I used PostScript on Linux for real printing — here’s how it went

Posted byneifferhussian

I’m Kayla. I print a lot. Work stuff, school stuff, and the random label for a jar. I run Ubuntu on a ThinkPad. I also sit next to two lasers: an old HP LaserJet 1320 and a Brother HL-L2350DW. Both sit on Wi-Fi. Both see a lot of paper.

So I tried PostScript on Linux for a month. Not theory. Real jobs. Messy fonts. Big charts. Holiday cards. Here’s what happened.

Why I even bothered

Some print shops still ask for PostScript or EPS. My coworker sends me .ps files from MATLAB. My sister sends me an EPS logo. And my old HP eats PostScript like candy. So it made sense.

Also, I like control. I want crisp lines. I want fonts to stay put. PDF is fine. But PostScript gives me knobs.

Setup was not scary, promise

On Ubuntu, I installed a few tools. Ghostscript, CUPS, and two old but handy friends, enscript and a2ps.

  • I ran: sudo apt install ghostscript cups a2ps enscript
  • Then I made sure printing worked: sudo systemctl enable --now cups

I used Evince to view .ps and .eps files. Okular worked too. Both showed pages fast enough.
If you ever need smoother rendering for heavy graphics, consider bolting on some Mesa extra layers—the walkthrough here makes the process painless.

You know what? That was it. No drama.
If you want an even deeper walkthrough of Linux printing basics, check out the excellent guide at DesktopLinuxReviews.com. For a full account of my own journey with PostScript, see my write-up over on DesktopLinuxReviews: I used PostScript on Linux for real printing — here’s how it went.

Real jobs I ran (and what broke)

1) A picky logo for a print shop

My sister sent me logo.eps. The shop wanted a PDF with fonts embedded.

  • First try: ps2pdf logo.eps logo.pdf
  • The PDF looked okay on screen. But the shop saw thin letters on their end.
  • Fix: gs -o logo_embed.pdf -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dEmbedAllFonts=true -dSubsetFonts=true -dEPSCrop logo.eps

That embedded the fonts. The crop flag trimmed the white border. They printed it clean. No “mystery font” call at 5 pm. Win.

2) Two-up notes on the HP LaserJet 1320

I had 40 pages of notes. I wanted two pages per sheet, landscape. The old HP loves this.

  • I ran: enscript -2r -o notes.ps notes.txt
  • Then: lp -d HP_LaserJet_1320 notes.ps

It shot out fast. Text was crisp at 600 dpi. The edges looked sharp, like a good pencil. I could read tiny code comments without squinting.

3) Same file on the Brother HL-L2350DW

The Brother supports “BR-Script,” which is like PostScript. Kind of.

  • I ran: lp -d Brother_HL-L2350DW notes.ps
  • First page took forever. Then pages came, but lines looked a bit thicker. Letters felt a hair off.

It was okay for school handouts. But for design work, I switched back to the HP. The Brother prefers PDF. When I sent PDF, it was quick and neat.

4) A huge chart from Python

I had a Matplotlib plot with tiny labels. The press wanted a high-res PDF, but their file system hates big files.

  • Start with PDF from Python: plot.pdf
  • Convert to PS: pdf2ps plot.pdf plot.ps
  • Back to PDF with prepress settings:
    ps2pdf -dPDFSETTINGS=/prepress plot.ps plot_prepress.pdf

File size dropped a bit. Curves stayed smooth. The blue line kept its color. One time I did see a small color shift, though. A navy line turned a bit brighter. Ghostscript can do that. I noted it and moved on.

5) Holiday cards with a photo and text

I laid out a card in Scribus. Exported EPS for the front text, and a photo as a high-res JPEG. Then I placed both and printed from CUPS as PostScript. The HP handled it fine. The Brother stalled for a minute, then finished. The red in the photo looked a touch warm on the Brother. The HP leaned cool. Both were gift-ready.

Fonts: the part that makes you sigh

Fonts are the fussy bit. Missing fonts will wreck a file. Ghostscript tries to swap in a look-alike. That can break spacing. If you want to see exactly how Ghostscript hunts for, substitutes, and embeds typefaces, skim the official Ghostscript Fonts documentation—it explains the search paths and substitution rules far better than a scattered web search.

What worked for me:

  • I installed the Noto family: sudo apt install fonts-noto fonts-noto-cjk
  • I forced embedding when making PDF from EPS or PS:
    gs -o out.pdf -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dEmbedAllFonts=true -dSubsetFonts=true in.ps
  • For EPS, I used -dEPSCrop so the box stayed tight.

One odd fix: if Evince showed weird glyphs, opening the same file in Okular was fine. It happened twice. Not sure why. But it saved my morning. If you’re troubleshooting cross-platform hand-offs—especially with colleagues who pre-flight in Adobe tools—the concise Adobe note on font handling in Acrobat Distiller spells out why a font might rasterize or disappear.

Speed, size, and paper feel

  • The HP LaserJet 1320: fast with PostScript. First page pops. Edges look tidy. Great for math and code.
  • The Brother HL-L2350DW: slow first page with PS; fine after. With PDF, though, it’s quick and smooth.
  • File size: -dPDFSETTINGS=/screen made PDFs small, good for email. -dPDFSETTINGS=/prepress kept things sharp for print.

And yes, I still love the sound of a laser printer at 7 am. It’s like coffee for paper.

Day-to-day flow that stuck

  • Print to file from Firefox as PostScript worked, but I prefer PDF for web pages. PS sometimes clipped sticky headers.
  • Evince handled .ps previews fine. Very big plots took a beat to render.
  • a2ps was great for code: a2ps -o code.ps -2 -R src/*.py gave me two-up, pretty headers, and line numbers. I felt organized. It felt… tidy.

Who gets the most value

  • Designers sending EPS or PS to shops
  • Lab folks printing plots and LaTeX
  • Anyone with an older HP that loves real PostScript
  • Sysadmins who script print jobs and want stable output

For creatives who spin up nightlife or event flyers, especially those aiming to tap the Connecticut coastal crowd, browsing the live classifieds at OneNightAffair’s Backpage West Haven section can spark headline ideas, provide up-to-date contact formats, and clue you into the sizing specs that resonate locally—handy details to nail before you hit “Print”.

Quick tips I’d keep on a sticky note

  • Set default printer: lpoptions -d HP_LaserJet_1320
  • See printers: lpstat -p
  • If you enjoy watching real-time streams of activity the same way I tail access_log during big PostScript runs, hop over to InstantChat Voyeur for a live glimpse at public chat sessions—great for picking up on-the-fly workflow ideas and seeing what other power users are experimenting with right now.
  • Convert EPS to tight PDF:
    gs -o out.pdf -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dEPSCrop -dEmbedAllFonts=true in.eps
  • Make two-up PS from text: enscript -2r -o out.ps file.txt
  • If Brother stalls on PS, send PDF instead. It helps.
  • For more everyday Linux workflow pointers, skim my collection of real-world tips and tricks.

The good and the bad

Pros:

  • Clean text and lines on a true PS printer
  • Strong control over fonts and layout
  • Tools are free and light
  • Great for batch jobs and scripts

Cons:

  • Fonts can go sideways if not embedded
  • Color can shift a little with Ghostscript
  • Some printers “fake” PS and run slow
  • Preview quirks happen now and then

My take

PostScript on Linux works. It’s not fancy. It’s steady. On my HP, it shines. On my Brother, I stick to PDF unless I must send PS. For logos, line art, and long notes, it’s great. For photos, PDF is less fussy.

Would