converts an ordinary text file to PostScript, suitable for printing on a PostScript printer such as the Apple Laserwriter or HP LaserJet, or viewing with a PostScript previewer such as Ghostscript. Reads from standard input, writes to standard output. textps converts text files to Courier-11, 66 lines to the page, 80 characters to the line. Handles pagination, tabs, line wrap, overstruck characters (via backspace) and overstruck lines (via carriage return). Absorbs ANSI escape sequences without printing them. If the input file is already PostScript, or seems to be PCL or other non-text, non-PostScript file, it is simply copied to the output without alteration. textps produces no special effects.
Unlike most other "enscriptors", textps
handles 8-bit character sets correctly. The default file character set on MS-DOS, Windows, or OS/2 PCs is the current code page, the NeXT character set on NeXT workstations, and ISO 8859-1 Latin Alphabet 1 elsewhere. Override the default character set with command-line options. Shift-In/Shift-Out codes (Ctrl-N and Ctrl-O) within the text are also handled correctly, allowing for representation of 8-bit characters in the 7-bit environment, for example in e-mail.
textps < infile | lpr
textps.exe > /dev/lpt1
textps -c cp850 < infile > prn
textps -v -c latin1 < infile | lpr
PC code pages 857, 860, 861, 863, and 865 are treated like code page 437.
Printers with PostScript versions prior to 47.0 might display certain characters as spaces: broken bar, copyright, trade mark, not sign, fractions, superscripts, Y/y-acute, Icelandic Thorn/thorn and Eth/eth. Use the -v option to have the printer display its PostScript version number.
When textps is installed as a print filter, there is no way way to pass options to it. So, for example, you can't tell it to use a different character set. In that case, run textps "manually":
textps -c decmcs < decmcs.txt | lpr