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Q: UNIX and Linux already provide a print spooler. Why should I look at Xi-Text?
Q: Does Xi-Text run on top of lp?
Q: What printers does Xi-Text support?
Q: How do I print to a Xi-Text printer?
Q: How does Xi-Text communicate with my printers?
Q: How do I define a printer in Xi-Text?
Q: My printer type isn’t listed when I install a new printer. What do I do?
Q: What is a form type?
Q: My printer has more than one paper tray. Can I use Xi-Text to select the proper tray for my print job?
Q: What are some of the network features of Xi-Text?
Q: What does “unqueueing” a job mean?
Q: I use Samba to let Windows users print to my Linux printers. Can I still use Xi-Text?
Q: What is a printer setup file?
Q: Can I view my print job online?
Q: I have hosts running different versions of UNIX and Linux. Does Xi-Text still work in this environment?
Q: I have two hosts networked, but I can’t see the Xi-Text printers defined on the other host, nor print to them. What is the problem?
Q: UNIX and Linux already provide a print spooler. Why should I look at Xi-Text?
A: For single-user systems that have modest printing needs, the native lp print spooler may be sufficient. Xi-Text is designed for production printing that may involve many networked hosts, large numbers of print jobs and users, and a variety of printer types. It provides security, manageability and configuration flexibility that is not available in the native printing support software. [Back to top]
Q: Does Xi-Text run on top of lp?
A: No. Xi-Text is a completely independent printing management system. It provides numerous features and functions not available with lp. Xi-Text has its own commands and syntax, but it includes an emulation program that can accept lp command syntax and perform the equivalent printing requests to Xi-Text. [Back to top]
Q: What printers does Xi-Text support?
A: Xi-Text is a completely open architecture that can support virtually any printer type. As a spooler, Xi-Text expects that the print data will be already formatted for the destination printer type, but format translation and special printer handling is available to serve special printing needs. [Back to top]
Q: How do I print to a Xi-Text printer?
A: Xi-Text provides the command spr to handle printing requests, and it is used very similarly to other UNIX and Linux commands. It accepts a variable number of command-line arguments to specify various print handling options, and allows you to specify the name of a file to be printed. It also accepts print data directly on stdin, which can be a pipe from an application. [Back to top]
Q: How does Xi-Text communicate with my printers?
A: Xi-Text provides communication support for virtually every printer type. Xi-Text can communicate with serial, parallel and networked printers, and printers that are controlled by printer-sharing devices. Xi-Text supports HP JetDirect printers and print servers. For communications protocols that are not natively supported, Xi-Text can invoke external communications drivers to provide the necessary communications path. Xi-Text also supports lpd/lpr protocol for sending data to other print management software and servers if desired. [Back to top]
Q: How do I define a printer in Xi-Text?
A: Defining printers is an easy, two-step process. First, you define a printer type using the Xi-Text installation program. This allows you to specify a particular printer model, or a generic printer type, such as PostScript, or generic ASCII. After you have defined a printer type, you install an instance of that printer type, and give the specific communications details, such as local port, device name or network IP address.
Once a printer type is defined in Xi-Text, new instances of that printer type may be installed from the command line or from the user interface. [Back to top]
Q: My printer type isn’t listed when I install a new printer. What do I do?
A: Choose a printer that is close to yours by brand and model/series. Printer models often vary by features which have nothing to do with how they communicate with host computer systems. The printer brand and model you select during installation determines which default printer setup file is installed by Xi-Text. This default can be edited, if necessary, to precisely match your printer. [Back to top]
Q: What is a form type?
A: A form type is a very powerful concept of the Xi-Text architecture. Most printing systems require you (or your application) to specify the name of the printer that you wish to print to. Xi-Text allows you to specify a form type as the destination, and Xi-Text will automatically select a printer that is available, and has that form type mounted on it. If several printers have the same form type mounted, e.g., “letterhead,” and there are many spooled print jobs that specify that form type, then Xi-Text will treat all of the “letterhead” printers as a pool, and print each job to the next available printer. Of course, you can also specify a specific printer by name if you want to.
