Manpages

NAME

enscript - convert text files to PostScript, HTML, RTF, ANSI, and overstrikes

SYNOPSIS

enscript [-123456789BcgGhjkKlmOqrRvVzZ] [-# copies] [-a pages] [-A align] [-b header] [-C[start_line]] [-d printer] [-D key[:value]] [-e[char]] [-E[lang]] [-f font] [-F header_font] [-H[num]] [-i indent] [-I filter] [-J title] [-L lines_per_page] [-M media] [-n copies] [-N newline] [-o outputfile] [-o -] [-p outputfile] [-p -] [-P printer] [-s baselineskip] [-S key[:value]] [-t title] [-T tabsize] [-u[text]] [-U num] [-w language] [-X encoding] [filename ...]

DESCRIPTION

Enscript converts text files to PostScript or to other output languages. Enscript can spool the generated output directly to a specified printer or leave it to a file. If no input files are given, enscript processes the standard input stdin. Enscript can be extended to handle different output media and it has many options which can be used to customize the printouts.

OPTIONS

-1, -2, -3, -4, -5, -6, -7, -8, -9, --columns=num

Specify how many columns each page have. With the long option --columns=num you can specify more than 9 columns per page.

-a pages, --pages=pages

Specify which pages are printed. The page specification pages can be given in the following formats:
begin-end

print pages from begin to end

-A align, --file-align=align

Align separate input files to even align page count. This option is useful in two-side and 2-up printings (--file-align=2).

-b header, --header=header

Use the text header as a page header. The default page header is constructed from the name of the file and from its last modification time.

The header string header can contain the same formatting escapes which can be specified for the %Format directives in the user defined fancy headers. For example, the following option prints the file name, current date and page numbers:

enscript --header=’$n %W Page $% of $=’ *.c

The header string can also contain left, center and right justified fields. The fields are separated by the ’|’ character:

enscript --header=’$n|%W|Page $% of $=’ *.c

now the file name is printed left justified, the date is centered to the header and the page numbers are printed right justified.

-B, --no-header

Do not print page headers.

-c, --truncate-lines

Cut lines that are too long for the page. As a default, enscript wraps long lines to the next line so no information is lost.

You can also use the --slice option which slices long lines to separate pages.

-C[start_line], --line-numbers[=start_line]

Precede each line with its line number. The optional argument start_line specifies the number of the first line in the input. The number of the first line defaults to 1.

-D key[:value], --setpagedevice=key[:value]

Pass a page device definition to the generated PostScript output. If no value is given, the key key is removed from the definitions.

For example, the command

enscript -DDuplex:true foo.txt

prints file foo.txt in duplex (two side) mode.

Page device operators are implementation dependent but they are standardized. See section PAGE DEVICE OPTIONS for the details.

-e[char], --escapes[=char]

Enable special escapes interpretation (see section SPECIAL ESCAPES). If the argument char is given, it changes the escape character to char. The default escape character is 0.

-E[lang], --highlight[=lang]

Highlight source code by creating a special input filter with the states program. The optional argument lang specifies the language to highlight. As a default the states makes an educated guess.

You can print a short description of the supported highlighting languages and file formats with the command:

enscript --help-highlight

The highlighting rules are defined in the ’/usr/share/enscript/hl/*.st’ files which can be edited to create highlighting definitions for new languages.

Note! You can not use your own input filters with this option.

-f name, --font=name

Select a font that is used for the body text. The default body font is Courier10, unless multicolumn landscape printing mode is selected, in which case the default font is Courier7.

The font specification name contains two parts: the name of the font and its size in PostScript points. For example, "Times-Roman12" selects the "Times-Roman" font with size 12pt.

The font specification name can also be given in format ’name@ptsize’, where the name of the font and its point size are separated by a ’@’ character. This allows enscript to use fonts which contain digit characters in their names.

The font point size can also be given in the format width/height where the width and the height specify the size of the font in x- and y-directions. For example, "Times-Roman@10/12" selects a 10 points wide and 12 points high "Times-Roman" font.

You can also give the font sizes as decimal numbers. For example, "Times-Roman10.2" selects a 10.2pt "Times-Roman" font.

-F name, --header-font=name

Select a font for the header texts.

