\ .\" This man page was generated by the Netpbm tool 'makeman' from HTML source. .\" Do not hand-hack it! If you have bug fixes or improvements, please find .\" the corresponding HTML page on the Netpbm website, generate a patch .\" against that, and send it to the Netpbm maintainer. .TH "Pbmtoppa User Manual" 0 "01 May 2005" "netpbm documentation" .SH NAME pbmtoppa - convert PBM image to HP Printer Performance Architecture (PPA) .UN synopsis .SH SYNOPSIS \fBpbmtoppa\fP [\fIpbm_file\fP [\fIppa_file\fP]] .UN description .SH DESCRIPTION .PP This program is part of .BR Netpbm (1) . \fBpbmtoppa\fP converts page images in PBM format to Hewlett Packard's PPA (Printer Performance Architecture) format, which is the data stream format expected by some HP 'Windows-only' printers including the HP Deskjet 820C series, the HP DeskJet 720 series, and the HP DeskJet 1000 series. .PP \fIpbm_file\fP is the file specification of the input file or \fB-\fP for Standard Input. The default is Standard Input. .PP The input file contains one or more PBM images, with each one being a single page. Each image must have the exact dimensions of a page (at 600 pixels per inch in both directions). Significantly, this is the format that Ghostscript produces. .PP \fIppa_file\fP is the file specification of the output file or \fB-\fP for Standard Output. The default is Standard Output. .PP To print Postscript on an HP PPA printer, just use Ghostscript with the \fBpbmraw\fP (or \fBpbm\fP) device driver. .PP You can generate a test page for use with this program with \fBpbmpage\fP. .PP You can also set up a printer filter so you can submit PBM input directly to your print queue. See the documentation for your print spooler for information on how to do that, or look in hp820install.doc for an example lpd print filter for Postscript and text files. .PP Sometimes, \fBpbmtoppa\fP generates a file which the printer will not print (because \fBpbmtoppa\fP's input is unprintable). When this happens, all three lights blink to signal the error. This is usually because there is material outside of the printer's printable area. To make the file print, increase the margins via \fBpbmtoppa\fP options or a configuration file. See .UR #calibration the section on calibration .UE \& below. .SS About PPA .PP The PPA printer language is a far lower level language than most. When you use a PPA printer, most of the processing that a conventional printer does is done instead on the computer end of the wire. In particular, \fBpbmtoppa\fP has to do 'swath cutting,' and \&'sweep formatting,' which other printers do themselves. There is very little intelligence inside a PPA printer; \fBpbmtoppa\fP generates direct controls for the printer's hardware. .PP The design goal of PPA was to reduce the cost of a printer by exploiting computing resources already present in the computer that requests the printing. CPU power, ROM, and RAM requirements inside the printer are all reduced compared to a conventional printer. .PP PPA was new in 1997. It was preceded by Hewlett Packard's PCL (Printer Control Language) language. HP manufactured PPA printers for only a few years, and no one else ever did. .UN options .SH OPTIONS .TP \fB-v\fP \fIversion\fP printer version (720, 820, or 1000) .TP \fB-x\fP \fIxoff\fP horizontal offset adjustment in 1/600 inches. .TP \fB-y\fP \fIyoff\fP vertical offset adjustment in 1/600 inches. .TP \fB-t\fP \fItopmarg\fP top margin in 1/600 inches (default: 150 = 0.25 inch) .TP \fB-l\fP \fIleftmarg\fP left margin in 1/600 inches (default: 150 = 0.25 inch) .TP \fB-r\fP \fIrightmarg\fP right margin in 1/600 inches (default: 150 = 0.25 inch) .TP \fB-b\fP \fIbotmarg\fP bottom margin in 1/600 inches (default: 150 = 0.25 inch) .TP \fB-s\fP \fIpaper\fP paper size: \fBus\fP or \fBa4\fP. Default is \fBus\fP. .TP \fB-d\fP \fIdpi\fP Print resolution in dots per inch. .TP \fB-f\fP \fIcfgfile\fP Read parameters from the configuration file named \fIcfgfile\fP. See .UR #configfile CONFIGURATION FILES .UE \& .PP The offset adjustments you specify with \fB-x\fP and \fB-y\fP accumulate. I.e. if you specify them multiple times, the total offset adjustment is the sum of the adjustments you specify. \fB-x 60 -x 120\fP is the same as \fB-x 180\fP. .PP The \fB-v\fP option undoes any preceding \fB-x\fP and \fB-y\fP options, leaving the horizontal and vertical adjustments their default values. .UN configfile .SH CONFIGURATION FILES .PP You can use a configuration file to specify parameters