Printing questions

[Brian Kelsay]

The problem with this theory is that  the HP 700 series ARE Winprinters.
They are crippled like your Winmodems.  They can be made to work, but they
suck even under Windows.   There is a logic controller, memory or something
that is missing from the printer that makes it cheaper (by about 20-$50).
I've had to set up and troubleshoot several of these pieces of crap here
and they are nothing but trouble.   The program that processes your print
jobs can max out a 200-233 MHz processor w/ 32MB of Ram.   Big deal you
say, well that can be a standard for what hardware some secretaries get.
I've had to thoroughly explain the problem w/ these printers to mgmt.
several times to get them to buy a better model.   I think they finally get
the idea.   Now if they will just get rid of the winmodems.  Sheesh.
/Rant
By the way I've heard that someone is working on the 700 (710, 712,
722)series printers under Linux and have some success with Ghostscript.
Brian
Former Y2K Flunky
Sign the Linux Driver Petition
http://www.libranet.com/petition.html

----- Original Message -----
From: Sam Clippinger <samc at silence.org>

> 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 converses with its driver via an unpublished interface/language, then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
>