Tip #111: Printing with syntax highlighting independent of your normal highlighting

created:		September 7, 2001 9:50		complexity:		intermediate
author:		Aric Blumer		as of Vim:		6.0

I have found it undesirable to use :hardcopy directly because it uses the current syntax highlighting to determine how to print the text.  For example, I like to print comments in italics, but I don't like italic fonts on the screen. This tip will show you how to set up a colorscheme for printing and use it only when you print.

I copied an existing colorscheme to ~/.vim/colors/print.vim, and changed all the lines like this:

  highlight Normal ctermbg=DarkGrey ctermfg=White guifg=White guibg=grey20
to this:
  highlight clear Normal

Then I set the syntax groups how I wanted them to be printed on the printer:

  highlight Comment        term=italic    cterm=italic    gui=italic
  highlight Constant       term=bold      cterm=bold      gui=bold
  etc....

I then defined the following command in my .vimrc file:

command! -nargs=* Hardcopy call DoMyPrint("<args>")

And, finally, I defined this function in my .vimrc:

function DoMyPrint(args)
    let colorsave=g:colors_name
    color print
    exec "hardcopy ".a:args
    exec 'color '.colorsave
endfunction


After this is complete, you can do:
   :Hardcopy > /tmp/out.ps
or just
   :Hardcopy
(Note the capital H)

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