-g, --print-anyway

Print a file even if it contains binary data. The option is implemented only for compatibility purposes. Enscript prints binary files anyway regardless of the option.

-G, --fancy-header[=name]

Print a fancy page header name to the top of each page. The option -G specifies the default fancy header. See section CONFIGURATION FILES to see how the default fancy header can be changed.

-h, --no-job-header

Suppress printing of the job header page.

-H[num], --highlight-bars[=num]

Specify how high the highlight bars are in lines. If the num is not given, the default value 2 is used. As a default, no highlight bars are printed.

-i num, --indent=num

Indent every line num characters. The indentation can also be specified in other units by appending an unit specifier after the number. The possible unit specifiers and the corresponding units are:

-I filter, --filter=filter

Read all input files through an input filter filter. The input filter can be a single command or a command pipeline. The filter can refer to the name of the input file with the escape ’%s’. The name of the standard input can be changed with the option ’--filter-stdin’.

For example, the following command prints the file ’foo.c’ by using only upper-case characters:

enscript --filter="cat %s | tr ’a-z’ ’A-Z’" foo.c

The following command highlights changes which are made to files since the last checkout:

enscript --filter="rcsdiff %s | diffpp %s" -e *.c

To include the string "%s" to the filter command, you must write it as "%%s".

-j, --borders

Print borders around columns.

-J title

An alias for the option -t, --title.

-k, --page-prefeed

Enable page prefeed.

-K, --no-page-prefeed

Disable page prefeed (default).

-l, --lineprinter

Emulate lineprinter. This option is a shortcut for the options --lines-per-page=66, and --no-header.

-L num, --lines-per-page=num

Print only num lines for each page. As a default, the number of lines per page is computed from the height of the page and from the size of the font.

-m, --mail

Send a mail notification to user after the print job has been completed.

-M name, --media=name

Select an output media name. Enscript’s default output media is determined from libpaper and falls back to A4.

-n num, --copies=num

Print num copies of each page.

-N nl, --newline=nl

Select the newline character. The possible values for nl are: n (unix newline, 0xa hex) and r (mac newline, 0xd hex).

-O, --missing-characters

Print a listing of character codes which couldn’t be printed.

-p file, --output=file

Leave the output to file file. If the file is ’-’, enscript sends the output to the standard output stdout.

-P name, --printer=name

Spool the output to the printer name.

-q, --quiet, --silent

Make enscript really quiet. Only fatal error messages are printed to stderr.

-r, --landscape

Print in the landscape mode; rotate page 90 degrees.

-R, --portrait

Print in the portrait mode (default).

-s num, --baselineskip=num

Specify the baseline skip in PostScript points. The number num can be given as a decimal number. When enscript moves from line to line, the current point y coordinate is moved (font point size + baselineskip) points down. The default baseline skip is 1.

-S key[:value], --statusdict=key[:value]

Pass a statusdict definition to the generated PostScript output. If no value is given, the key key is removed from the definitions.

The statusdict operators are implementation dependent; see the printer’s documentation for the details.

For example, the command

enscript -Ssetpapertray:1 foo.txt

prints the file foo.txt by using paper from the paper tray 1 (assuming that the printer supports paper tray selection).

-t title, --title=title

Set banner page’s job title to title. The option sets also the name of the input file stdin.

-T num, --tabsize=num

Set the tabulator size to num characters. The default is 8.

-u[text], --underlay[=text]

Print the string text under every page. The properties of the text can be changed with the options --ul-angle, --ul-font, --ul-gray, --ul-position, and --ul-style.

If no text is given, the underlay is not printed. This can be used to remove an underlay text that was specified with the ’Underlay’ configuration file option.

-U num, --nup=num

Print num logical pages on each output page (N-up printing). The values num must be a power of 2.

-v, --verbose[=level]

Tell what enscript is doing.

-V, --version

Print enscript version information and exit.

-w [lang], --language[=lang]

Generate output for the language lang. The possible values for lang are:
PostScript

generate PostScript (default)

overstrike

generate overstrikes (line printers, less)

-X name, --encoding=name

Use the input encoding name. Currently enscript supports the following encodings:
88591, latin1

ISO-8859-1 (ISO Latin1) (enscript’s default encoding).

