IBM Lotus Symphony


Setting up Printer, Fax and Fonts Under UNIX Based Platforms

Under UNIX based platforms, the printer administration program spadmin is provided to help you set up printers, faxes and fonts for use with the Lotus® Symphony™ software.

Call the printer administration program spadmin as follows:

After it starts, the window of the printer administration program spadmin appears.

Following a server installation, the system administrator first logs on as with root privileges, and starts the printer administration program spadmin. The administrator then creates a general printer configuration file called {install_path}/share/psprint/psprint.conf for all users. All changes are immediately available to all users.

The system administrator can also add fonts for all users in the server installation. However, these fonts are available only after restarting the Lotus Symphony software.

Setting up Printers

Under UNIX based platforms, the Lotus Symphony software only offers direct support for printers using the PostScript technology. Other printers must be set up as described in the section Printer Drivers in the Lotus Symphony Software. The Lotus Symphony software automatically provides a printer with the default driver for each system queue. You can add additional printers as needed.

Adding a Printer

  1. Change to the {install_path}/program directory.

  2. Enter: ./spadmin

  3. Click the New Printer button.

  4. Select the Create Printer option and click Next.

  5. Select the appropriate driver for your printer. If you are not using a PostScript printer or your model is not listed, use the Generic Printer driver or follow the steps below. You can also add new drivers using the Import button or delete unnecessary drivers using the Delete button. Click Next.

  6. Choose a command line that you can use to print on your printer (for example, lp -d my_queue). Click Next.

  7. Give the printer a name and determine whether it should become the default printer. Click Finish.

  8. To print a test page, click on Test Page. If the test page fails to print or is incorrectly printed, check all settings as described in Changing Printer Settings.

Printer Drivers in the Lotus Symphony Software

When installing a non-PostScript printer, you must set your system so that PostScript can be converted into the language of the printer. We recommend using current PostScript conversion software such as Ghostscript (http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/).

You should set up the Generic Printer in that case. Also make sure that the page margins are set correctly.

If you are using a printer using the PostScript technology, you should install a description file for the printer (PostScript Printer Definition - PPD) so that you can utilize the specific printer features like paper tray selection, duplex print function and all built-in fonts. You can also use the generic printer driver since it contains the most important data and is suitable for most printers. In that case, you will have to do without the paper tray selection and must correctly set the page margins.

Some PPD files are installed as default files. If there is no matching PPD file for your printer, you will find various PPD files at http://www.adobe.com/products/printerdrivers/. You can also ask the manufacturer of your printer for PPD files.

Importing Drivers When Creating a New Printer

  1. Click Import in the driver selection dialog.

  2. Click Browse to select the directory where you unpacked the PPD files.

  3. In the Selection of drivers list box, select the printer driver you want to install.

  4. Click OK.

Deleting Drivers When Creating a New Printer

Be sure that you do not delete the generic printer driver, and remember that drivers deleted from server installations are no longer available to other users who are using the same server installation.

If the printer has more fonts built in than the usual PostScript fonts, you must also load the AFM files for these additional fonts. Copy the AFM files into the {install_path}/share/psprint/fontmetric directory or into the {install_path}/user/psprint/fontmetric directory. You can find AFM files, for example, at ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/type/win/all/afmfiles/.

Changing Printer Settings

In the printer administration program spadmin, select the printer from the Installed printers list box and click Properties. The Properties dialog appears containing several tab pages. This is where you can make settings that are used according to the PPD file of the selected printer.

Some of these settings can also be set for the current printout in the Print dialog in the Lotus Symphony software with the Properties button.

Renaming or Deleting Printers

Using Fax Functionality

If you have installed a fax package such as Efax or HylaFax on your computer, you can send faxes with the Lotus Symphony software.

  1. Change to the {install_path}/program directory.

  2. Enter: ./spadmin

  3. Click New Printer. This opens the Add Printer dialog.

  4. Select Connect a fax device. Click Next.

  5. Choose whether to use the default driver or another printer driver. If you are not using the default driver, select the appropriate driver. Click Next.

  6. In the dialog, enter a command line to communicate with the fax. In the command line of each fax sent "(TMP)" is replaced by a temporary file and "(PHONE)" by the telephone number of the recipient fax machine. If "(TMP)" occurs in the command line, the PostScript code is transmitted in a file, otherwise as standard input through a pipe. Click Next.

  7. Assign a name to your new fax printer and determine whether the telephone numbers (see below) marked in the text should be removed from the printout, or not. Click Finish.

