.TH TEXTPS LOCAL 
.SH NAME
textps \- Convert a plain-text file to PostScript
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B textps
[
.B \-h
] [
.B \-v
] [
.B \-l
.I
number
] [
.B \-w
.I
number
] [
.B \-c 
.I
charset
] <
.I input
>
.I output

.SH DESCRIPTION
.I textps

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.
.I 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.
.I textps
produces no special effects.  

Unlike most other "enscriptors", 
.I
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.

.SH OPTIONS
.TP
.B \-h
displays a help message.
.TP
.B \-v
produces a page showing the textps program version number and the
printer's PostScript version number.
.TP
.B \-l number
Sets the page length (number of lines).  Default is 66.  Use 70 for A4 paper.
.TP
.B \-w number
Sets the page width (number of characters).  Default is 80.
.TP
.B \-c
specifies the file's character set.  The choices are 
.I apple
(Apple QuickDraw),
.I cp437
(IBM code page 437),
.I cp850
(IBM code page 850),
.I decmcs
(DEC multinational character set),
.I latin1
(ISO Latin Alphabet 1), and
.I next
(the NeXT character set).  The character set name can be abbreviated as long
as you have given enough characters to distinguish it from the others.
.PD
.SH EXAMPLES
textps < infile > outfile

textps < infile | lpr

textps.exe > /dev/lpt1

textps -c cp850 < infile > prn

textps -v -c latin1 < infile | lpr     

.SH ERRORS
Returns an exit status code of 0 on success, 1 on
failure.  Fails only if it is invoked with invalid command line options,
in which case an error message is printed, along with usage instructions.

.SH BUGS
.I textps
constructs its own internal font, which contains all of the characters
of Latin Alphabet 1, plus 32 additional.  File characters that don't have
equivalents in this font, such as PC line- and box- drawing characters, are
approximated with ASCII characters like '+', '-', '|' and 'X'.  Characters that
cannot be translated are shown as '?'.

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
.I 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

.SH AUTHOR
Frank da Cruz, Columbia University, 1991-2002  Acknowledgements to Bur Davis
of Adobe for assistance with fine points of PostScript; to Darrel Hankerson of
Auburn University for the OS/2 port; to Jeffrey Altman for the Windows port.