Re: Wheezy printing problem: 2 identical (?) machines and 1 does not print PDFs
On Fri, 25 May 2012 18:51:16 +0100, Brian wrote:
> On Fri 25 May 2012 at 16:56:51 +0000, Camaleón wrote:
>
>> On Fri, 25 May 2012 17:22:11 +0100, Brian wrote:
>>
>> > I suggest you have a look at how CUPS works. This statement is
>> > exactly the opposite of what happens when a PostScript job is
>> > submitted.
>>
>> How is that? Both, printer and driver, share the same language.
>
> Not quite. The PPD file/driver combination has to produce a file which,
> when sent to the printer, is understandable by the printer. The
> Gutenprint driver. for example, will always send PCL to an HP2200
> because, even though the printer can understand PostScript, the driver
> is designed to output only in the native language of the printer.
But that only happens when the printer does not natively support PS which
does not seem to be the case; according to the printer specs¹ it features
HP PCL 6, HP PCL 5e and HP Postscript Level 2 emulation.
> CUPS in Debian turns any input file into PDF, apart from a PDF file, of
> course. A PostScript file is filtered first by pstopdf, then by
> pdftopdf. A PDF file would only be filtered by pdftopdf. If the PPD file
> tells CUPS the printer wants PostScript it uses pdftops. Otherwise,
> there are other filters for converting the PDF coming from pdftopdf into
> the printer specific language.
The problem still remains: the PDF file is not able to be printed
properly, it can be either because of a corrupted file (badly-crafted), a
problem with the driver (that is not able to interpret the code of the
file) an error in CUPS, a problem within the application used to display
the file... to solve the problem we have to start discarding all these
things.
>> I've always understood (and that's also my own experience) is the
>> opposite. Even in windows, a PS driver it takes longer to proceed with
>> the job because PS uses a very descriptive and detailed language.
>
> I wasn't concerned with speed as such but with your giving this as a
> reason for saying '. . . no conversion is needed between the doc and the
> printer' for a PS file.
When you are using a PPD which defines the capabilities of the printer
and how it has to behave and both (printer harwdare and printer driver)
"speak" a standard language (like PostScript) you're reducing the chances
for an error than when using any other emulated language such as PCL,
simply because PS is not device-dependant, but PCL is, meaning -for the
latter- that you completely rely on the printer's capablities and how your
device interprets the job you are sending to it.
¹http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&taskId=120&prodSeriesId=28861&prodTypeId=18972&prodSeriesId=28861&objectID=bpl10417#A3
Greetings,
--
Camaleón
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