<tt>a2ps</tt>: ASCII <IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="_18162_tex2html_wrap9571.gif"> PostScript translator.


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a2ps: ASCII PostScript translator.

This package translates a text file to PostScript format and prints the document two pages per physical page. By default, output goes to the standard output. To redirect output to the printer, a pipe is necessary:

a2ps options filename | lp
Where some common options are: 
-i or -ni   Interpret (Do Not interpret) tab, bs, ff characters.
-? or -h    Print help information.
-m          Process this file as a man page. 
-n or -nn   Number (Do Not number) the lines in the files. 
-p or -np   Print in portrait (landscape) mode.

The default setting is to show two pages across one sheet in landscape format. This will appear as shown on figure 14.1.

  
Figure 14.1: a2ps landscape output

Two examples of a2ps are:

  1. a2ps -n filename | lp
  2. man manpage | a2ps -m | lp
In the first example, a listing of filename with line numbers added would be sent to the printer. The second example converts a man page to PostScript format and prints it.

Super-User
Fri Feb 17 15:55:40 EST 1995