[conspire] Re: [q1] (CUPS) thank yous

[Eric De Mund]

Ross,

Eric De Mund <ead at ixian.com>:
> Thank you. Yes. This printer is an "LJET2P"-compatible printer accord-
> ing to NEC-SuperScript_870-ljet2p.ppd.
>
> It turns out that this black and white SuperScript 870 laser printer
> receives a "one penguin" rating at <http://www.linuxprinting.org/>:
>
>     How well does it work?
>     One Penguin: Partially. These printers mostly don't work; you may
>     be able to print only in black and white on a color printer, or
>     the printouts look horrible.

Ross Bernheim <rossbernheim at speakeasy.net>:
] The one penguin rating is based on their criteria. As an Adobe Print-
] Gear based printer, it has numerous bells and whistles under the Win-
] dows 98 printer driver that supports it. Adobe dropped support for
] PrintGear and all PrintGear printers suck from Win 2K onward and on
] any other OS than Windows 98.
]
] That said, it does a good job of emulating the basic HP Laserjet and
] the printing is 600 dpi. I have one of the NEC 870's at work and use
] the drivers for the HP. It is a good solid printer for text. It does
] line drawings well. I use it almost every day and it just works. I
] have had to add a new toner cartridge and lots of paper.
]
] The lack of support for PrintGear means that the perception is that
] the NEC 870 is junk. It isn't what it could do under PrintGear, but it
] is still a good basic laser printer with a solid print engine and
] since it is out of favor, available used at a good price.

I do love and have loved this printer for years. It's served me well,
and the print quality under Windows (95, NT 4.0, 2000, and XP) has been
superb. I'm only currently kvetching because the NEC-SuperScript_870-
ljet2p.ppd driver appears to be printing at 72 dpi rather than at 300 or
600 dpi. When I eyeball that ppd file, the lion's share of the pixel
values appear to me to indicate 72 dpi:

    *DefaultImageableArea: Letter
    *ImageableArea Letter/US Letter: "0 0 612 792"
    *ImageableArea A4/A4: "0 0 595 842"
    *ImageableArea 11x17/11x17: "0 0 792 1224"
    *ImageableArea A3/A3: "0 0 842 1191"
    *ImageableArea A5/A5: "0 0 421 595"
    *ImageableArea B5/B5 (JIS): "0 0 516 729"
    *ImageableArea Env10/Envelope #10: "0 0 297 684"
    *ImageableArea EnvC5/Envelope C5: "0 0 459 649"
    *ImageableArea EnvDL/Envelope DL: "0 0 312 624"
    *ImageableArea EnvISOB5/Envelope B5: "0 0 499 709"
    *ImageableArea EnvMonarch/Envelope Monarch: "0 0 279 540"
    *ImageableArea Executive/Executive: "0 0 522 756"
    *ImageableArea Legal/US Legal: "0 0 612 1008"

    *DefaultPaperDimension: Letter
    *PaperDimension Letter/US Letter: "612 792"
    *PaperDimension A4/A4: "595 842"
    *PaperDimension 11x17/11x17: "792 1224"
    *PaperDimension A3/A3: "842 1191"
    *PaperDimension A5/A5: "421 595"
    *PaperDimension B5/B5 (JIS): "516 729"
    *PaperDimension Env10/Envelope #10: "297 684"
    *PaperDimension EnvC5/Envelope C5: "459 649"
    *PaperDimension EnvDL/Envelope DL: "312 624"
    *PaperDimension EnvISOB5/Envelope B5: "499 709"
    *PaperDimension EnvMonarch/Envelope Monarch: "279 540"
    *PaperDimension Executive/Executive: "522 756"
    *PaperDimension Legal/US Legal: "612 1008"

This, above, even though the default resolution seems to be set to 300
dpi:

    *OpenUI *Resolution/Resolution: PickOne
    *OrderDependency: 110 AnySetup *Resolution
    *DefaultResolution: 300x300dpi
    *Resolution 75x75dpi/75 DPI: "<</HWResolution[75 75]>>setpagedevice"
    *Resolution 150x150dpi/150 DPI: "<</HWResolution[150 150]>>setpagedevice"
    *Resolution 300x300dpi/300 DPI: "<</HWResolution[300 300]>>setpagedevice"
    *CloseUI: *Resolution

And so I'm grumbling and am in "just do what I mean" mode, trying to
figure out how to actually get 300 dpi printing. (600 dpi would be
great, but 300 dpi will be more than adequate.)

Regards,
Eric
--
"When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President. Now
I'm beginning to believe it." --Clarence Darrow

Eric De Mund              |   Ixian Systems, Inc.   | cell: 650.303.4336
email: <ead at ixian.com>    | 650 Castro St, #120-210 |  fax: 240.282.4443
http://www.ixian.com/ead/ | Mountain View, CA 94041 | Y!IM: ead0002