Author Topic: How to find or extract a Postscript printer driver?  (Read 41961 times)

Pete

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Re: How to find or extract a Postscript printer driver?
« Reply #45 on: March 21, 2018, 04:28:17 am »
Hi Michael

The cupslpr.exe needs to be replaced by copying the lpr.exe as mentioned previously. It will not help with importing ppds but it may help with the output from e.exe as the output from the OS/2 printer is sent through cupslpr.exe to the cups printer.

I must admit immediately that I am not any sort of ppd expert. However, I do see a problem with the hp-officejet_pro_8740-ps.ppd file - the Language Encoding is incorrect, should be OS2-850.

I suspect you may have gone about creating a printer slightly wrong. I think you used the cups browser interface to create a cups printer and then tried using the Install Printer app and gave it the ppd file.

You should have used the Install Printer for the whole process as it will
1] create the cups printer
2] pickup a copy of the ppd file
3] clean and encode the ppd file
4] add the ppd file to the psprint.drv
5] create the os/2 printer using the just created driver.

It may be worth starting over and seeing if you get better results.

Added shortly after posting: Earlier in this discussion Alex stated that updated versions of the Install Printer/Print Manager are available here http://www.altsan.org/os2/printing/index.html


Regards

Pete


« Last Edit: March 21, 2018, 04:44:34 am by Pete »

Mike Snyder

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Re: How to find or extract a Postscript printer driver?
« Reply #46 on: March 21, 2018, 12:01:51 pm »
I've installed the updated version of the printer manager from Alex's site.  It didn't help with importing .ppds.

I've tried everything that I could think of, including creating a printer first in CUPS.  Those printers printed the test page properly, but I couldn't figure out how to create an OS/2 printer object for them, so I deleted them.  The current printers were created entirely using Print Manager.

The .ppd that I posted had not been run through clean.exe.  It is just as I copied it from Linux.  I did clean one, but I couldn't get it to print after I had imported it, or couldn't import it, I don't remember which.

roberto

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Re: How to find or extract a Postscript printer driver?
« Reply #47 on: March 21, 2018, 06:23:45 pm »
Of the three files to make the cupstestppd only in the Lexmark passes the test. The other two fail.
Can you tell the models and if they are of injection or laser?
saludos

Pete

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Re: How to find or extract a Postscript printer driver?
« Reply #48 on: March 21, 2018, 09:50:18 pm »
Hi Michael

Here is how I would go about setting up a printer manually.
NOTE: This presumes no cups or os/2 printers and no printer queues exist.

In the following I use "thecupsprinter" as a placeholder for whatever printer is created in cups, change that for the printer name in use


1] The CUPS printer

i] With cupsd.exe running point your browser to localhost:631 to load the cups interface
ii] Click on Administration and create a cups printer - if creating a HP printer hplip needs to be installed
iii] Print the test page
If the above worked fine - and it seems you have got to this point successfully a few times - minimise or close the browser


2] Adding the *cups/hplip supplied* ppd file to a clean copy of psprint.drv

i] You need a clean previously unused copy of all the psprint files in a temp location eg Temp\psprint
ii] Create a subdirectory Temp\psprint\ppd
iii] Copy \etc\cups\ppd\thecupsprinter.ppd to Temp\psprint\ppd
iv] Open a command line window in Temp\psprint and run these commands
   a] cleanppd Temp\psprint\ppd\thecupsprinter.ppd
   b] ppdenc Temp\psprint\ppd\thecupsprinter.ppd
The ppd file is now ready for adding to psprint.drv using pin.exe
v] Run
   pin ppd Temp\psprint\ppd Temp\psprint\psprint.drv
vi] Copy all files in Temp\psprint to \os2\dll\psprint after deleting any files that already exist in \os2\dll\psprint
NOTE:
   a] if you need to delete an existing \os2\dll\psprint\psprint.drv use the command line
   b] you will need to use the command line to copy Temp\psprint\psprint.drv


3] The OS/2 printer object

As the Print Manager/CupsWizard route does not seem to work for you try this
i] Open the Desktop\Computer\Templates folder
ii] Drag a Printer template to the Desktop\Computer\Printers folder
iii] Click OK to Create a Printer object and the older Printer Install dialog opens
   a] Name the printer
   b] Install and Select the psprint printer you added in the steps above
   c] Select the cups port - install if necessary - and fill in details
      CUPS Server : localhost
      CUPS Printer Name : thecupsprinter
   d] Click Create

Hopefully you now have a printer object that *should* work with os/2 apps - Sorry, no guarantees  :-)

Try and print from Text Editor. If that works try other apps.

If the print job gets stuck in the os/2 spooler you need to check cupslpr.exe as mentioned previously in this discussion

You may find that the printer can only print to A4/Letter and no other paper tray can be selected - my experience with my current Canon printer


I hope the above helps

Pete

Mike Snyder

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Re: How to find or extract a Postscript printer driver?
« Reply #49 on: March 21, 2018, 10:32:12 pm »
Pete,

Thanks for the detailed instructions.

The Printer Manager did actually work to create CUPS printers for me.  It's the postscript printers that I could not create.  I guess that I'll live with CUPS for a while.

Thanks again for all of your help.

Mike

Alex Taylor

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Re: How to find or extract a Postscript printer driver?
« Reply #50 on: March 22, 2018, 05:02:01 am »
It's a sad fact that some PPDs just cannot be made to work with (any of the) OS/2 Postscript drivers.  The underlying driver engine (whether PSCRIPT, PSPRINT, or whatever) is quite old, and was written in an era when your typical PPD file was a few KB in size with a fairly basic set of commands.  (PIN itself is also a pretty dumb and not very well-written program.)  It's possible that this PPD you're trying to import is simply too large, to complex, or too unorthodox to be importable.  (Without being able to examine it, I can't say for sure.)

