Subject: Re: [netatalk-admins] printing from the mac
From: Bill Studenmund (skippy@macro.Stanford.EDU)
Date: Sat Oct 31 1998 - 18:26:23 EST
On Thu, 29 Oct 1998, Tom Watson wrote:
> DeskJets and DeskWriters aren't compatible in software - completely
> different drivers. I'm not sure that there is a DeskJet driver that will
> run on the Mac. Since Mac's don't have parallel ports, HP assumes that
> nobody would need or want it.
That's not quite correct. You're right that there are driver problems, but
the printers are identical from the PCL level. I first learned this when I
was able to print out HP's DJ500 command reference on my DeskWriter, and
it worked (except for a few glitches which I attributed to the file being
for a 500 when I had a no-number DeskWriter).
You're VERY right that HP's drivers make it VERY hard to hook a printer up
other than how they expected. A while back, you could hook a DeskWriter up
to a PC, and could have printed using the DeskJet drivers, _IF_ you could
have gotten the DeskJet driver to work at 57600 baud.
> On second thought, you might want to investigate the 3rd party printing
> packages that do Postscript emulation for inkjet printers - I'm sorry but
> I can't think of any names right now. Using one of those 3rd party
> printing packages on the Mac, it would think that it was printing to a
> Postscript printer. However, the software would translate the Postscript
> into the output necessary for your particular printer - gobs of inkjet
> printers are supported by these packages - and spool it via the Linux
> printer.
I think a GhostScript queue would work. I.E. set up a print queue on the
linux box to make postscript dump to the printer, and have papd advertize
that as a laserwriter.
The other option would be to make a papd variant which acted like a
DeskWriter connected via AppleTalk. But I think the protocol's a bit
different from a laserwriter (I bet the status info's different).
Take care,
Bill
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