Envelope printing made easy...finally

[LandMind]

I've been painstakingly working towards as complete a migration to Linux (specifically Puppy Linux) for the past three or four months. Admittedly, it's been painful and difficult, to say the least, to try to make my machine do everything I need it to do under Puppy Linux without having to go back and forth to Windows. Unfortunately, there are some things that just don't look like they're going to happen...at least not for a long time. [For example, the photo management and editing solutions for Linux simply can't compare to those available in Windows, at least not on a intermediate to serious level...simple business accounting, well, we won't go there...and then there are those of us who unfortunately need specialized applications (such a loan management, sophisticated investment management) or vertical apps that can only be found on Windows, or those of us who have to use .Net apps.] Using Linux exclusively, for some of us, simply isn't an option. I'm sure that's the case with many of you out there...we'd love to use Linux exclusively, but we have to be "closet Windows users" too...at least for now.

Anyway...I digress...the point of all of this was to share a recent find that I've made. The nagging little inconveniences of Linux can be frustrating. For example, in Windows, I have a simple little envelope printing program. It's fast and easy. There is no counterpart for Linux, nor is there a reasonably decent way to print envelopes in Linux (that includes using Open Office, Abi Word, etc). During my research, I found lots and lots of posts to forums and blogs complaining about the difficulty of printing envelopes in Linux. Nothing seems to work well or consistently. I was looking for solutions, but all I found were histories of complaints and problems. I finally found something that does work...and it's small. It's a perl script. I've seen a couple of other non-perl scripts running around, but this one is pretty cool in comparison. It's easier to use than any other I've found and can be configured for different envelope sizes and can print to lables, barcodes, etc. The Perl script the author uses eliminates the need for a "specially spaced" text file, like all of the others I've seen. And since it's Perl-based, it works great on Puppy!

I haven't put it in a dotpup, but it's easy to install...just unzip it and go. It's located here for anyone who wants to give it a look:
http://freefall.homeip.net/

Thought I'd pass this on. I know I had a hard time trying to find something to fill this little nagging void. Maybe someone else will benefit from it too.

Disclaimer: I have no relationship to the author of the script. It's just a guy that solved his own envelope printing problem with this script, and is kind enough to share it with the world. Yes...it's "free".

[JimmyJoss]

One can obtain superior envelope printing at a reasonable price.