Re: [evince] Postscript 2 ?

["Ronald F. Guilmette" <rfg tristatelogic com>]

In message <1326018842-sup-3761@charizard>, 
Carlos Garcia Campos <carlosgc gnome org> wrote:

>>Is there any way to tickle evince into outputting
>>Postscript 2, rather than Postscript 3?
>
>Evince uses GTK+ printing system, that uses PS2 or 3 depending on the
>information given in the ppd file of the printer. See the code:
>
>http://git.gnome.org/browse/gtk+/tree/modules/printbackends/cups/gtkprint=
>backendcups.c#n336
>
>It uses level 2 by default, so it seems that the ppd file contains
>LanguageLevel = 3

Well now, this is most perplexing.

See, I'm on FreeBSD.  I did install the cups port, but only because certain
other things would not build & install unless I did.

In practice, I am never using CPUS.  CPUS includes an entire fancy schmancy
spooling system, which I found to have essentially no actual usefulness in
the context of a single-user personal workstation.  And it has one effect
that annoyed me greatly... it dramatically slowed down everything I tried to
print.  So I've just jiggerd things so that I have a short stand-in script
(which I wrote) which I've installed as a replacement for the stock
/usr/bin/lpr (and also /usr/local/bin/lpr).  It just takes the input file
and shoves it out rather directly to the printer device file.  This works
great, actually, and as long as the file is either plain text or Postscript
(2), it just shoots right out, with essentially no delay, to my good old
trusty HP LaserJet 3015.

When I select "print" from the evince "File" sub-menu, I am offered three
choices, to wit:

	Print to File
	Print to LPR
	rfg-Laserjet3015 SOHO

I always choose the middle one, because (as I've said) I am _not_ using the
whole fancy schmancy CPUS spooling system (which I would be trying to use
if I selected the final option above).

Well, perhaps I should have said that I _almost_ always use the "Print to LPR"
option.  I have used the "Print to File" option on occasion, and indeed, that's
the way that I found out that evince was outputting Postscript 3 files, rather
than Postscript 2, which is all my LaserJet understands.

So anyway, I've never even heard of anything called a "ppd" file before.  But
find(1) is my friend.  So I searched in my /usr/local directory (where all of
the files associated with FreeBSD non-base ports go) and I found a directory
called /usr/local/etc/cups/ppd and sure enough, that has one (and only one)
file in it, and that file is called "rfg-Laserjet3015.ppd" and that file
does indeed contain a line saying:

   *LanguageLevel: "3"

(And that is actually wrong for the 3015... it should be 2, not 3, but we
can skip over that point for now.)

Anyway, as I have noted, I am _not_ routinely printing to "rfg-Laserjet3015".
In fact I am _never_ printing to that.  I am always printing via my "lpr"
script (option "Print to LPR").  So the obvious question now confronts me:
Where can I diddle the "LanguageLevel" setting so that it will affect evince's
output when I select "Print to LPR" ?

And likewise, where can I diddle the "LanguageLevel" setting so that it will
affect evince's output when I select "Print to File"?

If anyone can answer these two questions, that would be most helpful.

Of course, those are my main questions.  I cannot help but be curious also
however as to why and how I ended up with *LanguageLevel: "3" in my
rfg-Laserjet3015.ppd file.  I am quite completely certain that *I* did
not in any sense manufacture that file.  In addition to the language level,
it contains quite a lot of stuff about available fonts, and so forth, and
lots of other preinter-specific parameters.  I really would like to know
how the values for all of those parameters were derived.  Did the install
process for CUPS go and acually query my printer for all these things?
And if it did, then why did it (apparently) get the Language Level wrong?

As I say, this is all most perplexing.


Regards,
rfg