Re: tlug: printer voodoo

[John Seebach <jseebach@example.com>]

On Thu, Nov 18, 1999 at 05:21:12PM +0900, Adrian Havill wrote:
> > The printers are:
> > 
> > Epson LP-9000
> > Epson LP-8400
 
First off, thanks a lot for the information.

> Do they have a "PS" (or PS2 or PS3, for PostScript level 2 and 3
> respectively) suffix on them? There are two versions of each
> printer, all support Epson's ESC/P and the supersets (ESC/P+), but the
> (naturally way more expensive) "PS" versions support PostScript.

No. Although based on what you said, I think that the LP-8400 *may* support
PostScript. I found a setting in the menu (there's no manual.) that lets me
toggle between (I think, I'm at home now) ESC/P ESC/Page and ESC/PS. I
actually tried setting the printer to ESC/PS mode, but it didn't seem to
help. I sent some PS to the printer and got several pages full of raw
postscript. Oops. So I just assumed that the ESC/PS mode did something else
and that the printer wasn't postscript-capable.

My experience with getting printers to work with *nix is fairly limited,
(except for several nasty serial dot-matrix printers. And I think I've
blocked that out of my mind completely) consisting of getting a couple of
HP Laserjets to work with SCO a few years ago. In other words, no
PostScript. So it's likely that I've done something wrong. I used RedHat's
printtool program to set this printer up, and that may also be the source
of my problems.

Mysteries abound. Any suggestions? 

My /etc/printcap entry looks like this:

mhs1|3kou Epson LP=8400:\
   :sd=/var/spool/lpd/mhs1:\
   :mx#0:\
   :sh:\
   :lp=/dev/lp1:\
   :if=/usr/share/printtool/master-filter:

There's a file in the spool directory, /var/spool/lpd/mhs1/postscript.cfg
which looks like it was put there by printtool to set various options. One
option that appears relevant is:

PS_SEND_EOF=NO.

But don't know if that would matter or not.

> Although present in an Epson Laser printers, there are few drivers, and
> Epson has been slow to get the drivers out for anything but Windows.
> There are a few people pressuring them, though. ;)
 
Hmmm. Maybe another squeaky wheel will help... ;-)

Thanks again
john
-- 

jseebach@example.com
tame chemists coddle banjos 
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