Newsgroups: comp.periphs.printers
From: brigc@world.std.com (Brig C McCoy)
Subject: comp.periphs.printers - FAQ - Part 1 of 1
Organization: Southeast Kansas Library System, Iola, KS
Followup-To: comp.periphs.printers
Summary: This posting contains a list of Frequently Asked
         Questions (and their answers) about printers and
         should be read by anyone wishing to post to the
         comp.periphs.printers newsgroup.
Sender: brigc@world.std.com (Brig C McCoy)
Reply-To: brigc@world.std.com
Organization: Southeast Kansas Library System, Iola, KS
Expires: Sun, 30 March 1997 00:00:00 GMT
Archive-name: comp-periphs-printers-faq
Posting-Frequency: monthly
Last-modified: 1997/01/05
Version: 3.09

comp.periphs.printers Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) List

The FAQ is maintained by Brig C. McCoy who works at the
Southeast Kansas Library System. I appreciate any and all
suggestions for improving this FAQ. Please email suggestions,
additions, comments, corrections, etc. to me at:
<brigc@world.std.com>

Any changes from the previous edition will have a pipe (|)
immediately preceding the changed lines and in the Table of
Contents for that Subject.

Sections which need work are marked with a caret (^). Any
contributions to these sections would be appreciated. :)

Copyright (C) 1997 by Brig C. McCoy.

This FAQ may be reproduced anywhere for any reason. 'Course
we'll think more highly of you if you send us any changes
and/or additions you make for your own use so we can consider
adding them to the FAQ for the whole community!

This document is posted to the newsgroup comp.periphs.printers
on or about the 25th of each month, at least when I remember!

With the apparent loss of Arthur Muller's web site, the
official HTML version is now on Blue Skyways, the Kansas
State Library's web site:
| <http://skyways.lib.ks.us/kansas/sekls/staff/brigc/printer>

| For those in Europe, Johannes Schmidt-Fischer has rather
| generously agreed to provide a mirror of the HTML version
| at: <http://www.ifconnection.de/~jsf/printers> as of
| approximately 10 Jan 1997.
_______________

Subject: 00 Table of Contents

   Subject: 01 Introduction
   Subject: 02 Printer Classification
   Subject: 02.01 Dot-Matrix Printers (Impact Printers)
   Subject: 02.02 Daisywheel printers and Typewriters
   Subject: 02.03 InkJet Printers
|  Subject: 02.04 Laser and LED Printers
   Subject: 02.05 Color Printers
   Subject: 02.06 Other Printer Types
   Subject: 03 Printer Languages or Emulations
   Subject: 03.01 HP PCL and PJL
|  Subject: 03.02 PostScript
   Subject: 03.03 Epson ESC/P, ESC/P2
   Subject: 03.04 IBM Proprinter
   Subject: 03.05 Other Emulations
   Subject: 04 Printer Interfaces
|  Subject: 04.01 Centronics (parallel) Interface
   Subject: 04.02 RS232 (serial) Interface
   Subject: 04.02.01 Connecting an Apple LaserWriter to a PC
   Subject: 04.03 RS422 (serial) Interface
   Subject: 04.04 HP-IB (parallel) Interface
   Subject: 04.05 HP-IL (serial) Interface
   Subject: 04.06 SCSI Interface
   Subject: 04.07 Infrared Interface
   Subject: 04.08 Network Interfaces
   Subject: 04.09 Interface Convertors
   Subject: 05 Printer Drivers
   Subject: 05.01 Operating System specific
^  Subject: 05.01.01 Macintosh
   Subject: 05.01.02 MS-DOS
   Subject: 05.01.03 MS-Windows, Windows-NT
   Subject: 05.01.04 OS/2
   Subject: 05.01.05 UNIX
   Subject: 05.01.06 NeXTStep
   Subject: 05.01.07 Others
   Subject: 05.02 Program specific
|  Subject: 05.02.01 AutoCad
|  Subject: 05.02.02 GRAFSMAN
^  Subject: 05.02.03 Lotus 1-2-3
|  Subject: 05.02.04 WordPerfect
   Subject: 05.02.05 Others
   Subject: 06 Printer Supplies
   Subject: 06.01 Supplies in general
   Subject: 06.02 Refilling and Recycling
   Subject: 06.02.01 Re-inking ribbons
|  Subject: 06.02.02 Re-inking cartridges (Inkjet/Bubblejet)
|  Subject: 06.02.03 Re-filling laser toner cartridges
^  Subject: 06.02.04 Re-cycling laser pc drums
^  Subject: 06.03 Paper supplies
^  Subject: 06.03.01 Paper supplies for laser printers
^  Subject: 06.03.02 Paper supplies for inkjet printers
   Subject: 07 Printer Troubleshooting
   Subject: 07.01 PostScript printing problems
   Subject: 07.01.01 Timeout and other PostScript errors
   Subject: 07.01.02 PostScript and the Ctrl-D business
   Subject: 07.01.03 PostScript Character Set
|  Subject: 07.01.04 PostScript Test Page Code
   Subject: 07.02 LaserJet printing problems
   Subject: 07.02.01 Using PRINT SCREEN under DOS.
   Subject: 08 Average printing costs
   Subject: 09 Miscellaneous Information
|  Subject: 09.01 GhostScript
   Subject: 09.02 Converting between Emulations
   Subject: 09.02.01 Converting PostScript to other emulations
   Subject: 09.02.02 Converting other emulations to PostScript
   Subject: 09.02.03 Other Conversions
|  Subject: 09.03 Printing T-shirts
   Subject: 09.04 Miscellaneous Internet Resources
   Subject: 09.05 Paper Sizes
|  Subject: 10 Vendor Contact Information
|  Subject: 10.01 Apple
   Subject: 10.02 Canon
   Subject: 10.03 Hewlett-Packard
|  Subject: 10.04 QMS
^  Subject: 10.05 Seiko Instruments
   Subject: 10.06 Tektronix
   Subject: 10.07 Lexmark
|  Subject: 10.08 Roland Digital Group
|  Subject: 10.09 Seikosha America, Inc.
^  Subject: 10.10 Okidata
|  Subject: 10.11 Star Micronics
   Subject: 10.12 Fargo
|  Subject: 10.13 Brother Industries, Ltd.
   Subject: 10.14 Epson
|  Subject: 10.15 Panasonic
   Subject: 10.16 BlackLightning, Inc.
   Subject: 10.17 Kodak
^  Subject: 10.18 Abaton Technology
|  Subject: 10.19 Citizen America Corp
   Subject: 10.20 Dataproducts Corp
|  Subject: 10.21 D-Link Systems, Inc.
|  Subject: 10.22 Fujitsu Computer Products
|  Subject: 10.23 Genicom Corp.
   Subject: 10.24 Houston Instruments
   Subject: 10.25 Laser Master
^  Subject: 10.26 Laser Printer Accessories
|  Subject: 10.27 Laser Tools
   Subject: 10.28 Mannesmann Tally
   Subject: 10.29 NEC Technologies
|  Subject: 10.30 NewGen Systems Corporation, Inc.
   Subject: 10.31 Pacific Data Products
|  Subject: 10.32 Pentax Technologies
|  Subject: 10.33 Texas Instruments
^  Subject: 10.34 Toshiba Printer Products
   Subject: 10.35 Environmental Laser
|  Subject: 10.36 GCC Technologies
   Subject: 10.37 Advanced Matrix Technology
|  Subject: 10.38 GDT Softworks, Inc.
|  Subject: 10.39 Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC)
   Subject: 10.40 MicroSoft
|  Subject: 10.41 Kyocera Corporation
|  Subject: 10.42 Kentek Information Systems
   Subject: 10.43 LaserSaver
|  Subject: 10.44 GRC
   Subject: 10.45 Patton Electronics Company
|  Subject: 10.46 Ganson Engineering Company
   Subject: 10.47 Xerox
   Subject: 10.48 GS Corporation
|  Subject: 10.49 MIS Associates, Inc.
   Subject: 11 Glossary
|  Subject: 12 Credits
 
_______________

Subject: 01 Introduction

As is the case with all FAQ lists, this document is intended to
help answer frequently asked questions that appear on the
newsgroup comp.periphs.printers. If you have any items you think
should be here, please let me know.

_______________

Subject: 02 Printer Classification

_______________

Subject: 02.01 Dot-Matrix Printers (Impact Printers)

A dot-matrix printer produces output by having a printhead with
a series of metal pins (typically 9, 24 or 48) which slam into
an ink-impregnated ribbon or a carbon ribbon as the printhead
is dragged back and forth across the paper to form images. The
pins are arranged in one or more vertical rows.

Another, less common, technology called "Comb Matrix" or
"Shuttle Matrix" uses a horizontal row of pins (optimally one
pin for each horizontal position) so that a single row of dots
may be printed very efficiently. In cases where there are not as
many pins as there are horizontal positions, the comb moves back
and forth slightly (hence "Shuttle") in order to print all the
necessary dots. With this technique the paper can move almost
continuously, and so it's heavily used in high speed matrix
line-printers since it is much faster than single character
printing.

Impact dot-matrix printers are very versatile in that the
matrix of pins can be manipulated to produce different character
fonts, and even graphics.

Since impact dot-matrix printers create an image through
hammering an inked ribbon, they can be used to print copies
together with the original. These printers are often used with
continuous paper, but most models can handle single sheets and
labels as well. 

Due to the printing method, dot-matrix printers are louder than
other printers (even in the so-called 'quiet mode').

The printing performance is normally given in cps (characters
per second), often for different fonts (Draft/LQ) and for
different cpi (characters per inch) values (where applicable).

_______________

Subject: 02.02 Daisywheel printers and Typewriters

A daisywheel printer produces output using a wheel which has
stamped images of each letter and symbol. As the printhead
moves back and forth across the paper, an electromagnetic
hammer is fired as the wheel is spun to position each letter
as it's needed.

Daisywheel printers were very popular because they were able to
produce much better output than other early printers such as 9-
pin dot-matrix printers. Their disadvantages include slow speed,
a character set limited to what's on the printwheel, and an
inability to do graphics.

Like daisywheel printers, typewriters were (and sometimes) are
popular since they were already established in the offices when
electronic data processing began. By adding an interface to the
typewriter you can connect it to your PC giving you a personal
printer as well as a typewriter for filling forms etc.

Daisywheel printers and typewriters are impact printers, so they
can print copies together with the original. Daisywheel printers
print on continuous paper as well as on single sheets or labels,
typewriters normally print on single sheets and labels.

Daisywheel printers and typewriters are as loud as dot-matrix
printers.

The printing performance is normally given in cps (characters
per second).

_______________

Subject: 02.03 InkJet Printers

An inkjet printer is very similar to a dot-matrix printer, in
that it produces output by putting a set of dots onto the
paper. Inkjets, however, spray drops of ink onto the page
directly. They can achieve much denser patterns of dots than
dot-matrix printers, allowing for much better output.

Newer inkjet printers, instead of projecting the ink
electrostatically or with very tiny pumps, vaporize the ink
in a heated capillary with the pressure of the expanding vapor
"squirting" the liquid ink onto the page. For our purposes, they
are otherwise just like original inkjets.

Inkjet printers are non-impact printers, so you have to print
copies separately. Inkjets print onto cut sheet paper, like a
photocopier. Some models need special quality paper for best output,
but for most printers standard paper quality should suffice.
Some printers may also handle continuous paper, and labels may
be printed if they accept ink well.

Inkjet printers are relatively quiet printers.

Inkjet printers tend to be faster than impact dot-matrix
printers. The printing performance is therefore given either in
cps (characters per second), sometimes for different font
qualities and/or cpi (characters per inch) values, or in
ppm (pages per minute).

Although all inkjet inks that I've seen are theoretically water-
soluble, they vary greatly in their response to getting wet.
This may matter if the printout will be used for presentations,
business purposes, or in humid/wet environments (e.g., some inks
will come off when touched by a moist finger, even weeks after
printing).

Inks that I've been told smear easily and significantly when a
drop of water is dropped on them include: all Canon inkjet
inks, DEC 520ic (black), and the TI Micromarc inks. The HP
Deskjet ink (black) is as nearly water-resistant as laser
printing. The Epson inkjet inks (black and color) seem to be
mostly water resistant: characters diffuse but don't tend
to smear when wet.

Dick Miller points out: "Although you don't mention it, DEC 520
and TI Micromarc ink[jet]s are both from Olivetti in Italy. So
are many others, which also share the same Olivetti printer
mechanisms in most cases: DEC 100- and 500-series printers,
Citizen ProJet printers, Tandy/Radio Shack JP1000, etc. 
(Identification tip: these usually include an Olivetti 
"JP350.DRV" Windows printer driver.)

Color inkjet printouts are not as long-lasting as photographs.
Some can withstand light, but are undone by humidity.  Others fade
quickly in bright light. Laminating can extend the life of the
output. Generally speaking, modern color ink jet printers haven't
been around long enough to test the longevity of the newest inks.

_______________

Subject: 02.04 Laser and LED Printers

(See also the description at Environmental Laser's web site:
<http://www.toners.com/how.html>)
 
Laser and LED printers are non-impact printers, so you have to
print copies separately. Typically these printers use single
sheet paper. Labels may be printed as well if they withstand the
heating process during burn-in of the toner. Some exotic models
support continuous forms, especially highest-speed models with a
feed of 200 ppm and more. These printers tend to be used in
mainframe environments and for printing direct mail solicitations.

The following is a basic description of what happens in
a typical "laser" printer. There's some simplification 
involved because we don't want to lose everyone. I think
this gets the idea across, if you disagree, please let me
know and we'll take another pass at it.

The drum inside the print cartridge is first charged
electrostatically. Then portions of the drum are discharged
by means of a laser or an LED line. These discharged dots
accept the toner which has a charge similar to that of the
drum. The discharged dots are the mirror image of the positions
where "ink" is to appear on the final paper output.

The paper passes a corona wire (or roller) which gives the
paper an electrical charge opposite of the charge on the
dots on the drum. Now the paper passes the drum where the
toner is deposited by the difference in charges.  Finally,
the paper passes a heating element that fuses the toner onto
the paper.

Most laser printers these days don't have a corona wire -
they actually charge the paper with a roller.

Laser and LED printers produce very sharp, crisp output,
typically of 300 dpi (dots per inch) or more, with some
printers having as much as 1200 dpi. Some printers also use
techniques such as "Resolution Enhancement" to manipulate dot
placement for reducing aliasing (the jaggies).

Laser and LED printers are relatively quiet printers.

Some early models produce surprisingly high levels of ozone.
Ozone is an oxygen module that has three oxygen atoms instead
of the normal two. During the print process ozone is produced
as a by-product of the corona energizing process. Some people
react to ozone with eye, nose, throat and lung irritation or
with headaches. So it's essential to place the printer in a
well-ventilated space, and to change the ozone filter of the
printer regularly if the printer has one.

Since most modern lasers don't have a corona wire, they don't
produce ozone.

The performance of laser and LED printers is measured in ppm
(pages per minute) in copy mode (this means that the page image
is already in the printers memory and is only copied as fast as
possible to the paper). Unfortunately the ppm value is no
direct measurement for the printer's performance.

On the subject of reliability of lasers versus LEDs, Peter
Lorraine reports: "I asked the same question you have about
reliability. The answer from the salesperson was the same as
that from one of the computer support people at work. According
to them, the optics in a laser system can get out of alignment
over time. In a laser system, a single light source is scanned
across the image drum with a system of lenses and mirrors. In an
LED system, an array of LEDs in direct proximity to the drum is
used. The head in the LED printer comes with an extended
warranty beyond the other components."

