Looking for PCL5 printers that are not host-based GDI (Windows Only) printers (again)...

[Tom Podnar]

Mike. Last month we needed to replace an off-lease monster printer / copier / fax whose lease ran out. I wanted two MFP printers for scanning and faxing, and redundancy.
I wanted a Lexmark CX410 series or CX510 series printer. These are brand new color MFP printers with PCL5 and PS3 emulation. They were so new that they were on backorder, and my lease was up, so I ordered a Lexmark X264DN from Rakuten.com (buy.com) as the backup. It was $129, usually around $400. Today it is $150 at buy.com and I think it is a great bargain.

Any printer from the Lexmark CX series will work; I ended up with a CX510dhe with an extra tray from provantage.com for a great price.

I've had many Lexmark printers over the years, with very good success.

Tom Podnar
Microlite / SCO Cloud

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Schwartz" <mschw at athenet.net>
To: "FilePro Mailing List" <filepro-list at lists.celestial.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 24, 2013 8:23:44 PM
Subject: RE: Looking for PCL5 printers that are not host-based GDI	(Windows	Only) printers (again)...


> Mike Schwartz propounded (on Wed, Apr 24, 2013 at 02:38:21PM -0500):
> | > > to directly from Linux over a network without requiring any
> | > > Windows printer drivers, do you think the LJ Pro 400 will work in
> | > > that situation?  As I recall, you work mostly with the Windows
> | > > version of
> | > filePro...
> | > >
> | > > Thanks,
> | > > Mike
> | >
> | > Check HP site and the listed a number of Linux drivers for this
> | > black and white laser printer.
> | >
> | > The printer comes with a gigabit port and usb port.  It is pcl5e
> | compatible.
> | > They do not list the font sets included but I am sure that this
> | information is
> | > available on line.
> | >
> | > Richard
> |
> |     The HP web site directs me outside of HP to a Linux Imaging and
> | Printing web site.  That web site offers my some CUPS and other
> | drivers, but doesn't answer this question:  If I send a raw PCL print
> | stream out from the Linux box (not using any funky, unsupported Linux
> | drivers that may be CUPS drivers or whatever) then can the printer
accept
> and print that PCL document?
> |
> | Thanks,
> 
> Under the printing system we've known and loved since the days of Xenix,
> actual ASCII characters are sent to the printer, which has a repertoire of
> fonts and can convert each such ASCII character into a bunch of ink dots
to
> be placed on the page.
> 
> If you're being offered anything called a driver under Unix or Linux,
that's
> because the printer has no such conversion capability, and relies on the
> driver in the computer to generate an arrangement of ink dots. A printer
> that requires such a driver will most liekly fail to do anything with a
stream
> of ASCII bytes. That's host-based printing.
> 
> HP's PCL3 or PCL5 language could include, in the midst of the stream of
ASCII
> bytes, ESCape sequences which convey font or size or margin or color or
> other instructions to the printer.  It's certainly possible for such PCL
> instructions can be interpreted by a driver, but that's still host-based
> printing, which is not a direct answer to the OP's request.
> 
> CUPS is essentially a host-based printing scheme that runs on Unix/Linux;
it
> has to be furnished with specific drivers for specific printers.  Don't be
> scared of it, and know that it can also directly handle PDF, PostScript
and
> other non-text input.
> 
> Another alternative is to use the binary called 'pcl6' (which has NOTHING
to
> do with HP's PCL6, which in turn is NOT a superset of PCL5, which in turn
IS a
> superset of PCL3). This binary understands PCL3/5, and converts it to
> another format (perhaps PDF or PostScript).  You can insert the commands
> to do this in a UNIX SYSV printer interface script, and if your new
printer is
> listed as directly accepting PDF or PostScript input, you're all set.  You
can
> find 'pcl6' for OSR5 or OSR6 at ftp.jpr.com.
> 
> Finally, referring to filePro 5.7.03,"PDF output directly from filePro is
the
> latest and most anticipated feature of this release."
> 
> --
> JP

     Thanks for the info JP.  

      I'm working with a customer right now who decided to upgrade all the
way to 5.7.3 because of the new PDF output feature.

Mike Schwartz 

     

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