Printer compatibility

[Kenneth Brody]

On 9/20/2011 3:41 PM, Jean-Pierre A. Radley wrote:
> I'm looking at a spec sheet for the HP LaserJet P2035n Printer, and read:
>
> 	Standard Printer Languages:  Host Based, UPD (HP PCL5e)
>
> Does that imply that it will only work on Windows?  IOW, you could
> generate PCL3 or PCL5 codes, as filePro has been doing forever, but it
> would have to be interpreted by HP's UPD driver, which doesn't run on
> Unix/Linux?

According to the UPD FAQ:

http://bizsupport2.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01366409/c01366409.pdf

It appears that UPD is simply their way of putting drivers for all of their 
printers in a single "universal print driver".  The fact that the printer 
specs say "UPD (HP PCL5e)" seems to imply (to me, at least) that the printer 
accepts PCL5e, and that you can use HP's UPD driver for Windows.

Also, the printer manual:

http://bizsupport2.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01550183/c01550183.pdf

> The HP LaserJet P2030 Series comes with software and installers for
> Windows and Apple Computer, Inc., Macintosh systems. LINUX and UNIX
> systems support the product, and software is available on the Web.

as well as:

> You can also print to the product from any operating system that
> complies with the PCL command language, such as OS2, UNIX, or Linux
> systems.

It would be nice, of course, if the specs simply listed "PCL5e" as one of 
the supported languages, rather than cloaking it with "UPD".

-- 
Kenneth Brody