Printing to PostScript and PDF

Make sure you've done any necessary setup for UNIX; see Setting Up Printing to PDF on page 67.

Considerations for Printing to PostScript or PDF

You can print to either of the following:

• PostScript Many Solaris and Linux users can read PostScript files; a common file-reading application is GhostScript.

• Adobe's Acrobat PDF A very widely used, portable file format with low storage size requirements. In order to turn PostScript files into PDF files, you need the Adobe Acrobat product.

Solaris tip

If you're on a network in Solaris, you can use the following command to see if Distiller is available: which distill If you have Distiller, you can create PDFs from PostScript files by typing distill filename .ps .

Just get a printer driver

You don't need an actual PostScript printer to print to a PostScript file. You just need the printer driver installed on your system. There's a lot of good information on PostScript print drivers on the Adobe Web site: http://www.adobe.com.

Windows printer driver

If you're using Windows, you can install the HP LaserJet 4V/4MV PostScript printer and set the Print to File option for it. (See your Windows documentation if you need help installing printers.) This is a good print driver for producing PostScript files. If your PostScript files end up in grayscale and you want to print in color or display the document electronically with color (as in a PDF file), go to http://www.adobe.com. The windows version is at http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=pdrv&platform=win

No directory name spaces

On UNIX, and sometimes in Windows, nothing remotely related to the program, whether your GhostScript application or the program itself or your data sources, should be installed in a directory with a space in it. So if you're having problems, make sure nothing you're using is in C:\Program Files , for instance.

Troubleshooting

We recommend that you search the archives of the [e-mail] mailing list, available through www.openoffice.org. If it hasn't been discussed there, it doesn't exist or it works perfectly every time.

Printing to a PostScript File on Any Operating System

Follow these steps to print a PostScript file. Once you've created it, refer to the documentation from Adobe or use the appropriate program to create a PDF file.

1. Install the PostScript printer driver according to the installation instructions that were included with it. (In Solaris and Linux, all printers are PostScript.)

2. Choose File > Print to print the document.

3. Select the PostScript printer in your list of printers, and select the Print to file option, as shown in Figure 4-40.

   Figure 4-40. Specifying options using the Print window

   

4. When you select the Print to file option, a window is displayed to let you name and select the path for the PostScript file that will be printed. When you name the file, be sure to give it a .ps file extension. The default might be . prn ; if so change it to . ps .

5. Click OK to print.

   A message will appear, stating the name of the printer that the document is being printed to. This is fine; the document will still be printed to a file.

Note

If you have problems printing to a file, switch printers and try again.

Printing to a PDF File in UNIX

This depends on what software you have on your system.

• You can simply print to the PDF device you set up in Setting Up Printing to PDF on page 67.

• If you have Adobe Distiller, print to a PostScript file then turn it into a PDF using Distiller, or print directly to PDF using the Adobe PDF driver.

Printing to PDF in Windows

Typically, print to a PostScript file, then use the appropriate program to print to PDF, or print directly to PDF using the Adobe PDF driver. See Figure 4-39.

Figure 4-41. Selecting a PDF printer driver to create a PDF file from Windows