CIMS Linux Network Printing Information
- Location of Public Printers
- Setup Printing from the CIMS Network
- Printing Text or Postscript Files
- Printing HTML Files from my Browser
- Printing PDF or PS Files
- Printing in Open Office
- Print Options (single/double sided)
- File Types
Setup Printing from the CIMS Network
- Choose a printer. Make sure you know which printer you want to use. If you don't look around you and figure out which printer to use, you will most likely never find your printed documents as they'll end up spooling from some printer in the deepest darkest closet in the basement near boiler room where your papers will just get added to the furnace to help power our computers. This will waste paper, aka, trees, aka, rain forests! All the public printers should be clearly marked with their printer name (see the list of all public printers at CIMS).
- Once you've settled on a printer, from your Desktop's menu select "Applications->Preferences->More Preferences->Default Printer" (gnome-default-printer from the terminal). Now Select the printer name of the printer you want to use. Now Select "Set Default".
Note: For a full list of printers and the corresponding print server, the "lpstat -v" command can be run.
Printing Text or Postscript Files
lpr -P <printer_name> <file_name>
where <printer_name> is the name of the printer you wish to print to (see the list of all public printers at CIMS.)
More information regarding lpr and other printing related issues are available from the printing support pages.
Printing HTML Files from my Browser
Depending on your setup and browser these instructions may vary. In some instances after selecting "File->Print" from the browser's menu, you may be able to select a printer from the print dialog's "Printer:" box. This would probably be listed as "bwpr##, cpr##, or nhp##" (see the list of all public pr inters at CIMS.)
If however you haven't specified a default printer and a printer name is not present and simply "Postscript/Default" is listed or you are experiencing other printing problems, you may have to select "Properties" from the print dialog and then edit the "Print Command". This takes a standard lpr command line option such as "lpr -P <printer_name>" where you can change <printer_name> to specify the printer to use. More information regarding lpr and other printing related issues are available from the printing support pages.
Printing PDF files
ggv (gnome ghostview) - uses the lpr command for printing. When using lpr you have to specify a printer with the "-P <printer_name>" option. For instance "lpr -P bwpr13" (bwpr13 is located in WWH 229, see the list of all public printers at CIMS.)
NOTE: you MUST specify the printer value before printing! You do this by going to "Edit->Postscript Viewer Preferences" then select the "Printing" tab. If you do not do this, nothing will print out!
xpdf - uses the lpr command for printing. When using lpr you have to specify a printer with the "-P <printer_name>" option. For instance "lpr -P bwpr13" (bwpr13 is located in WWH 229, see the list of all public printers at CIMS.)
NOTE: you must specify the printer when asked for the print command. If you do not specify it with the -P option, nothing will print out!
acroread (adobe acrobat reader) - Uses the lpr command for printing. When using lpr you have to specify a printer with the "-P <printer_name>" option. For instance "lpr -P bwpr13" (bwpr13 is located in WWH 229, see the list of all public printers at CIMS.)
NOTE: you must specify the printer when asked for the print command. If you do not specify it with the -P option, nothing will print out!
gpdf and kpdf - Both use the cups printing system and therefore you can just select "File->Print", then select your printer and options and finally select "Print".
Printing in Open Office
How do I print with the landscape setting via OpenOffice?
Select Format from the Application menu in an OpenOffice program, click on Page, and then the Page tab. There should be two buttons designating which orientation you would prefer, landscape or portrait.
Note: Both selecting landscape from the print dialog and/or electing File from the Application menu and clicking on Properties for your printer to select the orientation will NOT work.
How do I fit everything onto X number of pages?
Select Format from the Application menu in an OpenOffice program, click on Page, and then the Sheet tab. There should be a button under Scale which allows you to fit the printout on a number of pages.
More information regarding lpr and other printing related issues are available from the printing support pages.
How to Print from the Command Line in Linux
To print a file from a computer at the CIMS lab, simply type the following line:
lpr -P <printer_name> <file_name>
where <printer_name> is the name of the printer you wish to print to (see the list of all public printers at CIMS), all the printers have labels with their designation.
To get a listing of all jobs that are currently in the queue for a particular printer, enter the following command:
lpq -P<printer_name>
To remove your particular job from the queue, you can type:
lprm -P <printer_name> <job_id>
Print Options
Printer specific options can be passed to the printer via lpr. The list of options available depends on the type of printer.
List All Available Print Options
To get a list of all available print options for a specific printer run the following comand:
lpoptions -l -p <printer_name>Simplex/Duplex (single/double sided) Printing
All the public printers are set to print duplex (i.e. on both sides of the paper) by default. If you need to print simplex refer to the following examples for simplex/duplex printing.
Simplex Printing (Single Sided Printing):
lpr -P <printer_name> -o sides=one-sided <file_name>Duplex Printing (Double Sided Printing):
lpr -P <printer_name> -o sides=two-sided-long-edge <file_name>Transparency Printing:
lpr -P <printer_name> -o mediatype=Transparency <file_name>Enable Page Banners:
lpr -P <printer_name> -o job-sheets=standard <file_name>Disable Page Banners:
lpr -P <printer_name> -o job-sheets=none <file_name>File Types
All of our printers are postscript printers. Do not send binary files directly to the printer. You must instead use an application capable of converting it to Postscript when it sends the job to the printer.
Some examples ...