ppr-list-digest volume 3, number 31, message 2

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From: Klaus Reimann <klausr@itap.physik.uni-stuttgart.de>
Date: Sat, 3 Mar 2001 14:13:14 +0100 (MET)
Subject: Re: PPR: PCL & majordomo index

> We agree.  The PostScript is coming from the Adobe PostScript driver for
> Windows 95 (Adobe developed the standard, after all; their PostScript
> should be valid and even prints fine on our 8100's, now approaching the
> end of their warranty).  We use that driver instead of the HP driver
> because with the increasing number of class web sites that depend on PDFs,
> the ability to print 2 or 4 pages per sheet of paper is very important.  
> The HP postscript driver isn't successful in doing that with jobs coming
> out of Acrobat Reader.  I've spoken to HP about that issue as well; they
> essentially are saying, "Use the PCL driver if you can" and "The Adobe
> driver and Adobe Acrobat Reader are Adobe's reign; we can't legally help
> you with that."

The licence agreement for the Adobe PS5 driver (german version) states
that you may use the driver for a printer with an Adobe PostScript
interpreter only, except if the driver was bundeled with an Adobe software
product (Acroread??). Therefore, it may be not "legal" to use the
driver for the HP printer. On the other hand HP should perfectly
emulate an Adobe PostScript interpreter if it claims to be PostScript
Level2 compatibel (the bugs need not to be emulated, of course).

> For many reasons, switching to alternative PDF readers on our Windows and
> MacOS machines simply isn't an option, so we're stuck with either
> investing a lot more in paper for the PDF jobs or taking HP's advice to 
> switch to PCL.

Options:

- - You could combine the HP/Microsoft(=old Adobe driver?) PS driver
  which was shipped with your printer with finePrint or a similar
  tool. Then booklet, 2up, etc. is possible directly form windos --
  as always: except for some bugs.

- - You could install a separate ppr-queue which sets 2up od booklet.
  Users wishing to print 2-up have to choose a separate queue.
  You should ensure that ppr is using the correct editps.
  Otherwise the pages cannot be reordered do to bugs in the DSC
  lines of the Adobe PS output.

- - Have you tried to send the PostScript produced by the Adobe PS
  driver directly to the printer (e.g. ppr -H transparent). It
  could be that ppr filters out some fonts, e.g. in editps.

- - Maybe the newest ppr will support page counting directly by
  asking the printer (tcpip interface). Or you could write an
  interface for ppr which checks the page-count by asking the
  printer (tcpip interface). There are some command line utilities
  for this (http://npadmin.sourceforge.net/). But it most likely will
  require much time to write, test, etc.

Good luck

Klaus Reimann

- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Klaus Reimann		Klaus.Reimann@itap.physik.uni-stuttgart.de
			Universitaet Stuttgart, ITAP
			Pfaffenwaldring 57
			70550 Stuttgart
			Germany
			Tel. 0711/685-5286, Fax. 0711/685-5271