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<TITLE>Networking HP PPA DeskJet Printers using SAMBA.: Emulating a PostScript printer on a Windows Host.</TITLE>
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<H2><A NAME="s4">4. Emulating a PostScript printer on a Windows Host.</A></H2>
<P>
<P>If you do not have commercial PostScript emulation software for Windows that
will work with your HP PPA DeskJet
(the author is unaware of any such software that supports PPA printers),
you can use <B>Ghostscript</B> together with HP's native Windows drivers.
<P>
<H2><A NAME="ss4.1">4.1 Installing Ghostscript as the emulation software.</A>
</H2>
<P>From the Ghostscript home page
<A HREF="http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/">http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/</A>
download and install (in this order) the Windows packages of
<UL>
<LI> <B>Ghostscript</B> (PostScript Emulation Software).</LI>
<LI> <B>GSview</B> (Ghostscript previewer, provides <CODE>gsprint</CODE>).</LI>
<LI> <B>RedMon</B> (printer port redirection utility).</LI>
</UL>
(Install these using their <CODE>setup.exe</CODE>
installation tools, and do not manually
set up any configuration files for <CODE>gsprint</CODE>
or <CODE>RedMon</CODE>.)
You must now follow the detailed instructions below, and
use the Windows "Add Printer Wizard" to add a postscript
printer, and then
configure it to use the <CODE>gsprint</CODE> utility that comes with
GSview, and redirect the output to your HP PPA DeskJet using the <CODE>RedMon</CODE> utility.
<P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="ss4.2">4.2 Adding the fictitious Postscript printer.</A>
</H2>
<P>In the following, I assume your printer is a HP DeskJet 722C,
and is installed with its native Windows Drivers as a printer
called "HP DeskJet 720C Series". Change printer
name entries
below as appropriate for your printer model.
<P>The following instructions are tested on Windows 98, and may differ
on other Windows variants.
<P>Open the <B>Settings/Printers</B> folder.
<P>First check that the HP PPA Deskjet is correctly installed,
using HP's native Windows drivers. Right-click on its icon,
and select its <B>Properties</B> dialog. The <B>General
Properties</B> screen will open. This shows the <B>exact name</B>
that the printer was given when it was installed. Make a note of
it, and use the <B>Print Test Page</B> button
to confirm that the
printer is working. (The "Printer name:" line on the
test page will also show the <B>exact name</B> of the HP PPA Deskjet
that you will need to use when configuring the emulated postscript printer
below). When you are done,
click on <B>OK</B> to close the dialog.
<P>Now start the <B>Add Printer</B> "Wizard".
Make the choices:
<UL>
<LI> install a <B>local printer</B></LI>
<LI> select a PostScript printer from the
list of printers;
(e.g., one of the <B>Apple LaserWriter</B> models:
the Laserwriter II NT is known to work; <B>Digital
PrintServer</B> models such as the turboPrintServer 20/Net
have also been recommended). This will provide a
suitable postscript driver.</LI>
<LI> From the list of Available Ports, choose
"<B>FILE: Creates a file on disk</B>"
(you will change this after
the printer is installed)</LI>
<LI> set as default printer?: <B>NO</B></LI>
<LI> Print test page?: <B>NO</B></LI>
</UL>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="ss4.3">4.3 Redirecting the output to the PPA printer.</A>
</H2>
<P>After the printer has been installed,
right-click on its icon, and rename it to something like,
e.g.,
"Ghostscript+HP722C".
Then right click again and open its <B>Properties</B> dialog.
<P>On the <B>General</B> tab screen,
enter something informative
in the <B>Comment</B> box, such as
" Emulated Postscript printer; output redirected
to a HP722C DeskJet printer" (optional).
<P>Next select the <B>Details</B> tab.
The box "<B>Print using the following driver:</B>"
should show the
Postscript driver you selected (e.g., Apple LaserWriter II NT).
<P>
<UL>
<LI> Click on <B>Add Port</B>.
Select <B>other</B>, then <B> Redirected Port</B>, which should be
available if <CODE>RedMon</CODE> was correctly installed, and click on
<B>OK</B> to accept these
settings and close the Add Port dialog.
