaris Print Manager provided the following list of file content types, from which you could choose when you installed or modified a local printer. File content type is no longer a printer definition that you can assign with Solaris Print Manager. In this release, you can add a printer with PPD files, selecting printer make, model, and driver, with Solaris Print Manager. When doing so, the recommended file content type is PostScript. This file content type is set by the tool.

If you choose, you can revert to the previous behavior of Solaris Print Manager. For more information, see Reverting to Previous Solaris Print Manager Printer Definition Screens.

Note –

If you want to specify file content type when adding a new printer or modifying an existing printer, you must use the lpadmin -I command.

Print filters convert the content type of a file to a content type that is acceptable to the destination printer. The file content type tells the LP print service the type of file contents that can be printed directly, without filtering. To print without filtering, the necessary fonts must also be available in the printer. You must set up and use filtering for other types of files.

Most printers can print the following types of files directly:

The same type as the printer type. For example, PS for a PostScript printer.
The simple type. For example, an ASCII text file.

When submitting a file for printing, the user can indicate the content type of the file by using the lp -T content-type command. If no file content type is supplied when the request is submitted, the LP server looks at the first file in the request to determine the content type. If the file begins with ^D%! or %!, the request is considered to contain PostScript^TM data. Otherwise, the request is assumed to contain simple (ASCII) text. The LP print service uses the file content type to determine which filters to use to convert the file contents into a type the printer can handle.

The choices are translated to the names that the LP print service uses. The following table describes the file content types that you can choose with Solaris Print Manager.

Table 3–2 Choosing File Content Type With Solaris Print Manager


File Contents Choice	LP Print Service Name	Description
PostScript	`postscript`	PostScript files do not require filtering.
ASCII	`simple`	ASCII files do not require filtering.
Both PostScript and ASCII	`simple`, `postscript`	PostScript files and ASCII files do not require filtering.
None	`""`	All files require filtering, except those files matching the printer's type.
Any	`any`	No filtering required. If the printer cannot handle a file content type directly, the file will not be printed.

Choose the file content type that best matches the printer's capabilities. PostScript, which means filtering is not needed for PostScript files, is the default choice in Solaris Print Manager and is probably correct most of the time.

Frequently Used Printers

This section provides the printer type and file content type for the printers most commonly used with Solaris software. Although not shown, many of these printers can also directly print files with simple content type.

If you have a PostScript printer, use a printer type of PS or PSR and a content type of postscript. PSR reverses the pagination and prints the banner page last.

The following table lists additional non-PostScript printers and shows the printer type to use for configuring each printer. For all these printers, the file content type is simple.

Note –

Sun Microsystems does not supply filtering software for the printers listed in the following table, among others. However, you can use unsupported printers if you supply filtering or if the printer can directly print the file content type. If you have questions about any printer for which Sun Microsystems does not supply filters, contact the printer manufacturer.

Table 3–3 Some Non-PostScript Printers for Which Sun Does Not Supply Filters


Printer	Printer Type
Daisy	`daisy`
Datagraphix	`datagraphix`
DEC LA100	`la100`
DEC LN03	`ln03`
DECwriter	`decwriter`
Diablo	`diablo`
	`diablo-m8`
Epson 2500 variations	`epson2500`
	`epson2500-80`
	`epson2500-hi`
	`epson2500-hi80`
Hewlett-Packard HPCL printer	`hplaser`
IBM Proprinter	`ibmproprinter`

If you want to set up a printer that is not in the terminfo database, see How to Add a terminfo Entry for an Unsupported Printer.