Printing questions

[Sam Clippinger]

When last we left our heroes, Jeffrey Watts had just said:
> Welp, this is an easy one.  When you bought your printer, it probably said
> something like "Optimized for Microsoft Windows".  Yep, you guessed it,
> your printer is a Winprinter.
> 
> How do I know this?  BY THE POWER OF THE INTERNET.  Heh.
> 
> http://www.hp.com/cposupport/printers/support_doc/bpd04723.html#P409_4800
> 
> Notice that it doesn't list MacOS or MS-DOS (unless thru Winders) as
> supported OSes.  This means "WinPrinter".

I respectfully disagree with this assessment.  By that logic, any machine with
the little "Designed for Windows NT" sticker on it shouldn't run Linux.  But
they do.

AFAIK, in order to create a "WinProduct", you have to make a peripheral that
converses with its driver via an unpublished interface/language, then only
produce drivers for it that run in Windows.  To the best of my knowledge, HP
cannot do this.  They have very carefully crafted an interface language called
PCL (Printer Control Language) that they use to control their printers.

HP works very hard to keep their printers backwards-compatible with previous
versions of their PCL.  This means that their HP Deskjet driver should work
with an HP Deskjet+.  An HP Laserjet 4 driver should work with an HP Laserjet 5.
The only problem with those kinds of combinations is that you cannot take
advantage of the new features that the later-model printer offers.

I don't know if HP's PCL is common knowledge, published or reverse engineered.
But the fact that my HP Deskjet works in Linux means that _someone_ out there
knows HP's PCL.  Thus, if all else fails, the HP Deskjet 3487683764CPMTSQ++++
printers should run if you configure them as old HP Deskjets.

If I'm correct that HP is careful about their backwards compatibility and
since printers hook in through the parallel port, any HP Deskjet model should
work in Linux.  It may not print in color, it may not duplex, collate, staple
or whatever else, but it will print.  That means it is far, far from being
"junk".

Just my $0.02.

                                -sam

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