David Luke, adds: "Theoretically this is true, but in reality,
the difference is negligible. Over 96% of all LaserJets ever
sold (clear back to the Classic from 1984) are still in use."

| From: David Byram-Wigfield, the author of 'PracticalPostScript'
| ISBN 0-9525308-0-5
|
| A great laser and photocopier mystery is the exact 
| composition of toner and how many different flavours there 
| are. Monotoners are pre-magnetised whilst duotoners rely 
| on a mixing with magnetised iron filings (or is it the other 
| way round?). In any event, if you refill with the wrong kind 
| you either get unmagnetised toner blown all over the interior 
| of the laser or pre-magetised toner forever clogging up the 
| iron filing core. Testing an unlabelled bottle of toner with a 
| magnet *may* spot the difference but I wouldn't rely on it.
|| Some toners have finer particles than others and Hewlett-
| Packard always refuse to reveal the recipe of their finest micro-
| toner brew; an HP refill is never quite as good as an Authorised 
| Version.
|
| If you are buying a new laser or photocopier, always rub the two 
| halves of a sample printed page together. On some models you 
| will be surprised how easily the toner rubs off onto the 
| opposite page. I suspect much depends on an adequate fuser 
| temperature.

_______________

Subject: 02.05 Color Printers

A color printer uses any of several methods to produce multi-
colored output. Regardless of the method used to produce the
color, there are first, three different methods of specifying
colors:

1) RGB: the standard method used with display devices (terminals
   and TVs) is RGB color space (RGB stands for red-green-blue).
   It's an additive process to mix colors, you get white by mixing
   all three colors with the same intensity.

2) CMYK: a method used especially in commercial printing (CMYK
   stands for cyan-magenta-yellow-black). It's a subtractive
   process to mix colors, you get black by either mixing all
   three colors with the same intensity, or having an additional
   black color added in for richer, darker blacks.

3) Dithering: A method whereby the colors are not really mixed,
   but by placing dots of different colors in different numbers
   in a confined place it's possible to make an image look like
   more it has more than four colors in it. This is somewhat
   comparable to the method of grayscaling on a pure b/w display
   by setting more or less pixels to black.

There are color dot-matrix printers using a colored ribbon (i.e.
one with colors on it besides black). Inkjet printers have color
ink cartridges, some produce black by mixing the colors, others
have a separate black ink cartridge.

Thermal transfer printers use a film with four colors of wax on
it. The printer moves the paper through four times, once for each
color. As each color is deposited on the paper, the full color
image comes through. Others use a wax, crayon-like stick which
is used to fill a tray in the printer.

Lately, there have been a couple of manufacturers introducing
color laser printers which have four separate bins of toner,
one for each of the basic colors.

Color laser printers generally use four different toner colors:
the three subtractive primaries (Cyan, Magenta and Yellow), plus
Black. Note that toners printed on a white piece of paper reduce
(or subtract colors from) the reflection of a white light shone
on the page, in order to form the resulting color. By contrast,
light emitting devices such as CRT's add emitted colors together
to form the resulting color; this is why CRT's work with the
additive primaries Red, Green and Blue (RGB), whereas printers
work with the subtractive primaries (CMY), and somewhere along
the way there is a conversion between the two.

Since the visible spectrum is continuous, you can only approximate
visible colors by mixing the subtractive primaries; and mixing Cyan,
Magenta and Yellow toner all together actually produces a sort
of off-looking gray, rather than a solid black. Adding the Black
toner pass helps to approximate more colors, and gives the nice
crisp looking black that laser printer users are used to.

All color laser printers generate a range of colors by "mixing"
their toners together to form the color on the paper, but they
do so in one of two fundamentally different ways:

1) Continuous tone printers can vary the amount of toner put down
   for each color, in each pixel. They are generally very
   expensive, and provide high quality photo-like reproductions.
   For a 32-bit color continuous tone printer, each pixel can
   have 4,294,967,296 different toner combinations, although not
   all of these necessarily make sense to print; for example, 
   solid Black mixed with any combination of C, M and Y will look
   the same, merely wasting the C, M and/or Y toner.
   Furthermore, the translation from 24 bit RGB to 32 bit CMYK is
   generally hidden from the user, so the user actually gets
   access to 16,777,216 of these colors. 

   Even then, some of those may map onto the same CMYK value
   depending on the color space mapping, which is related to the
   linearity of the printing process, toners, etc., etc. Also, not
   all the colors that can be represented on screen in RGB can be
   generated by the mix of four printer toners; some colors will
   lie outside the printer's "gamut" and can only be approximated
   by substituting a printable color which is perceptually close.
   Similarly, the printer will be able to print colors which you
   can never reproduce on your RGB screen.
 
2) Bi-level printers cannot vary the amount of toner put down for
   each color within each pixel. They are considerably cheaper,
   and their output is a good deal lower quality given equivalent
   resolutions, particularly for reproducing real-world images.
   Each of the four colors are either on or off in each pixel, so
   each pixel can have only 16 different toner combinations. 
   Furthermore, black mixed with anything will look black, so 
   eight of those combinations would look the same, meaning that
   each pixel can only really take on nine different colors. 

   Colors which cannot be represented directly are simulated via
   some form of dithering, so that the eye perceives the 
   intermediate colors in a similar manner to halftone 
   photographs in newspapers. Note that these printers cannot 
   print anywhere near the 16,777,216 colors that can be 
   represented by 24-bit RGB; they can print only nine different
   color values, and rely on dithering to represent the 24 bits
   of color information. Dithering effectively trades off
   resolution to represent these intermediate colors, compared
   to continuous tone. Bi-level printers can still have 24-bit
   inputs; this doesn't imply that they can mix varying amounts
   of each toner to produce a smooth range of colors for each
   pixel.

As Tapani Tarvainen points out, there are some new printers which
make the preceding kind of misleading:

  The HP DeskJet 850C and 855C could actually be called "quad-
  level" or something, in that they can squirt three different
  sizes of inkdrops on each pixel: nowhere near continuous tone 
  but much more than bi-level: with three colors each pixel can 
  be one of 64 colors, and up to 256 when black is mixed in (as 
  it can be, however most of the 256 combinations aren't really 
  useful; according to a HPer the number of useful ones varies 
  between 64 and 120 or so).

  So the distinction is no longer as clear-cut as it used to be: 
  color printers must now be measured by both resolution and 
  color depth: in addition to dots-per-inch we need something 
  like colors per dot.

_______________

Subject: 02.06 Other Printer Types

Another printer technology is that of line printers, mostly
seen in mainframe environments. They print by means of a
rotating cylinder or chain containing all printable characters.

In the case of the rotating cylinder, all columns contain a
complete character set, the cylinder rotates in the paper
transport direction and the paper is slammed against the ribbon
and the cylinder when the character to print is at the right
position. One revolution of the cylinder prints the complete
line.

In the case of the rotation chain, the chain contains the
character set repeated several times. The printer designer
chooses the number of times each character is repeated based
on how frequently it turns up in the text. For American English,
this is the old ETAON... sequence. The idea is if the more
frequent characters show up more often, the overall printing
will be faster. The chain rotates perpendicularly to the paper
transport direction and the paper is slammed against the ribbon
and the chain when the character to print is at the right position.

A variant of the chain printer is the "Belt Printer". The quality
is roughly equivalent to chain printers at lower cost, lower
power consumption and less noise. The standard belt or train
printer uses high-quality type set in a heavy chain (it IS heavy)
and support mechanism. In the IBM 3203 and 1403 printers each "slug"
was three characters in one position on the train. The use of the
word train is deliberate, as the characters are three to a
"carriage" which in turn follow after each other on a track.

In a belt printer the characters are mounted individually on
"fingers" (not all characters are repeated the same number of times. In
difference to cylinder and chain printers the belt is slammed
against the ribbon against the paper.

The printing performance is normally given in lps (lines per
second) or even in pps (pages per second). Printer types
ordered in increasing speed: belt printers, chain printers,
rotating cylinder printers (up to 70 lps).

Also there are thermal matrix printers printing characters and
graphics (e.g. barcodes) by heating the paper positions (dots)
that should become black.

There are a few other "exotic" technologies such as the thermal
aluminum coated paper used by Sinclair and also Spark discharge,
but they are VERY rare and largely obsolete.

_______________

Subject: 03 Printer Languages or Emulations

_______________

Subject: 03.01 HP PCL and PJL

The PCL printer language was developed by Hewlett-Packard for
their printers (laser and inkjet). PCL versions are numbered
beginning with 1, the current version is 5e. Some words about PCL
history (from HP's Printer Language Technical Reference Manual):

    PCL 1       Print and Space functionality is the base set of
                functions provided for simple, convenient,
                single-user workstation output.

    PCL 2       EDP (Electronic Data Processing)/Transaction
                functionality is a superset of PCL 1. Functions
                were added for general purpose, multi-user system
                printing.

    PCL 3       Office Word Processing functionality is a
                superset of PCL 2. Functions were added for high-
                quality, office document production. (Printers: HP
                DeskJet family)

    PCL 4       Page formatting functionality is a superset of
                PCL 3. Functions were added for new page printing
                capabilities. (Printers: HP LaserJet II, HP
                LaserJet IIP (PCL 4.5))

    PCL 5       Office Publishing functionality is a superset of
                PCL 4. New publishing capabilities include font
                scaling and HP-GL/2 graphics. (Printers: HP
                LaserJet III, HP LaserJet 4 (PCL 5e))

PCL versions differ in functionality (e.g. font type support:
bitmap fonts, scalable fonts (Intellifonts, TrueType fonts),
raster graphic compression methods, HP-GL/2 graphic support).

PCL is the most widely spread printer language in the laser
printer market today. Most laser printer manufacturers use an
implementation of PCL 4 or PCL 5 for their printers.

PJL (Printer Job Language) was developed also by Hewlett-Packard
to provide a method for switching parameters at the job level and
for status readback between printer and host computer. PJL may be
used at the beginning of a print job for setting some job specific
parameters like printer language (PCL, PostScript or others),
resolution (300 or 600 dpi), number of copies, etc.

Note: not all HP printers support PJL commands. Sending such a
command to a printer not supporting it may cause the printout of
the command in the case of a PCL printer. For printers in
PostScript mode, the command will cause a PostScript error and
prevent the job from printing.

PJL is currently supported by the following HP printers: LaserJet
IIISi, LaserJet 4 family, PaintJet XL300 and DesignJet.
PJL is also supported in the "5" series LaserJet printers.

According to Ronald F. Guilmette, HP will sell you a set of 
technical manuals covering PCL and PJL in depth: You _must_ buy
the complete "manual bundle". The new part number for the complete
PCL manual bundle is: 5010-3997. Cost of this manual bundle is
$92.50. The number for ordering this manual bundle is 800 227-8164.

_______________

Subject: 03.02 PostScript

PostScript is a page description language produced by Adobe
Systems Inc. since the early 1980's. Adobe was formed in 1982 by
Dr. John E. Warnock and Dr. Charles M. Geschke. It provides a
verbose language of instructions to describe a page of
information. While it requires more memory to work with than most
page description languages, it was the first widely available
product that allowed for control over a large number of fonts and
graphical objects.

The first version published in 1985 (the old Red Book) is
called Level I, the current implementation (the big Red Book)
is called Level II (do not mix these levels with the PostScript
version a printer supports, e.g. version 47.0 or version
2011.110, nor with the number in the begin line of any PostScript
output like "%!PS-Adobe-3.0"). The PostScript level and to an
extent the version of the interpreter too, define the possible
operations. For more information see the Red and White Book.

There are several PostScript clones around because of the
costly licensing fees for Adobe's interpreter, the best-known
surely is GhostScript (see Miscellaneous Information).
Others, built directly into laser printers or addable via
cartridges, are Phoenix Page, Brotherscript, Page Styler,
True Image, Turbo PS, PDL and KPDL. Naturally they all claim
to be 100% PostScript compatible, but this compatibility sometimes
ends when it comes to font downloading, font manipulation like
adding a metric table or adding new characters, or some other
operations. The printing of simple text and graphics is usually
no problem with these clones.

| Adobe Systems Inc. runs a very good world wide web site 
| <http://www.adobe.com> where information about PostScript-
| related products may be found. You may also find technical 
| notes for developers (partly updates for books and manuals), 
| PPD's for most Adobe PostScript printers, and some sample 
| programs.

Beside many other books covering PostScript more or less in
detail there are the reference manuals from Adobe Systems Inc.
(all published by Addison Wesley Publishing Company):
- PostScript Language Reference Manual (the old red book),
  covers PostScript Level I
  (ISBN 0-201-10174-2)
- PostScript Language Tutorial and Cookbook (the blue book),
  contains annotated examples and short programs
  (ISBN 0-201-10179-3)
- PostScript Language Program Design (the green book), a guide
  for the design of efficient PostScript programs
  (ISBN 0-201-14396-8)
- Adobe Type 1 Font Format (the black book), specifies the
  format for Type 1 fonts in detail
  (ISBN 0-201-57044-0)
- PostScript Language Reference Manual, second edition (the big
  red book), covers PostScript Level II, document structuring
  conventions and more
  (ISBN 0-201-18127-4)

Another source for information about PostScript is the news group
comp.lang.postscript. Frequently asked questions are covered by
the PostScript FAQ compiled by Jon Monsarrat. It is regularly 
posted in comp.answers and comp.lang.postscript (the FAQ is also
available via FTP from standard FAQ locations, or from
<ftp://wilma.cs.brown.edu/pub/comp.sources.postscript>). In this
FAQ you may find pointers to many other books about PostScript.

_______________

Subject: 03.03 Epson ESC/P, ESC/P2

ESC/P  means Epson Standard Code for Printers.
ESC/P2 means Epson Standard Code for Printers, Level 2.

The printer language ESC/P was originally developed by Epson
for use with their early dot-matrix printers. Today it is
supported also by Epson inkjet and laser printers as well as
by many other dot-matrix printers in the market. ESC/P2 is an
enhancement of ESC/P, i.e. it has new functions for font scaling,
raster graphic printing, etc.

As with many printer languages, ESC/P or ESC/P2 on printers from
different manufacturers may differ slightly in their functionality.
Normally the differences are additional functions not provided with
the original version from Epson, so beware of using them if you want
to support all ESC/P or ESC/P2 compatible printers.

Information about ESC/P and ESC/P2 may be found in the printer manuals
of the respective manufacturer. Sometimes it is only a short listing
of all available functions (hopefully!) sometimes the functions are
declared in depth with examples in BASIC. Character set tables and
font width tables may be found there too.

Epson sells the "ESC/P2 Reference Manual", which includes both ESC/P
and ESC/P2, as well as a complete description of the differences in
commands supported by each printer. The newest version is August 1992,
but there is also an addendum which includes the new Stylus Color
commands, identified as: "Epson Stylus COLOR Programming Note" dated
July 8, 1994.

According to Stuart Williams, a listing of ESC/P codes can be found in
<ftp://ftp.epson.com/impact/ESCODE.TXT>

_______________

Subject: 03.04 IBM Proprinter

The printer language IBM ProPrinter is originally used with IBM
printers (IBM Graphics Printer 5152, IBM ProPrinter XL 4201/4202,
IBM ProPrinter X24/XL24 4207/4208), today it is supported by many
dot-matrix printers as is the case with Epson's ESC/P and ESC/P2.
IBM ProPrinter has become another standard emulation for third-
party printers. The functionality is different according to the
version used or selected during printer setup (XL, X24/XL24 or
AGM are some of these versions).

As with many printer languages, IBM ProPrinter on printers
from different manufacturers may differ slightly in their
functionality. Normally the differences are additional functions
not provided with the standard emulations so don't use them if
you want to support the standard.

