Printing

You can easily print files, find or cancel print jobs, and get information about printers and print jobs through the desktop.

• Your Default Printer

• Printing Files

• Printer Applications

Your Default Printer

Your system may have more than one printer that you can use for printing. One of the printers will be designated as the default printer. The default printer is the printer that your desktop automatically uses if you submit a document for printing and you don't specify a printer name. When you first open your desktop, the default printer is shown in the Front Panel.

To find out how to display a printer other than your default printer in the Front Panel, see To Change the Front Panel Printer.

To Determine the Default Printer

• To find out the name of your default printer, double-click the Default printer control in the Personal Printers subpanel in the Front Panel.

This starts the Printer Jobs application. The name under the printer icon is the name of your default printer.

To Change the Default Printer

To designate a different printer as the default printer:

1. Go to your home folder and open the file .dtprofile.

2. Add or edit a line that sets a value for the LPDEST environment variable:

   LPDEST=printer_device; export LPDEST

   
   

   If you are using csh the syntax is:

   setenv LPDEST printer_device

   
   

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   Note - This change will take effect the next time you log out and back in again.

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   For example, the following line would change the default printer to the printer whose device name is laser3d.

   LPDEST=laser3d; export LPDEST

   
   

   If you are using csh the syntax is:

   setenv LPDEST laser3d

   
   

Printing Files

The desktop can print different types of files, as listed in Table 11-1.

Table 11-1 Types of Data That Can Be Printed (Initial Configuration)

If applications are installed on your system that create other types of files, your system administrator can add printing capabilities for them.

Note - Ensure that your destination printer is capable of printing PostScript™ or PCL files before you try to print them.

Submitting a File to a Printer

There are many ways to submit a file to a printer:

• Using the Front Panel

• Using File Manager

• Using Print Manager

• Using applications

To Print Using the Front Panel

1. Drag a single file or multiple files from File Manager to the Printer control in the Front Panel or to a Printer icon in the Personal Printers subpanel.

   The system then displays a Print dialog box for specifying print options. A Print dialog box appears for each file you drag to the Printer control.

   

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   Note - pscolor will not show on your system. It is only included as an example of a printer that has been added to a system.

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2. Optional. Use the text fields in the Print dialog box to set additional print options. (See Setting Print Options Using the Print Dialog Box.)

3. Click OK in the Print dialog box to send the job to the printer.

To Print Using File Manager

1. Select the file in File Manager.

2. Choose Print from the Selected menu or the file's pop-up menu.

   The system displays a Print dialog box for specifying various print options.

3. Optional. Use the text fields in the Print dialog box to set additional print options. (See Setting Print Options Using the Print Dialog Box.)

4. Click OK in the Print dialog box to send the job to the printer.

To Print Using Print Manager

1. Start Print Manager from the Personal Printers subpanel.

2. Drag a file from File Manager to a printer icon in Print Manager.

   In Print Manager, you can submit a document by dropping it on a printer icon or into the jobs list area to the right of a printer.

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   Note - If you submit a job to a printer that is down (flag is showing), it may never be printed even though it appears in the jobs list.

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   The system displays a Print dialog box for specifying various print options.

3. Optional. Use the text fields in the Print dialog box to set additional print options. (See Setting Print Options Using the Print Dialog Box.)

4. Click OK in the Print dialog box to send the job to the printer.