Re: does anyone have a non-postscript printer?

[Thorsten Meyer]

Ben Abbott wrote:
> 
> On Jun 16, 2009, at 10:18 AM, Przemek Klosowski wrote:
> 
>>
>> Ben Abbott wrote:
>>> If someone does have a non-postscript printer and is inclined to do
>>> some tests for me, I'd like to produce a raw file for it (assuming it
>>> is supported by ghostscript) and see if it prints correctly.
>>>
>>> All I need to know is (1) the ghostscript device name, and (2) the  page
>>> size (usletter, or a4).
>>
>> The most common non-postscript printer language is probably HP's PCL
>> (printer control language); ghostscript outputs PCL from the pcl3
>> driver, as well as the various LaserJet and DeskJet drivers (lj*, dj*).
>>
>> There is also bunch of specific inkjet drivers: Canon Bubblejet
>> bj* and Epson epl* drivers, typically tied to a narrow range of
>> printer models.
>>
>> I think most HP printers that do PCL also use postscript nowadays, but
>> this is not the
>> case for the inkjets.
> 
> I have a HP 2605n (color laser jet with postscript emulation, and PCL).
> I'm unable to produce a PCL file that will print. In octave, I type ...
> 
>     > figure(1)
>     > surf(peaks(25))
>     > print -dpsc test.ps
> 
> Then from a terminal command line
> 
>     $ gs -dBATCH -dSAFER -dNOPAUSE -dTextAlphaBits=4 -sDEVICE=pcl3
> -sOutputFile="test.pcl" test.ps
>     $ lpr -l test.pcl
> 
> The result is many pages that are mostly blank with some short lines of
> assorted symbols.
> 
> Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong?
> 
I guess that you need to add some kind of -raw option (try "-o raw") to the lpr
command, in order to tell the printer driver to feed the test.pcl file directly
to the printer (and not through the filter that translates normal files into a
format the printer understands).

Thorsten