Information about the IBM ProPrinter emulation may be found in
the printer manuals of the respective manufacturer. As with ESC/P
and ESC/P2 this information can be a short listing of the
available functions, or the functions declared in depth.
Character set tables and font width tables may be found there,
too.

_______________

Subject: 03.05 Other Emulations

There are a lot of other unique emulations in the printer market.
The following list is therefore far from being complete (the
intention is not to describe them exactly, but only to mention
them). The order of the listed emulations doesn't say anything
about their importance in the printer market.

Advanced Function Printing (AFP): is used on IBM Mainframes for
  page printers. It is an architected presentation function set
  of the Mixed Object Document Content Architecture (MO:DCA),
  which is part of IBM's System Application Architecture.

  You don't actually print with MO:DCA, IPDS (Intelligent Printer
  Data Stream) is used. The information we have may be out of
  date, but it used to contain PTOCA (Print Text Object Content
  Architecture), GOCA (Graphic Object Content Architecture), IOCA
  (Image Object Content Architecture) as well as some other, non-SAA
  descriptors (simple image, for example). IPDS is IBM's SAA printing
  language.

  It handles a variety of bit-mapped fonts, simple graphics
  primitives, and bit-mapped images. Because of the simplicity of the
  imaging model, it can be used to drive high speed laser printers.

Diablo 630 emulation: was originally used with daisywheel printers
  and typewriters. It supports only sequences for tabulation, line
  and character spacing, attribute selection (bold, double-strike,
  underline), horizontal movement in both directions, proportional
  spacing and automatic centering and justification among others.
  This emulation is sometimes used by other vendors as a base for
  their printer specific emulation.

CaPSL: (Canon Printing System Language) was the former standard
  emulation for Canon laser printers. Another name for this
  emulation is LIPS (Laser-beam Image Processing System).
  LIPS supports Diablo 630 (the factory setting for the command
  mode), ISO mode (for printing text data and raster graphics)
  and VDM mode (for vector graphics and character printing).
  The story behind CaPSL was that because Canon makes printing
  engines for HP, they weren't allowed to license HP PCL for their
  own printers. Hence the need for their own printer language.
  Canon lasers traditionally included CaPSL, IBM ProPrinter,
  ESC/P and PostScript emulations, but no PCL emulation).
  This part of the contract between Canon and HP has apparently
  expired, since nowadays Canon offers printers with PCL 4 and
  PCL 5 code. On the other hand Canon no longer seems to offer
  printers with CaPSL emulation.
   
RENO: this is the standard emulation for Agfa printers (P400,
  P3400 etc.). RENO is a sort of page description language.
  The functionality is enormous: beside printing text with
  different scalable fonts, you may draw lines, fill windows
  with a pattern, use programming statements (if-then-else,
  repeat-until, set, use and print variables, push and pop
  operations), download and print your own symbols and transfer
  data to the printer's RAM or to a hard disk or floppy disk
  if attached.

Prescribe: this is a page description language created by
  Kyocera. The advantage of this language is that you may embed
  it in any other currently selected printer emulation on the
  Kyocera machines. Kyocera printers support HP PCL, an HP-GL
  clone called KC-GL, Epson ESC/P (LQ-850 mode), IBM ProPrinter
  X24E, Diablo 630, a generic line printer emulation and, as
  an option, KPDL, a PostScript clone. Being able to use the
  selected option for text output functions and then switch to
  an embedded Prescribe sequence for something neat the other
  emulation doesn't do easily is kind of nice.

DEC: DEC has their own unique emulations for their laser printers
  (LN03, LN06). I'll see if my former employer still has the further
  details I remember them having.

ECMA, ECMA 35: a printer language standard?

ANSI: Dan McGowan of Mannesmann Tally tells us that "The
  Mannesmann Tally printers that support ANSI are based
  upon the ANSI 3.64 specification.  This is a rather loose
  spec that covers general functions of peripherals.  Those
  of our printers produced in the U.S., in general, support
  all of the ANSI 3.64 commands pertaining to printer functions.  

  Those of our printers produced in Germany are flying serial
  head printers.  They support MTPL (Mannesmann Tally Printer
  Language) which is based upon the ANSI 3.64 spec but includes
  additional commands unique to serial printer functions/features."

_______________

Subject: 04 Printer Interfaces

_______________

Subject: 04.01 Centronics (parallel) Interface

The Centronics interface transfers data in a parallel fashion
to a printer. As opposed to a serial cable that only sends data
down one wire, the parallel protocol sends data down 8 wires at
once, thus being generally much faster. The standard interface
is only able to transfer data in one direction the "communication"
in the reverse direction is done by status lines, e.g. paper error
or busy), but there is a newer specification called Bi-Tronics
(from HP) with bidirectional communication and higher transfer rates.

This interface is typically used for connecting a printer to a PC
(with any OS) or a workstation, since the cable is very limited
in length.

If you want the gory details, you can order the spec from the
IEEE. Call 1-800-701-4333 and ask for document # SH17335.
$56.50 plus $6.00 UPS ground shipping (From an article posted
by <customer@quake.net>, dated 18 Apr 1995).

Basically, IEEE-1284 specifies the timing and protocol for
several modes, including compatibility ("Centronics"), nibble
(the reverse-channel part of HP's Bi-Tronics), and ECP (a fast,
parallel bi-directional interlocked handshake). ECP should be
able to transfer data in either direction at speeds approaching
2 MB/sec.

IEEE-1284 also specifies the electrical interface and cable
length properties, and allows for cable lengths up to 10 meters.
With pre-1284 specs (e.g. by HP) the maximum length was 3 meters.

The parallel connection may well work with longer cables (I have
heard of 15 to 20 meters), but it very much depends on the setup
(electrical wires near the cable may cause noise on the cable,
power of the +5 volt supply, sensitivity of the printer's input
decoder and so on). If you need a longer cable, you should
consider using either a serial connection (RS232 or RS422) or a
parallel repeater or extender kit.

In either case the maximum length is limited by IEEE-1284 since
the maximum propagation delay of the cable must be less that 58 ns.
When calculating with the speed of light this would result in a
theoretical maximum length of about 17 meters.

Parallel interfaces run anywhere from less than 25 kbps to greater
than one megabyte/sec, the high end is seen in newer PC's with ports
supporting ECP/EPP/IEEE1284.

_______________

Subject: 04.02 RS232 (serial) Interface

The RS232 "standard" is one of those wonderful computer things
everyone talks about and uses, but hardly anyone understands.
This is a new attempt at explaining it, based upon the previous
text, but with some more data about pinouts and other information.

The RS232 serial interface transfers asynchronous data bit by
bit, one at a time. The bytes are separated from each other by
one start bit and one or two stop bits. Besides the data lines
this interface defines a couple of control lines between the
two devices (see diagram below).  This interface is able to
transfer data simultaneously in both directions, allowing for
printer status or error messages to be easily passed back to
the computer.

The RS232 standard defines two types of equipment, DTE (computer,
terminal, most printers) and DCE (some printers, modems). When
connecting two DTE's you would need a null-modem cable, that is
a cable which swaps TxD and RxD around and connects some control
lines on both sides. The type of cable needed, especially which
pins must be connected with each other, depends on the devices
you want to connect. Note that some devices don't support all
control lines.

There exist different connectors for the RS232 serial line. The
standard type is called DB-25 (two lines of pins, one with 12 and
the other one with 13 pins). There is another type called DB-9 (e.g.
the HP LaserJet 4P is equipped with this type), this connector
doesn't support all control lines, but it may well be connected
with a DB-25 connector on the computer side.

And here are the pinouts for both DB-25 and DB-9 connectors (pins
not mentioned are unused). The first number given is for the DB-25
type, the second number in parentheses is for the DB-9 type if
supported. The text describes the common name for the pin and the
signal direction from the device in question.

  1 (-)  Frame Ground (DB-9 type: use the connectors box instead)
  2 (2)  TxD: Transmitted Data (out)
  3 (3)  RxD: Received Data (in)
  4 (1)  RTS: Request To Send (out)
  5 (-)  CTS: Clear To Send (in)
  6 (4)  DSR: Data Set Ready (in)
  7 (5)  Signal Ground
  8 (-)  DCD: Data Carrier Detected (in)
 19 (-)  Reverse Channel (out)
 20 (8)  DTR: Data Terminal Ready (out)

Finally the pinout for a null-modem cable (with TxD and RxD
swapped). In this diagram only the DB-25 pins are mentioned
(use the pinout above for a DB-9 cable).

   1 __ Frame Ground __ 1
   2 __  TxD -> RxD  _> 3
   3 <_  RxD <- TxD  __ 2
   4 -+     connect      +- 4
   5 <+    RTS & CTS     +> 5
   7 __ Signal Grnd. __ 7
   6 <+     connect      +> 6
   8 <+    DSR & DCD     +> 8
  20 -+     with DTR     +- 20

Note: when using this cable type (all control lines disabled)
the computer can't determine whether the printer is on or off.
Well, at least by means of the resp. control line; it is
possible to check the printer state by using ETX/ACK
handshake protocol. On the other hand some systems have
problems when you connect the control lines correctly and the
printer is off at boot time. (The system thinks that there is
no serial line. There are some UNIX systems that block the
open() system call until the printer is switched on.

Typical data transfer rates (for printer connections) are 9600
baud, 19200 baud and 38400 baud (baud is bits per second).
Theoretically this interface may transfer data with up to
115200 baud (this is the maximum speed newer UART's can do, but
with many systems you can't select this speed in a standard way -
it's often necessary to program the UART by yourself). Although
I'm told that the Lexmark IBM 4039 and Lexmark Optra printers
support this speed, I haven't seen it with my own eyes. :)

_______________

Subject: 04.02.01 Connecting an Apple LaserWriter to a PC

Thanks to Tibor Pelan, we now know that there's a web page 
with the necessary information for making yourself a cable 
to connect your Apple LaserWriter to a PC using the serial 
port.

<http://www-cs.intel.com/enduser_reseller/netport_print_servers/6021.HTM#3>

The document describes the cable pinout and switch settings
on several printers for use with Intel's NetPort Express.
I don't have a LaserWriter anymore, so I can't doublecheck
this, but I think the cable they describe should work fine
with for connecting directly to your PC.

_______________

Subject: 04.03 RS422 (serial) Interface

The RS422 serial interface transfers synchronous data in blocks
of bytes each of which begins with a synchronize byte and
ends with a final character. For synchronization a sync line is
supplied. There are separate lines for data transfer in each
direction with two lines for each direction with complementary
polarity. This interface is typically used for AppleTalk
connections.

Transfer rates are up to 230.4 Kbaud for a 300 meter (~328.08
yard) cable. The maximum length is up to 1200 meters.

_______________

Subject: 04.04 HP-IB (parallel) Interface

HP-IB ("Hewlett-Packard Interface Bus") alias GP-IB ("General
Purpose IB") alias IEEE-4888. Old and largely outdated interface
created by HP and used for printers, plotters, disks, tape drives
and measurement devices of various kinds, mostly by HP computers
(HP3000 and HP9000 series, though not standard in current models),
available also for PCs. Today used mainly for measurement devices,
but HP-IB printers may still turn up in surplus sales. Using one
in a PC requires either an HP-IB card or a parallel/HP-IB converter,
both of which are hard to find and may cost more than the peripheral
device. The connector resembles Centronics but locks with screws
rather than clips.

_______________

Subject: 04.05 HP-IL (serial) Interface

HP-IL ("Hewlett-Packard Interface Loop"), was created by HP
for their handheld and portable computers and calculators.
Abandoned by HP a few years back, but HP-IL printers, notably
the HP2225B ThinkJet, still turn up occasionally. It can be
recognized by two small, rounded, trapezoidal-shaped connectors
with two pins each. An HP-IL card for ISA-based PCs exists but
is very hard to find these days, so if you find such a printer
it's probably best to sell it to someone with an old HP-IL-based
HP computer (HP41, HP71B, HP75 and HP-110 at least).

_______________

Subject: 04.06 SCSI Interface

SCSI (Small Computer Systems Interface) is best known as a mass
storage interface, but SCSI-based printers also exist, including
at least one Apple LaserWriter model and some really big and fast
mainframe-class printers that can handle 100-200 ppm or more (at
least Siemens and HP have such).

_______________

Subject: 04.07 Infrared Interface

Infrared interfaces have been used mainly in printers for HP
calculators, but recently such have been announced for laptops
as well, including an infrared-Centronics converter, so it may
become more important in the future.

An organization called the Infrared Data Association (IrDA)
has produced specification that are being adopted as industry
standards. Several laptop and PDA vendors have come out with
models supporting the IrDA specs, and many more manufacturers
appear to be waiting in the wings. The IrDA spec provides for
fully bi-directional communications at distances of 1 meter,
at speeds up to 115,200 bits per second. An enhanced
specification with much higher speeds is currently under proposal.

Recently (at the 1995 CeBIT trade show in Hannover, Germany) HP
presented the new HP LaserJet 5P and 5MP models with an IrDA-
compatible interface. Presumably other printer companies will
follow soon.

_______________

Subject: 04.08 Network Interfaces

Network interfaces directly built into a printer are the most
efficient way to transfer print jobs from any host in a network
(LAN) to the printer. If the network is set up accordingly you
may send print jobs from any host to the printer (with serial or
parallel connected printers you have to route your print job to
the host the printer is connected to). Standard connectors are
10base2, 10baseT and 10base5 (also called AUI).

In addition to the basic Ethernet connections, there are also 4Mb
and 16Mb Token Ring (both STP and UTP) as well as LocalTalk.

Your network interface must support a communication method that
is compatible with your network operating system(s). Examples
include TCP/IP, AppleTalk, SPX/IPX, and DLC (a lower level
interface frequently used in IBM LAN Server/MS LAN Manager/NT
AS environments).

The maximum transfer speed depends on the network type (4, 10, 16
Mbit or 100 Mbit or more) and on the processing speed of the
printer. With network interfaces you may well reach the maximum
possible printer throughput, this is normally not the case with
serial interfaces and maybe even not with parallel interfaces.

_______________

Subject: 04.09 Interface Convertors

For connecting devices with different interfaces you may use a
converter that maps one interface to another. It is possible
to convert a serial RS232 interface into a Centronics parallel
interface, or to convert a serial RS422 interface into a serial
RS232 interface. Commercial solutions for these converters are
available.

It is also possible to connect a printer without network
interface to a network by means of a printer server. The best
choice is a converter from network interface to a parallel
interface (at least if you don't need bidirectional
communication) since then you have the maximum possible
throughput. With a converter to a serial interface you on the one
hand lose transfer performance, but on the other hand you may get
data back from the printer. In both cases you have the advantage
that you can place the printer anywhere in your local network
(typically near you), with a serial or parallel interface it's
normally necessary to place the printer nearby the host it is
connected to.

_______________

Subject: 05 Printer Drivers

A printer driver is the software which allows a particular
computer or program to make the best of the features a printer
might have. It is frequently possible to find a driver for a
particular piece of software or operating system on BBS/FTP sites
from both the company who developed the software/operating system
and the company which manufactured the printer itself. That is,
you can find specific drivers for DOS, MS Windows, AutoCad, etc.
on a printer company BBS and those same drivers might show up on
Microsoft's BBS, or that of the Autocad folks.

