[rescue] LaserJet II printing problems

[William Barnett-Lewis]

From: Jochen Kunz <jkunz at unixag-kl.fh-kl.de>
> On 2002.04.15 15:56 wlewis at mailbag.com wrote:
> 
> > However, if I attempt to use CUPS to print via it's laserjet driver, I
> > get a black smear instead of text.
> Do you print text or graphics (or text in graphics mode via GS)?
> Back in the days of that machine, and the ones that claimed to be
> compatible, there was a common problem: compression. In a later version
> of HP-PCL you can use some compression on bitmaps to reduce the amount
> of data that must be transfered via the slow LPT... The symmptome of
> "the driver does compression but the printer don't understand it" was
> black smear on the left side of the paper, a bit looking like a
> histogram. The solution was to disable compression in the driver / use a
> driver for an older LJ model.

Bingo. This was the issue. I fired up emacs and deleted the compression
references (I suppose I could have tried setting the value to zero,
but...) in the CUPS laserjet.ppd. I also changed the resolutions to
match what the old gal is capable of. Restarted the CUPS system and
printed just fine. 

Thank you Jochen. If I ever make it back to Germany I'll have to buy you
a liter of your prefered brew.

> 
> tsch|_,
>          Jochen
> 
> Homepage: http://www.unixag-kl.fh-kl.de/~jkunz/
> 

William
-- 
You better watch out    What you wish for;
It better be worth it   So much to die for.
                                Courtney Love