Changing CUPS Print Orientation

cmnorton · 03-02-2010, 09:11 AM

In Windows printing I can take an 11 X 17 report, and tell the print manager to rotate and size. The job then prints (Xerox N40) aligned correctly.

Currently, even after telling the N40 it has ledger paper and switching it's orientation, my 11 X 17 reports print "down" the page rather than across.

Is it possible to tell CUPS to rotate the print job?

pixellany · 03-02-2010, 10:22 AM

This is not normally a CUPS question---it depends on the driver (and possibly the application).

When you install the printer, do you get more than one option for a driver? (My system offers only a foomatic/postscript driver.)
(And---what driver are you currently using?)

Do you have the same issue in different apps? (and what apps are you using?)

cmnorton · 03-02-2010, 10:53 AM

I found lp options that come close to what I want to do. Now, I'm trying to find a Xerox DocuPrint N40 PPD file.

cmnorton · 03-02-2010, 10:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pixellany

This is not normally a CUPS question---it depends on the driver (and possibly the application).

When you install the printer, do you get more than one option for a driver? (My system offers only a foomatic/postscript driver.)
(And---what driver are you currently using?)

Do you have the same issue in different apps? (and what apps are you using?)

These are plain text files, that happen to be up to 133 characters wide. We're printing using CUPS lp.

I can print from Windows if it's a wide PDF, and there's an option to sense orientation from the PDF width. That works fine, but I'd like to print direct from Linux.

So, there really are no applications involved. And, yes I know it's an older printer.

pixellany · 03-02-2010, 11:02 AM

"lp" in a terminal will send the output to the default printer---look in the cups setup to see what that is. Presumably in this context it is your Xerox.
In the cups setup, you can specify defaults for the printer, and I assume you also specify options as part of the lp command.

cmnorton · 03-02-2010, 02:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pixellany

"lp" in a terminal will send the output to the default printer---look in the cups setup to see what that is. Presumably in this context it is your Xerox.
In the cups setup, you can specify defaults for the printer, and I assume you also specify options as part of the lp command.

Not only -d for the printer name, but also -o Custom11x17in -o landscape, but I cannot get it to print correctly. I think this is a driver/PPD issue on my version of Red Hat.

pixellany · 03-02-2010, 03:18 PM

Things to try:

Printing from applications--eg OpenOffice
Set the defaults in the cups configuration page
Try different drivers
Check the "linux printing" website
Check the Xerox website

cmnorton · 03-02-2010, 03:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pixellany

Things to try:

Printing from applications--eg OpenOffice
Set the defaults in the cups configuration page
Try different drivers
Check the "linux printing" website
Check the Xerox website

I think these problems will go away when we use a more modern hp printer. Part of the problem is we need to print programmatically at night. So, I need to set whatever options on the command line.

pixellany · 03-03-2010, 07:11 AM

In general, if you don't know what the problem is, then you cannot assume that a different printer is going to solve it.

This said, I suppose that a newer printer **might** have better drivers available.....

cmnorton · 03-03-2010, 07:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pixellany

In general, if you don't know what the problem is, then you cannot assume that a different printer is going to solve it.

This said, I suppose that a newer printer **might** have better drivers available.....

The N40 is deprecated. Using RH EL 5 WS, I was able to print correctly to the printer, and was also at least able to pick a Xerox DocuPrint printer, instead of generic on RH EL 4 ES.