This document describes a problem printing to a Windows NT 3.1 Postscript printer from NeXTSTEP and provides a patch to work around the problem.

Question

When I print from NEXTSTEP to a a remote Postscript printer on a NT 3.1 system which is using the Microsoft TCP/IP Printing software, the file prints out as ascii text containing Postscript source code and is not interpreted into the correct postscript image. What causes this and is there a way to fix the problem?

Answer


This problem is caused by a bug in the NT 3.1 system. A text file that starts with the characters %! should be interpreted by a Postscript printer as Postscript code and the printer should process the file into a Postscript image. The NT driver seems to set the printer mode to ignore this. A workaround to this problem is to use the lpr -l option. This option tells lpr to print the source literally and preserves in any control characters. This will cause NT to print the file correctly. This workaround can be made transparent to a users printing from NEXTSTEP applications by using a wrapper script in place of the /usr/ucb/lpr command. The wrapper script just adds the -l option and runs the real lpr, passing along any arguments.

An Installer Package has been create to install a this work around on your system. Just install the package as root on each system that prints to a remote Postscript printer on a NT 3.1 system. This will fix the problem with printing to NT 3.1. It does not effect printing to Next Laser Printers and also should not effect printing to any other type of printers, however, faxing will no long work correctly when the patch is installed. Faxes will be sent to the currently selected printer instead of the Fax modem.

You can download the patch from:

ftp://ftp.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/MultiCountry/Enterprise/nextstep/patches/3.3/NT_Printing_Patch.compressed