🚀 go-pugleaf

Do the Magic Sac users out there know how to print their Mac Postscript
files on a PostScript Laser Printer?  It's easy once you know how, but there
are a couple of tricky bits which had me hung up for awhile.  I've therefore
decided to offer a short tutorial.  I assume that the information is equally
relevant to Spectre 128 users.

The first step is to get a LaserWriter driver installed in your system.
The trouble here is that the system tries to prevent you from doing this
unless you have AppleTalk turned on, but, if you turn on AppleTalk, you will
crash instantly.  In my experience, the DA "Chooser" is very strict about
this.  The same is true of the old DA called "Choose Printer," as long as
you attempt to install a modern version of the LaserWriter driver.  However,
if you use Choose Printer in combination with a really old version of the
LaserWriter driver [mine is called Version 0], the installer checks only the
NAME of the driver.  So, if you rename the original driver to anything but
"LaserWriter," you can install it with Choose Printer.

The next step is easy: follow the normal steps you would take to print a file,
but, as soon as you click on the "OK" button in the Print dialog box, hold
down "command-f" (i.e.,"control-f" on your ST).  Instead of an attempt to
print to the LaserWriter, a text file of Postscript commands will be written
to your default disk under the name "PostScript" [an existing file called
"PostScript" will be deleted, so you need to rename it first].

Now, you can't send this file to a PostScript printer, since it includes
calls to procedures that are defined elsewhere.  In fact, they are defined
in the file "Laser Prep," a fact that need not concern you except for the
fact that you won't be using this file and therefore don't need to have it
on your disk.  Getting the actually PostScript text files out of Laser Prep
is not so easy, since they are buried somewhere in the resource fork of that
file.  Instead, do what Mac users who want to print PostScript over a
printer that isn't connected to AppleTalk do.  That is, find a copy of the
Laser Prep text somewhere.  These files are usually known as PostScript
headers and are floating around the nets.

The trouble here is that, at some point in history, the modern Laser Prep
files became incompatible with the old Laserwriter driver.  Since you [and
practically no one else in the world] are using the original driver, you
need to locate the original header.  Fortunately, the good folks at Info-Mac
and Macserve are taking care of you, and a version of that file is still
archived under the name LASERWRITER-HEADER.PS.  Fish down this file, and
you are ready to go.

Almost.  The archived file (at least, the version on MACSERVE@IRLEARN) has
a missing line that can cause you all kinds of grief to track down [believe
me].  Find the section of the file that goes:

{eofill}
{eofill}
{newpath}
{eofill}

and duplicate the last line, so you have:

{eofill}
{eofill}
{newpath}
{eofill}
{eofill}

Now you're all set.  Just PREpend the header to the "PostScript" file
generated by your Mac, and print on any PostScript printer.  It ought to
work on any; I can only verify that it hasn't given me any trouble on a DEC
PrintServer40 attached to our local VAX.  I've printed various sorts of text
and graphics without difficulty.  Occasionally, the output will look a tad
different from what you would get from a LaserWriter using a modern printer
driver, but the difference (as far as I have seen) is slight.

The normal LaserWriter routine includes the permanent installation of the
header during the first print job; subsequently, the header does not need to
be resent.  The header I've recommended does not install itself and hence
needs to preceed each job.  For my purposes it makes very little difference,
since the header resides on the VAX, and only the LaserWriter output needs
to be sent over to the VAX each time.  If you want to risk offending other
users of the printer, the header includes some commented-out lines which
presumably order the header to be retained in RAM.

I realize that this sounds like a lot of instructions, but, once you have
everything set up and have a command file to carry out all of the steps,
it's a pretty simple process, and the results are highly satisfactory.  I
hope you find it the same.  Good luck.


Roger
MARKS@HDETUD53