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Date:      Tue, 5 May 2020 09:56:57 +0200
From:      Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de>
To:        Kurt Hackenberg <kh@panix.com>
Cc:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Brother HL-L2340D printer and lpd?
Message-ID:  <20200505095657.b436931b.freebsd@edvax.de>
In-Reply-To: <9992c5ca-fdac-7a62-b0e4-d33afaeb042d@panix.com>
References:  <20200503171259.GA48627@admin.sibptus.ru> <20200503192444.2d700440.freebsd@edvax.de> <ec10816a-15d1-e947-e032-9ad024c044d6@pinyon.org> <20200503185521.GB52059@admin.sibptus.ru> <20200504085053.9bcf8d9d.freebsd@edvax.de> <9992c5ca-fdac-7a62-b0e4-d33afaeb042d@panix.com>

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On Mon, 4 May 2020 15:10:58 -0400, Kurt Hackenberg wrote:
> On 2020-05-04 02:50, Polytropon wrote:
> 
> > However, it's really scary that a printer like the one mentioned
> > here does not seem to understand ASCII text, even though it
> > supports PCL standard (as shown on the specification page).
> 
> 
> PCL was originally ASCII with proprietary escape sequences mixed in, but 
> that spec page says that printer understands PCL 6, which apparently is 
> a stack-based graphics language like PostScript, except binary. It's 
> supposed to include backward compatibility with PCL 5, but doesn't 
> always. So possibly what that printer understands has nothing to do with 
> ASCII.
> 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printer_Command_Language
> 
> I don't like it either, but there is heavy pressure to hold down the 
> cost of printers.

Thank you, that is an important note! PCL backward compatibility
might be the reason why the printer accepts PCL intended for a
Laserjet 4 (I don't know, maybe PCL 3?), but doesn't actually
print anything. So the printer filter will have to explicitely
output PCL 6. That could be achieved using a different output
device for gs, or using CUPS in combination with the PPD file
provided by Brother. This of course brings you all the "joy"
of using CUPS... ;-)

Maybe this thread can also help:

https://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-questions/2017-July/277994.html


-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...



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