UNIX PRINTING

[Brett Penza]

I have a Remote Printer setup on tcp/ip. It is a Ricoh/Aficio 700. The printer prints standard Unix output fine, but when pcl codes are introduced, the printer goes wacky, spitting out pieces of the spool file with tons of blank paper. I have installed it through sam with the BSD option enabled. What else do I need to do here ??? Thanks for help

[Mark Fenton]

Brett, I'm in the same boat --

I haven't found how to print anything but plain text. The readme.first that Ricoh provides in their installer package seems to imply that to do anything more than that requires postscript on the printer. This makes no sense to me as the darn thing works just fine from Windows/Novell using PCL6.

I have placed a call to Ricoh asking for clarification, but haven't heard anything back on that yet.

[T. M. Louah]

Here's an interesting thread discussing some PCL experience:

http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0xabbfe7726eccd5118ff10090279cd0f9,00.html

g'd luck
t++

[Bill Hassell]

There are are several printer languages, ASCII being the most common. However, there are several variations on ASCII: PCL is by far the most widely used ASCII language but it was designed and implemented on HP printers. Postscript is a completely different language and requires (heavy) translation to print even a simple ASCII string.

Additionally, there are variations such as Epson, but they are similar to PCL in that they use escape sequences to signal the printer for different requirements. In a PC, programs write to printers without any knowledge of the printer's capability by using a meta-language. These basic elements are translated by the driver into codes appropriate for the target printer.

However, there is no translator available in HP-UX, so the application programs MUST understand the requirements of the printer. If the printer needs Postscript, the program must produce the Postscript codes. If the printer requires PCL then the program must produce PCL codes.

Additionally, when using remote printers hosted on non-HP-UX systems (ie, PC servers, Linux, etc), or using LAN adapters that connect the printer to a LAN, HP-UX must pre-format all plain ASCII text with a carriage-return (CR) after every line-feed (LF). So if the adapter for the Ricoh printer can accept remote printer jobs from HP-UX without having to pre-process them using ux2dos, the LAN adapter may be inserting CR for every LF, and this can be a problem.

The problem is that programs that generate PCL files may be adding CR where necessary but some of the codes are fonts and binary graphics cannot have any CR's added or the sequence will be corrupted--perhaps the scenario you are describing. Note also that there are several versions of PCL and using a version that is not compatible with your printer may also cause the mostly blank pages with random characters.

[Steve Steel · Accepted solution]

Hi

For non HP-Printers the best solution is good.

Lexmark makes a jetadmin like product called markvision which can be freely downloaded and runs well on hp-ux

Among the supported printers

Supported Network Printers

MarkVision Professional, an enterprise printer and multifunction printer (MFP) management tool designed to increase end-user productivity while reducing IT cost through problem prevention and faster problem resolution. As well as all the Lexmark printers and OptraImage multifunction printers, it supports generically any SNMP standard MIB printer. Details are as follows :
Any SNMP Common MIB-compliant printer
Optra Family of Laser Printers
OptraImage Multifunction Printers
Plus, the following third-party printers specifically :
Canon imageRUNNER 330/400
Canon imageRUNNER 500
Canon imageRUNNER 600
Canon GP 200D
HP 2000
HP 2500 C
HP Color LaserJet 4500
HP Color LaserJet 8500
HP LaserJet 4000
HP LaserJet 5
HP LaserJet 5000
HP LaserJet 5M
HP LaserJet 5si
HP LaserJet 8100
HP Mopier 320
HP 8550MFP
HP 8550GM
HP 2250TN
IBM InfoPrint 20
IBM InfoPrint Color 8
IBM NetworkPrinter 12
IBM NetworkPrinter 17
IBM Infoprint 21
Konica KL-3015
Kyocera FS-1700
Kyocera FS-1750
Kyocera FS-3700+
Kyocera FS-3750
Kyocera FS-7000
Kyocera FS-9000
Minolta Color PageWorks
Minolta PageWorks 20
QMS Magicolor 8
QMS Magicolor 6100
Ricoh Aficio 450/455
Ricoh Aficio 550
Ricoh Aficio 650
Ricoh Aficio 750
Ricoh Aficio 850
Ricoh Aficio 180
Ricoh Aficio 270



Try that as a solution.


steve steel

[Frank Slootweg]

Are you sure that the Ricoh printer understands and is configured for PCL? If so, do you send the right level of PCL? I.e. PCL1 to PCLx?