_______________

Subject: 05.01 Operating System specific

_______________

Subject: 05.01.01 Macintosh

_______________

Subject: 05.01.02 MS-DOS

With MS-DOS you may print a text file by copying it
to the special name "prn" (or its synonym "lpt1")
such that:

     COPY ASCII.TXT PRN

If your software program lets you "Print to a File",
you will probably need to use the /B switch on COPY
for the file to print properly to LaserJets and many
other printers. For example:

     COPY OUTPUT.BIN PRN /B

For sending a program's output to the printer you may
be able to redirect stdout to the printer. For example:

     PROGRAM ... > PRN

All three ways mentioned above perform printing in the
foreground. That means that you can't continue to work
until printing is (nearly) finished.  By using the MS-DOS
command PRINT printing is done in the background while you
may continue with your work. The system maintains a printing
queue that can be manipulated with PRINT.

Note that the file to print must contain either plain text or
control sequences for the printer connected to the PC. For
converting any application specific file format into
printable data you need the driver supplied with either the
application or the printer. If there isn't one for your
printer you're out of luck.

With the command MODE you can configure the printer port,
and you can redirect printing from the standard parallel
port (LPT1) to any serial port (e.g. COM1). Normally this
command is issued from the AUTOEXEC.BAT file.

_______________

Subject: 05.01.03 MS-Windows, Windows-NT

By installing a printer driver with these systems all
programs running under Windows or Windows-NT can use
the printer without knowing too much about the printer
connected to the system. If the print manager is active,
a program's printout is stored in a file instead of being
sent directly to the printer. When printing is finished
the print manager queues this file and sends it to the
printer as a background job. Meanwhile the program may
continue to interact with the user.

_______________

Subject: 05.01.04 OS/2

Thanks to Rod Smith for the following information:

Printing from OS/2 involves (potentially) three separate
printing systems:  OS/2, MS-Windows 3.1, and DOS.  Each OS
has its own way of handling printing (global drivers for OS/2
and Windows programs, and drivers embedded within specific
DOS programs), and OS/2 doesn't attempt to "trick" DOS or
Windows programs into thinking one printer is hooked up when
another actually is.  (One exception to this is the ability of
FaxWorks to accept output from DOS or Windows programs for the
IBM Proprinter and to convert this into a fax.)  OS/2 does,
however, provide a common print queue and spooler, so it is
possible to start print jobs from several programs at once and
not get jumbled output.

When installing a printer for OS/2, then, it is necessary to set
up separate drivers for OS/2, Windows, and each DOS program which
will print.  Typically, the Windows printer drivers that come with
the printer will work fine from OS/2's Windows subsystem, using
either "real" Windows 3.1 with OS/2 "for Windows" or with IBM's
re-compiled Win-OS/2 that comes with OS/2 "fullpack" versions. 
Simply install these drivers according to the instructions, and
you'll be set.  Similarly, drivers that come with the printer or
the program should be used for DOS programs.

There are a few tricks and caveats, however, in DOS and Windows
printing from OS/2.  First, OS/2 implements some "virtual" printer
ports, such as LPT1.OS2:, which should be used whenever possible. 
Doing so will allow OS/2 to handle printer output more effectively
than if the program attempted to print directly to the equivalent
"real" port (LPT1:, for instance).  Similarly, it's best to turn
off any "direct port access" options that Windows or the program
may offer.  Windows' Print Manager should also be disabled, since
OS/2 includes its own print spooler, and this will typically
function more effectively than the Windows 3.1 spooler.  In fact,
printing with the typical Windows settings (Print Manager active
and to LPT1:) will result in MUCH worse performance than when doing
this from DOS/Windows, whereas printing as suggested above may
result in BETTER printing performance than from DOS/Windows.

OS/2 will typically reset the printer between print jobs, and
this can cause problems with some (usually DOS) programs. 
Specifically, some DOS programs may send codes to the printer
to enable some special feature, print a page, then close the
printer file and open it again for the next page but not send
the codes again.  OS/2 will interpret this as two print jobs,
and will reset the printer to the default mode between jobs,
resulting in correct printing of the first page and incorrect
printing of subsequent pages.  If the program offers a "print
to file" option, using this and then sending the file to the
printer (either via a PRINT command from an OS/2 command prompt
or by a WPS drag-and-drop operation, selecting "printer specific
codes" from the prompt that pops up) may offer a workaround.

When OS/2 installs, it often sets up a generic text printer as
the default Windows printer driver.  This results in some
applications being unable to use TrueType fonts.  Changing the
default Windows printer back to whatever it had been before
fixes this problem.

For OS/2 native use, a few applications send text directly to
the printer; for instance, issuing a PRINT command from the
OS/2 command line will do this.  Most OS/2 applications,
however, use a printer driver which is much like a Windows
printer driver in concept; the application sends standardized
codes to OS/2, and the driver handles the formatting for a
specific printer.  OS/2 native drivers exist for most printers,
but there are some caveats.  Many color inkjet drivers for OS/2
are reportedly of much lower quality than the equivalent Windows
drivers.  Using a PostScript driver along with the freeware
GhostScript interpreter reportedly helps with many of these
printers.

The drivers that come with OS/2 for certain non-Hewlett Packard
600 dpi laser printers only support up to 300 dpi printing. 
If the printer uses the PCL 5e language, using drivers for the
HP LaserJet 4P or some other PCL 5e HP printer may actually
produce better results than using the driver identified for
that printer, though some of the driver options (for instance,
toner saving mode or downloadable fonts) may not work, so some
experimentation may be needed to get an optimal setup.  Because
of this, OS/2 users looking for a 600 dpi laser would be well
advised to restrict their search to models which are capable of
handling PCL 5e.  If satisfactory drivers for a given printer
don't come with OS/2, check the printer manufacturer's BBS or
ftp or web site.  Also check these sources for compatible
printers (e.g., HP for most laser printers).

For sending output to a parallel port, OS/2 uses a driver
called PRINT01.SYS.  (This driver operates on a lower level
than the specific printer drivers.)  On installation, OS/2
configures this driver to use a "polling" I/O method, the
same as DOS uses.  Adding the parameter "/IRQ" to the
PRINT01.SYS reference in OS/2's CONFIG.SYS file switches
this driver to use an interrupt-driven method. 

In theory, interrupt-driven printing provides lower CPU
overhead and should therefore work better in a multitasking
system such as OS/2.  Some hardware, however (including
printer ports in computers, cables, and even printers)
doesn't work well with OS/2's interrupt-driven mode. 
Similarly, sound cards are sometimes configured to use
the same IRQ as the printer port, thus causing problems
with interrupt-driven printing. 

Thus, OS/2 users may want to try both methods and see
which works best; simply change the line in CONFIG.SYS
and reboot.  Note that this change will affect printing
from OS/2, Windows, and DOS programs under OS/2, but will
not affect printing when rebooting to another OS.

OS/2 includes a built-in spooling mechanism.  When printing
very large files, it's possible to actually overrun the
available disk space with these spool files.  If you get a
message about lack of disk space when printing a large document,
try printing it in smaller sub-sections.  If this is impossible
or if this happens repeatedly, and if you have several
partitions, it may be possible to change the location of the
OS/2 spool file.  This is controlled by an entry in OS/2's .INI
files, however, and so requires use of a special .INI file
editing program, and this is potentially dangerous, and so is
not recommended for novices.

_______________

Subject: 05.01.05 UNIX

In nearly all UNIX systems printing is done by the
built-in spooler system. In rare cases you may print
directly by sending a file or any program's output to
the device where the printer is attached. Since UNIX
is a multiuser system, someone else may do the same thing
at about the same time resulting in garbage output. So you
should always use the system's spooler command. Not to
mention the fact that printer device files are often
accessible only with root privileges.

The two most common spooler systems are the Berkeley Spooler
(lpr) and the AT&T Spooler (lp). The spooler command queues
the print job and informs the spooler daemon about it. The
spooler daemon eventually starts the backend program associated
with the printer (if the printer is idle at that moment).

The backend program performs some initial setup for the device
(stty or the like) and then it sends the print job to the printer
(some backends programs scan the data during printing and convert
single linefeeds into carriage return linefeed pairs - this may
also do the device driver itself).

Note that the file to print must contain either plain text or
control sequences for the printer in question. For converting any
application specific file format into printable data you need the
driver supplied with either the application or the printer. If there
isn't one for your printer you're probably out of luck.

_______________

Subject: 05.01.06 NeXTStep/OpenStep

See the Vendor Section under Subject: 10.48 for information
on GS Corporation "a NEXTSTEP/OpenStep software developer
focusing on input/output and publishing/web tools and solutions."

_______________

Subject: 05.01.07 Others

_______________

Subject: 05.02 Program specific

_______________

Subject: 05.02.01 AutoCad

AutoCad is written and supplied by AutoDesk (which has offices in
several countries). They have various Internet and CompuServe
addresses, and have a hot-line telephone support service for
people who buy the software. Most AutoDesk outlets are
distributors, and they have many representative retailers who
on-sell their software. Even in Perth, Western Australia there
are at least three Authorized AutoDesk resellers (not bad for a
total population of just over 1,000,000 with I guess about 10,000
users!).

The newer AutoCad packages have very rigidly defined interface
protocols and if you are a printer or plotter manufacturer you
can obtain a developer's kit from AutoDesk which explains EXACTLY
how to write driver software to be compatible with AutoCad. Many
bigger manufacturers are supported directly by AutoDesk (mostly
plotters, eg OCI, Ioline, etc), but there are hundreds of
manufacturers who have written AutoDesk drivers for their
printers/plotters/whatever.

AutoDesk also manufactures a "small-user" cad package called
AutoSketch. It has a similarly rigidly defined (but much simpler)
interface protocol, and I think it directly supported Epson 9-pin
printers, but don't quote me on that!

| The AutoDesk Web Site <http://www.autodesk.com> has a nice 
| search tool that points to several documents when you query 
| "printer driver".

_______________

Subject: 05.02.02 GRAFSMAN

For information on drivers for GRAFSMAN from Soft-tek
| International, try their web site <http://www.soft-tek.com>,
| or Technical Support at <support@soft-tek.com> or 316 838-7200.

_______________

Subject: 05.02.03 Lotus 1-2-3

_______________

Subject: 05.02.04 WordPerfect

| With the sale to Novell and then Corel, I suspect the phone
| numbers have also changed, but I haven't had a chance to check.

   BBS:        801 225-4444
               801 222-4325/4369 - US Robotics/HST Modem
   CompuServe: WPFILES or WPUSERS forums.
   FAX:        800 228-9960 or 801 228-9920
|  FTP:        FTP site previously listed failed 03 Jan 1997.
|  World Wide Web: <http://www.wordperfect.com>

_______________

Subject: 05.02.05 Others

_______________

Subject: 06 Printer Supplies

_______________

Subject: 06.01 Supplies in general

For dot-matrix printers, daisywheel printers and typewriters you
need to replace ribbons (ink-impregnated or carbon) regularly,
sometimes the printhead or the daisywheel needs changing too.

For inkjet printers the ink cartridge must be replaced (or
refilled) when empty, sometimes the complete printhead must be
changed for this. See the FAQ Refilling Inkjet Cartridges for
more information. You can get the latest version of that FAQ via
email from <adorable@cerf.net>.

Laser and LED printers regularly need new toner and
photoconductor drums (sometimes these two are assembled and must
be changed together). For some models a fuser kit or similar
exists for additional regular maintenance.

_______________

Subject: 06.02 Refilling and Recycling

_______________

Subject: 06.02.01 Re-inking ribbons

Most cloth ribbons can be successfully re-inked without damage to
the printers, although one has to be very careful about the ink
used. Many printers rely on the ink also containing a light oil
to keep the print head lubricated, and ordinary pen ink hasn't
got this in it! There's one story making the rounds about a guy
who had to spend nearly $1000 to replace a very expensive 48 pin
print head because he re-inked his own ribbons with fountain pen
ink! The moral of this story is: unless you know what you are
doing you shouldn't do it yourself!

The other thing with re-inking is that, due to the mechanism for
feeding the tape in self contained ribbon cartridges, the cloth
ribbon eventually becomes "wrinkled" and looks almost like crepe
paper. This usually means it is time to replace the whole ribbon,
but many re-inking stores will do this for not much more than it
costs to re-ink the tape. The better ones will actually tell you
beforehand if they think the tape needs replacing.

As to pricing and availability, there are several small companies
in Australia which specialize in re-inking printer ribbons, and
they are quite good (the ones that aren't any good all died out
years ago), and usually competitively priced. In many cases it
costs less than AUS$10 to re-ink a black ribbon, and only slightly
more if the actual cloth ribbon has to be replaced. This can compare
with up to AUS$40 to buy a new ribbon cartridge from the original
manufacturer. Of course, to re-ink a color ribbon is a little
more tricky and many of the smaller re-inkers won't touch them
for just that reason.

Many manufacturers will refuse to honor a warranty on a printer
if they suspect that a re-inked ribbon has been used. However,
some are actually accrediting re-inking services and authorizing
selected vendors to do this. It is best to consult with the
individual manufacturers on this as the situation is changing
quite quickly. Of course, re-inking is supposed to be
"environmentally friendly" and many manufacturers are answering
this pressure and doing quite well.

_______________

Subject: 06.02.02 Re-inking cartridges (Inkjet/Bubblejet)

The process of re-inking inkjet cartridges is quite tricky, and
in some cases not possible. Many of the cartridges actually
contain the head electronics and this needs to be carefully
cleaned before new ink is put in the cartridge. In many cases,
also, the head actually wears out and must be completely
replaced. Also, some manufacturers (Canon Bubblejet) keep their
ink formula extremely well guarded, and many third party inks
don't work well when used in their cartridges.

Inkjet and similar cartridges have been around for quite a while
in the commercial plotting industries (Hewlett Packard is one to
note). It has only been in the last five years or so that the
technology has become economically viable on the office-desktop
scale. What this means is that the technology is quite well
tested, but there are not many third party re-inking companies
who deal in cartridges. 

Since the various colors are kept in separate cartridges it is
no more difficult in theory to re-ink multicolor printers than
single colors. There can be problems if the new colors are not
refilled in the correct cartridges. For this reason, many
manufacturers expressly frown upon re-inking, and even go so
far as to strongly suggest that you only use the manufacturer's
brand of new replacement cartridge. There are several third
parties that manufacture HP compatible NEW cartridges, but as of
the last time we checked, HP still frowns upon their usage, and
suggests that better quality printing can be obtained from the
"genuine parts".

This trend is changing, with some bigger manufacturers offering
"authorized" cartridge refilling services, whereby you return your
empty cartridge, and are supplied with a refilled cartridge that
has been fully tested and certified by the manufacturer. Quite
often this offers considerable cost savings, and encourages
recycling, again good for the environment.

If you spill the ink on your printer, Charles Eicher suggests:
"Since it's water soluble ink, it should dissolve with isopropyl
alcohol (Rubbing alcohol). Try it on a hidden spot on the inside
of the case, to test if it dissolves the plastic. Go to a drug
store and ask for 99% pure isopropyl alcohol, it works better
than the weaker 91% usually sold in drug stores. Just check the
label.

"If you know any friendly Xerox repairmen, Xerox makes a really
excellent cleaning fluid called 'Formula A'.. You can order it by
the case (only) from Xerox, but most of their repairmen carry
some. It's specially designed to remove toner powder from plastic.
It also conditions the plastic against absorbing stains. When I
was a computer tech, we used to clean every CPU with 'Formula A'
and people couldn't believe how clean their computers came back.
And amazingly, they STAYED clean too.. it seems to prevent dust
from sticking. Damn, I wish I had some Formula A..."

| From Bob Zeiss:
| "...a mild  bleach and water solution will clean inkjet ink off
| of your hands.  This is a real handy fact for those that do 
| their own refilling.

