Printing from ITS UNIX Machines

Here are some guidelines for printing. More information is available with man printers

The lpr Command

The first thing to know is the lpr command. The basic syntax to print any file on any printing resource is

spot> lpr -P resource-name file-name

where resource-name is the name of the printing resource (ie, printer) and file-name is the name of the file to be printed. Unix print jobs are "spooled," which means the file specified by the lpr command is copied into a "spooling directory," where it is actually printed.

Choosing a Print Resource

The public printers on campus are laser (postscript) printers. You need to figure out where your jos should be printed. To retrieve a complete list of printers and their locations, type man printers.

The exact names are listed by man printers, but they all follow a certain convention. If you specify just the printer name as resource-name, the file is assumed to be ACSII text and will be converted to PostScript before printing (for example, duane_lps40). If _ps is appended to the printer name, the file is assumed to be PostScript source already and no conversion is performed (for example, duane_lps40_ps). If _tek is appended to the printer name, the file is assumed to be Tektronix commands and will be converted to PostScript (duane_lps40_tek).

Getting Help
IT Service Center
(303) 735-HELP
help@colorado.edu