Does anyone know if it's possible to set up something in Windows (preferably 2000) where I can send PostScript to a shared ``virtual'' printer and have it do the translations and get it to print out on a non-PostScript printer? I ask because I have a printer (and Alps MD-1000) that I like (plus, I'm not in the market to buy a new one) that has a non-standard print language and I want to be able to print to it from my Unix, et al., machines and the only computers I can print from now are Windows machines.

Things I already know about include Ghostscript (doesn't know about the printer's language) and ESP Print PRO (I don't feel like paying for a solution and I don't really need a third print protocol on my network).

Any suggestions would be helpful.

The irony is that the Windows printer driver model was supposed to rid us of this very problem.

By disallowing filters. Good one.

And it does rid you of this problem assuming you're working under Microsoft's paradigm that you only run Windows machines.

Hah! Figured out how to do it. As it turned out, it was all right there on the Ghostscript page all along, as long as I was able to see it and compile it into useful forms....

For those who might want to do this in the future, here's general instructions:

First, install ghostscript and GSView. Ghostscript is a free PostScript interpreter. GSView is a set of Windows applications that use ghostscript to do various things, such as view and print PostScript files.

Second, install RedMon. RedMon creates ``Redirected Printer Ports''. What that means is that it will accept connections to a virtual printer and redirect the information that comes in to another program.

Third, configure the RedMon port that you create to redirect to the gsprint.exe program that gets installed with GSView. Give it the arguments ``-printer "<printername>" -''. The <printername> should be the name of the printer you want it to actually print to as seen in the Printers Control Panel. The dash tells it to accept input on stdin.

Fourth, share the RedMon-created printer and set up your remote printing.

That's about it. I've successfully printed from my Unix machines using smbclient. Now I just need to set it up so that I can just use lpr, but that should be a cakewalk compared to finding all the appropriate Windows hacks.

There was one more annoying problem that I'm going to tell you about, since everyone was obviously so fascinated.

RedMon is running as a service, I guess, which means that it was running as user SYSTEM (or whatever it is), which means that gsprint.exe was, as well. And, in a remarkably annoying piece of Windows implementation specifics, printers are defined in HKEY_CURRENT_USER, and Windows doesn't put the printer definitions in the .DEFAULT user's registry, so the printer I was printing to wouldn't be seen when using SYSTEM as the user.

I initially solved this problem (as I wasn't aware of the specifics I listed above at the time) by selecting RedMon's ``Run As User'' option, which made it run the service as the user I was connecting as, which did have the pertinent printers defined. But, for some reason, when that user was not logged in at the console, it accepted the print job, but dropped it on the floor. So I was forced to revert to not ``Run As User''.

Turns out that I had to manually copy registry keys from my user's registry to .DEFAULT's registry, specifying those printers. Something like .../Software/Microsoft/Windows NT/Current Version/Devices/*. (BTW, I love that Windows 2000 still lists itself in the registry as Windows NT.)

And then I had to set up my MacOS X machine to print to that OpenBSD machine's LPR service to get it to print, since MacOSX doesn't understand SMB printers, even though it understands SMB fileshares. (That means that printing there looks like Application->local print server->Unix LPR->Windows SMB->ghostscript->Windows local print sever->printer.) And I haven't solved the MacOS printing at all (other than I have a demo copy of DAVE that's good for another week or so).

Maybe this all should have gone under the ``Things I Hate'' thread.

There are a few RIPs out that would do what you want. In fact, I thought ALPS was bundling one a while back. Epson has a solution too.

I see you've already figured it out, just thought I'd increase my post count.

But, the windows driver model more than likely makes this easier, not more difficult to do. It's just that support doesn't come built into Windows for your requirement.

Bruno

Well, the driver model itself is not the problem. In fact, from what little I know, it seems to be nice in that it's remarkably transparent for what it's doing. The problem is that Windows provides no way to implement filters on the server side. Fortunately, RedMon allows me to hack in there to do that. The other problem is that Alps apparently doesn't want to release the spec for their printer language (I've called and asked repeatedly so that I could implement it myself). This makes no sense. Since they have a very small and diminishing stake in the printer market, it's not like it makes sense for them to want to keep other manufacturers away from their spec, as it wouldn't gain the other manufacturers anything to use it, since there are already two standards, and those standards, PCL and PS, are both freely available, so it's not like they would lose anything by releasing theirs. Remarkably annoying.

Are you saying that I could get a RIP that would understand my printer's language? How? (And define RIP for me. I've used them before, but I never knew what part of it was actually the RIP. The network connectivity? The translation to a new language? The combination?)

RIP = Raster Image Processor. Specifically I was talking about a software PS RIP (otherwise you're definitely not getting anything cheaply)

I am pretty certain that I saw something for use with ALPS printers specifically. But even if not, there should be solutions that are not printer-specific and work in conjunction with your Windows-installed driver. Very basic: it takes in post script, rasterizes it, spits it out as a bitmap. The solution, ideally would sit on your PC and allow network connectivity (it would be pretty useless for prepress use if it didn't). Now, since i'm not mentioning any specific products this is all very general. You may have very well set up the best solution from a cost standpoint (free) I don't know that you'd be able to do any better (or more convenient) without paying for it. Not to mention that a given product may be crippled in some way that would make the solution less than ideal for you. And the fact that some RIP solutions offer all sorts of goodies like colour management, anti-aliasing, optimized for large-format, etc..

I just checked ALPS' site and sure enough, there's a software RIP in their accessories section. Like almost everything else on their site, it seems to say it's discontinued. And for some reason it says Mac-Only on the first line and then says Mac/PC in the body.

Bruno

Not along the same lines of interconnectivity and sharing... And not ALPS-related...

When you're in the market for a new printer, take a look at PShop (not Photoshop )
http://www.vividata.com/postshop.html

Seems like a nice print processor for (many flavours of) Unix.

Oh.. And with regards to Ghostscript... I was just doing some light reading.. If you have a supported printer (from its driver list) then you can skip using GSPRINT (and I did just read that gsprint is faster/better than the older mswinpr2 (which then talks to the actual windows printer driver)).

My printer is PS and connected to my ethernet switch. It lives at a fixed IP.

Bruno

I would prefer a PostScript printer, but licensing PS from Adobe apparently costs quite a lot, since PS printers seem to cost 50% more than the same non-PS printer. (Lexmark made some fairly nice not-too-expensive PS laser printers. I might consider one of those in the future if that's still the case when I get around to it.)

PShop sounds nice, but, honestly, it doesn't do anything that I couldn't set up for free in an hour or so. Of course, its quality may well be better for certain things.

Oh, in that case, ghostscript is a software PS RIP. Fair enough. I've done what you suggested. (GS can output things other than printer language files. For example, I use it to generate PDF from PS all the time. It can also just rasterize the whole thing.)

It's a good thing that Alps's software products are no longer available. I've seldom seen worse driver software. They couldn't just use the built-in Windows software, they had to pop up this probably 400x400 window that graphically showed you the progress of the print by simulating the paper going through the printer, which was even funnier, considering that it's a multipass printer, and it only ever showed single passes. Lousy. The fact that Microsoft included a driver for my printer with Windows 2000 was one of the major reasons I upgraded -- in order to get away from that thing.