Anzio Frequently Asked Questions - Printing

Why won't Anzio print on my new printer?

How does passthrough printing work?

How can I remote print from UNIX without passthrough printing?

Anzio returns a printer error (5001, 5002, ...)

I get nothing or a Printer Dialog Error, but other applications under Windows print fine. What's wrong?

Why won't Anzio print on my new printer?

If you have just installed a new printer, and other Windows programs can print to it, but Anzio won't, you may have a compatibility problem. You may need to get a different printer, or else upgrade from Anzio Lite to AnzioWin. Details follow.

We'll assume you're connecting to a host system, running an application there, and telling it to print to "attached printer", "slave printer", "local printer", or similar (this is different from printing the screen). The host program may assume you have a certain kind of printer, most likely one that supports a control language called PCL-5. If your new printer does not support PCL-5, this will be a problem. One alternative is to return the printer and get a compatible one. Other alternatives follow.

First, if a print job seems to be stuck in the Windows spooler, even after you quit from Anzio, try to "cancel" it from the spooler. You may need to turn the printer off and back on. You may even need to reboot the PC.

In the following, Anzio's configurations for printing vary by version, but are all within the File menu except as noted.

If you are running Anzio Lite, and your setting in Anzio Lite for Print Level is anything other than "High", set it to High and try again. If it prints now, but with extra characters at the beginning, and/or missing font changes, and/or incorrect alignment on the page, you probably need AnzioWin. You can download and test a demo version of AnzioWin from our website, without disturbing your Anzio Lite.

If you are running AnzioWin, turn on the Print Wizard feature. Then, in the Edit menu, go to "Advanced options" and click on the "Print Wizard" tab. Set "Translate PCL" to "Main and overlay". Click "OK". In this configuration, AnzioWin's Print Wizard feature will receive, translate, and respond to all the PCL-5 control codes. The resulting output can go to any printer that Windows supports.

You can order an upgrade (from Anzio Lite to AnzioWin) at a discounted price on our website.

How does passthrough printing work?

Passthrough printing allows a host computer to send a print job through the user's terminal (emulator) and out to an attached printer. It is sometimes called "local print", "attached print" or "slave print". This means the user must be logged in to the host. The host then sends a sequence of characters that causes the telnet or terminal emulation software to redirect its output to a local printer until a similar sequence is received to turn off the passthrough printing. In our document library we have an excellent document talking about passthrough printing, how your host support should be set up and how Anzio works. See the A Guide to Passthrough Printing document for more information.

How can I remote print from UNIX without passthrough printing?

When you have a host application that does not support passthrough printing (printing that goes through the Anzio telnet session), your options are somewhat limited.

The most common approach is to set up the LPR/LPD protocol to do the remote printing. This works by acting as a back channel from the UNIX spooler to redirect the output through LPR on the host to an LPD server (daemon) on the PC. With our standalone Print Wizard product, we provide PWLPD which is a robust LPD for the PC.

The second approach is to use netcat (freeware for UNIX), netprint (our product included with Print Wizard also) or H/P JetAdmin for UNIX. H/P JetAdmin redirects to the output from the UNIX to a specific printer attached to the network with a JetDirect device. Netcat simply dumps data to port 9100 at another IP (the data can then be captured and printed). Netprint is a UNIX utility included with our Print Wizard standalone product that sends data from UNIX to the PC's printer using port 9100 and Print Wizard on the PC.

The catch: These products work fine as long as the remote user's IP address is known in advance (a static IP). However if the user is coming in over the Internet from an ISP, the dynamic IP will change each time. To solve this problem, it is easiest to have a login script that runs which modifies the LP print queue for a specific user during a specific session. It can be a pain to set up, but works smoothly once done.

Our netprint program, though, does have the ability to determine dynamically what IP you're coming in from, and route a print job to that IP address, where you can have Print Wizard running.

Anzio returns a printer error (5001, 5002, ...)

When passthrough printing or screen printing through Anzio returns a printer error in the 5000 range, this usually indicates that some data was passed through from the host and Anzio tried to print it directly to the spooler or to the raw device, bypassing the printer driver.

If your passthrough print job contains escape sequences for a specific printer, such as PCL for HP printers, and you try printing this on a different printer, such as an Epson, you may get printer errors. Make sure if your passthrough print job contains printer language it is printed on the right printer.
If you receive these errors on a passthrough print job that does not contain any escape or control sequences that are printer specific, then check your "print level" in Anzio. Typically a printer error of 5002 in these cases would indicate that Anzio is set for "spooler" or "raw" print level and the printer does not support this type of printing. Change the print level back to "high" or "Print Wizard" (if AnzioWin).
If you are sending escape sequences and the printer driver appears to be right, check which language is supported by the printer driver and that it is the same language as the host application is sending. PCL-6 will not print on a PCL-5 driver, and PCL in general will not print through a Postscript driver (check to see if the printer installed different drivers for different printer languages).

If all else fails, either give your application vendor a call, or call our office and ask for tech support.

I get nothing or a Printer Dialog Error, but other applications under Windows print fine. What's wrong?

There is an increasing number of printers and printer drivers hitting the market for Windows. Also, there are an ever-increasing number of applications which manipulate the printer driver. While we do attempt to support all options, we have found that certain applications "mess" with the printer control record causing Anzio's setup to become corrupt. Once the default file becomes corrupt, there are two possible fixes.

First, if you have more than one printer installed under Windows, go to Printer Setup and choose a different printer, save defaults and try printing (if this is an option). Then return to the printer with the problem, save defaults again and try printing.

Second, if the first is not an option or does not work, is to create a new defaults file. Make sure you know the default file name you are using, i.e. anziowin.def, the keys file being loaded, i.e. vt220.kys, and your communications setup options. Go to the File:Run or Start:Run dialog box and enter the executable name followed by the word NONE. This will start Anzio without a default file. Go through the setup procedure and log back in to your host. Select the printer again under Printer Setup and attempt to Print Screen. If it's ok, be sure to re-save the defaults under the correct name. If this fails, give us a call.