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Printing in Linux w/ HP Deskjet 660Cse's?
Jason Osborne asks:
"There is one thing though Windows seems to
excel at and that's printing. I have an HP
Deskjet 660Cse and I can't get it to print
correctly. I have searched the Internet
endlessly and have tried many filters and
daemons including both the original BSD
print daemon and the somewhat newer LPRng
daemon. I have seen many filters designed
for HP Deskjet printers, it seems none will
work for me. Does anyone have any
information or filters on/for printing in
Linux with HP Deskjets that may help? Are
there any future development plans by
HP or the Linux Development Team
for any additional and more up to date
information and drivers for the HP Deskjet
660Cse serious and other such 'Made for
Windows' type printers? "
My take is that if the printer says 'Made for Windows'
on it, then it's a closed architecture and
likely that its specs will be unavailable to
anyone without a hefty price-tag and an NDA.
Does the HP 660 series fall under this
category? I miss the days when
hardware manufacturers actually cared if
their products were getting used by everyone
as opposed to everyone running a particular
operating system. Something is inherently
backward in how things stand today.
Have you tried Ghostscript?
Not the GNU version -- Try the Aladdin version (version 5.50)....
It claims to support:
See http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/aladdin/ or http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/al addin/devices.html
I've got my epson stylus photo 700 set up with a ghostscript filter through /etc/printcap and lpr/lpd. It works great. One just has to remember to send postscript, not plaintext, to the printer. Programs like nenscript are useful for this...
I have an HP Deskjet 660C running under RH Linux 5.2, and it works great for me, color and all. I just set it up using the H-P DeskJet 550C/560C/660C/660Cse setting in ghostscript, and it worked.
A friend got a deskjet 720 without knowing how mucht hey sucked... HP moved all of the rendering into software... by by standard PCL. Anyhow... There is a driver out there which will print black an white... and it works very very well. Someone reverse engineered HP's "Printer Perforance Architecture." Its out there... I think I got it off that new linuxhardware page... Unfortunatly his box was trashed by some cute script kiddy recently and I can't get the information right now.
This isn't directly related to printing on the 660, but for those wonderful HP windows printers based on PPA, there is a driver available that allows it to work, albeit only in black and white. It's available at:
"http://www.httptech.com/ppa/"
I have an HP 660C. After digging HP for a programmers manual (opposed to the users manual thats shipped with), they told me it understands HP PCL3 with the same features as the HP 550C.
I did some proggies myself that work, and it swallows ghostscript output for the cdj550 driver, execpt that the printable area is some pixels smaller.
I had an HP 660Cse work under RH5.2. I dont remember if it worked with the 2.1 kernel series, though Im sure it did. But now with the 2.2.5 kernel, I cant seem to get it to find the parallel port.
any help appreciated
shotround
I ought to create an account someday
Posted by karlo:
g /
First of all you must set up Ghostscript.
Download the newest Alladin Ghostscript.
There's an excellent hpdj patch for newer HP Deskjets at
ftp://ftp.pdb.sni.de/pub/utilities/misc/
Download it an follow the instructions.
Also there is a djetool program which uses features of that patch at
http://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/printin
I have HP690C and it works well but I'm not sure if it will works well with your "se" printer.
It's the other way around actually. If 2.0.x had lp1 as the only parallel port, it'll be lp0 in 2.2.x.
Tim.
*/
I myself have successfully used the HP Deskjet 660C printer in linux without any hitches. One thing you might try is typing dmesg and look at which lp* device it was installed on. The 2.2 kernels use a new parallel port driver which usually sets the printer to lp1 instead of lp0. If that is the case then edit /etc/printcap and change the line specifying the device you wish to use to lp1 instead of lp0. A good way of testing your printer for functionality is to cat plaintextfile >> /etc/lp*. If that works then you are pretty much set.
Quandary in the Making
Unlike the Windows/Mac et cetra way of doing things, you will have to use your hacking skills to get your printer working.
/dev/lp0" and get full quality (as defined by your document).
/dev/lp0.
.ps files and automagically do the conversions for you.
:)
Keep in mind you must format your document for printing. That is, after you finishing your document you must convert it to postscript. Postscript (correct me if I am wrong) was/is a standard that I believe adobe developed. It eventually became the standard for awhile (I think it was something like this, for the most part I am talking out of my ass). For the most part, if you printer has PostScript capabilities, you can just (at the lowest levels) "cat file.ps >>
Things were all good in the printing world.
Then, all of these glorious windows printers came along. Nobody had to conform to standards any longer, thanks to the MS beast.
This is where ghostscript comes in. If ghostscript supports your printer you can just take that Post Script file and run it through Ghostscript. Now this file is in your printer's language, which can be dumped to
All this said, now comes the filters. You have to fondle your printcap so that, if you do not wish to manually go through the ghostscript process, the lpd can intercept the
Anyways, I must go and eat dinner
-- DrZaius - Minister of Sciences and Protector of the Faith
I have an HP694C printer which I bought during my Windows days.... After moving to Linux, I was quite dissapointed with the print quality and speed of the default Ghostscript driver...after playing around with both the GNU and the comerical versions (which one can do for quite a long time, as just about every HP LaserJet and Deskjet driver will work with this printer), I was able to find some third party drivers...
As I was mainly intested in regaining speed in draft mode, I ended up using the driver here:
ftp://ftp.pdb.sni.de/pub/utilities/misc/
This driver is very fast in draft mode (faster then the windows driver, in fact)...and is highly configurable. Its biggest problem is that it doesn't do Floyd Steinberg dithering...so while text looks quite nice, graphics don't look so hot...
I also found one here:
http://www.erdw.ethz.ch/~bonk/hp850/hp850.html
I never got around to testing this one, though... It is supposed to support the Photo Ret1 and 2 stuff, though...
Of course, you have to patch ghostscript to get either of these to work...but since the default drivers are so bad, it's probably worth it...
How did you set up your Linux system to run your Epson photo printer? The devices.html page does not list any six-color printers that I could see, and certainly none of the Epson photo printers. I have two photo printers, and would love to use one of them on Linux, but have had no luck.
Webster@veelos.coom
Information is not Knowledge
Not sure what se stands for exactly (although
I'd assume "Special Edition"), but the hardware
is exaclty the same. Usually, HP doesn't even
put "SE" on the machine itself. The box just
has something additional thrown inside. (Disney
software and such).
There's also a designation for models sold at
Price Club-ish places, that indicates a lack of
all that additional software and such. They're
usually $20 or so cheaper.
Ahh... And I thought a year and a half in retail
taught me nothing.