Dear Bruker Users,
Do you send plots to printers with multiple paper trays? Do you find that no matter how you try to configure the printer, your perfect 11x17 plots always come out on letter size paper?
Your troubles may be over! I had this exact problem for a long time, until I discovered a work-around developed by Guenter Schmidt. If you're running xwinnmr 3.0, this tray-choosing feature has been built in, but for 2.5 or 2.6 there are some files you can install that will allow your plot commands to also choose the correct tray.
I am running xwinnmr 2.6 on a SGI O2 with IRIX 6.5, plotting to a network HP LaserJet 8000, and this is what worked for me:
Printing to Non-default Paper Trays with Xwin-nmr 2.6
First of all, read this document by Guenter Schmidt: ftp://ftp.bruker.de/pub/nmr/xwinnmr/print+plot/support/output-tray-selection.txt
It opened my eyes. Thanks Guenter!!
1. ftp to:
ftp.bruker.de/pub/bruker/xwinnmr/print+plot/driver_tarfiles/
and get the features.tar.gz file. It doesn't really matter where you put this file for now. I was in my home directory, /usr/people/guest, for example.
2. Unzip the archive with:
gunzip features.tar.gz
3. Become super-user with the root password and change to your xwinnmr installation directory (probably /u):
cd /u
(It is important that the extracted archive sits in your installation directory).
4. Extract the archive with:
tar xvf /path/features.tar
where "path" is the location of the unzipped archive (from step #2).
5. Execute /u/prog/bin/scripts/installnmr.
6. Here it is a good idea to copy the desired Bruker driver files to a printer name of your own choosing. When Guenter says "The $PRN_NAME part is the name of the configured printer to which the pre and post commands should be applied", it means the EXACT name, not the base name (of a network printer). For example, I am used to naming network printers like so: hplj4v_N303, where 303 would be the printer's room number. I found it's much better to just copy the needed drivers to a new name and work with that. For example, here is what I did for the HP LaserJet 8000 printer; I used the ps600_A3 driver files and made "hplj8000":
cp *p /u/conf/rs232/init/ps600_A3 /u/conf/rs232/init/hplj8000
cp *p /u/conf/plotter/init/ps600_A3 /u/conf/plotter/init/hplj8000
cp *p /u/conf/plotter/initfile/ps600_A3 /u/conf/plotter/initfile/hplj8000
cp *p /u/conf/printer/init/ps600_A3 /u/conf/printer/init/hplj8000
(As far as I can tell, the printer name can have a maximum of 14 characters.)
7. Now you will need "pre" and "post" files for this printer. I used the LJ5000 pre and post files for my HP LaserJet 8000:
cd /u/conf/printer/features
cp LJ5000_A3.pre hplj8000.pre
cp LJ5000_A3.post hplj8000.post
(Note the printer names in step #6 and step #7 must EXACTLY match.)
(Also, while you're in /u/conf/printer/features, check out the README file. Very interesting.)
8. Now, you may want to edit these pre and post files you just created. For example, I took out completely the DEFAULT PAPER and DEFAULT ORIENTATION lines from the .pre file. (The SET PAPER and SET ORIENTATION lines are enough; they will be executed with each plot command.)
{I found that it is not a good idea to keep the lines about DEFAULT settings in there if you use this printer for anything else. (See the README file in /u/conf/printer/features.) If you change the default setting to A3, then ANY print command you send to that printer (that doesn't come from a PC, where you have a printer dialog box) will print to the 11x17 paper. The first night I was trying this, my cron jobs that send output to the printer, for example, started coming out on 11x17 paper, much to my horror.}
9. Now, set up the plotter in xwin-nmr with "cfpp". For network printers, DON'T add a name, or it will make the "_Nname" extension, and your printer name will no longer match the pre and post files.
10. Make sure your network printer has an appropriate entry in /etc/printcap and an appropriately named spooling directory in /usr/spool. Change the printer/plotter in your desired parameter sets with "edo". That should do it.
A couple of final notes:
a. I found the linewidths from the ps600_A3 driver to be a little too thick, making it look like you have decreased resolution in the spectrum. To fix them, I followed the text in the Bruker xwin-nmr "Processing" manual, Chapter 10 "The 1D Output Menu", in the section called "Other Pen Properties". (Exact page varies depending on age of book, but it's section 10.2.3 in at least two of my manuals.) I went into my /u/conf/plotter/hplj8000 file and added a line thickness of .05t for all the colors. You just have to experiment with this; I found that somewhere between .05 and .07 looks good for this printer.
b. Also, I am still able to get great 8.5x11 plots from "tray 2" on this printer (letter size tray) by configuring it with the "hplj4v" choice in "cfpp" and using no .pre and .post files for this configuration at all (since the default setting on this printer is letter size paper.)
Rebecca J. Dooley
Wyeth Research
Radnor, PA 19087
dooleyr@war.wyeth.com
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