88592, latin2

ISO-8859-2 (ISO Latin2)

88593, latin3

ISO-8859-3 (ISO Latin3)

88594, latin4

ISO-8859-4 (ISO Latin4)

88595, cyrillic

ISO-8859-5 (ISO Cyrillic)

88597, greek

ISO-8859-7 (ISO Greek)

88599, latin5

ISO-8859-9 (ISO Latin5)

885910, latin6

ISO-8859-10 (ISO Latin6)

asciifise, asciifi, asciise

7-bit ascii with some scandinavian (Finland, Sweden) extensions

asciidkno, asciidk, asciino

7-bit ascii with some scandinavian (Denmark, Norway) extensions

ibmpc, pc, dos

IBM PC charset

pslatin1, ISOLatin1Encoding

PostScript interpreter’s ’ISOLatin1Encoding’

-z, --no-formfeed

Turn off the form feed character interpretation.

-Z, --pass-through

Pass through all PostScript and PCL files without any modifications. This allows that enscript can be used as a lp filter.

The PostScript files are recognized by looking up the ’%!’ magic cookie from the beginning of the file. Note! Enscript recognized also the Windoze damaged ’^D%!’ cookie.

The PCL files are recognized by looking up the ’^[E’ or ’^[%’ magic cookies from the beginning of the file.

--color[=bool]

Use colors in the highlighting outputs.

--download-font=fontname

Include the font description file (.pfa or .pfb file) of the font fontname to the generated output.

--extended-return-values

Enable extended return values. As a default, enscript returns 1 on error and 0 otherwise. The extended return values give more details about the printing operation. See the section RETURN VALUE for the details.

--filter-stdin=name

Specify how the stdin is shown to the input filter. The default value is an empty string ("") but some programs require that the stdin is called something else, usually "-".

--footer=footer

Use the text footer as a page footer. Otherwise the option works like the --header option

--h-column-height=height

Set the horizontal column height to be height PostScript points. The option sets the formfeed type to horizontal-columns.

--help-highlight

Describe all supported --highlight languages and file formats.

--highlight-bar-gray=gray

Specify the gray level which is used in printing the highlight bars.

--list-media

List the names of all known output media and exit successfully.

--margins=left:right:top:bottom

Adjust the page marginals to be exactly left, right, top and bottom PostScript points. Any of the arguments can be left empty in which case the default value is used.

--mark-wrapped-lines[=style]

Mark wrapped lines in the output with the style style. The possible values for the style are:

--non-printable-format=format

Specify how the non-printable characters are printed. The possible values for the format are:

questionmark

replace non-printable characters with a question mark ’?’

--nup-columnwise

Change the layout of the sub-pages in the N-up printing from row-wise to columnwise.

--nup-xpad=num

Set the page x-padding of the n-up printing to num PostScript points. The default is 10 points.

--nup-ypad=num

Set the page y-padding of the n-up printing to num PostScript points. The default is 10 points.

--page-label-format=format

Set the page label format to format. The page label format specifies how the labels for the ’%%Page:’ PostScript comments are formatted. The possible values are:

--ps-level=level

Set the PostScript language level that enscript uses for its output to level. The possible values are 1, and 2.

--printer-options=options

Pass extra options to the printer command.

--rotate-even-pages

Rotate each even-numbered page 180 degrees.

--slice=num

Print the vertical slice num. The slices are vertical regions of input files. A new slice starts from the point where the line would otherwise be wrapped to the next line. The slice numbers start from 1.

--style=style

Set the highlighting style to style. The possible values are: a2ps, emacs, emacs_verbose, ifh, and msvc.

--swap-even-page-margins

Swap left and right page margins for even-numbered pages.

--word-wrap

Wrap long lines from word boundaries.

--ul-angle=angle

Set the angle of the underlay text to angle. As a default, the angle is atan(-d_page_h, d_page_w).

--ul-font=name

Select a font for the underlay text. The default underlay font is Times-Roman200.

--ul-gray=num

Print the underlay text with the gray value num (0 ... 1), the default gray value is .8.

--ul-position=position_spec

Set the underlay text’s starting position according to the position_spec. The position specification must be given in format: ’sign xpos sign ypos’, where the sign must be ’+’ or ’-’. The positive dimensions are measured from the lower left corner and the negative dimensions from the upper right corner. For example, the specification ’+0-0’ specifies the upper left corner and ’-0+0’ specifies the lower right corner.

