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Title: GDI printer

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GDI printer

Request:

You would like to use a so called GDI printer (aka Windows-only hardware).

Procedure:

Presently (1998-08-20) there is a software project underway, which is trying to provide support for the deskjet series of printers 720/820/1000 and the Lexmark printer (model 7000) under Linux. All other GDI printers are currently not supported by SuSE Linux.


Deskjet 720/820/1000 C and related models

The necessary software packages for Deskjets have been included with SuSE Linux since version 5.3; Please make sure that in addition to Ghostscript, the packages "aps" and "ppa" are installed on your system.

We presently cannot vouch for the complete reliability the ppa packet, as the availability of hardware for more thorough testing is presently not available to us. Your feedback is always welcome!

Additional information is obtainable from the web site: http://www.rpi.edu/~normat/technical/ppa/ . Before contacting the author we do strongly recommend that you read the following FAQ: http://www.rpi.edu/~normat/technical/ppa/faq.html


Notes about the installation of pbm2ppa (package "ppa"):

As previously mentioned, at least apsfilter SuSE version 1.3 is required.

  1. Call /var/lib/apsfilter/SETUP and choose one of the following devices (according to your printer) :

  2. Choose 600 DPI for the resolution; /dev/lp1, /dev/lp2 or /dev/lp0 for the printer device; choose "mono" (color is not supported up to now) and the desired paper size (e.g. "a4").

    Ghostscript uses "pbm" (portable bitmap format) for the Device; the program pbm2ppa is used as a post-processor in order to convert the data flow to the "ppa" protocol (printer performance architecture).

    For these reasons the area that should be printed should be optimized even if Ghostscript uses the specified paper size. The program pbmtpg is used for this purpose together with pbm2ppa :

            pbmtpg | pbm2ppa | lpr -Praw
    

  3. Copy one of the files pbm2ppa.conf.hp1000, pbm2ppa.conf.hp720 or pbm2ppa.conf.hp820 from the directory /usr/doc/packages/pbm2ppa to /etc/pbm2ppa.conf *and* adjust the offsets. This is necessary in order to optimize the result of the printing process. Further information can be found in the original file CALIBRATION.

    In case you're using the 720C, the following values lead to usable results :

            xoff 	75
            yoff  -500
            top 	 0
            bottom 	 0
            left   150
            right  150
    

    In case of the 820Cse the following values lead to usable results :

    	xoff     25 
    	yoff   -325 
    	top     100        (less would be better, but that causes blinking)
    	bottom -100 
    	left    250 
    	right   250 
    

    These values work for the 820 Cxi:

    	xoff      0  # \ Adjust these for your printer
    	yoff   -325  # / (see CALIBRATE)
    	top       0
    	bottom    0
    	left    120
    	right   160  
    

    Tip: Choose at least 1 cm margin on both sides in applications.

  4. If these settings were made, it is possible to print with lpr as usual. The filtering is then done by the apsfilter that was adapted by SuSE.

We would like to thank Clemens Dorda <Clemens.Dorda@studbox.uni-stuttgart.de> and <Thies.Freymuth@lrz.tu-muenchen.de> for feedback and in-depth information.


Lexmark 5700 and 7000

Information on model 5700 can be found at: http://www.ultranet.com/~setaylor/papers.htm.

Information on an alpha driver for the 7000 model con be found at: http://bimbo.fjfi.cvut.cz/~paluch/l7kdriver/

We presently cannot vouch for the complete reliability the above referenced information.


Brother HL 7x0

For the Brother HL 720, HL 730 and compatible models, there is the driver "hl7x0" for Ghostscript.

Many thanks to Pablo Saratxaga and Ralf Mayer for their input on this.

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See also:

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Keywords: GDI, PRINTER, PRINTING, DESKJET, PBM2PPA

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Categories: Printer

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Feedback welcome: Send Mail to ke@suse.de (Please give the following subject: SDB-ke_printer-gdi)

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Mainpage o Searchform o History o Versions o Categories o Contents
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SDB-ke_printer-gdi, Copyright SuSE GmbH, Nuremberg, Germany - Version: 09. Jun 1998
SuSE GmbH - Last generated: 12. Mar 2000 14:19:58 by jsmeix with sdb_gen 1.00.0