Printing Transparencies at PIRL

PIRL maintains a color laser printer with which users can print color transparencies. Doing so is made simple by means of a special transparency-oriented print queue for the PIRL color printer; this queue prints to the transparency media tray of the printer, so users do not even need to load transparency media manually -- everything is generally in place and ready to use.

Printing

To print a color transparency, use the PIRL-color-transparency queue. Output goes to the transparency media tray of PIRL's Tektronix Phaser 740P printer, located outside the PIRL user room, Sonett 100.

There are some caveats and rules to observe when printing transparencies at PIRL:

Use only approved transparencies:
- Xerox Laser/Copier Transparencies with Removable Stripe.
- No other transparency is approved.
Print at most five at a time, with ten minutes of cooling time following.
If you see streaking, shut the printer down immediately.

Failure to follow these instructions may result in a ruined fuser, which is a $200 part. Replacement transparency media is located in the drawers next to the printer; if the box does not say "Xerox Laser/Copier Transparencies with Removable Stripe," then the transparencies must not be used in the PIRL-color printer.

Command-Line Printing

Raster images can be printed easily to the transparency queue directly from the command line via the lpr or lp command-line tools. There are two important options to consider using:

-o scaling=100 - This option scales the image to fit the page, maintaining its proper aspect ratio. Use this option to ensure your print doesn't fall onto two or more pages, or use it to ensure your image makes maximum use of the transparency.
-o landscape - This option rotates the image 90 degrees before printing. It is particularly appropriate for an image that has a width greater than its height -- i.e., for a landscape-oriented image. Combine it with the previous option to ensure a landscape image makes maximum use of the transparency medium.

This technique works best for a raster image, such as a TIFF, a JPEG, or a PNG. For vector images, such as PDFs or PostScript images, see below.

Example: Suppose the file moon.jpg needs to be printed to a transparency. If it is a portrait-oriented image (its height is greater than its width), use the following command:

% lpr -P PIRL-color-transparency -o scaling=100 moon.jpg

If the image is a landscape-oriented image, use the following command instead:

% lpr -P PIRL-color-transparency -o scaling=100 -o landscape moon.jpg

Vector Images

Vector formats, such as PDF or PostScript, may not print as expected. In particular, if the format includes embedded page sizing and placement information (as is common in encapsulated PostScript -- EPS -- files), the aforementioned command-line options may be ignored entirely. You have two options:

1 - Format the Document for the Transparency Queue: With the software used to create the document, set the page size to 8.5 inches by 11 inches, and set margins of 0.5 inches. This solution is optimal, and printing from the command line should work flawlessly.

2 - Rasterize the Image: A lesser solution is to rasterize the document's page(s) with software such as The Gimp or Photoshop. An image size of about 7.5 inches by 10 inches at 300 dpi will result in a reasonably good print.