--ul-style=style

Set the underlay text’s style to style. The possible values for style are:

CONFIGURATION FILES

Enscript reads configuration information from the following sources (in this order): command line options, environment variable ENSCRIPT, user’s personal configuration file ($HOME/.enscriptrc), site configuration file (/etc/enscriptsite.cfg) and system’s global configuration file (/etc/enscript.cfg).

The configuration files have the following format:

Empty lines and lines starting with ’#’ are comments.

All other lines are option lines and have format:

option [arguments ...].

The following options can be specified:
AcceptCompositeCharacters: bool

Specify whether PostScript font’s composite characters are accepted as printable or if they should be considered as non-existent. The default value is false (0).

AFMPath: path

Specifies the search path for the AFM files.

AppendCtrlD: int

Specify if the Control-D (^D) character should be appended to the end of the output. A value of 1 will append ^D followed by a newline, a value of 2 will omit the trailing newline. The default value is 0 for no ^D.

Clean7Bit: bool

Specify how characters greater than 127 are printed. The valuee true (1) generates 7-bit clean code by escaping all characters greater than 127 to the backslash-octal notation (default). The value false (0) generates 8-bit PostScript code leaving all characters untouched.

DefaultEncoding: name

Select the default input encoding. The encoding name name can be one of the values of the option -X, --encoding.

DefaultFancyHeader: name

Select the default fancy header. The default header is used when the option -G is specified or the option --fancy-header is given without an argument. The system-wide default is ’enscript’.

DefaultMedia: name

Select the default output media.

DefaultOutputMethod: method

Select the default target to which the generated output is sent. The possible values for the method are:

DownloadFont: fontname

Include the font description file of the font fontname to the generated output.

EscapeChar: num

Specify the escape character for the special escapes. The default value is 0.

FormFeedType: type

Specify what to do when a formfeed character is encountered from the input. The possible values for type are:

GeneratePageSize: bool

Specify whether the PageSize page device setting is generated to the PostScript output. The default value is true (1).

HighlightBarGray: gray

Specify the gray level which is used to print the highlight bars.

HighlightBars: num

Specify how high the highlight bars are in lines. The default value is 0 which means that no highlight bars are printed.

LibraryPath: path

Specifies the enscript’s library path that is used to lookup various resources. The default path is: ’/usr/share/enscript:home/.enscript’. Where the home is the user’s home directory.

MarkWrappedLines: style

Mark wraped lines in the output with the style style. The possible values for the format are the same which can be given for the --mark-wrapped-lines option.

Media: name width height llx lly urx ury

Add a new output media with the name name. The physical dimensions of the media are width and height. The bounding box of the Media is specified by the points (llx, lly) and (urx, ury). Enscript prints all graphics inside the bounding box of the media.

User can select this media with option -M name.

NoJobHeaderSwitch: switch

Specify the spooler option to suppress the print job header page. This option is passed to the printer spooler when the enscript’s option -h, --no-job-header is selected.

NonPrintableFormat: format

Specify how the non-printable characters are printed. The possible values for format are the same which can be given for the --non-printable-format option.

OutputFirstLine: line

Set the PostScript output’s first line to line. The default value is PS-Adobe-3.0. Since some printers do not like DSC levels greater than 2.0, this option can be used to change the output first line to something more suitable like %!PS-Adobe-2.0 or %!.

PageLabelFormat: format

Set the page label format to format. The possible values for format are the same which can be given for the --page-label-format option.

PagePrefeed: bool

Enable / disable page prefeed. The default value is false (0).

PostScriptLevel: level

Set the PostScript language level, that enscript uses for its output, to level. The possible values for level are the same which can be given for the --ps-level option.

Printer: name

Names the printer to which the output is spooled.

QueueParam: name

The spooler command switch to select the printer queue, e.g. -P in lpr -Pps. This option can also be used to pass other flags to the spooler command. These options must be given before the queue switch.

SetPageDevice: key[:value]

Pass a page device definition to the generated PostScript output.

Spooler: name

Names the printer spooler command. Enscript pipes generated PostScript to the command name.