rather than use invocation options. \fBpbmtoppa\fP processes the file \fB/etc/pbmtoppa.conf\fP, if it exists, before processing any options. It then processes each configuration file named by a \fB-f\fP option in order, applying the parameters from the configuration file as if they were invocation options used in the place of the \fB-f\fP option. .PP Configuration files have the following format: .nf \fB#\fP\fIComment\fP \fIkey1\fP \fIvalue1\fP \fIkey2\fP \fIvalue2\fP [etc.] .fi .PP Valid \fIkey\fPs are \fBversion\fP, \fBxoffset\fP, \fByoffset\fP, \fBtopmargin\fP, \fBleftmargin\fP, \fBrightmargin\fP, \fBbottommargin\fP, \fBpapersize\fP, or any non-null prefix of these words. Valid values are the same as with the corresponding invocation parameters. .UN examples .SH EXAMPLES .PP Print a test pattern: .nf \fBpbmpage | pbmppa >/dev/lp1\fP .fi .PP Print three pages: .nf \fBcat page1.pbm page2.pbm page3.pbm | pbmppa >/dev/lp1\fP .fi .PP Print the Postscript file myfile.ps: .nf gs -sDEVICE=rawpbm -q -dNOPAUSE -r600 \e -sOutputFile=- myfile.ps ;\e | pbmtoppa | lpr .fi .UN calibration .SH CALIBRATION .PP To be able to print successfully and properly, you need to tell \fBpbmtoppa\fP an X and a Y offset appropriate for your printer to use when generating the page. You can specify these offsets with the \fB-x\fP and \fB-y\fP invocation options or with the \fBxoff\fP and \fByoff\fP parameters in a \fBpbmtoppa\fP configuration file. .PP To determine the correct offsets, use the \fBpbmpage\fP program. .PP If while trying to do this calibration, the printer refuses to print a page, but just blinks all three lights, specify large margins (e.g. 600 pixels -- one inch) via \fBpbmpage\fP invocation options while doing the calibration. .PP For example: .nf \fBpbmpage | pbmtoppa >/dev/lp1\fP .fi or .nf \fBpbmpage | pbmtoppa | lpr -l\fP .fi (if your printer filter recognizes the '-l' (direct output) parameter). .PP In the test pattern, the grid is marked off in pixel coordinate numbers. Unfortunately, these coordinates are probably cut off before the edge of the paper. You'll have to use a ruler to estimate the pixel coordinate of the left and top edges of the actual sheet of paper (should be within +/- 300, may be negative; there are 600 pixels per inch). .PP Add these coordinates to the X and Y offsets by either editing the configuration file or using the \fB-x \fP and \fB-y\fP command-line parameters. .PP When \fBpbmtoppa\fP is properly calibrated, the center mark should be in the center of the paper. Also, the margins should be able to be as small as 1/4 inch without causing the printer to choke with \&'blinking lights syndrome'. .UN redhat .SH RED HAT LINUX INSTALLATION .PP RedHat users may find the following tip from Panayotis Vryonis <\fIvrypan@hol.gr\fP> helpful. The same should work for the 820 and 1000, but it hasn't been tested. Also, use the pbmraw GSDriver if you have it; it's faster. .PP Here is a tip to integrate HP720C support in RedHat's printtool: .PP Install pbmtoppa. Copy pbmtoppa to /usr/bin. .PP Edit 'printerdb' (in my system it is found in /usr/lib/rhs/rhs-printfilters ) and append the following lines: .nf \f(CW ----------------------Cut here----------------------- StartEntry: DeskJet720C GSDriver: pbm Description:\ {HP\ DeskJet\ 720C} About: { \e This driver drives the HP DeskJet 720C \e inkjet printer. \e It does not support color printing. \e IMPORTANT! Insert \e '- | pbm2ppa -' \e in the 'Extra GS Options ' field.\e } Resolution: {600} {600} {} EndEntry ---------------------------------------------------- \fP .fi .PP Now you can add an HP720C printer just like any other, using printtool. .UN seealos .SH SEE ALSO .BR pbmpage (1) , .BR pstopnm (1) , .BR pbm (5) .PP This program was derived from \fBpbm2ppa\fP. \fBpbm2ppa\fP is obsolete and has been replaced by \fBpnm2ppa\fP, which does the same things as \fBpbmtoppa\fP except it also works with color and has lots more features. See .UR http://pnm2ppa.sourceforge.net http://pnm2ppa.sourceforge.net .UE \& for more information about the PPA protocol and the separately distributed \fBpnm2ppa\fP program. .PP The file INSTALL-MORE in the pbmtoppa directory of the Netpbm source code contains detailed instructions on setting up a system to use pbmtoppa to allow convenient printing on HP PPA printers. It was written by Michael Buehlmann. .UN author .SH AUTHOR .PP Tim Norman. Copyright (C) 1998. Licensed under GNU Public License .PP Manual page by Bryan Henderson, May 2000.