On 21:22:19 Nov 11, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > PCL is a printer control language. PS is a stack based programming > language with graphics primitives for drawing. it may also be > classed as a PDL (page description language).
Thanks. I definitely stand corrected. I definitely meant PDL and not PCL. My memory failed due to lack of proper understanding. Sorry... > > i would guess that you are assuming that "most printers" can process > PS because "most" unix print services use ghostscript to process these > files into a native printer langauge. in fact most printers cannot > process PS because implementing a PS processor is quite expensive > (requires significant processing and memory) compared to control > protocols (like PCL), although PS has other advantages. I understand what you say but still I am feeling uncomfortable. I want to know what happens behind the scenes when you type $ lpr foo.ps Assuming that foo.ps is the output of a2ps. I can only guess that the file is transfered using TCP to port 515 of the printer using the LPD protocol and then at one point the printer which understands only PCL converts PS to PCL. Or if my understanding is correct, lpr or CUPS does it for you. Is that correct? Then what does it mean when a printer manufacturer says "supports postscript printing"? And what is the relation between PS and PDF? I hear that even PDF is some form of PDL. As you can see I am quite lost at this point. :) > > this pre-processing is supported by cups and lpr but installation is > generally simpler with cups (due to greater vendor attention). cups > also has better integration with the new ghostscript processing > structure, which allows more feedback from the print processor. this > is particularly useful when using control languages (or host based > raster processing) instead of PDLs. > > the lpr protocol also has some fundamental "issues" in it's design > (much like FTP does). > > in short, i'd suggest you use, use cups unless you have a specific > reason not to. Thanks. I shall try learning CUPS sometime. regards, Girish