_______________

Subject: 06.02.03 Re-filling laser toner cartridges

| From: David Byram-Wigfield, the author of 'PracticalPostScript'
| ISBN 0-9525308-0-5

| The following details [are] for refilling the Xerox units used 
| in the Star L5 and Apple Select 360 printers. The Hewlett-Packard 
| and some Apple LaserWriter Canon units are similar but the pivot 
| pins have to be pulled *out* instead of pushed in.

| NOTE: THE FOLLOWING PROCEDURES ARE FOR GUIDANCE ONLY AND FOLLOWED 
| AT YOUR OWN RISK, AS THE QUALITY OF YOUR WORKMANSHIP AND THE 
| LUCIDITY OF MY EXPOSITION MAY BOTH LEAVE MUCH TO BE DESIRED.

| Tools needed: small hammer; small cross head screwdriver, 
| small pliers; nail punch or blunt ended 2" wire nail; black 
| light-proof bag; two or three plastic bags; newspaper for the 
| bench top; small funnel; kitchen towels; lint free cloth; bottle 
| of toner refill; FACE MASK.

| Some Don'ts
| NEVER allow any metal object to come into contact with either 
| the corona or magnetic rollers.
| NEVER blow toner off a surface; the micro-particles are easily 
| breathed into the lungs; pure carbon in suspension is also very 
| explosive and may carry you prematurely to Kingdom Come.
| NEVER use an ordinary household vacuum cleaner. Unless you have a 
| sub-micron filter, which is highly unlikely, the micro-particles 
| come straight out at the other end to remain in suspension in the air!
| NEVER leave the OPC drum uncovered for more than about two minutes.

| Some Do's
| ALWAYS hold all rollers and the OPC drum by the ends, never by the body.
| ALWAYS wear a face mask.

| The top half of the developer unit comprises the light sensitive 
| OPC developer drum; a rubbery corona roller; two ductor or doctor 
| blades that remove excess toner, and a waste toner container. The 
| lower half holds the toner reservoir filled through an end cap; a 
| polarised magnetised roller and a doctor blade.

| 1. Draw the curtains to shut out sunlight and reduce artificial 
| light to a minimum. Remove the unit from the printer and place 
| on the bench with the inner forward-facing surface downwards. 
| Squeeze the unit to identify the pivot pin at either end. Tap 
| the pins gently *inwards* until the two halves come apart. Try 
| not to tap the pins completely out, if you have the unit the 
| wrong way up they may fall onto the magnetised roller and mark 
| it. Separate the two halves and put the pins in a safe place.

| If you are refilling the unit for the first time, it is not 
| necessary to dismantle the drum unit nor empty the used toner 
| hopper. Put the upper drum unit in a black lightproof bag and 
| place it in a cupboard out of harm's way.

| 2. Wearing a face mask, take the lower unit outside and stand 
| it on end on some newspaper. Remove the white stopper with a 
| back and forth circular movement with a pair of pliers. Make a 
| small hole in a plastic bag and put the unit inside so that the 
| hole coincides with the filler opening. Hold the plastic bag 
| round the unit, insert the funnel and pour in *slowly* about 
| half the replacement toner. Tap the unit gently and then add 
| some more until about one inch below the opening. *Do not 
| overfill*. Replace the stopper, check that the large gear wheel 
| driving the toner paddles is free to rotate clockwise but do not 
| force it round.

| Use a damp kitchen paper towel to wipe off toner from the outside 
| of the unit. Avoid touching the magnetic roller as grease from 
| the skin may affect the pickup quality. Any metallic contact with 
| a screwdriver will destroy the magnetic polarity where contact was 
| made. If the roller does become affected by grease, remove it with 
| a lint free rag dipped in isopropyl-alcohol; turn the roller by 
| the end and allow to dry before refilling.

| 3. Retrieve the upper drum unit and reassemble the two halves, 
| tapping the pins in gently. If the pins are left slightly proud, 
| it should be possible to remove the pins with end nipping pliers 
| for the second refill. Wipe the exterior with a lint-free cloth, 
| put the unit back in the laser and print a cleaning page. The 
| density of the black reflects either the quality of the replacement 
| toner, or the ageing of the OPC drum. In neither case is it your 
| workmanship.

| Most OPC drums will not stand more than one refill and should 
| be replaced by a Hard OPC drum which is good for about five 
| refills. The precedure then is:

| 4. Put the lower unit to one side and examine the upper. 
| Notice the position of the developer drum large gear wheel 
| and which of the two white plastic bearings carries a 
| projecting pin. Undo the two screws at both ends; remove the 
| bearings; holding the drum by the ends, remove it carefully, 
| and store in a black lightproof bag.

| Put the unit inside a plastic bag and seal the top. You will 
| find most of the waste can be shaken out from the gap between 
| the doctor blades. If the corona roller falls out, it must be 
| replaced the right way round, or the laser will make a very 
| peculiar noise and the print out will be white instead of 
| black. You will find one end of the roller has a number 
| printed on it, something like 170, and this is usually fitted 
| at the same end as a number printed on the doctor blade. Handle 
| the corona roller by the ends and do not touch the surface. It 
| is certainly a good idea to mark one end bearing of the corona 
| with a white marker so you know which end is which before you 
| empty the waste.

| Reassemble as before.

| For supplies, readers in the UK may like to contact:
| Toner Warehouse UK, Telsen House
| Thomas Street, Aston, Birmingham, B6 4TN UK
| Tel 0121 359 8868  Fax 0121 359 5554
| with whom I have no connection other than as a satisfied customer

| North American users might like to try:
| C.V.R. Computer Supplies (toner)
| http://juniper.mecnet.org/cvr/refill.html

_______________

Subject: 06.02.04 Re-cycling laser pc drums

_______________

Subject: 06.03 Paper supplies

_______________

Subject: 06.03.01 Paper supplies for laser printers

_______________

Subject: 06.03.02 Paper supplies for inkjet printers

_______________

Subject: 07 Printer Troubleshooting

This section is a summary of questions typically posted in the
comp.periph.printers newsgroup. The questions are sorted by the
type of printer involved. As new printers arrive in the market,
new problems will arrive here too ;-) The questions begin with
"Q:" whereas the (possible) answers (or solutions) begin with
"A:".

_______________

Subject: 07.01 PostScript printing problems

See also the PostScript FAQ 
<ftp://wilma.cs.brown.edu/pub/comp.sources.postscript>
for problems not covered here.

_______________

Subject: 07.01.01 Timeout and other PostScript errors

Q: After printing a PostScript job the printer's "Ready" light
   keeps flashing or the printer's front panel shows the message
   "Busy" for a minute or so. If the PostScript error report is
   activated in the printer a page stating a "Timeout" error is
   printed after this time.

A: Since PostScript has no end-of-job command the printer must be
   told when the print job is finished (otherwise the printer waits
   for more data belonging to this job, and after a while it gives
   up waiting and generates a timeout error). By sending a Ctrl-D
   (0x04) to the printer immediately after the print job the printer
   knows that end-of-job is reached. The Ctrl-D should not be part
   of the PostScript file - see next section for this - instead it
   should be sent by the printer spooler.
   
   The same error occurs when the printer receives characters
   immediately after the Ctrl-D, e.g. a newline or a formfeed. When
   receiving any character after the Ctrl-D, the printer assumes that
   a new job is in progress and waits for it to continue.
   
Q: When sending a small PostScript file to the printer everything
   works fine, but if the print job is rather big the printer
   generates an I/O error (the error page states "ioerror" as error
   condition).

A: The most typical reason for I/O errors in this context is that
   the communication protocol between host and printer isn't set up
   properly. If the printer and the host use different flow control
   protocols (e.g. the printer uses DTR, but the host assumes
   XON/XOFF flow control) the printer can't stop the host when it's
   input buffer is full ("data overrun"). In general an improper
   setup for the communication line is responsible for I/O
   errors. With serial connections this involves some combination
   of parity, speed, data bits and stop bits.

Q: When sending single print jobs to the printer and waiting for
   them to complete everything works fine, but when the printer
   spooler has more than one job at a time in its queue the printout
   for the second job (and all following jobs) is not correct,
   eventually the printer states "VMerror", "stackoverflow" or the
   like.

A: The printer spooler must separate the print jobs from each
   other by sending a Ctrl-D to the printer after each print job.
   Before sending the next job to the printer the spooler should
   wait for the previous job to complete. For this reason the
   printer answers the Ctrl-D from the spooler with a Ctrl-D.
   When the jobs are not separated by means of Ctrl-D, the printer
   assumes that the next job is a continuation of the previous, and
   therefore does not re-initialize the job environment for the new
   job. This leaves all variables defined by the previous job still
   valid for the new job.

_______________

Subject: 07.01.02 PostScript and the Ctrl-D business

First some general information about this topic (questions may be
found at the end of the section).

For communication with a Postscript printer it's necessary to
tell the printer when a print job is completed. Since there is no
end-of-job command in PostScript this is done by sending a
dedicated character to the printer after each job is completely
transferred. This character is Ctrl-D (0x04). It's the job of the
program communicating with the printer to append the Ctrl-D to
the print job (normally this is the printer spooler), a program
(even a printer driver) producing Postscript output should never
precede a job with Ctrl-D nor should it append one to the job
unless this program does the communication with the printer too.

Since PC type computers normally do not have a printer spooler
and the driver often sends print jobs directly to the printer
these drivers embed Ctrl-D as first and last character in all
print jobs. Using Ctrl-D as the first character flushes any
previously sent job in case it's "jammed up". Doing so is correct
as long as the printer driver sends the data directly to the
printer, but when the driver writes the PostScript program to a
file it's against the Adobe Document Structuring Conventions and
moreover may cause problems when it comes to further processing
of such a file.

The above is true for the MS-Windows PostScript driver. There is
a section in the file PRINTER.WRI describing problems when a file
generated via this driver is transferred to UNIX for printing or
other processing.

The reason usually given as to why UNIX has problems with these
files ("UNIX uses the Ctrl-D as an end-of-file marker, whereas
MS-DOS uses Ctrl-Z") is absolute nonsense written by someone having
little or no experience with UNIX. As stated above the real reason
is that the Windows driver breaks DSC.

It's possible to prevent the driver from generating a Ctrl-D at
the beginning of the PostScript output by adding the line

    CtrlD=0

in the WIN.INI file in the section [ModelName,Port] that
describes the printer in question. Rumors say that this switch
won't work with all PostScript drivers, moreover it may vanish
if you change the WIN.INI file via the control panel.
Unfortunately this switch doesn't suppress the trailing Ctrl-D.

Q: When I print PostScript in a file on my PC (using DOS or
   Windows) and transfer this file to my UNIX host for printing, the
   printer spits out only garbage. Instead of printing my text and
   graphics the PostScript program is printed as plain text.

A: UNIX printer spoolers for PostScript printers often check
   whether the file to be printed contains plain (ASCII) text or a
   PostScript program. This distinction is done by checking the
   first characters of the file for a sort of "magic sequence", and
   if these characters are "%!" the file is assumed to be a
   PostScript job. Otherwise the spooler transfers the text to a
   PostScript program that prints this text.

   Normally this behavior is caused by a Ctrl-D being the first
   character in the file (see the general information above). The
   best approach would be to prevent the PC program which produced
   the file from adding Ctrl-D's at the beginning and the end of the
   file. If this is not possible you could use a filter that removes
   leading and trailing Ctrl-D from such files.

_______________

Subject: 07.01.03 PostScript Character Set

The PostScript Character Set is the set of characters used to
write a PostScript program, not the printable characters in a
PostScript font.

Adobe recommends use of only the printable subset of ASCII
characters in a PostScript program, plus the characters space,
tab and newline (both CR and LF are allowed). PostScript does not
prohibit the use of characters outside this set, but using them
may cause portability problems (e.g. when it comes to a transfer
of 8-bit characters via a 7-bit serial line to the printer). For
the representation of 8-bit characters inside a string you should
use the octal form '\ddd'. For more information see the PostScript
Language Reference Manual, second edition (the big red book).

Q: When I print a PostScript file to a printer connected via
   a parallel line, text and raster graphics print correctly. But when
   the file is transferred to the printer via serial line, garbage
   characters are printed and there are dropouts in the raster
   images.

A: This will happen if the file contains 8-bit characters and the
   serial communication is only 7-bit clean. It's common for the
   8th bit to be used for parity checking. In the case of text strings
   all 8-bit characters should be written in their octal form '\ddd',
   raster image data should be send in ASCIIHex encoded form. See the
   'readhexstring' command for further information.

Q: I have a PostScript Type 1 font that I want to download into
   the printer. But when I do so the printer mentions a PostScript
   error either during download or during usage of this font.

A: Type 1 fonts normally come in the so-called PFB format, which
   is a format containing the font information in an 8-bit, binary
   form. In order to send such a font file to the printer it is
   necessary to convert this format into a 7-bit clean
   representation, the so-called PFA format. The conversion may
   be done with the T1UTILS package available via FTP.

_______________

|  Subject: 07.01.04 PostScript Test Page Code

| From: David Byram-Wigfield, the author of 'PracticalPostScript'
| ISBN 0-9525308-0-5
| A PostScript Printer Test.
|
| Type the following into a text editor and download using the 
| Adobe or Apple Downloaders, or Drop PS, or the BBEdit Extension 
| Send PostScript command.
|
| The star shows the finest lines available and if you convert 
| the 50 value to 500 it will then show the default margins of 
| the printer. The grayscale wedge shows the quality of the 
| halftoning. 85 45 is the halftone screen; 148 18 is the size 
| of the wedge in points and 30 20 its position on the page. 
| Alter to suit. Increasing the 85 lpi value to 95 or 105 will 
| show when banding starts to set in. Count the bands to see 
| how many shades of gray the printer can support at that lineage.
|
| The curious commands 'gsave' and 'grestore' isolate the little 
| procedures from each other.
|
| %!PS-Adobe-2.0
| %%BoundingBox: 0 0 200 150
| %%Title:        PrinterTest
| %%Creator: David Byram-Wigfield 9.96
| %%Contact: byram@cappella.demon.co.uk
| %%EndComments
| /line   {newpath 0 0 moveto 0 50 lineto 0 setlinewidth stroke} def
| /star   {72 {line 5 rotate} repeat} def
|                                                                 gsave 100
| 100 translate star grestore
| /screen { {dup mul exch dup mul add 1.0 exch sub} setscreen }def
| /Pixels 256 string def
| /wedge  {translate  scale  screen  image} def
|               gsave 0 1 255 {Pixels exch dup put} for
|               256 1 8 [256 0 0 1 0 0] {Pixels}
|               85 45  148 18  30 20  wedge
|               grestore
| %%Trailer
| showpage
| %%EOF

_______________

Subject: 07.02 LaserJet printing problems

If you have an original HP LaserJet (model HP 2686/A)
Arthur Entlich has put together a really nice FAQ discussing
general hints on using one of these. If you'd like to see it,
please send me (Brig) an e-mail and I'll forward it to you.
 
_______________

Subject: 07.02.01 Using PRINT SCREEN under DOS.

> Can you tell me how I can use <shift><print screen> with my HP
> Laserjet IIIp? I must enter the sequence 3 times before it prints
> anything then I get 3 copies.
Well, I can tell you why it doesn't work the way you want. :)

What happens when you press the button is that the computer sends the
24 (or so) lines of information to your printer. If you have a dot 
matrix printer, that information starts printing out right away. If
you have a page-oriented printer (laser, inkjet, etc.), nothing seems
to happen except a blinking light on the printer.

