PostScript - a2ps and code page 437

Author

a2ps and code page 437

Ian Wilson

2005-11-25, 7:57 am

From what I've read, a2ps should be able to print text files containing
line-draw characters from code page 437.

/usr/share/a2ps/encoding/ibm-cp437.edf contains what seem to be
appropriate glyph names for these line-draw characters (e.g.
VsingleULsingle)

However something is interfering with the translation so instead of (for
example) a top-left-corner (0xDA) I get a three character sequence "M-Z".

I've tried this on a couple of x86 *nix variants and get the same
result. If I print using a2ps, "M-Z" etc get printed instead of the
line-draw glyphs.

Any clues?

>cat cp437.txt
A box drawn using CP437
┌───────┐
│ │
└───────┘

>hd cp437.txt
41 20 62 6f 78 20 64 72 61 77 6e 20 75 73 69 6e A box drawn usin
67 20 43 50 34 33 37 0a da c4 c4 c4 c4 c4 c4 c4 g CP437.........
bf 0a b3 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 b3 0a c0 c4 c4 c4 ... ......
c4 c4 c4 c4 d9 0a ......

>a2ps -o cp437.ps -X ibmpc cp437.txt
[cp437.txt (plain): 1 page on 1 sheet]
[Total: 1 page on 1 sheet] saved into the file `cp437.ps'

>cat cp437.ps
....
x0 y0 moveto
(A box drawn using CP437) p n
(M-ZM-DM-DM-DM-DM-DM-DM-DM-?) N
(M-3 M-3) N
(M-@M-DM-DM-DM-DM-DM-DM-DM-Y) N
(cp437.txt) (Page 1/1) (Nov 25, 05 9:46) title
....

pisz_na.mirek@dionizos.zind.ikem.pwr.wroc.pl

2006-01-09, 9:30 pm

Ian Wilson <scobloke2@infotop.co.uk> wrote:
> From what I've read, a2ps should be able to print text files containing
> line-draw characters from code page 437.
>
> /usr/share/a2ps/encoding/ibm-cp437.edf contains what seem to be
> appropriate glyph names for these line-draw characters (e.g.
> VsingleULsingle)
> However something is interfering with the translation so instead of (for
> example) a top-left-corner (0xDA) I get a three character sequence "M-Z".
>
> I've tried this on a couple of x86 *nix variants and get the same
> result. If I print using a2ps, "M-Z" etc get printed instead of the
> line-draw glyphs.
>
> Any clues?

Maybe to late ;)

I did some modifications for a2ps config (for cp437 and cp852).
It uses IBM Courier fonts - I called encondings cp437i and cp852i (different
glyph names then in original ibm-cp437.edf). In

http://www.zind.ikem.pwr.wroc.pl/us...ek/latex/cp852/

is an archive a2ps-cp852.tar.gz (and it's unpacked as a2ps-cp852/).
Short english description is only in unpacked dir as Install-english.txt
and one pdf example in

http://www.zind.ikem.pwr.wroc.pl/us..._table_852i.pdf

Mirek

Rev. Dr. Philip Griffin-Allwood

2006-01-09, 9:30 pm

** Reply to message from pisz_na.mirek@dionizos.zind.ikem.pwr.wroc.pl
on Fri, 30 Dec 2005 20:00:54 +0000 (UTC)

Friday, December 30, 2005

This sounds similar to a problem I encountered with printing/distilling
into PDFs with my WordStar Dos PS printer driver. I had to modify the
driver to include the fonts and use the IBM fonts from OS/2 with
Ghostscript in order to access the fonts. The IBM Courier, Helvetica
and Times New Roman fonts are the only PS fonts which I have found with
the full character set.

Phil

========================

(Rev.) Philip G. A. Griffin-Allwood, Ph.D.
Chaplain
Mount Allison University
Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada
http://www.mta.ca/chapel
(506) 364-2227

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