SuSE Support Database

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:

Meanwhile (1998-08-20) a software project exists, that tries to provide support for the deskjet series of printers 720/820/1000 under Linux. All other GDI printers cannot be used under Linux up to now.

All necessary software packages for the above mentioned Deskjets are available for testing as either updates or new versions on the S.u.S.E. FTP-Server : You need at least version 1.3 of (S.u.S.E.-)aps (see also new_aps.html). Furthermore you need pbm2ppa (package "ppa"); Both are included in version 5.3 of S.u.S.E. Linux . Here's the location where you can download the packages :

You can install RPM packages with YaST (see handbook) or directly with rpm (see pakete_manuell.html).

Sofar we don't know, if reliable result can be achieved using the package ppa. Unfortunately we don't have all of the necessary hardware for testing purposes. Feedback welcome !

See http://www.rpi.edu/~normat/technical/ppa/ for further information.

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

As was said above, at least apsfilter S.u.S.E. 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        (weniger wäre besser, aber dann blinkt es)
    bottom        -100 
    left           250 
    right          250 
    

    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 S.u.S.E. .

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


Brother HL 7x0

There's also a patch for Ghostscript 3.33 for the Brother HL 720; Unfortunately this driver wasn;t included in recent versions of Ghostscript .

See also :

###--------------------- The Brother HL 7x0 printer --------------------- ###
###                    This driver was contributed by a user :            ###
###  Please contact Pierre-Olivier Gaillard (pierre.gaillard@hol.fr)      ###
### if you have any questions.                                            ###

We would like to thank Pablo Saratxaga for this hint.

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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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SDB-ke_printer-gdi, Copyright SuSE GmbH, Nuremberg, Germany - Version: 09. Jun 1998
Impressum - Last generated: 24. Feb 1999 14:52:04 by maddin with sdb_gen 1.00.0