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Re: PRINT_FILE keyword in MS-WINDOWS ??? [message #3252] Mon, 09 January 1995 11:43
hahn is currently offline  hahn
Messages: 108
Registered: November 1993
Senior Member
Hi all,

At first, let me thank you all for the hints of begin-end structures when
entered via keyboard or command file.

In article <D23t5v.I1x@news.hawaii.edu> keith@guinness.tmc.edu (Keith Horton)
writes:

> I thought somebody may have run across this, also, and might
> have a suggestion. I'm running IDL 3.6 in MS-Windows 3.1 hooked
> up to a postscript printer. While perusing the Reference Guide
> for IDL 3.6, I found an interesting device keyword on page 3-18:
> "print_file". According to the manual, usage is as follows:

> DEVICE, PRINT_FILE='MYFILE.PS'

Using a PostScript printer by IDL is more complicated ...

1) IDL uses its own PostScript driver. Any MS Windows specific
driver (either PostScript or GDI) is not used!!

2) The defaults implied by SET_PLOT, 'PS' are not allways
usable (orientation, margins). There is a good example on
how to setup for your specific needs:
IDL/LIB/USERLIB/PHASER.PRO or
IDL/LIB/ENVIRON/PHASER.PRO (depending on the version of IDL)

I modified this routine for European needs and the Tektronix Phaser
III pxi which allows for A3 size paper and the Tektronix 200e. I added
a file name as an optional parameter. Please E-Mail me if you like to
have the code.

> which will send the postscript file, MYFILE.PS, to the currently
> selected Windows printer. From the description in the manual,
> it appears that this may be an MS-Windows specific keyword, as
> "windows" is capitalized. I have yet to figure out how to send
> an IDL generated plot to my Window's printer without loading the
> image into a different program such as Corel or WordPerfect and
> printing from there.

IDL stuffs any printer output into files. It never addresses the printer
port directly. To print your IDL output while running MS Windows you
may copy it to the printer port by using the Data Manager: Select the
file and hit F8. The name of the 'To-File' is either LPT1 or COM2 or
what ever port the printer is connected to.

An alternative is to SPAWN a print command from within IDL (although
I haven't done this).

> From the description, this keyword may be the answer to functioning
> as I do in UNIX. However, when I try to use the device keyword, IDL
> kicks back with:

> Keyword PRINT_FILE not allowed incall to: DEVICE

The Keyword is FILE !

> If anybody has used this, or figured out another workable solution
> to printing in the MS-Windows environment, I'd really like to hear.

> Thanks & aloha,

> Keith

> P.S. I'll add a second question, since I'm asking about postscript
> files. Again in the MS-Windows environment, has anyone gotten
> the /ENCAPSULATED and /PREVIEW combination to actually produce
> a plot which can be imported into another Windows document and
> actually have a screen preview which can be displayed?
> --
> ************************************************************ ***********
> ** Keith Horton ** ** keith@guinness.pgd.hawaii.edu **
> ** University of Hawaii ** ** Voice: (808) 956-3151 **
> ** HIGP, Honolulu, Hawaii ** ** FAX: (808) 956-6322 **

Norbert Hahn
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