Page printers, such as the LaserJet, are designed to image an entire
page at one time, it assumes the page you're going to print is going
to have a form feed character at the end of the page. If it doesn't,
the printer will patiently wait until you have 60 lines (or so) and
then automatically print the page because that's all that will fit
on an 8.5 x 11 page.

It's just an inherent part of the printer design that it doesn't
have a good way to tell that you only wanted to send the 24 lines
of text just by "looking" at the 24 lines... it _has_ to wait for
either the form feed or enough lines of text to fill the page.

If you look closely at a dot-matrix printer when you use print screen,
you'll see that it's only printing 24 lines also, it's just we're so
used to seeing the paper feed that we automatically see that as a 
"normal" action.

If after pressing print screen you wait a few seconds and press
ONLINE then FORM FEED, you should get your one screen shot on one
page. Don't forget to press the ONLINE button again to reconnect
the printer to the computer.

There are some software programs you can run as TSRs which will modify
printscreen to automatically send a FORM FEED character to the printer
after you press print screen, but I've never used them so I can't
really recommend one of them.

_______________

Subject: 08 Average printing costs

There are different ways to calculate the printing costs for a
single page. The easiest calculation method just takes the
printing supplies (toner, drum, ribbon, ink or else) and divide
that price by the number of pages printable with one set of
supplies. The result is the printing price per page, in fact it's
the cheapest price compared with other, more accurate methods of
calculation (this may be the reason why most manufacturers use
this method).

For a complete calculation you need more information (and time).
First the price of the printer itself is part of the equation
since you will use it for a limited amount of time (lets say 3 or
4 years), eventually the printer must be replaced when it reaches
its maximum printing capacity. In relation to this, the number of
pages printed per month are an important factor in the
calculation. In addition you need the printer supplies necessary
for the printer's lifetime, and maybe also the paper costs
(especially when some of the printers to be compared use
expensive high-quality paper while others work with standard
paper).

After so many words let's do an example..

We have 2 laser printers called "A" and "B". Current street price
for "A" is 800 USD, and for "B" it's 1800 USD. Both printers have
a maximum printing capacity of 300,000 pages. Printer "A" needs a
new toner & drum kit every 3,000 pages (average price is 120
USD), printer "B" needs a new toner & drum every 8,000 pages
(average price is 240 USD). Both printers use standard paper
(therefore we won't include it in the calculation).

The average costs should be calculated on a 4 year lifecycle base
with two different numbers of pages printed per month: private
usage with about 500 pages/month and commercial usage with 5,000
pages/month (since both printers may print up to 300,000 pages,
the maximum capacity will not be reached within 4 years).

Calculation:

Printer "A"   Printer "A"   =  Printer "B"   Printer "B"  =
500 p/month   5000 p/month  =  500 p/month   5000 p/month = comment
=============================================================================
    800 USD       800 USD   =     1800 USD      1800 USD  = street price
      7            69       =        2            29      = # toner/drums
    840 USD      8280 USD   =      480 USD      6960 USD  = price toner/drums
=============================================================================
   1640 USD      9080 USD   =     2280 USD      8760 USD  = total costs
=============================================================================
    6.83 c.       3.78 c.   =      9.50 c.       3.65 c.  = page costs

I'll leave the interpretation of the results to the reader.

_______________

Subject: 09 Miscellaneous Information

_______________

Subject: 09.01 GhostScript

GhostScript is a PostScript interpreter written by Peter L.
Deutsch from Aladdin Enterprises. There are different license
conditions for the different existing GhostScript versions:
version 2 (current is 2.6.1) is under the GNU General Public
License (GPL), whereas version 3 is under Aladdin GhostScript
Free Public License (this means in short terms that you may use
both versions for private use as free, but the conditions differ
when it comes to use it commercially - see the relevant license
and copying conditions).

GhostScript version 2.6.1 (or later) and all related files are
available via FTP: <ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu> or
any GNU mirror around the world, version 3.01 (or later) is also
available via FTP: <ftp://ftp.cs.wisc.edu/pub/ghost/aladdin>.

_______________

Subject: 09.02 Converting between Emulations

_______________

Subject: 09.02.01 Converting PostScript to other emulations

This is a typical task for GhostScript (if there is a driver
for the emulation you're looking for). By calling gs with
the -help option you can get information about the available
devices. Here's a non- complete list of emulations supported:
epson, epsonc, necp6, laserjet, ljetplus, ljet2p, ljet3,
paintjet, bj10e, djet500, djet500c, pjetxl, lbp8 (these are
the names used in GhostScript).

It's possible to add new drivers to GhostScript if there
isn't one available yet.

_______________

Subject: 09.02.02 Converting other emulations to PostScript

As long as you only have plain ASCII text to print this is
easy to do.  There are some public domain tools available
for this purpose, the simplest one is called a2ps.

But when it comes to non-ASCII text (ISO 8859-1 or PC 437)
or even printer specific control sequences (or raster
graphics etc.) things may become difficult.

For converting HP PCL into PostScript there is a tool
available (look for lj2ps), but as far as I know it only
handles non-proportional fonts (as for HP LaserJet II) and
no graphics. There is also a convertor available for HPGL
(its name is hpgl2ps), but I don't know more about it.
Likewise there exists a filter for Epson to PostScript
conversion (epson2ps).

_______________

Subject 09.02.03 Other Conversions

_______________

Subject: 09.03 Printing T-shirts

It is, indeed possible to create iron-on transfers for t-shirts
on laser printers. There's at least one company selling the
necessary toner cartridges for most standard B&W laser printers.
See the Vendor Contact section for more information on
BlackLightning. According to them: "The toners come in 15 colors
and use a sublimation dye process to produce permanent designs on
surfaces containing polyester or similar molecules. Because of
the toner cartridge design you can switch colors from one page to
the next without any residue problems. You can even print
multiple colors on the same page doing multiple passes. Most
laser printers have excellent registration for doing this if you
follow a few tricks. The print on the page is B&W - the color
does not appear until it is transferred to the destination
surface. Cartridges cost $140 to $270 depending on the make of
the laser printer."

| From Bob Zeiss:
| I think your section on T-shirt printing needs to be updated.
| The Canon T-shirt paper for inkjets has made t-shirt printing
| a lot easier.
| [Anyone have experience with the Canon product they'd like to
| share?]
_______________

Subject 09.04 Miscellaneous Internet Resources

Here's some pertinent Internet URL's I've found available
in recent months:

From Hubert van Dongen
   The inkjet printer homepage. Good, non-commercial site
   with pointers to lots of stuff.
|  World Wide Web site previously listed failed 03 Jan 1997.
From Kevin Green
  Penguin's Printer Page - pointers to printer drivers on the net.
  <http://www.primenet.com/~penguink/printers.html>

_______________

Subject 09.05 Paper Sizes

From Terje Trane:

  "In Europe we use this system:

  "Take a sheet of paper with an area of one square meter
  cut so that the length of the short side is the long side
  divided by the square root of 2 . (That's approximately
  1.41). Call this size A0. Divide each side with the square
  root of two and call this A1, continue dividing and you
  get A2, A3, A4 and A5. Another way of doing this is to cut
  the A0 in two along the short middle line, then you have
  two A1 size sheets. Cut them the same way and you have 4
  A2-sheets and so on.

  "I have not seen smaller sizes than A5 used, but the system
  could of course be extended if you need to. I have also seen
  used A00 for a size twice the area of A0, and A000 for 4
  times the area.

  "There is also a B-size range that is larger than the A of
  the same number but smaller than the A of a smaller number
  (ex. B4 is a size between A4 and A3) that occasionally is used.

  "Finally there is a  C range for envelopes."
  
Metric ISO Paper Sizes - Primarily used outside North America

From: The Macmillan Dictionary of Measurement. By Mike Darton
and John Clark. Macmillan Publishing, New York, NY. 1994.
ISBN 0-02-525750-1 LC 93-47005

        Width  x Height   Width    x Height
  Name  inch     inch     mm         mm

  A0    33 1/8 x 46 3/4     841    x 1,189
  A1    23 3/8 x 33 3/8     594    x   841
  A2    16 1/2 x 23 3/8     420    x   594
  A3    11 3/4 x 16 1/2     297    x   420
  A4     8 1/4 x 11 3/4     210    x   297
  A5     5 7/8 x  8 1/4     148    x   210
  A6     4 1/8 x  5 7/8     105    x   148
  A7     2 7/8 x  4 1/8      74    x   105
  A8     2     x  2 7/8      52    x    74
  A9     1 1/2 x  2          37    x    52
  A10    1     x  1 1/2      26    x    37
  
  B0    39 3/8 x 55 5/8   1,000    x 1,414
  B1    27 7/8 x 39 3/8     707    x 1,000
  B2    19 5/8 x 27 7/8     500    x   707
  B3    13 7/8 x 19 5/8     353    x   500
  B4     9 7/8 x 13 7/8     250    x   353
  B5     7     x  9 7/8     176    x   250
  B6     4 7/8 x  7         125    x   176
  B7     3 1/2 x  4 7/8      88    x   125
  B8     2 1/2 x  3 1/2      62    x    88
  B9     1 3/4 x  2 1/2      44    x    62
  B10    1 1/4 x  1 3/4      31    x    44
  
  C4     9     x 12 3/4     229    x 1,414  holds A4 flat
  C5     6 3/8 x  9         162    x   229  holds A5 flat or
                                            A4 folded in half
  C6     4 1/2 x  6 3/8     114    x   162  holds A6 flat,
                                            A5 folded in half, or
                                            A4 folded in four

  DL     4 1/4 x  8 5/8     108    x   219  holds A4 folded twice,
                                            into thirds

  "DL was not an original ISO designation, but had to be
  introduced because people insisted on folding their A4
  letters in three - and why not!"

A Partial List of North American Paper Sizes

From: Aldus PageMaker (Windows Version 5.0a), [Computer
Program]. Available Distributor: CDW Computer Centers,
Inc., Buffalo Grove, Illinois.

  Common     Width  x Height     Width  x Height
  Name       inch     inch       mm       mm

  Letter      8.5   x 11         215.9  x 279.4
  Legal       8.5   x 14         215.9  x 355.6
  Tabloid    11     x 17         279.4  x 431.8
  
From: HP DeskJet 520 User's Guide, Manual Part Number
C2170-90010. Hewlett-Packard Company, 1993.

  Envelopes

  Common     Width  x Height     Width  x Height
  Name       inch     inch       mm       mm

  US No. 10   4.12  x  9.5       104.7  x 241.3

_______________

Subject: 10 Vendor Contact Information

The information in this section is numbered based on when I got
the information added to the FAQ. Order does not reflect any
particular bias for or against any vendor. The Description
field is set aside for a short description of the vendor's
primary interest in the area of printers. The idea is to
include printer manufacturers, accessory manufacturers, and
anyone else who can convince me they should be represented! :)

| All web and FTP sites were contacted the last week of Dec 96.
| Those which didn't respond were deleted with notation.

_______________

Subject: 10.01 Apple

   Subject: 10.01.00 Description
   Subject: 10.01.01 Sales/Dealer Information
   Subject: 10.01.02 Technical Support
   Subject: 10.01.03 BBS Information
   Subject: 10.01.04 Internet Access Information
       FTP:  <ftp://ftp.apple.com>
       World Wide Web:
           FactSheets:
|            <http://product.info.apple.com/productinfo/datasheets/imindex.html>
      Printer Support:
             <http://support.info.apple.com/peripheral/peripheral.html>
   Subject: 10.01.05 Other Information

_______________

Subject: 10.02 Canon

   Subject: 10.02.00 Description
   Subject: 10.02.01 Sales/Dealer Information
       Canon Referral Service: 800 848-4123
                               516 488-6700
   Subject: 10.02.02 Technical Support
       Canon Help Desk: 800 423-2366 (0630-0100 EST, 7 days)
       Curtis Yerger, a help desk technician for Canon reports:
          "The best times to call are Saturday and Sunday early
          morning, or late evening (after 9 pm EST). During the 
          week hold times are shortest after 10 pm EST.
   Subject: 10.02.03 BBS Information
       800 387-8633
       714 438-3325
       631-2708 (Montreal, Canada)
       0181 669 4586 (UK)
      +39 2 58010997 (Italy)
       Cape Town 507 5112 (South Africa)
   Subject: 10.02.04 Internet Access Information
       Email address (Canon USA): <76702.1475@compuserve.com>
       World Wide Web: <http://www.canon.com>
                       <http://www.usa.canon.com>
                       Curtis Yerger, also reports: "All Canon
                       printer drivers (including Win95) except for
                       the Windows Printing System for the BJC-610
                       and the LBP40 can be downloaded from our web site."
   Subject: 10.02.05 Other Information
       CompuServe: Go Canon
       Fax Retrieval System: 800 526-4345
       Canon Order Desk (Parts/Access.): 800 671-1090
           (M-F 0600-1600 PST)
_______________

Subject: 10.03 Hewlett-Packard

   Subject: 10.03.00 Description
   Subject: 10.03.01 Sales/Dealer Information
       301 670-4300
       800 752-0900
   Subject: 10.03.02 Technical Support
       208 323-2551
       (Some HP persons (David Lorenz, Matt Young, David Luke,
        Bob Niland and others) monitor the comp.periphs.printers,
       newsgroup, but this seems to be an unofficial situation.)
   Subject: 10.03.03 BBS Information
        208 344-1691
   Subject: 10.03.04 Internet Access Information
     FTP: <ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/printers/software>
          IP address = 192.170.128.20
          NOTE: I find the filenames they use _very_
                confusing. If you can use web site
                below, I think you'll find it _much_ easier.
        World Wide Web: <http://www.hp.com/cposupport/cpoindex.html>
   Subject: 10.03.05 Other Information
        HP's fax-back service 800 333-1917

_______________

Subject: 10.04 QMS

   Subject: 10.04.00 Description
       QMS, Inc. is a leading producer of monochrome and color network
       capable print systems and a pioneer in the emerging integrated
       office system market. The company's print systems fit seamlessly
       into a wide variety of computer networks, and include color and
       monochrome laser and color thermal transfer printers used for
       electronic publishing, graphic design, office automation,
       advanced imaging and automatic identification applications. The
       company's integrated office systems greatly enhance user
       productivity by combining functions in a desktop
       environment. QMS, Inc. is listed on the New York Stock Exchange
       under the symbol AQM.
   Subject: 10.04.01 Sales/Dealer Information
       QMS Sales 800 777-7782
       205 633-4300 
       800 523-2696 
   Subject: 10.04.02 Technical Support
       334 633-4500 or 334 633-3716, Fax
       <support@qms.com>
       QMS National Service - Hardware Service
       Current contracts (or per call basis): 800 858-1597
       Pricing and ordering contracts: 800 762-8894
       QMS JAPAN
           "go qms"  via Niftyserve
           3-3437-4033  Telephone support 9:00am - 5:00pm
           3-3437-4037 Q-FAX
   Subject: 10.04.03 BBS Information
       334 633-3632
   Subject: 10.04.04 Internet Access Information
|      FTP: FTP site previously listed failed 03 Jan 1997.
       World Wide Web: <http://www.qms.com>
   Subject: 10.04.05 Other Information
       QMS, Inc.
       One Magnum Pass
       Mobile, AL 36618
       CompuServe: Go qmsprint

_______________

Subject: 10.05 Seiko Instruments

   Subject: 10.05.00 Description
   Subject: 10.05.01 Sales/Dealer Information
        Sales Information 800 888-0817
       408 922-5900
   Subject: 10.05.02 Technical Support
        Technical Support 408 922-1917
   Subject: 10.05.03 BBS Information
   Subject: 10.05.04 Internet Access Information
   Subject: 10.05.05 Other Information
   
