Automatic PostScript font downloading

[Brian Fitzgerald]

[[SCSI-comp.unix.questions,comp.lang.postscript]]

I would like to know if a print spooler exists that has some way of
checking that the required fonts have already been downloaded to the
printer. A way to do this is described in chapters 10 (Printer Queries)
and 12 (Writing a Print Spooler) of Adobe's "PostScript Language Program
Design" (green book).  Basically, I need my spooler to do anything but
print the document if the font is not in the printer. Possibilities
include printing an error message on the printer, or logging an error
message, or displaying an error message on the workstation console.

I am wondering if
- there is an upgrade or patch to the software I have that does this.
- there is some other program, preferably public domain that does this.

Software:	pscomm.c 2.2 87/11/17 (in Transcript 2.1)
		Sun pcnfd.c 1.4 (c) 1986 (in Sun PCNFS 3.0)
		T3 word processor r2.3


Summary of responses:

Sherri Nichols of Adobe (snochols at adobe.com) writes that there is
currently no patch to Transcript that does this, but that she is working
on a new release that will.

John Gibbons (johng at uniwa.uwa.oz.au) writes that he has written a
psif-like filter program that uses the timestamp method suggested in the
Abobe green book to check that the fonts are loaded, and to load any fonts
that are missing before printing.

One person wrote who is interested in modifying the source to pscomm.c.
Sherri Nichols points out that a source license is required, but that they
are not all that expensive.

Additional posted or e-mail comments are welcome. Thanks to all who responded.

Brian Fitzgerald