Printing from Applications

Support knowledgebase (jsmeix_print-application)
Applies to

SuSE Linux: All versions

Symptom

You have configured your printer according to the manuals or, if you have SuSE Linux 7.3 or earlier, according to the article "Installing a Printer" or "Installing a printer since SuSE Linux 6.4" from our support database, but when printing directly from applications, the printer does not work properly or does not work at all.

Some Basics

This article assumes that documents in PostScript format can be printed with the command 'lpr'. You can print a normal file with something like lpr /etc/fstab, but you cannot print directly from applications.

  1. Do not configure any new printer in the application, but use an already configured printing queue. To do this, select the name of a print queue previously set up with YaST2 or enter the print command "lpr" in any of the application's masks. Some common examples, along with suggested solutions, can be found in the support database articles mentioned below. Sometimes, alias names for the print queues are also displayed in the application, which may cause some confusion. Nevertheless, the originally configured print queue name should be shown and you should be able to select it.
  2. If procedure 1 does not work, save the document to print into a PostScript file, for example, as filename.ps, and print this file from the command line with the command lpr filename.ps.
  3. If procedure 2 does not work either, it may be due to Ghostscript being unable to process the application's PostScript output. Ghostscript is used when printing on non-PostScript printers to generate the printer-specific data. Test it on the graphical interface with the command gs -r60 filename.ps. filename.ps corresponds to the PostScript file generated according to procedure 2. If the PostScript file cannot be properly represented on a second window, the Ghostscript error messages will be displayed on the terminal. Finish by pressing [CTRL]+[C] on the terminal.

    Some pdf files cannot be processed by Ghostscript and, therefore, cannot be printed. Test it by entering: gs -r60 filename.pdf


See also:
o Installing a Printer
o Printing directly from KDE-Applications

Keywords: APPLICATIONS, PRINTER, PRINTING

SDB-jsmeix_print-application, Copyright SuSE Linux AG, Nürnberg, Germany - Version: 08. Aug 2000
SuSE Linux AG - Last generated: 15. Oct 2002 by mmichna (sdb_gen 1.40.0)