Creating a New Printer Form
When you want to provide a new form, you must define its
characteristics by specifying information for nine required printer characteristics (such as page length and
page width) as input to the lpforms command.
The LP print service uses this information to perform the following tasks:
The form name can be anything you choose, as long as it
does not contain more than 14 alphanumeric characters or any underscores. The information
must use the following format:
Page length: scaled-number
Page width: scaled-number
Number of pages: integer
Line pitch: scaled-number
Character pitch: scaled-number
Character set choice: character-set-name [,mandatory]
Ribbon color: ribbon-color
Comment:
informal notes about the form
Alignment pattern: [content-type] alignment pattern
The optional word [,mandatory], means that the user cannot override the character set
choice in the form. The content-type can be given, although this information
is optional, with an alignment pattern. If this value is given, the print
service uses it to determine, as necessary, how to filter and print the
file.
Aside from following two exceptions, the information can appear in any order:
The Alignment pattern (which must always be last).
The comment (which must always follow the line with the Comment: prompt).
If the comment contains a line that begins with a key phrase, such as Page length, Page width, and so on, precede that line with a > character so that the key phrase is not at the beginning of the line. The initial > character is stripped from the comment and is not displayed.
Not all of the information must be given. When you do not specify
values, the default values in the following table are assigned. Before running the
lpforms command, gather the following information about the new form that is described
in this table.
Table 8-4 Default Values for Printer Forms
Value |
Default |
Description |
|---|
Page length |
66 lines |
The length of the form, or the length of
each page in a multipage form. This information can be the number of
lines, or the size in inches or centimeters. |
Page width |
80 columns |
The width of
the form, in characters, inches, or centimeters. |
Number of pages |
1 |
The number of pages
in a multipage form. The LP print service uses this number with a
print filter (if available) to restrict the alignment pattern to a length of
one form. See the description of alignment pattern below. If no filter is
available, the LP print service does not truncate the output. |
Line pitch |
6 lines
per inch |
A measurement of how close lines appear on the form. Line
pitch is also called leading. Character pitch is the distance between two lines, from
baseline to baseline, measured by either lines per inch or lines per centimeter. |
Character
pitch |
10 characters per inch |
A measurement of how close together characters appear on
the form. It is the distance between characters, measured by either characters per
inch or characters per centimeter. |
Character set choice |
Any |
The character set, print wheel, or font
cartridge that should be used when this form is used. Users can choose
a different character set for their own print requests when using this form.
Or, you can require that only one character set be used. |
Ribbon color |
Any |
If the
form should always be printed using a certain color ribbon, the LP print
service can give a mount alert message indicating which color to use. |
Comment |
(No
default) |
Any remarks that might help users understand the form. For example, the remarks
could indicate the name of the form, its revision, its purpose, or restrictions
on its use. |
Alignment pattern |
(No default) |
A sample file that the LP print
service uses to fill one blank form. When mounting the form, you can
print this pattern on the form to align it properly. You can also
define a content type for this pattern so that the print service knows
how to print it. |
Note - The LP print service does not try to mask sensitive information in the
alignment pattern. If you do not want sensitive information printed on sample forms,
for example when you align checks, then you should mask the appropriate data.
The LP print service keeps the alignment pattern stored in a safe place,
where only users logged in as superuser or lp user can read it.
When you have gathered the information for the form, specify it as
input to the lpforms command. You should record this information first in a separate
file so that you can edit it before specifying it with the lpforms
command. You can then use the file as input instead of typing each
piece of information separately after a prompt.
How to Create a New Printer Form Definition
- Log in as superuser, lp, or assume an equivalent role on the
print server.
- Create a form definition file.
For a description on creating printer forms, see Creating a New Printer Form. You should save the
printer definition in a text file.
- Add the form to the LP print service.
# lpadmin -p printer-name -M -f form-name
- Add the form to a print server.
For instructions, see How to Add a Form.
