Printing Postscript Files on Postscript Printers

[me]

Most (all?) of the time when I print a postscript file on a colour
postscript printer, if I tell the printer driver to print black and
white it normally ignores me and prints in colour anyway. I presume it
is just printing the postscript file as is and ignoring my instructions,
is there a way to get round it and force it to print black and white.
(It will allow me to scale down to print several pages on one page).

Printers concerned Xerox Phaser 8200 over USB (Postscript 3)
Canon CLC 950 via Fiery XJ over network (Postscript 2)

 

[ER]

Should work if you are not using a Mac, are you?

ER

 

[Fred McKenzie]

Most (all?) of the time when I print a postscript file on a colour
postscript printer, if I tell the printer driver to print black and
white it normally ignores me and prints in colour anyway. I presume it
is just printing the postscript file as is and ignoring my instructions,
is there a way to get round it and force it to print black and white.
(It will allow me to scale down to print several pages on one page).

Timothy-

A Postscript file is a text file that that can be edited using a text
editor. With a little practice, you may be able to perfect a procedure for
either eliminating color, or changing it to black.

You might make a copy of a PS file and do a text search for instructions
that define color. In a sample file, I did a search for color and found
one occurence of setrgbcolor. Eliminating or commenting-out that line
might default to black or white, but I didn't try it to see. I wonder if
setrgbblack or setrgboff are legitimate commands?


Fred

 

[me]

Should work if you are not using a Mac, are you?

No, the Xerox is plugged into a WinMe machine, the Canon into an XP Home
machine.

 

[Ed Ruf (REPLY to E-MAIL IN SIG!)]

Most (all?) of the time when I print a postscript file on a colour
postscript printer, if I tell the printer driver to print black and
white it normally ignores me and prints in colour anyway. I presume it
is just printing the postscript file as is and ignoring my instructions,
is there a way to get round it and force it to print black and white.
(It will allow me to scale down to print several pages on one page).

Printers concerned Xerox Phaser 8200 over USB (Postscript 3)
Canon CLC 950 via Fiery XJ over network (Postscript 2)

How are the PS files generated in the first place? What application are you
using to print them from the PC's?

 

[me]

How are the PS files generated in the first place? What application are you
using to print them from the PC's?

PDFs, produced in various ways, printed from Adobe reader.

 

[Ed Ruf (REPLY to E-MAIL IN SIG!)]

PDFs, produced in various ways, printed from Adobe reader.

Various ways doesn't help. If you are using windows and printing to a ps
file specifying a specific printer driver, then most likely device specific
info is included. If you them convert these to ps the first thing to check
for is if this device specific info is still included in any form.

 

[me]

Various ways doesn't help. If you are using windows and printing to a ps
file specifying a specific printer driver, then most likely device specific
info is included. If you them convert these to ps the first thing to check
for is if this device specific info is still included in any form.

I'm not generating the pdf files.

 

[Ed Ruf (REPLY to E-MAIL IN SIG!)]

I'm not generating the pdf files.

First, your subject say postscript, you say pdf, which is it?

 

[me]

First, your subject say postscript, you say pdf, which is it?

PDF, which I though was a postscript file.

 

[Ed Ruf]

PDF, which I though was a postscript file.

No, postscript and PDF are different. What application are you using
to print the PDFs?

 

[Ed Ruf]

No, postscript and PDF are different. What application are you using
to print the PDFs?

Never mind, you said Adobe Acrobat Reader in a previous post Under the
Advanced setting in Reader's print dialog what choices do you have
under Language, you could try level 2 instead of level 3 if available
and also try the print as an image and see if your driver with then
use the B&W setting.

FWIW, if you have a B&W printer that is a much cheaper way to print a
B&W copy compared to using a color printer.