Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2011 4:15 pm

Hello,
In trying to 'print' I'm not concerned about going directly to my printer. I'm happy to go to either eps or postscript. I've installed an Adobe ps driver (getting ENG_PM4 as the 'printer' selection in the print dialogue pop-up window). The 'format' that I select is EPS Mac Enhanced Preview. I'm quite happy to drop the resulting file onto Distiller on the OS X side, where the pdf is successfully created. However, the biggest problem I have is that only one page gets 'printed' , no matter how long the document is. In trying a couple of other print drivers that allow me to print a complete document I run into a problem of only being able to 'print' to Letter size paper. I'm printing 'printer spread' music files to several different custom page sizes and letter size isn't workable because it's not proportionately accurate when scaled in Acrobat. So, I'm wondering if there is a print driver that I might try and perhaps some setting that I may have overlooked - although I think I've tried every combination possible! Another related problem is that I haven't found a way to create a custom page size in the Printer Set up dialogue.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Frank

Posted: Sat Sep 17, 2011 4:29 pm

Hi,
not sure whether I got the problem, but with PrintToPDF 1.5 you can easily set SheepShaver´s paper size to 'custom' for printing, e.g. 8 by 100 inches.
A more recent version 2.4.5 is here: http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/printtopdf
Best wishes!

Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2011 5:03 pm

You can set up the AdobePS printer driver to have custom page sizes. I used the following procedure to set up a Virtual Printer on Mac OS 9.0.4 running in SheepShaver on a MacBook Pro.
1. Go to http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/ .. =Macintosh, and click the 'PostScript Printer Driver AdobePS 8.8 - English' link (or one of the other languages if you like). Download the driver.
2. Go to http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/ .. ?ftpID=141, and download the Adobe PPD Files archive.
3. Copy the 2 .hqx files to your sheepshaver disk through the Unix folder and then expand them using StuffIt Expander.
4. Install the AdobePS printer driver using the AdobePS Installer application and then restart Mac OS.
5. Copy the Adobe PPD files to System Folder > Extensions > Printer Descriptions.
6. Go to Chooser and select AdobePS. Close the Chooser. Click OK in the dialog about page setup.
7. Open an app like SimpleText and create a document with a few words in it.
8. Choose File > Page Setup. Leave everything alone and click OK. Nothing obvious happens on this step.
9. Choose File > Page Setup a second time. This time a short delay will occur before the page setup dialog appears. A Virtual Printer icon will be created on your desktop. Click OK to exit the Page Setup dialog.
10. Choose File > Page Setup a third time. This time, there will be a new option called Virtual Printer available in the menu below the Printer menu. Select the Virtual Printer option.
11. Click the Select PPD button, navigate to the Printer Descriptions folder (if you are not already there), choose the 'Acrobat Distiller' PPD file, and then click the Select button.
12. Click OK to the dialog telling you to go back to Page Attributes.
13. The Paper menu will now have a new item named 'Custom'. Select it.
14. From the menu below the Printer menu, select Custom Page Default. A dialog will open where you can define your custom page size. You can save your custom page with a new name if you would like. Type in your custom page's name and then click the Add button. You can then select your custom page from the paper menu just like you could for Letter, etc.
15. Click OK to close the Page Setup dialog.
16. Choose File > Print in your application and save a PostScript file using the Virtual Printer you set up.
17. Distill the resultant PostScript file with Acrobat Distiller either in Mac OS or on your host system depending on where you have the software.
You might need to assign more memory to your application to prevent crashing with a Type 2 error.
Good luck!

Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2011 5:43 pm

Thanks for the detailed instructions Mr. Tamarin. I'll give them a try & let you know how it turns out!

Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2011 11:55 pm

Hello Mr. Tamarin,
I followed your instructions EXACTLY and it worked perfectly. I make a 12' x 19' page and printed a post scrip file. I now have custom sizes of all sorts and they 'distill' beautifully and print even more beautifully. Thanks you again so much for your help.
Ciao,
Frank

Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2011 2:13 am

I’m glad it’s working well for you, Frank. It sounds like you’re having fun with it. I’m just glad that I have been able to contribute a little something to the Emaculation community that has provided me with SheepShaver builds, instructions, etc so that I may keep on using Mac OS even when Steve says I can’t. You guys are awesome!
Thanks,
Mr. T