Unix questions - how to mix images with text and send the result to a printer?

Author

how to mix images with text and send the result to a printer?

lkrubner@geocities.com

2005-11-03, 5:57 pm

Hi all. I need help.

I have a shell script that gets info from a database and sends the
results to a printer. No trouble there. The script runs on an HP Unix
machine and the printer is connected to the machine. Everything works
perfectly.

Now I need to change that script. The info from the database is in
regards to the photos that our graphics department has generated. Now I
need to embed the actual image in that report. I can't figure out how
to do this. I know how to send text to the printer, but I don't know
how to send images.

This page had what looked like good info about XITE from a shell
script, but nothing about printing the images or working them in with
other text.

http://www.ifi.uio.no/forskning/gru...ual/node11.html

I had one idea, which was to get the database info and then, for each
entry, get the associated image address, and then mix it together with
some HTML, then invoke a rendering engine of some browser such as
Mozilla, capture the output of mozilla and then send that to the
printer. But mozilla's documentation is incomplete and I was able to
figure it out.

Anyone who can point me in the direction of some good info will have my
gratitude.

Philip Paeps

2005-11-03, 5:57 pm

lkrubner@geocities.com <lkrubner@geocities.com> wrote:
> Now I need to change that script. The info from the database is in regards
> to the photos that our graphics department has generated. Now I need to
> embed the actual image in that report. I can't figure out how to do this. I
> know how to send text to the printer, but I don't know how to send images.

If your printer understands PostScript, you could use ImageMagick to combine
the text and the graphics into a PostScript file, and send that to your
printer.

- Philip

--
Philip Paeps Please don't email any replies
philip@paeps.cx I follow the newsgroup.

double value; /* or your money back! */
short changed; /* so triple your money back! */
-- cons.c, PERL source code

Rich Gibbs

2005-11-03, 5:57 pm

lkrubner@geocities.com said the following, on 11/03/05 10:18:
> Hi all. I need help.
>
> I have a shell script that gets info from a database and sends the
> results to a printer. No trouble there. The script runs on an HP Unix
> machine and the printer is connected to the machine. Everything works
> perfectly.
>
> Now I need to change that script. The info from the database is in
> regards to the photos that our graphics department has generated. Now I
> need to embed the actual image in that report. I can't figure out how
> to do this. I know how to send text to the printer, but I don't know
> how to send images.
>
[SNIP]
>
> I had one idea, which was to get the database info and then, for each
> entry, get the associated image address, and then mix it together with
> some HTML, then invoke a rendering engine of some browser such as
> Mozilla, capture the output of mozilla and then send that to the
> printer. But mozilla's documentation is incomplete and I was able to
> figure it out.
>
> Anyone who can point me in the direction of some good info will have my
> gratitude.
>

Another possibility would be to use an OpenOffice macro to load the
report text and the images into a Writer document, and then send that
doc to the printer, either directly or by exporting it as PDF.

The fly in the ointment here is that there is no version of OO
specifically for HP-UX. There are Solaris and Linux versions; one of
those might work if you build it from the source.

--
Rich Gibbs
richg74@gmail.com
"You can observe a lot by watching." -- Yogi Berra

lkrubner@geocities.com

2005-11-03, 8:49 pm

Philip Paeps wrote:
> lkrubner@geocities.com <lkrubner@geocities.com> wrote:
>
> If your printer understands PostScript, you could use ImageMagick to combine
> the text and the graphics into a PostScript file, and send that to your
> printer.

I rebel at the possible complexity of all that, but, on the other hand,
no one has so far suggested anything better to me.

Is it hard to compile ImageMagik on HP Unix? It would probably be worth
the effort if only I was sure it would work.

Suppose I get it to compile. I'll then need to write a shell script to
format the text with the image the way I want. Is that easy or hard?

I ask these questions because I'd like to estimate a head of time
whether this route would be worth the investment. It would be worth it
if it could all be set up in a day or two.

Philip Paeps

2005-11-04, 7:48 am

lkrubner@geocities.com <lkrubner@geocities.com> wrote:
> Philip Paeps wrote:
>
> I rebel at the possible complexity of all that, but, on the other hand, no
> one has so far suggested anything better to me.
>
> Is it hard to compile ImageMagik on HP Unix? It would probably be worth the
> effort if only I was sure it would work.

It should be fairly easy to get ImageMagick to work on HP Unix. I've never
used it on HP Unix myself, but I've never had any trouble getting it to work
on any of the flavours of Unix which I have tried.

A quick Google tells me HP has packages of ImageMagick in their 'open source
collection' and that a number of people are using it on HP Unix. Chances of
success seem fairly good to me.

> Suppose I get it to compile. I'll then need to write a shell script to
> format the text with the image the way I want. Is that easy or hard?

That's a matter of perception. :-) If you're comfortable writing shell
scripts, it should not be very difficult.

> I ask these questions because I'd like to estimate a head of time whether
> this route would be worth the investment. It would be worth it if it could
> all be set up in a day or two.

I think it should be possible in a day or two. But of course it depends on a
number of things which I can't estimate for you.

- Philip

--
Philip Paeps Please don't email any replies
philip@paeps.cx I follow the newsgroup.

When the going gets tough, everyone leaves.