Re: Printing from linux

[awilliam@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

>> What version of ghost script do you have?
> rpm -qa | grep gho yields the following output
> ghostscript-5.10-10
> ghostscript-fonts-5.10-3

I use ghostscript 5.50-2, which I compiled myself to contain the 
driver found at the following site:

http://www.proaxis.com/~mgelhaus/linux/software/hp880c/hp880c.html

If you want to try it I can either send you my binary or you can build 
it yourself.  Don't be intimidates by compiling ghostscript,  if you 
get the SRC RPM's from the RedHat contrib site the directions are 
clear, step by step, and work exactly.

> > What "languages" does the 832c support?  PCL?  What level of PCL?
> 
http://www.pandi.hp.com/pandi-db/prod_info.show?model=C6413B&name=HP_De
skJet_832C
> The previous Web page says the 832c uses the language HP PCL 3

Ok, that confirm's it's not a WinPrinter (though I didn't think it 
was).  In fact from the website it looks to be a slightly lesser 
version of the 895.

>>HP's website  should have it on their somewhere.  It did for my
>>HP895Cse (which work's great).  It might even be in the manual.
>>>up my fathers printers so he can print photo images.(jpg's)  If I 
open
>>Gimp and try to
>>>print an image, it is awful.  He uses Adobe Photoshop alot and has 
the
>>following
>>>printers: HP PhotoSmart photoprinter, HP Laserjet 4L and HP Deskjet
>>722C.  I'd like to The 722 is a GDI (WinPrinter) and is not 
supported.  It might work at
>>What is GDI an Acronym for?  When I went to college is was for Go* 
Da* independent.

GDI is a method for describing an image, used internally by Windows I 
think,  GDI printers have the page rendered onto a frame buffer by the 
host processor and then downloaded to the printer,  make for a very 
inefficient process.  But the printers need almost no brains 
whatsoever so they are cheap.

>> 300dpi using PCL3 (some do) but you'll never get good output from it
>> under Linux.  There is a project to create drivers for these printers
>> (called PPA specifically) at:
>> http://www.rpi.edu/~normat/technical/ppa/index.html
>> but I don't know what the status is.  They had a working B&W driver
>> about two years ago,  but I threw my PPA printer in the dumpster out
>> back not long after that.
>>> get him to prefer the gimp over photoshp but without being able to
>>print high quality, it is difficult.
>>>>I can't blame him.
>>HP has no printer support for Linux.
> HP will respond when the market requires it to.  Thank you for your 
input.

Of course,  but they haven't responded yet.  Although I noticed that 
they sell printers on eLinux.com, and only the printers that work,  so 
maybe they're slowly coming round.  Their website does make it plain 
what printers will and what ones won't if you know what to look for.

> So the 722 is out of the question unless linux support is ready for 
it.
> How do I determine if a printer is a winprinter?  Specifically 
interested

The 7xx series are Winprinters, as are some 6xx printers, and one 
version of the 8xx.  The model groupings do NOT indicate any 
relationship between the models, except by happenstance.

> in the HP PhotoSmart photoprinter.
> 
http://www.pandi.hp.com/pandi-db/prod_info.show?model=C3804A&name=Photo
SmartPhotoPrinter
> I'll try the files from the source forge site.  And also try the gimp
> related sites.

I doubt you'll find anythign on the Gimp sites,  this is really a 
ghostscript issue.