ITEM: CL5799L
OLSS(Downloading fonts charcter set to 4039+ printer in AIX
Question:
Downloading fonts charcter set to 4039+ printer in AIX.
My customer has 4039+ laser printer attached directly to RS/6000
running AIX 4.1.4 , he wants to print Arabic reports on it and the
arabic language ( IBM 864 code page ) is not installed on the eprom of
the printer , so We need to download the fonts code to the printer .
how can I download the font file ( from the virtual printer ) , what
are the syntax of the attributes to do so ? and from where can I get
the 864 font file that I'll use to download from AIX ????
Plse help me , it is an urgent problem ? at least tell me how is
the download procedure from the virtual printer . Thanx.
Response:
Downloading the font is the easy part of this question. This
can be done by just putting the virtual printer into passthrough
mode.
qprt -j! -J! -dp -Z! -Pqueue font.file
The rest of the story depends on a number of things:
1. Does the printer have FLASH memory.
If it does, you can download the font once and it will
stay in the memory if you add the commands to the font
to have it do that. I can give you commands and directions
if this is the case and the file is a PCL file.
2. Is the desired font PCL or PostScript.
If it is PostScript, the best thing is to embed the font in the
application, but it can also be downloaded to the printer
at the time of printing by the virtual printer. If you are
inside IBM, there is a WEB page that describes doing this at:
http://tesch.aix.dfw.ibm.com/printips/downldps.html. If you
are not, I can append this to the item at a later date.
If the font is PCL, then you can imbed it in PCL macro's and
download to flash memory once and it will stay there. IT
will then have a font number and symbol set that must be
called from the file or the virtual printer.
If you are printing TEXT files to a PCL print virtual printer,
then you will have to set _X=IBM-864 (This assumes you have an
IBM-864 file in /usr/lib/lpd/pio/trans1. You will also need to
have a file /usr/lib/lpd/pio/trans2/ibm.864 for output translation
of characters. You will then need to add the appropriate
attributes to the virtual printer c3, c4, c5 or whatever value
is pointed to by the ibm.864 file. You can find this by using
"od -c /usr/lib/lpd/pio/trans2/ibm.864 | pg" For example when I
do this I get:
0000000 P I O S T A G E 2 X L A T E
0000020 \\0 \\0 \\0 002 c B e b 377 377 \\0 \\0 377 377
This shows cB on the second line. You would need to add a cB
attribute to the virtual printer and that attribute needs to
contain the command to switch the symbol set on the printer.
This will look something like cB=\\33(ID, where ID is a value
supplied by the maker of the font.
After you do this, then you have to find the search path for
the trans1 symbol set for the printer. For the Lexmark 4039+
colon files this is: :565:mB::hplj.roman8,hplj.ibmus,hplj.ecma
You will have to add ibm.864 to this list
:565:mB:ibm.864,hplj.roman8,hplj.ibmus,hplj.ecma
should do this ok.
Now it should work if the font is in flash memory, which you
can make sure of by printing FLASH from the test menu.
I'm sure this is confusing. The font manufactures advertise
on the internet, so you just go to a search engine and look
for ibm.864, pcl, and font. Of course the first thing you
might do is contact LexMark to see if they have any font
cartridges. Some Potential SOurces
http://www.multilingua.com/ara.html - PostScript Fonts
Chicago Multiligua Graphics
http://www.datascan.co.uk/
Datascan Font Service Ltd
Unit 1 Liberty Centre, Mount Pleasant, Wembley,
Middlesex HA0 1TX, United Kingdom
http://www.knowledge.co.uk/xxx/mpcdir/company/atc001.htm
Fonts from Arabic Translation Center
90 Mapledale Avenue
Akron, OH 44301
USA
Tel: +1 (216) 724 9851
Fax: +1 (216) 724 9853
email: 74602.2647@compuserve.com
Arabic Fonts
http://www.planet.edu/~isam/arabic/asm/node15.html
Type 1 postscript Arabic font in format suitable for Unix.
http://people.wiesbaden.netsurf.de/~kikita/
Fontastics Font index
http://www.publish.com/treasury/directories/foundry/
Directory of Font Foundaries.
In Egypt, the Support Team there have been successful in using
ibm.1046 for printing Arab fonts, you might contact them.
If you get the font and are still having problems printing,
them reopen the item and maybe I can help clarify. I know
this is a lot of information at a fairly fast but maybe too
high level pace.
NEXT: Close for customer Response.
Support Line: OLSS(Downloading fonts charcter set to 4039+ printer in AIX ITEM: CL5799L
Dated: February 1997 Category: N/A
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