A2PS doesn't setup sheet type correctly

[Stephen Hillier]

Hi,

I'm using a2ps version 4.12.
I'm using LPRng 3.6. running on SuSE 7.1 Linux with kernel 2.4.11.

when I pass a plain ascii text file through a2ps, I do so using the
following command:

/usr/bin/a2ps --ppd=xrxdc332st -M legal -E -B -r -f6
--statusdict=setduplexmode:false --borders=no --columns=1 --rows=1 -s1
-o- |lp -d xerox

strangely tho, the print job ALWAYS gets printed on Letter (8.5x11)
paper. I'm printing to a Xerox Document Center 332 ST.

To troubleshoot the problem I had the output of a2ps dump to a file
instead of a print queue, and after searching the entire .ps file, the
only reference I could find to anything "Legal" was line #11:

%%DocumentMedia: legal 612 1008 0 () ()

Now as far as I can tell (and no I don't know much about postscript)
this is simply a comment. If I search the file, I find no other
references to the word legal.

I looked up a postscript reference manual, and according to it, all one
needs to do to get output on legal paper (if it's available) is to call
the postscript funtion 'legal'. To test this idea, I simply edited the
same postscript file and made the following change:

----------original lines-------------
%%Page: (1) 1
%%BeginPageSetup
/pagesave save def
sh 0 translate 90 rotate
%%EndPageSetup
--------------------------------------

----------modified lines-----------
%%Page: (1) 1
%%BeginPageSetup
legal                                                <--- This is the
line I inserted
/pagesave save def
sh 0 translate 90 rotate
%%EndPageSetup
------------------------------------

This 1 line change gave me the output I'm looking for (on legal paper
:). Now my question is, why doesn't a2ps place this in the file when I
use the --medium=legal / -M legal option? Am I doing something wrong? Is
this a bug? Is it specific to my Xerox printer or are other people
experiencing the same problem?

I'm going to modify the source code to a2ps (the copy I have) so that it
adds this line when the -M legal option is passed to the filter. I see
no other way to get the output I want. If you're going to patch a2ps,
please inform me of the patch when it's released so I can test it for
myself. If you want to see the diff's from my source, let me know.

Thanks a lot for the help,

Stephen Hillier
Network Administrator
CBN Co.

email: address@hidden