foo2slx(1)

✨ foo2slx — the manual, but make it make sense ✨

okay bestie, welcome to foo2slx(1), straight out of the General Commands Manual (that's section 1, for the ones keeping score 💅). sit down, grab a strawberry 🍓, and let's get you fluent.

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🌸 NAME 🌸

foo2slx — Convert Ghostscript pbmraw or bitcmyk format into a SLX printer stream

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

foo2slx [options] <pbmraw-file >slx-file

foo2slx [options] <bitcmyk-file >slx-file

foo2slx [options] <pksmraw-file >slx-file

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💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

so basically, foo2slx takes Ghostscript's pbmraw, bitcmyk, or pksmraw output formats and turns them into monochrome or color SLX streams. why do you care? because those streams are what you feed to the Lexmark C500 network color laser printer and other SLZ-based printers. it's giving printer whisperer, no cap. 🖨️✨

and the SLX stream itself? it's a variant of ZjStream, produced by Software Imaging K.K. iconic lineage, honestly.

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👑 COMMAND LINE OPTIONS 👑

✨ Normal Options ✨

these are the ones that pick the parameters of a print job — the stuff you usually control on a per-job basis, like a little menu of vibes for each page.

• -c — Force color mode if autodetect doesn't work. (autodetect is lowkey doing its best, but sometimes you gotta step in 💅)
• -g xpixxypix — Set page dimensions in pixels [10200x6600].
• -m media — Media code to send to printer [0].

the media menu, in order:

• plain → 0
• transparency → 1
• labels → 2
• thick1 → 3
• envelope1 → 4
• thin → 5
• thick2 → 6
• envelope2 → 7
• middle → 8
• special → 9

• -p paper — Paper code to send to printer [6].

the paper lineup, pair by pair:

• 6 → letter
• 2 → A4
• 9 → legal
• 4 → B5
• 8 → executive
• 5 → B5iso
• 10 → env #10
• 11 → env DL

• -n copies — Number of copies [1]. (yes, one. we're not printing 47 by accident, bestie)
• -r xresxyres — Set device resolution in pixels/inch [1200x600].
• -s source — Source (InputSlot) code to send to printer [0].

the source squad:

• 0 → auto
• 1 → cassette1

🎀 Printer Tweaking Options 🎀

these ones customize how foo2slx operates for a particular printer. fine-tuning hours, fr fr.

• -u xoffxyoff — Set the offset of the start of the printable region from the upper left corner, in pixels [0x0].
• -l xoffxyoff — Set the offset of the end of the printable region from the lower right corner, in pixels [0x0].
• -L mask — Send logical clipping amounts implied by -u/-l in the ZjStream [3].
  • 0 — don't send any logical clipping amounts
  • 1 — only send Y clipping amount
  • 2 — only send X clipping amount
  • 3 — send both X and Y clipping amounts
• -A — AllIsBlack: convert C=1,M=1,Y=1 to just K=1. Works with bitcmyk input only.
• -B — BlackClears: K=1 forces C,M,Y to 0. Works with bitcmyk input only.

🙈 Debugging Options 🙈

these are the ones you use for debugging foo2slx. main character energy for problem solvers.

• -S plane — Output just a single color plane from a color print and print it on the black plane. The default is to output all color planes.
  • 1 — Cyan
  • 2 — Magenta
  • 3 — Yellow
  • 4 — Black
• -D level — Set Debug level [0].

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🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

Create a black and white SLX stream:

gs -q -dBATCH -dSAFER -dQUIET -dNOPAUSE
    -sPAPERSIZE=letter -r1200x600 -sDEVICE=pbmraw
    -sOutputFile=- - < testpage.ps
| foo2slx -r1200x600 -g10200x6600 -p1 >testpage.zm

Create a color SLX stream:

gs -q -dBATCH -dSAFER -dQUIET -dNOPAUSE
    -sPAPERSIZE=letter -g10200x6600 -r1200x600 -sDEVICE=bitcmyk
    -sOutputFile=- - < testpage.ps
| foo2slx -r1200x600 -g10200x6600 -p1 >testpage.zc

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🧚 FILES 🧚

• /usr/bin/foo2slx

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⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

• foo2slx-wrapper(1)
• slxdecode(1)

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💜 AUTHOR 💜

• Rick Richardson <rick.richardson@comcast.net>
• http://foo2slx.rkkda.com/

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ok that's the whole page, bestie, nothing skipped, nothing hidden 💅

and for the little sign-off at the very bottom of the page: this is foo2slx(1) from the General Commands Manual, filed under section 1, brought to you by that same foo2slx(1) title running across the footer. go forth and slay your print jobs 🫶🦋