StatesBinary: path

Define an absolute path to the states program.

StatesColor: bool

Should the states program generate color outputs.

StatesConfigFile: file

Read highlighting states configuration from the file file. The default config file is ’/usr/share/enscript/hl/enscript.st’.

StatesHighlightStyle: style

Set the highlight style to style.

StatesPath: path

Define the path for the states program. The states program will lookup its state definition files from this path. The default value is ’$HOME/.enscript:/usr/share/enscript/hl’.

StatusDict: key[:value]

Pass a statusdict definition to the generated PostScript output.

TOCFormat: format

Format table of contents entries with the format string format. The format string format can contain the same escapes which are used to format header strings with the ’%Format’ special comment.

Underlay: text

Print string text under every page.

UnderlayAngle: num

Set the angle of the underlay text to num.

UnderlayFont: fontspec

Select a font for the underlay text.

UnderlayGray: num

Print the underlay text with the gray value num.

UnderlayPosition: position_spec

Set the underlay text’s starting position according to the position_spec.

UnderlayStyle: style

Set the underlay text’s style to style.

FANCY HEADERS

Users can create their own fancy headers by creating a header description file and placing it in a directory which is in enscript’s library path. The name of the header file must be in format: ’headername.hdr’. Header can be selected by giving option: --fancy-header=headername.

Header description file contains PostScript code that paints the header. Description file must provide procedure do_header which is called by enscript at the beginning of every page.

Header description file contains two parts: comments and code. Parts are separated by a line containing text:

% -- code follows this line --

Enscript copies only the code part of description file to the generated PostScript output. The comments part can contain any data, it is not copied. If separator line is missing, no data is copied to output.

Enscript defines following constants which can be used in header description files:

user_header_left_str

if user_header_p is true, this is the left field of the user supplied header string.

user_header_center_str

if user_header_p is true, this is the center field of the user supplied header string

user_header_right_str

if user_header_p is true, this is the right field of the user supplied header string

user_footer_left_str

if user_footer_p is true, this is the left field of the user supplied footer string.

user_footer_center_str

if user_footer_p is true, this is the center field of the user supplied footer string

user_footer_right_str

if user_footer_p is true, this is the right field of the user supplied footer string

gs_languagelevel

PostScript interpreter’s language level (currently 1 or 2)

You can also use the following special comments to customize your headers and to specify some extra options. Special comments are like DSC comments but they start with a single ’%’ character; special comments start from the beginning of the line and they have the following syntax:

%commentname: options

Currently enscript support the following special comments:
%Format: name format

Define a new string constant name according to the format string format. Format string start from the first non-space character and it ends to the end of the line. Format string can contain general ’%’ escapes and input file related ’$’ escapes. Currently following escapes are supported:

%D{string} ($D{string})

format string string with the strftime(3) function. ’%D{}’ refers to the current date and ’$D{}’ to the input file’s last modification date.

All format directives except ’$=’ can also be given in format

escape width directive

where width specifies the width of the column to which the escape is printed. For example, escape "$5%" will expand to something like " 12". If the width is negative, the value will be printed left-justified.

For example, the ’emacs.hdr’ defines its date string with the following format comment:

%Format: eurdatestr %E

which expands to:

/eurdatestr (96/01/08) def

%HeaderHeight: height

Allocate height points space for the page header. The default header height is 36 points.

%FooterHeight: height

Allocate height points space for the page footer. The default footer height is 0 points.

According to Adobe’s Document Structuring Conventions (DSC), all resources needed by a document must be listed in document’s prolog. Since user’s can create their own headers, enscript don’t know what resources those headers use. That’s why all headers must contain a standard DSC comment that lists all needed resources. For example, used fonts can be listed with following comment:

%%DocumentNeededResources: font fontname1 fontname2

Comment can be continued to the next line with the standard continuation comment:

%%+ font fontname3

SPECIAL ESCAPES

Enscript supports special escape sequences which can be used to add some page formatting commands to ASCII documents. As a default, special escapes interpretation is off, so all ASCII files print out as everyone expects. Special escapes interpretation is activated by giving option -e, --escapes to enscript.

All special escapes start with the escape character. The default escape character is ^@ (octal 000); escape character can be changed with option -e, --escapes. Escape character is followed by escape’s name and optional options and arguments.

