VU Math: Intro to Our Computer Systems

At present, our department has the printers listed below (in additional to personal printers in some faculty offices). The laserprinters can be accessed via network or from Atlas. The inkjet printers can only be accessed from the Windows computers to which they are attached.

(If you still have printer drivers for the old Apple Laserwriter 12/640 PS or Apple LaserWriter Pro 600, you can delete them -- those printers died and have been discarded.)

Printing from Atlas

• The command lpr -P main myfile.txt or lpr -P main myfile.ps will print the file "myfile.txt" or "myfile.ps", respectively, on printer "main" --- i.e., on the 4th-floor laserprinter. If you omit the "-P main" part of the command, the file will be sent to whatever printer is the default. (Currently that's "main", but we may change it to "duplex" soon.)

• If you want to have a default different from the department's default, that can be accomplished as follows: Suppose, for instance, that you want "grad" to be your default. Put a line like this into the ".login" file in your main directory on Atlas:
  setenv PRINTER "grad"

  Then log out and log in again. Thereafter, when you don't specify a particular printer, all your print jobs will be sent to "grad".

• The command "lpr" will not work for .dvi files on the newer printers. To print a .dvi file, first use the command dvips myfile to convert the file "myfile.dvi" into "myfile.ps".

• You can use the "lpq" command to check on the queue of each printer. For instance, the command lpq -P main will display the queue for the printer "main". Again, if you omit the "-P main", you'll get the queue for the printer that you've set as your default. Note that this may be a little misleading: the printers also print jobs from Macintoshes in the department, but the queues show only Unix print jobs, so there may be Macintosh print jobs which print in between the Unix jobs shown in the queue.

• The command lprm -P main removes all your pending jobs from the print queue on printer "main", and likewise for other printers. If you omit the "-P main", the command "lprm" will remove all your pending jobs from your default printer.

Printing from personal computers

• The deskjet color printers can be accessed from the Windows computers in room 1427.

• If you have a Windows or Macintosh computer in your office, consult me (Eric Schechter). We can install printer drivers so that you can print directly from your office computer on most of the other printers listed above. If you're installing the printer drivers yourself, the installation procedure varies from one printer to another and from one personal computer to another, but here are a few general tips:
  • The setup you want is "Peer to Peer."
  • In some cases, the option you want is to "create a new TCP/IP port". (That means teach your computer a new location to look for a printer.)
  • If you're searching by brand on a list of printers, you may find both "HP" and "Hewlett-Packard" in the list of brands. Don't overlook one of those just because you've found the other. The printer you want might be in either list.

Printing from YAP

• When I use our department's HP Laserjet 2100 TN, Yap seems to function properly if it thinks it is printing to a "LaserJet 4000N, ProRes mode (1200 dpi)".
• When I use our department's HP DeskJet 930C (inkjet printer), Yap seems to function properly if it thinks it is printing to a "HP Laserjet 5 (600 dpi)." (Caution: Before opening Yap, go into Windows "Settings...Printers" and set the 930C's "Properties...Setup...Print Quality" to "Best"; otherwise it won't do 600 dpi.

If you have a computer in your office, you can install printer drivers on it, so that you can make direct use of the printers that we have in rooms 1427 etc. If you need help with the installation, feel free to ask me. However, many people in our department find that they can install their own printer driver(s), with no more help than the few tips given below. Note that you will need the IP addresses and printer model names given at the top of this web page. I do have some installation CD's in my office, but in most cases you're better off without them -- your computer operating system probably already has all the information it needs, or will automatically download that information when directed to.

• Apple. If your office computer is an Apple, follow this procedure: Pick some document -- e.g., a two-line textfile -- and begin the process of printing it. When you get to the step where you're about to complete the process, one of the menus that shows up in the dialogue is a drop-down list of available printers. If the printer you want is not on that list, click on the option to "add a new printer", which is at the bottom of that list. You will need to configure the connectivity for "TCP/IP," not for "Appletalk."
• Linux/Unix. I don't know this OS, so you're on your own. But isn't that why you chose this OS?
• Windows. Most of the people who need my help are using Windows computers, so I've written their instructions in more detail below. There is one tricky step; the rest is fairly straightforward.

Printer installation on Windows computers

From the lower left corner of your screen, click "Start", then "Settings", then "Printers and Faxes".

In the "Printers and Faxes" box, click on "Add Printer". This will bring up the screen that says "Welcome to the Add Printer Wizard" (not shown on this page). Click "Next".

The next screen is titled "Local or Network Printer" (shown at right). This is the only TRICKY step in the procedure; you have to read the instructions carefully. You're going to set up a network printer, but do not click on "network printer". Apparently Microsoft intends that option only for printers that are attached to print servers; our printers are NOT attached to print servers.

• You should select "Local printer attached to this computer", as in the illustration at right.
• Also as in the illustration at right, make sure that "Autmoatically detect and install my Plug and Play printer" is not checked.
• Then click "Next".

The next screen is titled "Select a Printer Port" (shown at right).

• Select the part titled "Create a new port."
• Then, under "Type of Port", select "Standard TCP/IP Port".
• Then click "Next".

That will bring up the screen titled "Welcome to the Add Standard TCP/IP Printer Port Wizard" (not shown on this page). Click "Next."

