PRINTERS(1M) Printing Tools PRINTERS(1M)
NAME
printers - graphical printer manager command
SYNOPSIS
printers [ X toolkit options ]
DESCRIPTION
printers provides a graphical interface to the System V print spooling
system. It allows the user to easily add, remove, and configure
printers. It also has commands for setting the system default printer,
setting printer specific options, and viewing the job queue of a
particular printer.
printers is typically started by using the "Printer Manager" command on
the "System" menu of the toolchest(1). printers can also be started from
the "System Manager" (chost(1M)) or the command line.
USER INTERFACE
printers' window consists of an icon window and a menu bar.
Icon Window
The icon window displays an icon for each printer that is installed on
the system. The Printer Name, Hostname, and Printer Type are listed next
to each icon. If there are more icons than can fit in the window, the
scroll bar to the right can be used to access them.
An icon can be dragged from printers and dropped onto the desktop for
convenient access. Dropping a file icon on top of an icon in the
printers icon window prints that file. Double clicking an icon in the
printer icon window launches printstatus(1) for that printer. This is
equivalent to the "Show Queue" menu command (see below).
The menu commands "Change Connection...", "Set Default", "Delete...",
"Show Queue...", "Set Options...", and "Send Test Page", described below,
each require that a printer in the icon window be selected. To select a
printer, click with the mouse on its icon.
The menu commands "Add...", "Change Connection...", "Set Default", and
"Delete..." are privileged operations that only the Super User (root) or
users who have been designated as Privileged Users are allowed to
perform. If you do not meet these criteria, you will be prompted for the
login and password of a privileged user. If there is no root password on
the system then there are no restrictions.
Menu Bar
printers' menu bar contains three pull-down menus: Printer, Arrange, and
Help.
The Printer menu has commands that act on printers. They are:
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PRINTERS(1M) Printing Tools PRINTERS(1M)
"Add..." Bring up the Add dialog (see below) for adding a printer
to the system.
"Change Connection..."
Bring up the Change Connection dialog (see below) for
changing the connection of or reinstalling the selected
printer.
"Set Default" Make the selected printer the system default printer.
"Delete..." Delete the selected printer. You will be prompted for
confirmation before the selected printer is deleted from
the system.
"Show Queue..."
Launch printstatus for the selected printer. printstatus
shows you the printer's job queue as well as its
operational status.
"Set Options..."
Bring up the printer specific options panel for the
selected printer (see glp(1)). The options panel can be
used to select printer options which can then be saved so
that they apply to all print jobs submitted by you or (if
printers is running as root) any user that does not have
his or her own options set.
"Send Test Page"
Submit a test page to the selected printer.
"Quit" Dismiss printers.
The Arrange menu contains the following commands:
"by Printer Name"
Sort the icons in the icon window by the Printer Name
field.
"by Hostname" Sort the icons in the icon window by the Hostname field.
"by Printer Type"
Sort the icons in the icon window by the Printer Type
field.
The Help menu contains commands for accessing the on-line help system.
The Add dialog
The Add dialog is used to add new printers to the system. All new
printers must have a New Printer Name specified which is different from
the names of any printers that are already installed.
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PRINTERS(1M) Printing Tools PRINTERS(1M)
Select a Connection Type of Local if the printer you are adding is
physically connected to the workstation that printers is running on. If
the printer you are adding is connected to another workstation, it must
first be configured on that workstation (using the printers tool). Then
it can be added as a network printer by selecting a Connection Type of
Network.
For Local printers, the following must be specified:
Printer Type This is the make and model of the printer you are
installing. The list shows you all the kinds of printers
for which you have software support installed. If your
printer does not show up in this list, you may have to
install or purchase more software.
After you select Printer Type, any Connection (see below)
that is incompatible with that Printer Type will be
disabled.
Connection Select Parallel, SCSI, or Serial, depending on how your
printer is physically attached to your workstation. More
controls will appear below the Connection buttons for
specifying the specific Parallel, SCSI, or Serial
connection.
After selecting a Connection, each Printer Type that is
compatible with that connection will be displayed in bold.
For Network printers, the following must be specified:
Remote Host Name
This is the name of the workstation that has the printer
physically attached. Pressing the List Printers button
after filling in the Remote Host Name causes printers to
get the list of available printers from the remote host.
Remote Printer Name
This is the name of the printer as installed on the remote
workstation. If you used the List Printers button to fill
in the Printer List, you can click on one of the printers
in the list to fill in the Remote Printer Name field.
Once you have specified all of the information necessary to add a
printer, press the OK button to add the printer and dismiss the Add
dialog, or press the Apply button to add the printer without dismissing
the Add dialog.
The Change Connection dialog
The Change Connection dialog is identical to the Add dialog, except that
the Printer Name is already specified and you cannot edit it. When the
dialog first comes up, it is initialized with the information that was
used to add that printer; make any changes you wish and press OK.
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PRINTERS(1M) Printing Tools PRINTERS(1M)
The Change Connection dialog can be used to reconfigure printers after
you have installed new printer support software. Simply bring up the
Change Connection dialog and press OK without changing any of the fields
for each printer you have installed on the system.
Using the Change Connection dialog to reconfigure a printer that has jobs
in its queue may have some side effects. The currently printing job may
be lost, and if the printer's type was changed there may be jobs in the
queue that the printer will no longer be able to print.
FILES
/usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/Printers Program resource file
/var/spool/lp Directory for System V spooling
system
SEE ALSO
printstatus(1), glp(1), lp(1), toolchest(1), fm(1G), mkcentpr(1M),
mkserialpr(1M), mkscsipr(1M), rmprinter(1M), reinstallpr(1M),
lpsched(1M), lpadmin(1M), chost(1M).
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