Setting up a non-postscript printer on a Debian PC

Chris Lale

          
        

Abstract

Debian Linux 2.2 (Potato) uses the lpr spooling daemon. Many applications send postscript output to the printer. This code is not interpreted by non-postscript printers - they print the code instead, The result can be pages and pages of junk and a clogged print queue.

Ghostscript can render postscript files as graphics so that they can be printed on non-postscript dot-matrix, inkjet and laser printers. Apsfilter interfaces lpr to Ghostscript so that your printer will print postscript, text, images etc as graphics.

This article describes how to install and configure the Ghostscript and Apsfilter packages.


Revision History
Revision 1.212th March 2002Revised by: CTL
Removed use of dselect and added use of apt-get instead. Tidied up formatted layout of the XML document.
Revision 1.126th February 2002Revised by: CTL
Added abstract, completed "Configuring Apsfilter" and "Checklist".
Revision 1.024th February 2002Revised by: CTL
Initial release

Table of Contents
1. About this document
1.1. Copyright information
1.2. Bugs, errors and mistakes
1.3. Spelling, punctuation and grammar
2. Introduction
2.1. Don't panic!
2.2. System requirements
2.3. What's the problem?
2.4. Overview of the process
3. Preparation
3.1. Information about your printer
3.2. Choosing a printer driver
4. Installing Apsfilter
4.1. Logging in as an ordinary user
4.2. Becoming a super-user
4.3. Running apt-get install
4.4. Tidying up
5. Configuring Apsfilter
5.1. Don't panic!
5.2. Running apsfilterconfig
5.3. Check that your driver is available
5.4. Printer driver selection
5.5. Interface setup
5.6. Printing the test page
5.7. Saving your Apsfilter configuration
5.8. Finishing off
6. Checklist