[Info-vax] printing from VMS

[Phillip Helbig undress to reply]

In the old days, I set up TCPIP print queues and could print text and 
PostScript files by just using the VMS PRINT command.  Of course, the 
printer had to be able to interpret PostScript.

But that was a quarter of a century ago.

These days, people print probably mostly PDF.  Presumably most printers 
will print a text file.  What about PDF?  Is that done by the printer or 
is there some sort of driver installed on the printing device?

My wife has a Canon Pixma printer.  Not a laser printer, I guess bubble 
jet or whatever.  However, it's not working at the moment and we'll 
probably buy a new printer if we can't get it fixed cheaply.  It's 
probably worth it to go for a laser printer---more expensive (but 
probably cheap enough by today's standards) but less cost per page, so 
we'll hit break-even in a reasonable time.

It would be nice to print to that from VMS.  What can I expect to work 
if I set up a queue pointing to the IP address?  Text?  PostScript?  
PDF?  Nothing?

Any suggestions?

Ideally, such a printer would work well from VMS and various Apple 
deviceds (iPad, MacBook, iPhone).

I also have a black-and-white |d|i|g|i|t|a|l| laser printer from about 
1990 or so.  I don't know if it is worth it to try to get it set up 
(I've never used it).