Form types may represent a physical paper type, e.g., plain, letterhead, goldenrod, etc. A form type may also be used to invoke special printer features or data handling routines, such as duplex (two-sided) printing, alternate paper tray selection, etc. Form types may be modified with special handling suffixes, which represent a special printer handling request. As an example, the form type “greenbar” might represent traditional continuous-feed forms, and the form type “greenbar.cond” could be used to instruct Xi-Text to send the codes to the printer for condensed (narrow) printing. For a complete description of form type usage and examples, see the Xi-Text System Reference Manual or contact Taricon Technologies. [Back to top]
Q: My printer has more than one paper tray. Can I use Xi-Text to select the proper tray for my print job?
A: Yes. This is another variation of how form types with modifiers could be used. A form type of “standard.11” could be used to select the letter-size paper tray, and “standard.14” could be used to designate legal-size paper. With these form types defined in the printer setup file for the printer in question, the command,
spr –f standard.11 somejob
would print the file “somejob” on 11-inch letter-size paper, and the command,
spr –f standard.14 somejob
would print the same file, but would select the alternate tray with legal-size paper. [Back to top]
Q: What are some of the network features of Xi-Text?
A: When you define a printer to Xi-Text, you may specifiy that it is a local-only printer, or that it may be seen (and used) by other Xi-Text hosts on the network. If you specify a printer is network-visible, then other hosts on the network may send jobs to this printer, exactly as if it were a local printer to that host. Xi-Text handles all network-visible printers transparently to users and applications.
Another notable feature of Xi-Text is that printer statuses and job statuses network-wide may be displayed on the same operator interface screen, whether it is the character-based, Motif (X-Windows) or Microsoft Windows interface. This makes monitoring and management of print jobs and printers much more simple and efficient. [Back to top]
Q: What does “unqueueing” a job mean?
A: When you unqueue a job, Xi-Text writes a copy of the print data to a disk file, and also creates a shell script to recreate that print job in the Xi-Text system. This feature is useful for archiving print jobs and reprinting them if needed and avoids having to recreate the print data from the application. The unqueue request has two options, one which retains the job in the Xi-Text print queue after writing it to disk, and the other, which deletes the job from the Xi-Text queue. [Back to top]
Q: I use Samba to let Windows users print to my Linux printers. Can I still use Xi-Text?
A: Yes. It is a simple matter to configure Samba to direct output to Xi-Text instead of lp or another print spooler. Since Windows print data is already formatted for the target printer by the Windows printer driver, a form type should be defined for printers accessed by Samba that cancels any special printer handling that Xi-Text may use for local (UNIX) print jobs. Please contact Taricon Technologies for specific instructions. [Back to top]
Q: What is a printer setup file?
A: This is a file that is created when a new printer is defined, and contains information that controls how Xi-Text prints to that printer. A default setup file, named “default” is created for each printer, and defines a form type also named “default.” If you create a new form type, a new setup file is created which is named the same as the form type, and contains instructions to Xi-Text for how printing to that form type should be handled. These printer setup files are text files, and are designed to be edited and modified by the user for their specific printing requirements. A complete description of the features available in printer setup files is provided in the System Reference Manual. In a default installation, you can find the setup files for a printer named “printer123” in the directory:
/usr/spool/printers/printer123/
If you modified the installation to locate Xi-Text files in a location other than /usr/spool, you may find the printer directories and printer setup files in the location you specified. [Back to top]
Q: Can I view my print job online?
A: Yes. Xi-Text contains a built-in file viewer for ASCII text files, and can invoke external programs to view print jobs in other data formats, like PostScript. Many Xi-Text users keep all print jobs held without printing until they are viewed by a user or operator and OK’d for printing. [Back to top]
Q: I have hosts running different versions of UNIX and Linux. Does Xi-Text still work in this environment?
A: Yes. Xi-Text offers transparent networking and printer sharing across all supported UNIX and Linux versions. Your users and applications do not need to know the details of which host connects to each printer in your system. [Back to top]
Q: I have two hosts networked, but I can’t see the Xi-Text printers defined on the other host, nor print to them. What is the problem?
A: In order for printers to be shared by networked hosts, each host must be defined in the other host’s /etc/Xitext-hosts file. Additionally, the printer(s) must not be designated “local only.” [Back to top]
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