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PRINTER=

ODS PRINTER is a bifurcated destination; it talks to two totally different sets of drivers:

PC host drivers

• are in effect under Windows without the PCL, PDF, PDFMARK, POSTSCRIPT (alias PS), or SAS options.
• Think of this as client mode.

In PC host mode, ODS PRINTER acts like a Windows application; it prints to your currently selected Microsoft Windows printer. If you specify PRINTER=, the value must be listed in the Printers or Printers and Faxes window under the Control Panel.

If the printer there is a PostScript device, the output is PostScript, but Microsoft did not design this PostScript for generalized use; they designed it to be optimized for the specific printer hardware. Thus, even if the output is PostScript, it typically can not be viewed with online viewers such as Ghostview; nor can it be converted to other formats such as PDF. To produce distillable PostScript under Windows, use the PS option, which puts you in SAS mode (described below). To produce PCL in PC host mode, simply pick an HP LaserJet printer.

SAS drivers (also called Universal Printing)

• are in effect under any host other than Windows regardless of options.
• are in effect under Windows combined with any of the PCL, PDF, PDFMARK, POSTSCRIPT (alias PS), or SAS options.
• Think of this as server mode.

In SAS mode, the printers are defined in the SAS (not Windows) registry; the available printers are in CORE -> PRINTING -> PRINTERS. Two types of printers are listed in a correctly installed SAS configuration: actual physical printers, like "chpljr14," and generic printers, like "PostScript Level I." A physical printer definition is simply a generic printer definition combined with a printer destination.

As SAS originally ships to customers, we don't know what printers you have configured in which rooms in which buildings on which servers. Therefore, only the generic printers are installed.

If you see only the generic printers, then you may have an image in which no configuration has been done. This is No Big Deal; it just means that ODS PRINTER generally prints only to files (the only way to print to generic printers). See the documentation in SAS System Help for information about setting up new printers for Universal Printing.

FILE=

The FILE= option just supplies a filename to write to. As in the rest of SAS (and the vast majority of operating systems), the extension provides a hint to the humans but does not control the behavior of the software, so for readability you generally want to specify a filename that corresponds in some way to the printer being used. If you want a particular output format, you must specify that PRINTER option (or one of the shortcuts) that creates that format; just having a particular filename does not accomplish this end.

The Bottom Line

The PRINTER= option overrides the first component of the SYSPRINT= option (native PC mode) or PRINTERPATH= option (SAS mode), and the FILE= option overrides the second component of the SYSPRINT= or PRINTERPATH= option. Under the covers, in fact, that is exactly and precisely all that they do. Nothing more, nothing less.

Operating System and Release Information