dpost(1) manual page
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dpost - troff postprocessor for PostScript printers
dpost
[-c num] [-e num] [-m num] [-n num] [-o list] [-w num] [-x num] [-y num] [-F dir]
[-H dir] [-L file] [-O] [-T name] [ file... ]
/usr/lib/lp/postscript/dpost
SUNWlps
dpost translates files created by troff(1)
into PostScript
and writes the results on the standard output. If no files are specified,
or if - is one of the input files, the standard input is read.
The files
should be prepared by troff. The default font files in /usr/lib/font/devpost
produce the best and most efficient output. They assume a resolution of
720 dpi, and can be used to format files by adding the -Tpost option to
the troff call. Older versions of the eqn and pic preprocessors need to
know the resolution that troff will be using to format the files. If those
are the versions installed on your system, use the -r720 option with eqn
and -T720 with pic.
dpost makes no assumptions about resolutions. The first
x res command sets the resolution used to translate the input files, the
DESC.out file, usually /usr/lib/font/devpost/DESC.out, defines the resolution
used in the binary font files, and the PostScript prologue is responsible
for setting up an appropriate user coordinate system.
- -c num
- Print
num copies of each page. By default only one copy is printed.
- -e num
- Sets
the text encoding level to num. The recognized choices are 0, 1, and 2. The
size of the output file and print time should decrease as num increases.
Level 2 encoding will typically be about 20 percent faster than level 0,
which is the default and produces output essentially identical to previous
versions of dpost .
- -m num
- Magnify each logical page by the factor num. Pages
are scaled uniformly about the origin, which is located near the upper
left corner of each page. The default magnification is 1.0.
- -n num
- Print num
logical pages on each piece of paper, where num can be any positive integer.
By default, num is set to 1.
- -o list
- Print those pages for which numbers
are given in the comma-separated list. The list contains single numbers N
and ranges N1-N2. A missing N1 means the lowest numbered page, a missing
N2 means the highest. The page range is an expression of logical pages rather
than physical sheets of paper. For example, if you are printing two logical
pages to a sheet, and you specified a range of 4, then two sheets of paper
would print, containing four page layouts. If you specified a page range
of 3-4, when requesting two logical pages to a sheet; then only page 3 and
page 4 layouts would print, and they would appear on one physical sheet
of paper.
- -p mode
- Print files in either portrait or landscape mode. Only the
first character of mode is significant. The default mode is portrait.
- -w num
- Set the line width used to implement troff graphics commands to num points,
where a point is approximately 1/72 of an inch. By default, num is set to
0.3 points.
- -x num
- Translate the origin num inches along the positive x axis. The default
coordinate system has the origin fixed near the upper left corner of the
page, with positive x to the right and positive y down the page. Positive
num moves everything right. The default offset is 0 inches.
- -y num
- Translate
the origin num inches along the positive y axis. Positive num moves text
up the page. The default offset is 0.
- -F dir
- Use dir as the font directory.
The default dir is /usr/lib/font, and dpost reads binary font files from
directory /usr/lib/font/devpost.
- -H dir
- Use dir as the host resident font
directory. Files in this directory should be complete PostScript font descriptions,
and must be assigned a name that corresponds to the appropriate two-character
troff font name. Each font file is copied to the output file only when needed
and at most once during each job. There is no default directory.
- -L file
- Use
file as the PostScript prologue which, by default, is /usr/lib/lp/postscript/dpost.ps.
- -O
- Disables PostScript picture inclusion. A recommended option when dpost
is run by a spooler in a networked environment.
- -T name
- Use font files for
device name as the best description of available PostScript fonts. By default,
name is set to post and dpost reads binary files from /usr/lib/font/devpost.
If the old versions of eqn and pic are installed on your system,
you can obtain the best possible looking output by issuing a command line
such as the following:
example% pic -T720 file | tbl | eqn -r720 | troff -mm
-Tpost | dpost
Otherwise,
example% pic file | tbl | eqn | troff -mm -Tpost | dpost
should give the best results.
- /usr/lib/font/devpost/*.out
- /usr/lib/font/devpost/charlib/*
- /usr/lib/lp/postscript/color.ps
- /usr/lib/lp/postscript/draw.ps
- /usr/lib/lp/postscript/forms.ps
- /usr/lib/lp/postscript/ps.requests
- /usr/lib/macros/pictures
- /usr/lib/macros/color
-
download(1)
, postdaisy(1)
, postdmd(1)
, postio(1)
, postmd(1)
, postprint(1)
,
postreverse(1)
, posttek(1)
, troff(1)
An exit status of 0
is returned if files have been translated successfully, while 2 often
indicates a syntax error in the input files.
Output files often do
not conform to Adobe’s file structuring conventions. Piping the output of
dpost through postreverse(1)
should produce a minimally conforming PostScript
file.
Although dpost can handle files formatted for any device, emulation
is expensive and can easily double the print time and the size of the output
file. No attempt has been made to implement the character sets or fonts
available on all devices supported by troff. Missing characters will be
replaced by white space, and unrecognized fonts will usually default to
one of the Times fonts (that is, R, I, B, or BI).
An x res command must
precede the first x init command, and all the input files should have been
prepared for the same output device.
Use of the -T option is not encouraged.
Its only purpose is to enable the use of other PostScript font and device
description files, that perhaps use different resolutions, character sets,
or fonts.
Although level 0 encoding is the only scheme that has been thoroughly
tested, level 2 is fast and may be worth a try.
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