You can now send faxes by printing to the printer that has just been created.

Enter the fax number as text in the document. The fax number must start with the characters @@# and end with @@. A valid entry would have the form @@#1234567@@.

If these characters including the telephone number are not printed, activate the Fax number is removed from the printout option under Properties on the Command tab page. If no telephone number is entered in the document, a dialog prompting you for it will appear after the printout.

In Lotus Symphony you can also activate an icon for sending faxes to a default fax. You can set which fax is used when this button is pressed under File - Preferences - Symphony - Lotus Symphony Documents - Print.

Remember to create one separate print job for each fax, otherwise, the first recipient will receive all the faxes. In the Tools - Mail Merge dialog select the Printer option and then select the Single print jobs check box.

Connecting a PostScript to PDF Converter

If a PostScript to PDF converter such as Ghostscript or Adobe Acrobat Distiller is installed on your computer, you can quickly create PDF documents in the Lotus Symphony software.

  1. In spadmin, click New Printer. This opens the Add Printer dialog.

  2. Select Connect a PDF converter. Click Next.

    Choose whether to use the default driver, the Acrobat Distiller driver or another driver. The driver "Generic Printer (T42 enabled)" prefers the type 42 fonts over type 3 fonts; this driver is a good choice for output to a software PostScript interpreter. Click Next.

  3. In the dialog, enter a command line for the PostScript to PDF Converter. Enter the directory where the PDF files should be saved. If you do not provide a directory, the user's home directory will be used. In the command line "(TMP)" is replaced by a temporary file and "(OUTFILE)" by the target file, the name of which is created from the document name. If "(TMP)" occurs in the command line, the Postscript code is forwarded in a file, otherwise as standard input through a pipe. If Ghostscript or Adobe Acrobat Distiller is in the search path, you can use one of the predefined command lines. Click Next.

  4. Assign a name to your new PDF converter. Click Finish.

You can now create PDF documents by printing to the converter that has just been created.

Installing Fonts

When you are working with the Lotus Symphony software you might notice that a different number of fonts is provided depending on the document type being used. This is because not all of the fonts can be used in every case.

The Lotus Symphony software tries to match the display on screen to the printout (WYSIWYG = what you see is what you get). Possible problems are shown in the bottom of the dialog Layout > Properties > Text Properties.

Adding Fonts

You can integrate additional fonts in the Lotus Symphony software. Fonts which you integrate are available exclusively to the Lotus Symphony software and can be used with various Xservers without your having to install them there. To make the fonts available to other programs as well, proceed as usual by adding the fonts to your Xserver. The Lotus Symphony software can display and print out PostScript Type1 fonts as well as TrueType fonts (including TrueType Collections).

To integrate additional fonts in the Lotus Symphony software, proceed as follows:

  1. Go to the {install_path}/program directory.

  2. Enter: ./spadmin

  3. Click Fonts.

  4. The dialog lists all fonts added for the Lotus Symphony software. You can select and remove fonts using the Remove button or add new fonts with the Add button.

  5. Click Add. The Add Fonts dialog appears.

  6. Enter the directory from which you want to add the fonts. Press the ... button and select the directory from the path selection dialog or enter the directory directly.

  7. With the Create soft links only check box you can determine whether the fonts are to be copied into the Lotus Symphony directory or only symbolic links are to be created there. If the fonts to be added are on a data medium that is not always available (such as a CD-ROM), you must copy the fonts.

  8. Click OK. The fonts will now be added.

In the case of a server installation, the fonts are installed in that installation if possible. If the user has no write access rights, the fonts will be installed in the corresponding user installation so that only the user who installed them can access them.

Deleting Fonts

To delete fonts, proceed as follows:

  1. Start spadmin.

  2. Click Fonts.

  3. All fonts added to the Lotus Symphony software are listed in the dialog that now appears. Select the fonts you want to delete and click Delete.

You can delete only the fonts that have been added for the Lotus Symphony software.

Renaming Fonts

You can also rename fonts added for the Lotus Symphony software. This is especially useful for fonts that contain several localized names.

  1. Start spadmin.

  2. Click Fonts.

  3. Select the fonts you want to rename and click Rename.

  4. Enter a new name in the dialog that appears. If the font contains several names, these names will serve as suggestions in the combo box where you enter the new name.

  5. Click OK.

If you select several fonts to rename, one dialog appears for each selected font.

If you have selected a TrueType Collection (TTC), one dialog appears for each of the fonts contained in it.


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