_______________

Subject: 10.06 Tektronix

   Subject: 10.06.00 Description
   Subject: 10.06.01 Sales/Dealer Information
       503 682-7377 
       800 835-6100 
   Subject: 10.06.02 Technical Support
       800 835-6100
       <support@ColorPrinters.tek.com>
   Subject: 10.06.03 BBS Information
       503 685-4504
   Subject: 10.06.04 Internet Access Information
       Automatic File Server: <color_printer_info@tek.com>
       FTP: <ftp://ftp.tek.com>
       World Wide Web: <http://www.tek.com/Color_Printers>
   Subject: 10.06.05 Other Information
       Call 800 835-6100 for product info.
       America On-Line: Keyword: Tektronix
       eWorld: Shortcut: Tektronix
       HAL (automated library for fax retrieval, technical
       information, product sheets, etc.):
          UK 0628 478347 (UK numbers have recently changed,
             this may now be: 01628 47347)
          France 05 90 81 86
          Germany 0130 819 220

_______________

Subject: 10.07 Lexmark

   Subject: 10.07.00 Description
   Subject: 10.07.01 Sales/Dealer Information
       Dealer locator number (US) 800 358-5835
       606 232-3000
       800 (Non-public number deleted.)
   Subject: 10.07.02 Technical Support
       Lexmark Technical Support Center 606 232-3000.
   Subject: 10.07.03 BBS Information
       606 232-5653
   Subject: 10.07.04 Internet Access Information
       FTP: <ftp://ftp.lexmark.com>
       World Wide Web: <http://www.lexmark.com>
   Subject: 10.07.05 Other Information
       Faxback system at 606 232-2380
       CompuServe: Go LEXMARK
       Order Center: 800 438-2468 (for ordering directly)
       Service Express Center: 800 253-9778 (for extended
                        warranties, on-site service, etc.)
       Operation Resource Toner Recycling Kits:
                        800 848-9894
       For Print Samples and/or product literature: 
                        800 891-0335

_______________

Subject: 10.08 Roland Digital Group

   Subject: 10.08.00 Description
   Subject: 10.08.01 Sales/Dealer Information
       714 975-0560
   Subject: 10.08.02 Technical Support
   Subject: 10.08.03 BBS Information
   Subject: 10.08.04 Internet Access Information
   Subject: 10.08.05 Other Information
   
_______________

Subject: 10.09 Seikosha America, Inc.

   Subject: 10.09.00 Description
   Subject: 10.09.01 Sales/Dealer Information
       201 327-7227
   Subject: 10.09.02 Technical Support
       800 825-5349
   Subject: 10.09.03 BBS Information
   Subject: 10.09.04 Internet Access Information
|      World Wide Web: <http://www.seikosha.com>
   Subject: 10.09.05 Other Information
       To be sent printed spec sheets: 800 727-8438 


_______________

Subject: 10.10 Okidata

   Subject: 10.10.00 Description
   Subject: 10.10.01 Sales/Dealer Information
   Subject: 10.10.02 Technical Support
       800 OKI-DATA 800 654-3282
   Subject: 10.10.03 BBS Information
       609 234-5344
   Subject: 10.10.04 Internet Access Information
   Subject: 10.10.05 Other Information
       World Wide Web: <http://www.okidata.com>
   
_______________

Subject: 10.11 Star Micronics

   Subject: 10.11.00 Description
   Subject: 10.11.01 Sales/Dealer Information
   Subject: 10.11.02 Technical Support
       908 572-3300
       <userhelp@starus.com>
       <technik@star.f.eunet.de> (Germany)
   Subject: 10.11.03 BBS Information
       908 572-5010
   Subject: 10.11.04 Internet Access Information
|      World Wide Web: <http://www.starmicronics.com>
   Subject: 10.11.05 Other Information
       National Parts Depot 800 227-8274

_______________

Subject: 10.12 Fargo Electronics, Incorporated

   Subject: 10.12.00 Description
       Products: Dual-function dye-sublimation/wax thermal
                 transfer color page printers
   Subject: 10.12.01 Sales/Dealer Information
       800 327-4622
       US and/or International
       612 941-9470  612 941-7836, Fax
   Subject: 10.12.02 Technical Support
       612 941-0050  612 941-1852, Fax
       MrFARGO monitors the comp.periphs.printers newsgroup.
   Subject: 10.12.03 BBS Information
   Subject: 10.12.04 Internet Access Information
       Email: <MrFARGO@aol.com>
       World Wide Web: <http://www.fargo.com>
   Subject: 10.12.05 Other Information

_______________

Subject: 10.13 Brother Industries, Ltd.

   Subject: 10.13.00 Description
   Subject: 10.13.01 Sales/Dealer Information
   Subject: 10.13.02 Technical Support
   Subject: 10.13.03 BBS Information
       714 859-2610
       From Patrick Raffin <p.raffin@frcl.bull.fr>
       +33.1.48.79.40.37 (Brother France)
   Subject: 10.13.04 Internet Access Information
|      World Wide Web: <http://www.brother.com>
   Subject: 10.13.05 Other Information

_______________

Subject: 10.14 Epson

   Subject: 10.14.00 Description
   Subject: 10.14.01 Sales/Dealer Information
       Epson Connection (USA and Canada) 800 289-3776
       Epson Latin America 305 265-0092
   Subject: 10.14.02 Technical Support
       Epson Connection (USA and Canada) 800 922-8911
   Subject: 10.14.03 BBS Information
       310 782-4531
   Subject: 10.14.04 Internet Access Information
          A list of FAQs for Epson printers can be found at:
             <ftp://ftp.epson.com/inkjet>
             <ftp://ftp.epson.com/laser>
             <ftp://ftp.epson.com/impact>
       World Wide Web:
          North America:
             <http://www.epson.com>
          Japan:
             <http://www.epson.co.jp/epson/weleng.htm>
   Subject: 10.14.05 Other Information
       CompuServe: Go EPSON. Epson Support [76004,1432]
       Epson Accessories 800 873-7766 (to order parts/supplies)
       Faxback System 310 782-4214

_______________

Subject: 10.15 Panasonic

   Subject: 10.15.00 Description
   Subject: 10.15.01 Sales/Dealer Information
       201 348-7000 
       800 346-4768
   Subject: 10.15.02 Technical Support
       800 222-0584
   Subject: 10.15.03 BBS Information
       201 863-7845
   Subject: 10.15.04 Internet Access Information
|      FTP: FTP site previously listed failed 03 Jan 1997.
|      World Wide Web:
|         <http://www.panasonic.com/PCSC/PCPC/printers/printers_top.html>
   Subject: 10.15.05 Other Information
       Two Panasonic Way, Secaucus, NJ 07094.
    
_______________

Subject: 10.16 BlackLightning, Inc.

   Subject: 10.16.00 Description
       Manufacture and sales of black & specialty products for
       laser printing including iron-on transfer toners, ceramic mugs,
       mousepads, caps and the like. Also publishes Flash Magazine,
       covering laser printing and desktop publishing.
   Subject: 10.16.01 Sales/Dealer Information
       Riddle Pond Road, West Topsham, VT 05086
       800 252-2599 toll-free
       802 439-6462, Voice or 802 439-6463, Fax
   Subject: 10.16.02 Technical Support
       802 439-6600
   Subject: 10.16.03 BBS Information
   Subject: 10.16.04 Internet Access Information
       Email-on-Demand System: <info@blacklightning.com>
          (Send email with Subject: INDEX, TRANSFER, FLASH,
           that's the index)
       World Wide Web: <http://www.flashweb.com>
   Subject: 10.16.05 Other Information
       Fax-on-Demand System: 800 352-7406
          (Get Document 0 first, that's the index)

_______________

Subject: 10.17 Kodak

   Subject: 10.17.00 Description
   Subject: 10.17.01 Sales/Dealer Information
       800 23KODAK (Choice 1)
   Subject: 10.17.02 Technical Support
       800 23KODAK (Choice 3)
   Subject: 10.17.03 BBS Information
   Subject: 10.17.04 Internet Access Information
       FTP: <ftp://ftp.kodak.com>
            The FTP site is still there, but I can't tell
            if they have any printer drivers, or where they
            might be.
       Listserve: Subscribe: <listserv@info.kodak.com>
                       Post: <photo-cd@info.kodak.com>
       World Wide Web: <http://www.kodak.com>
            Use the SEARCH mechanism to find printers, no
            other obvious navigation tools. :)
   Subject: 10.17.05 Other Information
       CompServe: GO KODAK
       FaxBack System for Product Info: 800 23KODAK (Choice 2)

_______________

Subject: 10.18 Abaton Technology

   Subject: 10.18.00 Description
   Subject: 10.18.01 Sales/Dealer Information
   Subject: 10.18.02 Technical Support
   Subject: 10.18.03 BBS Information
       510 226-9694
   Subject: 10.18.04 Internet Access Information
   Subject: 10.18.05 Other Information
 
_______________

Subject: 10.19 Citizen America Corp

   Subject: 10.19.00 Description
   Subject: 10.19.01 Sales/Dealer Information
       310 453-0614
       800 477-4683
   Subject: 10.19.02 Technical Support
       310 453-0614
   Subject: 10.19.03 BBS Information
       310 453-7564
   Subject: 10.19.04 Internet Access Information
|      World Wide Web: <http://www.citizen-america.com>
   Subject: 10.19.05 Other Information

_______________

Subject: 10.20 Dataproducts Corp

   Subject: 10.20.00 Description
   Subject: 10.20.01 Sales/Dealer Information
   Subject: 10.20.02 Technical Support
       800 887-8848 
   Subject: 10.20.03 BBS Information
       805 578-9251
   Subject: 10.20.04 Internet Access Information
       World Wide Web: <http://www.dataproducts.com>
   Subject: 10.20.05 Other Information
       Compuserve:  GO DTPBVE
       Customer Support: 800 887-8848
       Fax Back: 805 578-9255

_______________

Subject: 10.21 D-Link Systems, Inc

   Subject: 10.21.00 Description
       Network print server
   Subject: 10.21.01 Sales/Dealer Information
   Subject: 10.21.02 Technical Support
   Subject: 10.21.03 BBS Information
       714 455-1779
   Subject: 10.21.04 Internet Access Information
|      World Wide Web: <http://www.dlink.com>
   Subject: 10.21.05 Other Information

_______________

Subject: 10.22 Fujitsu Computer Products

   Subject: 10.22.00 Description
   Subject: 10.22.01 Sales/Dealer Information
       408 432-6333 FCPA San Jose, CA
       Resalers/Dealers/Repair
           800 626-4686 FCPA San Jose, CA
   Subject: 10.22.02 Technical Support
       Spare Parts/Technical Assistance
           408 894-3950 FCPA San Jose, CA
   Subject: 10.22.03 BBS Information
       408 944-9899
   Subject: 10.22.04 Internet Access Information
|      World Wide Web: <http://www.fcpa.com>
   Subject: 10.22.05 Other Information


_______________

Subject: 10.23 Genicom

   Subject: 10.23.00 Description
       A complete line of printing solutions.
   Subject: 10.23.01 Sales/Dealer Information
       540 949-1000
       800 443-6426
   Subject: 10.23.02 Technical Support
       540 949-1031
   Subject: 10.23.03 BBS Information
       540 949-1576
   Subject: 10.23.04 Internet Access Information
|      World Wide Web: <http://www.genicom.com>
   Subject: 10.23.05 Other Information

_______________

Subject: 10.24 Houston Instruments

   Subject: 10.24.00 Description
   Subject: 10.24.01 Sales/Dealer Information
       512 835-0900
       800 444-3425
   Subject: 10.24.02 Technical Support
       800 444-3425
   Subject: 10.24.03 BBS Information
       512 873-1477
   Subject: 10.24.04 Internet Access Information
   Subject: 10.24.05 Other Information

_______________

Subject: 10.25 Laser Master

   Subject:10.25.00 Description
       Plain paper typesetters, large format inkjet
       color printing systems
   Subject:10.25.01 Sales/Dealer Information
       800 477-7714, Toll-free
       612 944-9330, Voice or 612 944-1244, Fax
   Subject:10.25.02 Technical Support
        CompuServe Information Service: 70754,1535 
        AppleLink: LASERMAX 
        Internet: support@lasermaster.com
   Subject:10.25.03 BBS Information
       612 835-5463
   Subject:10.25.04 Internet Access Information
       World Wide Web: <http://www.lasermaster.com>
   Subject:10.25.05 Other Information
       6900 Shady Oak Road
       Eden Prarie, MN 55344

_______________

Subject: 10.26 Laser Printer Accessories

   Subject: 10.26.00 Description
   Subject: 10.26.01 Sales/Dealer Information
   Subject: 10.26.02 Technical Support
   Subject: 10.26.03 BBS Information
       619 674-2196
   Subject: 10.26.04 Internet Access Information
   Subject: 10.26.05 Other Information

_______________

Subject: 10.27 Laser Tools

   Subject: 10.27.00 Description
   Subject: 10.27.01 Sales/Dealer Information
   Subject: 10.27.02 Technical Support
   Subject: 10.27.03 BBS Information
       510 420-1942
   Subject: 10.27.04 Internet Access Information
|      World Wide Web: <http://www.lasertoolscorp.com>
   Subject: 10.27.05 Other Information

_______________

Subject: 10.28 Mannesmann Tally

   Subject: 10.28.00 Description
       Manufacturer of computer printers, including line
       impact, laser, inkjet, thermal transfer and dot-matrix.
   Subject: 10.28.01 Sales/Dealer Information
       206 251-5500
   Subject: 10.28.02 Technical Support
       800 458-4701
   Subject: 10.28.03 BBS Information
       206 251-5513
   Subject: 10.28.04 Internet Access Information
       World Wide Web: <http://www.tally.com>
   Subject: 10.28.05 Other Information
       Faxback service: 206 251-5511

_______________

Subject: 10.29 NEC Technologies

   Subject: 10.29.00 Description
   Subject: 10.29.01 Sales/Dealer Information
       708 860-9500
       800 632-4636
   Subject: 10.29.02 Technical Support
       708 860-0335
   Subject: 10.29.03 BBS Information
       508 635-4706
   Subject: 10.29.04 Internet Access Information
   Subject: 10.29.05 Other Information

_______________

Subject: 10.30 NewGen Systems Corporation, Inc.

   Subject: 10.30.00 Description
   Subject: 10.30.01 Sales/Dealer Information
       714 641-8600 
       800 756-0556 
   Subject: 10.30.02 Technical Support
       714 436-5150 
   Subject: 10.30.03 BBS Information
       714 641-3869
   Subject: 10.30.04 Internet Access Information
|      World Wide Web: <http://www.newgen.com>
   Subject: 10.30.05 Other Information

_______________

Subject: 10.31 Pacific Data Products

   Subject: 10.31.00 Description
   Subject: 10.31.01 Sales/Dealer Information
       619 552-0880 
   Subject: 10.31.02 Technical Support
       619 587-4690
   Subject: 10.31.03 BBS Information
       619 452-6329
   Subject: 10.31.04 Internet Access Information
   Subject: 10.31.05 Other Information
 
_______________

Subject: 10.32 Pentax Technologies

   Subject: 10.32.00 Description
   Subject: 10.32.01 Sales/Dealer Information
   Subject: 10.32.02 Technical Support
   Subject: 10.32.03 BBS Information
       303 460-1637
   Subject: 10.32.04 Internet Access Information
|      World Wide Web: <http://www.pentaxtech.com>
   Subject: 10.32.05 Other Information

_______________

Subject: 10.33 Texas Instruments

   Subject: 10.33.00 Description
   Subject: 10.33.01 Sales/Dealer Information
   Subject: 10.33.02 Technical Support
   Subject: 10.33.03 BBS Information
   Subject: 10.33.04 Internet Access Information
   Subject: 10.33.05 Other Information
|      From their web site: "Effective September 30, 1996, 
|      the Texas Instruments Printer business was sold to 
|      Genicom Corporation. Please go to the Genicom web 
|      site for all information concerning Texas Instruments 
|      Printers."