That brings us to the "Add Port" page (shown at right). Copy an IP address from the second column in the table of printers at the top of this web page. (I recommend using copy-and-paste, not retyping, to avoid typographical errors.) Paste it into the blank labeled "Printer Name or IP Address:". Don't worry about the blank below it, labeled "Port Name:"; Windows will automatically type something appropriate into that box.

Click "Next."

On the screen that says "Install Printer Software", select first the manufacturer and then the printer. You can find both of those in the chart at the top of this page.

In most cases, your computer's operating system updates probably are more recent than the printer, and so you should find the desired printer in the list. However, you may have to look for a bit, and you may have to know what you're looking for.

• The manufacturer may not be listed the way you expect it. For instance, "Hewlett Packard" might be listed as "HP", or you might even see both of those in your list of manufacturers. If you see both, look under both; a printer might be listed under one and not the other.
• Printers are not necessarily listed in the order of their model numbers. I don't really know what determines the ordering of the list. You may have to look through the whole list.
• What we're looking for is the printer driver, not the printer model. Those are two slightly different things. For instance, our duplex printer is model number "41000 DTN"; that refers to the physical hardware. That printer can run with either the "PCL" driver or the "PS" driver; you can see both listed in the illustration at right. You could actually install both drivers -- one at a time -- but that takes twice as long. My experiments have found that the PCL driver seems to work better for this printer, so that's the one I recommend (but you're welcome to try the other if you're interested). (You do not need the "PS driver" to print postscript files; the PCL driver can print those files and other files just fine.)
• Click "Next".

On the next screen, you'll be offered a chance to rename the printer. You can keep the default -- a name such as "HP LaserJet 4100 Series PCL" -- but I usually give the printer a name that is more helpful to me later when I'm going to use the printer. This is the name that you will see when you're looking at a list of printers, trying to choose which one to use to print a document. For instance, in this example I would type in "Duplex HP lj 4100 PCL in 1427". Also, decide whether you want this to be your default printer -- i.e., the one that your Windows computer will use as your first choice for printing when you don't specify another printer. ... Both of these options can easily be changed later if you change your mind about it. So if you're not sure, you could just accept the defaults.

Click "Next".

On the next screen (not shown here), leave it set to "Do not share this printer".

This setting might puzzle some people. But this setting does not prevent other people from using the printer. What this setting really means is "other people who want to use this printer should install the drivers on their own computers; they should not try to go through my computer to get to this printer."

Click "Next".

The next screen asks whether you want to print a test page. Either do it or don't; then click "next".

The next screen is a summary page, which says you're done. Click "Finish", and the wizard will finish its job and disappear.

But actually, you may not be done; there may still be some remaining steps.

Take another look in the "Printers and Faxes" box, which may still be open (or if it isn't, you can reopen it). The printer you've just added should now be included in the list. (In the illustration at right, the new printer is highlighted.)

By the way, the default printer is the one marked with a black circle containing a white checkmark. (In the example of my illustration, it's the printer named "HERE - hp deskjet 9..."; that's actually the HP 932c sitting in my office). The black circle with white checkmark is not as easily visible if you are in one of the other display modes, with smaller icons.

If you right-click on one of the printer icons, a context menu will come up, making several new operations possible:

• Click on "Set as Default Printer" if this printer is not your default printer but you want it to be.
• Click on "Rename" if you want to change what this printer is called by your computer.
• You can change some of the settings of this printer -- or more precisely, some of the settings that this computer uses for this printer. Some of the settings are listed under "Printing preferences...", and some are listed under "Properties". People who don't like taking risks should not change any settings that they don't understand.

  People who want to experiment can reduce their risks by following these precautions: Before you change a setting, make a note of what the original default setting is; that way you can change it back later if necessary. And keep in mind that if you really mess up a printer, you can simply delete it from your list of printers and then re-install it altogether.

In the case of our department's DUPLEX printer, there are a few additional installation/configuration steps that I would recommend taking.

• Click on "Properties", at the bottom of the menu shown above. In the window that opens up, click on "Device Settings"; this is the rightmost tab in the row of tabs at the top of the window. Now look most of the way down the list; near the bottom is a line that says

  Duplex Unit (for 2-sided Printing): Not Installed

  When you click on that line, the words "Not Installed" will turn into a drop-down list that has two options. Choose the other option, "Installed". Then click "Okay."

Now go back to the context menu of the illustration before last, and this time click on "Printing Preferences..." You need to adjust the layout. For "Print on Both Sides", the default setting is "None", but probably you will usually want to use this printer with "Flip on Long Edge", so change it to that setting now. That will be your default setting whenever you use this printer (though you can temporarily change the setting for any particular document that you want printed differently). Then click "OK".

For later reference, note that this is the display where you can change to other settings, either permanently or for a single document. You can switch to one-side per page; you can switch to landscape (the default is portrait); you can also switch to the rather peculiar arrangement of "flip on short side".

Believe it or not, I have found the landscape mode useful with "flip on short side": For several semesters while I was writing my logic book, the students bought copies of the work-in-progress from campus copy. To make the best use of paper, so that the students' costs would be minimized, I designed my pages to be about 5 inches wide, and fit two pages onto each side of a letter-sized sheet turned sideways (landscape mode). The book looked something like this when opened:

left page left column of text right column of text

right page left column of text right column of text

Latest alterations 17 Nov 2005 by Eric Schechter.