Specifications
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Guide to Printers and Printing
Font Cartridges and Character Sets
Printers differ in the way they print different font styles. Some have font cartridges, while
others have preprogrammed, selectable character sets.The print service can minimize the
impact of these differences on the users of the print service.
You can specify which font cartridge or character set is available with each printer. When
you list the font cartridges or character sets available, you assign names to them. These
names are for your convenience and the convenience of the users on your system.
Because different printers might have similar font cartridges or character sets, use common
font names on all printers. This allows a user to submit a file for printing and request a
particular font style, without requiring that the user know which printer is used or whether a
font cartridge or selectable character set is used.
If the printer has mountable font cartridges, you need to list only their names. If the printer
has selectable character sets, you must list their names and map each set to a name or
number that uniquely identifies the set in the terminfo database.
Specifying Character Sets
For printers that allow selectable character sets, determine the names of the character sets
and then map each set to a name or number in the terminfo database.
• To determine the names of the character sets listed in the terminfo database, enter:
tput –T printer–type csnm 0
The printer–type is the name of the printer type in question. This command should
display the name of the 0th character set (the character set obtained by default after the
printer is initialized).
• To display the names of the other character sets, repeat the command above, replacing
0 with 1, 2, 3, and so on. In general, the terminfo names should closely match the names
used in the user documentation for the printer. However, because not all manufacturers
use the same names, the terminfo names may differ from one printer type to the next.
• To specify a list of character set names and to map them into terminfo names or
numbers, enter:
/usr/sbin/lpadmin –p printer_name –S characterset_list
The characterset_list is a list of names, separated by commas or spaces. If you use
spaces to separate the names, enclose the entire list (but not the –S) in quotes. Each
item in the list is a character set name mapping (alias) that looks like one of the
following:
cs N = characterset_name
characterset_name1 = characterset_name2
The variable N is a number between 0 and 63 that identifies the number of the character
set in the terminfo database. characterset_name1 identifies the character set by its
name in the terminfo database. In both instances, the name to the right of the equal sign
(=) is the name you choose as an alias of the character set.
Note: You do not have to provide a list of aliases for the character sets if the terminfo
names are adequate. You can refer to a character set by terminfo name, by number,
or by your alias.
For example, your printer has two selectable character sets (sets #1 and #2) in addition
to the standard character set (set #0). The printer type is 5310. Enter the following
commands to determine the names of the selectable character sets:
tput –T 5310 csnm 1
english
tput –T 5310 csnm 2
finnish
The words english and finnish, which are the names of the selectable character
sets, are the output of the commands. The name finnish is adequate for referring to