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Conference 44.370::system_management

Title:system management communications forum
Moderator:CHEST::THOMPSON
Created:Fri Mar 21 1986
Last Modified:Thu Jul 08 1993
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:490
Total number of notes:2018

102.0. "Laser printer plea" by FOOT::TAYLOR () Thu Dec 17 1987 10:06

    
    Could I make a tentative suggestion that printing on the laser printers
    of over 200 blocks be submitted over night??
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102.1yeh.....STOPIT::IBLwhile you still can!Thu Dec 17 1987 17:386
    
    I would just like to tentatively support that tentative suggestion.
    thankyou.
    
    						Ian!
    
102.2Life is not simple!!ELBOW::DRAPERSteve DraperFri Dec 18 1987 08:5742
    Can we have a little clarification here please, folks? What exactly
    are you asking for?
    
    It might just be worth explaining a few things about the way in
    which different laser printer file types (.POST, .LN03, .anything_else)
    are dealt with before rushing off and putting restrictions in place.
    
    Firstly, the LN03 printer is (obviously) a *lot* slower than the
    LPS40 (nominal 8 pages/minute as opposed to nominal 40 pages/minute).
    You do not *have* to queue LN03 files to the LN03 printer - they
    can be printed just as successfully (and more quickly) on the LPS40
    by sending them to the queue ANSI_EYE (print/queue=ansi_eye).
    
    Secondly, .LN03 files in general will appear to be a lot bigger
    than .POST files for the same amount of printable data. This is
    because the .LN03 file contains its own font information. Postscript
    files specify (internally) the font that they require, which then
    has to be loaded from another VAX (known as the LPS40 Host System).
    Thus, if you take two (say 70 block) files - one .LN03, and one
    .POST, the .LN03 file will end up printing about 10 lines of text,
    but the .POST file will print several pages. These figures are not
    accurate, but they illustrate the difference.
    
    .TXT (and the like) files tend to print more quickly as they use
    a monospaced font (and do not have to swap fonts while printing
    such things as titles, headings etc). However, you should be aware
    that existance of (even just a single) escape sequence in a .TXT
    file will slow down its printing dramatically as it causes the LPS40
    to go into a spin while it checks to see if a font change is/is
    not required.
    
    As it is not currently possible to restrict entries in a specific
    queue to a particular file extension, I hope you can see from the
    above that putting a clamp on a queue in such a way that it operates
    fairly is not an easy matter. It's simple enough with impact printers
    (LP25 etc) as they will only handle one type of file, but laser
    printers present a rather more difficult problem. Far better, I
    would think for people to act in a sensible manner and use their
    judgement. When all is said and done, you can use the /AFTER= switch
    if you don't want to clog the queue right at this moment.

    steve
102.3Careful...RDGE00::RUSSELLMerry Christmas! Ho Ho Ho!Fri Dec 18 1987 08:5910
    Can I tentatively ask - what is the capacity of the paper bins
    for both input and output?
    
    It's a bit pointless queing a big job if there is no-one to reload
    the paper half way through....
    
    How many pages is 200 blocks, roughly?
    
    Peter.
    
102.4How long is a piece of string?ELBOW::DRAPERSteve DraperFri Dec 18 1987 09:4715
    The primary input bin for the LPS40 holds about 2500 A4 sheets max.
    There is a secondary input bin for A4 paper holding about 500 sheets
    (could be used for slides?), and another A3 input bin also of about
    500 sheets.
    
    As regards the 200 blocks, its difficult to say (depends on fonts,
    graphics etc). For plain ascii text file however, it would be something
    like:
    
    	1 block = 512 bytes = 512 characters
    	200 blocks = 200 x 512 characters = 102400 characters
    	102400 characters = 102400/80 characters per line = 1280 lines
    	1280 lines = 1280/66 lines per page = 20 pages
    
    steve
102.5RDGE00::RUSSELLMerry Christmas! Ho Ho Ho!Mon Dec 21 1987 08:326
    Thanks for the info Steve.
    
    Now where can I find 2,500 sheets of documentation to print....
    
    Peter.		:^)
    
102.62,500 sheets in the output tray ?FOOT::BROWNSTONEout to lunchMon Dec 21 1987 14:203
    Yeh, but you won't fit it in the output tray !
    
    CB