Using the Tektronix Phaser 220i Color PostScript Printer

The Tektronix Phaser 220i is a Color PostScript Printer located at SLD Headquarters on the second floor of the SLAC Central Lab Annex.

The printer produces paper prints and transparencies from PostScript files only.

Prints take approximately one minute per page, excluding network transmission time and image processing time ( negligable for SLD Event Displays, up to several minutes for some Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop applications). This is a factor of four faster than the Research Division's previous color printer, the Tektronix Phaser III.

The transparencies come out ready to use (no lamination process is required).

The printer has two separate input trays, one loaded with paper, the other loaded with transparencies.

Like all color printers, the cost per page is significant, so please don't waste this resource, but do make every ligitimate use of it.

Costs per page are:

Detailed instructions are available below for printing from various hosts:

VMS Users

The printer queue name is CSCLA2.

Queues have been configured on both the SLACVX and SLD clusters.

The queues accepts the qualifiers FORM=PAPER and FORM=TRANS to select between paper and transparency output. The default FORM is paper.

To print to transparency:

   PRINT/QUEUE=CSCLA2/FORM=TRANS

To print to paper:

   PRINT/QUEUE=CSCLA2/FORM=PAPER
or just:
   PRINT/QUEUE=CSCLA2

Macintosh Users

The printer is on the PUB1 Network under the name SLD-Phaser220i.

You need to have the appropriate driver for this printer to have access to all of the setup options.

You can obtain this driver as follows (apologies to those who like their instructions brief).

When you have the Phaser 220i driver, your Chooser will show a new category of devices labeled "Phaser 220".

The driver gives you options to select "lower tray" or "upper tray."

The printer is smart about resetting itself to its default condition, so you do not need to worry about resetting it after you have used non-default options.

Unix Users

Separate queues exist for printing to paper or transparency.

The names are cscla2_paper and cscla2_trans.

For example, to print to paper:

   lpr -Pcscla2_paper
To print to transparency:
   lpr -Pcscla2_trans

VM Users

The printer name is cscla2

When a file has successfully printed, you will get the following strange reply:

   Did not get final ACK

The default tray selection is paper.

To switch the printer into transparency mode, you need to send a special control file to the printer:

   prt phatrans ps * (on cscla2
The file moves through the queue like a standard PostScript file, but it contains only control sequences. It will not generate any actual output.

When you are finished printing transparencies, please reset the printer to paper mode by sending another control file:

   prt phapaper ps * (on cscla2

Windows NT Users

Most versions of Windows NT include the Phaser 220i driver on the Windows NT CD. Failing that, see Perl about getting the necessary driver.

The driver gives you options to select "lower tray" or "upper tray." Be sure to specify exactly what you want, or you are likely to get whatever the previous user had.

Read the following carefully; there's a secret trick you need to know:

Windows 95 Users

Most versions of Windows 95 include the Phaser 220i driver on the Windows 95 CD. Failing that, see Perl about getting the necessary driver.

Windows 3x Users

See Perl about getting the necessary driver.
Joseph Perl
10 September 1997