OTOH, the Generic Postscript (Enhanced) driver built in to PSPRINT usually works quite well. It supports colour, duplex, high resolutions, and a good set of standard paper sizes.

Andi B.

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Re: How to find or extract a Postscript printer driver?
« Reply #51 on: March 22, 2018, 09:08:18 am »
Quote
OTOH, the Generic Postscript (Enhanced) driver built in to PSPRINT usually works quite well. It supports colour, duplex, high resolutions, and a good set of standard paper sizes.
IIRC this driver does not allow less than 12.x mm margin form paper boarders. This was the reason why I started playing with importing ppd files some time ago. Is this quite true? Or do I mix things up here?

Alex Taylor

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Re: How to find or extract a Postscript printer driver?
« Reply #52 on: March 22, 2018, 09:11:20 pm »
Quote
OTOH, the Generic Postscript (Enhanced) driver built in to PSPRINT usually works quite well. It supports colour, duplex, high resolutions, and a good set of standard paper sizes.
IIRC this driver does not allow less than 12.x mm margin form paper boarders. This was the reason why I started playing with importing ppd files some time ago. Is this quite true? Or do I mix things up here?

That may well be true, but it's a pretty specialized requirement for non-photo printers (most of which aren't Postscript anyway) and I'm Michael hasn't mentioned needing such a thing.

Mike Snyder

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Re: How to find or extract a Postscript printer driver?
« Reply #53 on: March 23, 2018, 12:31:57 am »
I often use margins of less than 1 inch, and on 3x5 or 4x6 cards like to make them as small as possible.  One of the reasons that I got the 8740 is that it prints a wide range of paper sizes, and to print 4x6 recipe cards in type large enough for old people like me to read, you need to use small margins.

Mike Snyder

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Re: How to find or extract a Postscript printer driver?
« Reply #54 on: March 23, 2018, 02:51:57 am »
Just for fun, I tried printing on a 4x6 card using the enhanced generic postscript driver.  If you tell it that you are printing on a #10 envelope and set the margins correctly, it will print a 4x6 card with margins of about 1/4 inch, or 6 mm.  Neither OpenOffice nor the driver seems to have 4x6 cards as a form choice.  Yes, I know that the rest of the world doesn't use that size. :-)

Andi B.

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Re: How to find or extract a Postscript printer driver?
« Reply #55 on: March 25, 2018, 12:39:24 pm »
Quote
OTOH, the Generic Postscript (Enhanced) driver built in to PSPRINT usually works quite well. It supports colour, duplex, high resolutions, and a good set of standard paper sizes.
IIRC this driver does not allow less than 12.x mm margin form paper boarders. This was the reason why I started playing with importing ppd files some time ago. Is this quite true? Or do I mix things up here?

That may well be true, but it's a pretty specialized requirement for non-photo printers (most of which aren't Postscript anyway) and I'm Michael hasn't mentioned needing such a thing.
It's very common for printers to have minimum margins of 4-6mm. At least that's true for all the postscript printers I used the last two decades. And I need that very much.

You are right this is a bit OT in this thread. But as it has gotten your attention and this is a forum not the bug tracker ;-) I hope you can fix this for future releases. Thx.

roberto

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Re: How to find or extract a Postscript printer driver?
« Reply #56 on: March 25, 2018, 11:04:12 pm »
I had a very curious case, installing a printer. I comment on it if it can help someone.
I just installed arca502 from the beginning.
And I decided to create a new printer, a printer that worked in the past with psprint and whose ppd is correct.
I do not install it in cups.
I select this program
C:\SYS\APPS\CUPSGUI\CUPSWIZ.EXE  (install cups printer)
In the installation I select the ppd that is correct, and I believe it.
I try it and it does not work, it can be the port ...
Change the output port and it still does not work.

Click twice on this file:
C:\OS2\DLL\PSPRINT\PSPRINT.DRV
I select the printer and drag it to the desktop, I put the port in it and it works.

The conclusion that I get, is that you do not need to install the printer in cups to make it work.

What strikes me is that the two printers use the same driver, and with the same port, one does not work and the other does.
Saludos

Pete

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Re: How to find or extract a Postscript printer driver?
« Reply #57 on: March 26, 2018, 06:53:26 pm »
Hi roberto

If you are using a postcript printer you do not need to install it in cups.

If you are using a raster printer (most inkjets) you *do* need to install it in cups as cups is the software that does the conversion between postscript and raster enabling the postscript output from applications to print on raster printers.

You used cupswiz which starts with creating the cups printer, imports the ppd file used with the cups printer into the pscript.drv and finally sets up the OS/2 printer object.


Regards

Pete

roberto

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Re: How to find or extract a Postscript printer driver?
« Reply #58 on: March 26, 2018, 08:33:55 pm »
Hi Pete
If you are using a postcript printer you do not need to install it in cups.
You are right, it should be like that.
But following your comments, I created another printer with the same ppd, but from this other program:
C:\SYS\APPS\PRINTMAN\PRINTMAN.EXE/create   (Install Printer)
The printer is created, it even indicates a port already configured LPD, but it does not print anything.
I change the port and it does not print anything.
Quote
If you are using a raster printer (most inkjets) you *do* need to install it in cups as cups is the software that does the conversion between postscript and raster enabling the postscript output from applications to print on raster printers.
ok 100%
Quote
You used cupswiz which starts with creating the cups printer, imports the ppd file used with the cups printer into the pscript.drv and finally sets up the OS/2 printer object.
Yes, But my system works, is there another system to do it?
In the past, the other way was to create your own printer with psprint30905.zip

Saludos