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Printing

There are a variety of printers available for use. Please check the printing policies before deciding to use one of the department's printers.

How To Print - Linux

The command lpr(1) sends a file to a printer. The CUPS version of lpr understands a variety of formats including, text, PostScript, and PDF. Many GUI programs, such as Mozilla and Acrobat, will print by passing arguments through LPR. Usually you can see the command the program will use after selecting Print from the File menu.

Your default printer is specified by your shell's PRINTER environment variable. For new users, this is set to bw1 in the .environment file in your home directory. To change your default printer, modify your PRINTER environment variable in the appropriate location. Find a list of available printers here.

How to Print - Windows

In Windows, most programs will let you print from the File menu. Go to Start->Control Panel->Printers & Faxes to see the printers available. Machines managed by tstaff will have all departmental printers automatically added to this list. Laptop users should go to Start->Run and enter \\guestprint, right click on the printer they want to use, and select connect. This will add that printer to the Printers & Faxes List.

To set the default printer in Windows, right click on the printer in the Printers & Faxes list, and select "Select as Default Printer."

Windows Printing Options

Linux Printing Options

CUPS, the Common Unix Printing System, is considered by many to be the next generation in printing under Unix, replacing the Line Printer Daemon (LPD) designed in the 70's. It is possible to set your printing options graphically as in Windows or through the command line.

Graphically Setting Print Options

To set printer options graphically, you may use the gtklp(1) command instead of lpr in exactly the same manner. After you click Print in your application, a tabbed window will pop up where you can set options such as letterhead and single-sided printing in a point-and-click manner. Most of the useful options are on the General tab.

By default, changes to the options presented in gtklp apply only to the current print job and not to subsequent print jobs. If you have a set of options that you wish to be able to reuse easily in the future, you can click on "Templates" at the bottom. To permanently change your default options for this printer, simply click "Save". To save a set of options for this printer that you only want to use occasionally, type a name for this set in the box labeled "Instance", and then click "New". You can modify or remove these named sets of options later by clicking "Templates" later.

Setting Print Options on the Command Line

For the common tasks of printing single-sided, on letterhead, and on transparency, we have modified the command-line lpr program to accept -s, -l, and -t, respectively. The full feature command set for CUPS are listed below and is available from man printoptions:

Printing non text/postscript documents from the command line
lpr acrobatdocument.pdf

Setting the Printer (to bw4)
lpr -Pbw4 mydocument

Setting Duplex Printing (two-sided-long-edge is default)
lpr -o sides=one-sided mydocument
lpr -o sides=two-sided-long-edge mydocument
lpr -o sides=two-sided-short-edge mydocument

Setting the media type (duplex is on by default, so turn it off)
lpr -o media=Transparency -o sides=one-sided mydocument
lpr -o media=Letterhead -o sides=one-sided mydocument

Print on Letterhead for first page, Plain for remaining pages
lpr -o sides=one-sided -o 1:media=Letterhead -o media=Plain mydocument

Print multiple document pages on a printed page (N-Up)
lpr -o number-up=2 mydocument
lpr -o number-up=4 mydocument

Print only odd or even pages
lpr -o page-set=odd mydocument
lpr -o page-set=even mydocument

Print page ranges
lpr -o page-ranges=5 mydocument
lpr -o page-ranges=2-5 mydocument
lpr -o page-ranges=2-5,7-9 mydocument

Rotate page
lpr -o landscape mydocument

Set the percentage brightness
lpr -o brightness=120 mydocument

Set the Gamma correction, 1000 is normal.
lpr -o gamma=1700 mydocument

Print multiple copies (Use copiers when possible!)
lpr -n num copies -o collate=True mydocument

Text Printing Options
lpr -o prettyprint mydocument.txt
lpr -o cpi=10 mydocument.txt
lpr -o lpi=8 mydocument.txt
lpr -o columns=2 mydocument.txt

Setting Page Margins (in 1/72's of an Inch)
lpr -o page-left=72 -o page-right=72 -o page-top=72 -o page-bottom=72 mydocument.txt

Image Printing Options
lpr -o position=center myimage {center,top,left,right,top-left,top-right, bottom,bottom-left,bottom-right}
lpr -o scaling=100 myimage (1-800%)
lpr -o ppi=300 myimage (dots per inch)
lpr -o hue=-10 myimage (-360 to 360)
lpr -o saturation=110 myimage (0-200%)

Setting Default Options

The printing options above can also be used to set default options for future print jobs. Use the lpoptions command with the same arguments above. The options will be saved in the .lpoptions file in your home directory. The following example will set 1/2" margins and make text smaller:

lpoptions -o page-left=36 -o page-right=36 -o page-top=36 -o page-bottom=36
lpoptions -o cpi=12
lpoptions -o lpi=7

Windows Printing Options

Windows users can click the “printer options” or “printer preferences” button after selecting File->Print from any application.
Page Owner: Kathy Kirman Last Modified: Tue Apr 22 14:01:32 2008