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Title
The Who What and Where about PPD Files -
Description
XRT
What are these PPD files ?
How do I know which PPD file to use ?
Where are the PPD files stored ?
Are there any more PPD files that come with PageFormatter ?
Are there any more PPD files at all ? -
Resolution
PPD files are PostScript Printer Description files. These files are used to provide a list of options for a particular printer and the code to enable those options. If you want to use a postscript printer aloing with your PageFormatter application then you will need to specify a PPD file to be used.
To specify which PPD file you want, you need to create a "printers" file in $XRTHOME/lib/ps. This file will contain one line for each printer you want to use and will describe an accosiated between the physical printer name and the PDD file to be used. For instance :
ps hp5m1_v1.ppd
ps2 hp4m3_v1.pp
The PPD files that were available to us at the time of distribution are available in two locations. The most common files are located in $KLGPRHOME/lib/ps/pdd. A tar-compress file can also be found on the PAgeFormatter CD and is called "printers.ppd". This tar-compressed file contains a more complete list of PPD files.
If these two locations do not contain the desired PPD file then you may be able to obtain the needed PPD file from your manufacturer/distributor or from Adobe web site ( http://www.adobe.com ).
To determine which PPD file you need to use, you can perform a search from the command line on the available files. The PPD files are ASCII text files and can be grepped like any other UNIX text files. The foolowing command will give you a list of all the PPD files and which printers they are designed for
% grep ModelName *.ppd > PPD.list
Now you can search through "PPD.list" file for your printer name.