A4 format is commonly used in the rest of the world, so it's not surprising to receive DVI or Postscript files from there. If you try to print in on our printers which are set up for Letter size (8.5"x11"), you may end up with less than satisfactory results.

If you have the TeX/LaTeX source, you can change the source to use the new format and run TeX/LaTeX again.

You can also resize the Postscript output (if you have a DVI file, convert it to Postscript first), by issuing the command

  psresize -PA4 -pletter in.ps out.ps 

and print the resulting file out.ps.

If this is for publication that requires it to be on A4 paper, you can buy A4 paper from the UBC Bookstore. Ask the IT staff on how to set up the printer to print on A4 paper.

As of Dec. 1, 2005, if you do not set the printer your printouts should go to, it will be thrown away. The method to set your printer is different for Windows and Unix (Linux or Solaris).

For Windows

1. Setting a printer for an individual print job

   Most Windows applications will allow you to choose the printer from a menu when you try to print something. Choose the appropriate printer.

2. Setting a printer for a session

   To set a default printer for a login session (i.e. this setting will be forgotten once you log out), you can go to the printer settings control panel:

   Start -> Settings -> Printers

   then bring up the printer menu by placing the mouse over the printer's icon you want to print to and right-click, then select

   Select As Default Printer

   A check mark should appear over the printer icon of your choice.

3. Setting a permanent default printer for a workstation

   To set a permanent default printer (for the workstation you are using: you'll have to repeat it for another workstation), go to

   Start Menu -> Run ...

   Then, type the following into the text input window:

   \samba\win-share\SetDefaultPrinter

   Then double-click the appropriate printer batch file. From then on, that will be your default printer for this particular workstation.

For Unix

1. Setting a printer for an individual print job

   Some application (like firefox) will allow you to choose the printer. Most printing is done from the command line via lpr. You can tell lpr where to send the output to via the -P switch:

   lpr -Pname file ...

2. Setting a printer for a login session

   To set a default printer for a login session (i.e. this setting will be forgotten once you log out), you can set the environment variable PRINTER. In tcsh (the default shell), you can enter

   setenv PRINTER name

3. Setting a permanent default printer for your MathNet Unix account

   To permanently set a default printer for your Unix sessions, you can enter the above command to set your PRINTER environment variable in your startup script, found in your home directory:

   ~/.login

PDF FILES

First use acroread to open the file. Then use acroread's "print" menu.

JPG AND GIF FILES

First use Firefox to open the file. Then use Firefox's "print" menu.

For text files, you can first convert them to ps files before you print them. You can use Unix command "enscript" to do this. Enscript converts text files to PostScript and spools gen- erated PostScript output to the specified printer or leaves it to file. If no input files are given, enscript processes standard input. Enscript can be extended to handle dif- ferent output media and it has many options which can be used to customize printouts (Use command "man enscript" to find more information).

SYNTAX:

enscript [options] filename

OPTION EXAMPLES:

         -1, -2, --columns=num
                 Specify how many columns each page have.  With  long
                 option  --columns=num  you  can  specify more than 2
                 columns per page.

         -a pages, --pages=pages
                 Specify which pages are printed.  Page specification
                 pages can be given in following formats:

                 start-end
                         print pages from start to end

                 -end    print pages from 0 to end

                 start-  print pages from start to end

                 page    print page page

                 odd     print odd pages

                 even    print even pages

         -A align, --file-align=align
                 Align separate input files to even align page count.
                 This  is  handy  for  two-side  and  2-up  printings
                 (--file-align=2).

         -b header, --header=header

EXAMPLE

          enscript foo.txt
                  Print file foo.txt to the default printer.

          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 -G2rE -U2 foo.c
                  gaudy header,  two columns,  landscape,  
                  code highlighting, 2-up printing.

Most printers will print on both sides of the paper by default -- to make the print-out single-sided, try adding s at the end of the printer's name.