GHS BULLETIN

GHS BULLETIN Getting your Printer to work with GHS

If you are having trouble printing from GHS, here are some things you can try.

First, make sure you can print a simple text file, using the printer port you have specified through the GHS command PRINTER CONFIGURE. To verify this, use the COPY command from the DOS prompt. For example, if the printer is on LPT1,

    COPY C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT LPT1

You may have to do a manual page eject to get the page to finish printing.

This should work equally well for any printer, regardless of what type it is.

If this does not work and you are running in windows, try it from DOS mode. If it still does not work, the problem must be:

1) The printer is not properly connected to the port you specified.

2) The printer does not have a text mode.

If it works from DOS mode but not from a DOS window, Windows probably does not have the port mapped to the printer. Check your Network printer settings. In Windows 95 and NT 4.0 go into Network Neighborhood and check the printer mapping. First find your printer, then look at the File menu and select "Capture Printer Port" which allows you to assign LPT1, etc. to the printer. GHS cannot handle a port beyond LPT3 (it only can access LPT1, LPT2 or LPT3).

If your printer does not have a text mode, you will have to print your GHS output files through a Windows program such as WordPad or WMGHS (Windows Manager for GHS).

If the COPY test does work, try the following (assuming LPT1 and HPLASER for your printer type -- substitute your actual printer type for the HPLASER keyword):

     PP C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT LPT1 HPLASER

If you are not sure of the available printer type keywords, you can get a list on the screen by typing PP alone without any parameters.

If this works, you can certainly print text from GHS.

To test the graphics printing, try the PPTEST.BAT which came with GHS. For example,

1) Go to the DOS prompt and change to the GHS directory (e.g. CD \GHS), then enter,

    PPTEST HPLASER LPT1

Note that the order of the parameters is reversed from the order required by PP.

This should print a page which is a combination of text and graphics. There should be a rectangle near the middle of the page which measures 2" x 2".

If this works, you can certainly print text and graphics from GHS. Make sure that you give the same printer type keyword and port in response to the PRINTER CONFIGURE command. You only have to do this once (unless you change printers or ports) since GHS records the printer type and port in its configuration file (GHS.CFG).

If you would like to see another bulletin created regarding a specific topic, please email Creative Systems, Inc. at support@ghsport.com.