_______________

Subject: 10.34 Toshiba Printer Products

   Subject: 10.34.00 Description
   Subject: 10.34.01 Sales/Dealer Information
   Subject: 10.34.02 Technical Support
   Subject: 10.34.03 BBS Information
       714 837-4408
   Subject: 10.34.04 Internet Access Information
   Subject: 10.34.05 Other Information

_______________

Subject: 10.35 Environmental Laser

   Subject: 10.35.00 Description
       Laser Cartridge/Laser Printer Repair
   Subject: 10.35.01 Sales/Dealer Information
       310 515-5473
   Subject: 10.35.02 Technical Support
   Subject: 10.35.03 BBS Information
       310 515-3673
   Subject: 10.35.04 Internet Access Information
       World Wide Web: <http://www.toners.com/welcome.html>
   Subject: 10.35.05 Other Information
       3941 W. 187th St
       Torrance, CA 90504

_______________

Subject: 10.36 GCC Technologies

   Subject: 10.36.00 Description
       Manufacturer of high-quality laser printers
   Subject: 10.36.01 Sales/Dealer Information
       617 275-5800
       800 422-7777
       sales@gcctech.com
   Subject: 10.36.02 Technical Support
     Krista D. Ingram <kdi@gcctech.com> pointed out that I
     had the wrong number in earlier versions. Sorry 'bout that!
       617-276-8620
       <support@gcctech.com>
       International support: <isupport@gcctech.com>
   Subject: 10.36.03 BBS Information
   Subject: 10.36.04 Internet Access Information
|      World Wide Web: <http://www.gcctech.com>
   Subject: 10.36.05 Other Information
       209 Burlington Road
       Bedford, MA 01730
       Fax: 617 275-1115
       AppleLink: D0126
       America ONLINE: GCC TECH
       CompuServe: 76004,2302

_______________

Subject: 10.37 Advanced Matrix Technology

   Subject: 10.37.00 Description
   Subject: 10.37.01 Sales/Dealer Information
       US
       800 992-2264, Voice or 805 494-3087, Fax
       Europe
       31 4130 47 795 or 31 4130 47 799, Fax
       Far East
       65 760-8833 or 65 760-1066, Fax
   Subject: 10.37.02 Technical Support
   Subject: 10.37.03 BBS Information
   Subject: 10.37.04 Internet Access Information
   Subject: 10.37.05 Other Information

_______________

Subject: 10.38 GDT Softworks Inc.

   Subject: 10.38.00 Description
       Products: PowerPrint Family of products; PowerPrint
       provides Chooser-level drivers and a Mac-serial to
       parallel cable to connect over a thousand PC-compatible
       dot-matrix, inkjet, and laser printers. PowerPrint/LT
       includes a LocalTalk-to-parallel interface. PowerPrint/NW
       accesses PC printers via Novell queues. Plotter family;
       PowerPlot provides RTL (raster) GL/2 (vector) drivers for
       inkjet plotters and a serial-to-parallel convertor cable.
       PowerPlot/LT includes LocalTalk-to-parallel interface.
       Plottergeist provides drivers for pen plotters and
       sign-cutters.
    Subject: 10.38.01 Sales/Dealer Information
        800 663-6222, Toll-free (North America)
        604 291-9121, Voice or  604 291-9689, Fax
        <sales@gdt.com>
    Subject: 10.38.02 Technical Support
    Subject: 10.38.03 BBS Information
    Subject: 10.38.04 Internet Access Information
|       World Wide Web: <http://www.gdt.com>
    Subject: 10.38.05 Other Information
 
_______________

Subject: 10.39 Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC)
  
   Subject: 10.39.00 Description
   Subject: 10.39.01 Sales/Dealer Information
   Subject: 10.39.02 Technical Support
       800 777-4343 (Massachusetts?)
       <printers@digital.com>
   Subject: 10.39.03 BBS Information
   Subject: 10.39.04 Internet Access Information
|      World Wide Web: <http://www.printers.digital.com>
   Subject: 10.39.05 Other Information

_______________

Subject: 10.40 MicroSoft
  
   Subject: 10.40.00 Description
   Subject: 10.40.01 Sales/Dealer Information
   Subject: 10.40.02 Technical Support
   Subject: 10.40.03 BBS Information
       206 637-9009
   Subject: 10.40.04 Internet Access Information
       FTP: <ftp://ftp.microsoft.com>
       World Wide Web: <http://www.microsoft.com>
   Subject: 10.40.05 Other Information

_______________

Subject: 10.41 Kyocera Corporation
  
   Subject: 10.41.00 Description
   Subject: 10.41.01 Sales/Dealer Information
   Subject: 10.41.02 Technical Support
   Subject: 10.41.03 BBS Information
   Subject: 10.41.04 Internet Access Information
       World Wide Web: <http://www.kyocera.co.uk>  (UK site)
|      World Wide Web: <http://www.kyocera.com>  (North America site)
   Alfredo Blasco Navarro <ablasco@dirac.es> sent me a note about:
                       <http://www.dirac.es> (Dirac is Kyocera's
                                              Spanish distributor.) 
  Subject: 10.41.05 Other Information

_______________

Subject: 10.42 Kentek Information Systems
  
Subject: 10.42.00 Description
    Founded in 1982, Kentek is the worlds leading manufacturer 
    of midrange printers, with speeds between 30 and 40 images 
    per minute (ipm). Kentek developed the first linear LED dot 
    array light source in its first offering, the IBM 3812. 
    Kentek printers are sold by many different OEMs under their 
    names and model numbers. Generic Kentek models are K2, K2+, 
    K3, K4. Today's models are: K30, K30D, K31, K31D & K40D.
Subject: 10.42.01 Sales/Dealer Information
    Kentek Head Office:
       Kentek Information Systems Inc.
       Boulder, CO 
       303 440-5500, Voice or 303 440-9600, Fax
    US:
       San Jose, CA  408 494-0405, Voice or 408 995-5787, Fax
       Denver, CO  303 777-8171, Voice or 303 733-5598, Fax
       Atlanta, GA  770 979-8930, Voice or 770 736-9626, Fax
    Outside US:
       Kentek Europe BV
       Gorinchem, The Netherlands
       +31-183-624440 or +31-183-628011, Fax
       <rhelmerh@kentek.nl>
Subject: 10.42.02 Technical Support
    US:
       303 440-5500
       <miked@kentek.com>
       <marci@kentek.com>
    Outside US:
       <aleeuwen@kentek.nl>
Subject: 10.42.03 BBS Information
    303 786-9558
Subject: 10.42.04 Internet Access Information
|   World Wide Web: <http://www.kentek.com>
Subject: 10.42.05 Other Information
    Kentek personnel unofficially monitor the cpp newsgroup.

_______________

Subject: 10.43 LaserSaver

Subject: 10.43.00 Description
    LaserSaver has been in the toner cartridge recycling business
    for seven years and is one of the largest in the Dallas Fort
    Worth Metroplex. Because of the company's success, Entrepreneur
    Magazine featured LaserSaver in its article on Toner Cartridge
    businesses. LaserSaver has contributed to helping the environment
    by recyling thousands of cartridges and has grown because of
    its commitment to quality and service. 
Subject: 10.43.01 Sales/Dealer Information
Subject: 10.43.02 Technical Support
Subject: 10.43.03 BBS Information
Subject: 10.43.04 Internet Access Information
    World Wide Web: <http://rampages.onramp.net/~laser>
Subject: 10.43.05 Other Information

_______________

Subject: 10.44 GRC

Subject: 10.44.00 Description
    GRC is a leading manufacturer in the imaging supplies
    marketplace. Our wide variety of high performance printer,
    cash register and typewriter ribbons, ink jet cartridges,
    and remanufactured ink jet and laser toner cartridges are
    available through superstores, commercial and retail office
    products/machine suppliers, mail order, distributors and
    specialty dealers. 
Subject: 10.44.01 Sales/Dealer Information
Subject: 10.44.02 Technical Support
Subject: 10.44.03 BBS Information
Subject: 10.44.04 Internet Access Information
|   World Wide Web: <http://www.printgrc.com>
Subject: 10.44.05 Other Information
|   They've got a nice cross-reference guide to ribbons and
|   cartridges for those hard-to-find replacements.
_______________

Subject: 10.45 Patton Electronics Company

Subject: 10.45.00 Description
    A US manufacturer founded in 1984, Patton brings a
    shrinking world a growing family of data communications
    products. Anything-to-anything connectivity is the goal:
    LAN, WAN, copper, fiber, ...and more. ISO-9000 Certified
    Total Quality Management System.  Satisfied customers 
    include PTTs, the "Fortune 500" and Universities.  Firmly 
    established in Europe, Africa, the Pacific and Latin America.
    All products carry the CE Mark, supporting European customers.
    Products: Interface Converters for Serial to Parallel
    including Serial to IEEE-1284 (BiDi), RS-232 to Current Loop, 
    Parallel and Serial Line Drivers, Fiber Drivers, miniature 
    Print Servers with support for TCP/IP, Novell Netware 2.X, 3.X,
    4.X, 10Base2, 10BaseT, and 10BaseFL, Surge Protectors, Scanning 
    Switches, Code Activated Switches and numerous LAN and WAN products.
Subject: 10.45.01 Sales/Dealer Information
    301-975-1000 or 301-869-9293, Fax
    <sales@patton.com>
Subject: 10.45.02 Technical Support
    <support@patton.com>
Subject: 10.45.03 BBS Information
Subject: 10.45.04 Internet Access Information
    FTP: <ftp://emma.patton.com>
    World Wide Web:  <http://www.patton.com>
Subject: 10.45.05 Other Information

_______________

Subject: 10.46 Ganson Engineering, Inc.
  
   Subject: 10.46.00 Description
   Subject: 10.46.01 Sales/Dealer Information
   Subject: 10.46.02 Technical Support
   Subject: 10.46.03 BBS Information
   Subject: 10.46.04 Internet Access Information
       gei@ganson.com
|      World Wide Web: <http://www.ganson.com>
   Subject: 10.46.05 Other Information
       18678 142nd Ave. N.E.
       Woodinville, WA 98072
       206 489-2090 or 206 489-2088, Fax

_______________

Subject: 10.47 Xerox
  
   Subject: 10.47.00 Description
   Subject: 10.47.01 Sales/Dealer Information
   Subject: 10.47.02 Technical Support
   Subject: 10.47.03 BBS Information
   Subject: 10.47.04 Internet Access Information
       <info@xerox.com>
       World Wide Web: <http://www.xerox.com>
   Subject: 10.47.05 Other Information
       800 ASK-XEROX

_______________

Subject: 10.48 GS Corporation
  
   Subject: 10.48.00 Description
       GS Corporation is a leading software developer and
       workflow solutions provider for the OpenStep
       environment. GS develops, markets and distributes
       a comprehensive library of publishing and web-based 
       tools and applications which are reusable, highly 
       customizable and object-oriented. GS Corporation's 
       software applications concentrate on input, throughput 
       and output needs.
   Subject: 10.48.01 Sales/Dealer Information
   Subject: 10.48.02 Technical Support
   Subject: 10.48.03 BBS Information
   Subject: 10.48.04 Internet Access Information
       World Wide Web: <http://www.gscorp.com>
   Subject: 10.48.05 Other Information

_______________

| Subject: 10.49 MIS Associates, Inc.
  
|  Subject: 10.49.00 Description
|  Subject: 10.49.01 Sales/Dealer Information
|  Subject: 10.49.02 Technical Support
|  Subject: 10.49.03 BBS Information
|  Subject: 10.49.04 Internet Access Information
|      World Wide Web: <http://www.mis-supply.com>
|  Subject: 10.49.05 Other Information

_______________

Subject: 11 Glossary

Thanks to Arthur Muller <muller@fwi.uva.nl>
for 99 and 44/100s of this part.

AFP             Advanced Function Printing (IBM)
ANSI            American National Standards Institute
ASCII           American Standard Code for Information Interchange
BBS             Bulletin Board System
CaPSL           Canon Printing System Language (See LIPS)
CMYK            Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Black
cpi             Characters Per Inch (?)
cps             Characters Per Second
CR              Carriage Return
CRT             Cathode Ray Tube
CTS             Clear To Send
DCD             Data Carrier Detect
DCE             Data Circuit-terminating Equipment
DIN             Deutsche Industrie Norm
dpi             Dots Per Inch
DSR             Data Set Ready
DTE             Data Terminating Equipment
EBCDIC          Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code
EOF             End Of File
EOL             End Of Line
ESC/P           Epson Standard Code for Printers
ESC/P2          Epson Standard Code for Printers, Level 2
FF              Form Feed
FIFO            First-In First-Out
FILO            First-In Last-Out (same as LIFO)
FTP             File Transfer Program
GNU             Gnu's Not UNIX
GOCA            Graphic Object Content Architecture
GPL             GNU General Public License
HP              Hewlett Packard
I/O             Input / Output
IEEE            Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers
IOCA            Image Object Content Architecture
IPDS            Intelligent Printer Data Stream (IBM)
ISO             International Standards Organization
LAN             Local Area Network
LED             Light Emitting Diode
LF              Line Feed
LIPS            Laser-beam Image Processing System (See CaPSL)
lpi             Lines Per Inch
LQ              Letter Quality
MB/Mb           Mega Bytes/bits
MO:DCA          Mixed Object Document Content Architecture (IBM)
PCL             HP printer language
PJL             Printer Job Language (Hewlett Packard)
ppm             Pages Per Minute
pps             pages per second
PTOCA           Print Text Object Content Architecture
RENO            standard emulation for Agfa printers
RGB             Red-Green-Blue
SAA             System Application Architecture (IBM)
SCSI            Small Computer Systems Interface
SPOOL           Simultaneous Peripheral Operation On Line
TCP/IP          Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol
TI              Texas Instruments
UART            Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter

_______________

Subject: 12 Credits

    The information in this FAQ came from postings to
    comp.periphs.printers, information which vendors and readers
    of comp.periphs.printers have been kind enough to send me, and
    information I had on hand. Any errors are, of course, my own
    fault. If you see something wrong, please let me know and
    I'll correct it as soon as possible. Remember, as with most
    things involving the Internet, your own mileage may vary.

    Special mention must be made of the contributions made by
    Johannes Schmidt-Fischer <jsf@ifconnection.de> who's
    actually written HUGE amounts of this. Thanks Johannes.

    Additionally, I must recognize the help of Arthur Muller
    <muller@fwi.uva.nl> who's been able to provide contact
    and world wide web information on lots of vendors I
    didn't have. Thanks Arthur.

    Several of the BBS numbers in Subject 10 came from the Technical
    Support BBS'S Commercial and Shareware document produced by
    <gary.barr@digicom.com>. Call Digicom BBS at 812 479-1310
    for the latest version of his list, which includes lots of
    additional hardware/software support bbs.

    Some formatting ideas for this were taken from the CDROMLAN-
    FAQ maintained by Greg Gibbs <angjg@orion.alaska.edu> and
    from "FAQs: A Suggested Minimal Digest Format" by Chris
    Lewis clewis@ferret.ocunix.on.ca.

|   And, as always, thanks Marlowe. :)

=====
End of Part 1 of 1