On the <B>Details</B> tab screen,
The box "<B>Print to the following port:</B>"
should now show a
redirected port such as
"<CODE>RPT1 [Redirected Port]</CODE>".
</LI>
<LI> Click on
<B>Port Settings</B>.
<UL>
<LI>In the box
"<B>Redirect port to the program:</B>", enter the path to the
<CODE>gsprint</CODE> program. (If you accepted the defaults when installing it,
this may be <CODE>C:\Ghostgum\gsview\gsprint.exe</CODE>; you may
search for it by clicking on <B>Browse</B>).
</LI>
<LI>In the box "<B>arguments for this program are:</B>"
enter the arguments to be passed to the
<CODE>gsprint</CODE> program (there is a document <CODE>gsprint.htm</CODE>
with more details of these in the folder containing <CODE>gsprint.exe</CODE>).
Suggested arguments are:
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
-printer "HP DeskJet 720C Series" -color -
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
Replace "HP DeskJet 720C Series" by the (quoted)
<B>exact name</B> of the HP PPA DeskJet printer that
you made a note of earlier. <B>(If you do not copy this name exactly,
including any capitalization or spaces, things may not work!)</B>
The <CODE>-color</CODE> argument is needed to
enable color printing;
(Whether you actually get color printing will depend on the local settings
of the "HP DeskJet 720C Series" printer
that really prints
the document.)
The final
"<CODE> - </CODE>" is <B>required</B>: without it,
the output of <CODE>gsprint</CODE> will not get redirected to
the printer.
</LI>
<LI>The box "<B>Output</B>" should show
"<B>Program handles output</B>".
</LI>
<LI>In the box "<B>Run</B>", select
"<B>hidden</B>".
</LI>
<LI>The box "<B>Shutdown delay</B>" will say
"300 seconds". Print jobs for which processing by
<CODE>gsprint</CODE> takes longer than this will be terminated,
to avoid blocking the printer spool queue. Increase this limit
if necessary.</LI>
</UL>
Now click on <B>OK</B> to close the Port Settings dialog.
</LI>
<LI> Click on <B>Spool Settings</B>, and select
"<B>Disable bi-directional support for this printer</B>",
and click <B>OK</B>.</LI>
</UL>
<P>Finally, again select the <B>General</B> tab, and test the installation by
clicking on "<B>Print a test page</B>". If it works, you are
finished setting up Postscript emulation. Click <B>OK</B> to
exit the Printer Properties dialog.
<P>(If you have problems, first check that you made the correct
entries in the Printer Properties dialogs, <B>especially check that you
did not make any typing errors in the
exact name for the PPA DeskJet printer in the</B>
<CODE>gsprint</CODE><B> arguments box</B>, which must correspond exactly
to the "Printer name" given to the HP PPA printer). If the problems
persist, you might get guidance from the
gsprint and RedMon documentation; look
in the folders where these were installed.)
<P>You now have a working emulated
"Postscript printer" that can now be shared over
a network. (The "sharing" options will now be available
if you right-click on the emulated printer's icon.)
<P>
<H2><A NAME="ss4.4">4.4 Limitations.</A>
</H2>
<P>This emulated postscript
printer is most useful for providing printing services
to non-Windows
Clients on a <CODE>samba</CODE> network,
but can be also be used by Windows
Clients with the following limitations:
<UL>
<LI>Windows Clients will be able to
select Print Settings only for the
visible ("front end") "Postscript printer",
but not for
the hidden ("back end") HP PPA DeskJet printer
that actually
does the printing.</LI>
<LI>Changes in the local Print Settings of the PPA driver for
the DeskJet printer on the
Host system (but not on Client systems, if it
too is shared) will affect network printing by the
"Postscript printer". </LI>
<LI>Since the
visible "Postscript printer" falsely
advertises its identity, some of its Print Settings
options seen by users on the Clients may not be valid.</LI>
<LI>The extra processing on the printer Host
may make printing rather slow compared to native Windows printing.</LI>
</UL>
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