Currently enscript supports following escapes:

^@bgcolor{red green blue}

where the color components red, green, and blue are given as decimal numbers between values 0 and 1.

^@bggray{gray}

where gray is the new text background gray value. The default value is 1.0 (white).

^@color{red green blue}

where color components red, green and blue are given as decimal numbers between values 0 and 1.

^@comment text newline_character

^@escape{code}

where code is the decimal code of the new escape character.

^@epsf[options]{filename}

where options is an optional sequence of option characters and values enclosed with brackets and filename is the name of the EPS file.

If filename ends to the ’|’ character, then filename is assumed to name a command that prints EPS data to its standard output. In this case, enscript opens a pipe to the specified command and reads EPS data from pipe.

Following options can be given for the epsf escape:

As a default, all dimensions are given in lines (vertical) and characters (horizontal). You can also specify other units by appending an unit specifier after number. Possible unit specifiers and the corresponding units are:

For example to print an image one inch high, you can specify height by following options: h1i (1 inch), h2.54c (2.54 cm), h72p (72 points).

^@font{fontname[:encoding]}

where fontname is a standard font specification. Special font specification default can be used to select the default body font (enscript’s default or the one specified by the command line option -f, --font).

The optional argument encoding specifies the encoding that should be used for the new font. Currently the encoding can only be the enscript’s global input encoding or ps.

^@ps{code}

^@shade{gray}

where gray is the new text background gray value. The default value is 1.0 (white) which disables highlighting.

PAGE DEVICE OPTIONS

Page device is a PostScript level 2 feature that offers an uniform interface to control printer’s output device. Enscript protects all page device options inside an if block so they have no effect in level 1 interpreters. Although all level 2 interpreters support page device, they do not have to support all page device options. For example some printers can print in duplex mode and some can not. Refer to the documentation of your printer for supported options.

Here are some usable page device options which can be selected with the -D, --setpagedevice option. For a complete listing, see PostScript Language Reference Manual: section 4.11 Device Setup.
Collate boolean

how output is organized when printing multiple copies

Duplex boolean

duplex (two side) printing

ManualFeed boolean

manual feed paper tray

OutputFaceUp boolean

print output ’face up’ or ’face down’

Tumble boolean

how opposite sides are positioned in duplex printing

PRINTING EXAMPLES

Following printing examples assume that enscript uses the default configuration. If default actions have been changed from the configuration files, some examples will behave differently.
enscript foo.txt

Print file foo.txt to the default printer.

enscript -Possu foo.txt

Print file foo.txt to printer ossu.

enscript -pfoo.ps foo.txt

Print file foo.txt, but leave PostScript output to file foo.ps.

enscript -2 foo.txt

Print file foo.txt to two columns.

enscript -2r foo.txt

Print file to two columns and rotate output 90 degrees (landscape).

enscript -DDuplex:true foo.txt

Print file in duplex (two side) mode (printer dependent).

enscript -G2rE -U2 foo.c

My default code printing command: gaudy header, two columns, landscape, code highlighting, 2-up printing.

enscript -E --color -whtml --toc -pfoo.html *.h *.c

A nice HTML report of your project’s C source files.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

The environment variable ENSCRIPT can be used to pass default options for enscript. For example, to select the default body font to be Times-Roman 7pt, set the following value to the ENSCRIPT environment variable:
-fTimes-Roman7

The value of the ENSCRIPT variable is processed before the command line options, so command line options can be used to overwrite these defaults.

Variable ENSCRIPT_LIBRARY specifies the enscript’s library directory. It can be used to overwrite the build-in default ’/usr/share/enscript’.

RETURN VALUE

Enscript returns value 1 to the shell if any errors were encountered or 0 otherwise. If the option --extended-return-values was specified, the return value is constructed from the following flags:

FILES

/usr/share/enscript/*.hdr header files

SEE ALSO

diffpp(1), ghostview(1), gs(1), lpq(1), lpr(1), lprm(1), states(1)

AUTHOR

Markku Rossi <mtr [AT] iki.fi> <http://www.iki.fi/~mtr/>;

GNU Enscript WWW home page: <http://www.iki.fi/~mtr/genscript/>;