Inkjet page description languages

[Guest]

Hi,

Does anyone know what page description language(s) most consumer inkjets
use? I know hi-end design printers use PostScript and many lasers use PCL,
but what about normal inkjets?

I need this information and I can't find it anywhere. If anyone can help I'd
be much obliged.

Thanks

Karl

 

[roman modic]

Hello!

Hi,

Does anyone know what page description language(s) most consumer inkjets
use? I know hi-end design printers use PostScript and many lasers use PCL,
but what about normal inkjets?

I need this information and I can't find it anywhere. If anyone can help I'd
be much obliged.

http://www.linuxprinting.org/
I know, I know - it's about Linux and not Windows drivers. But it is
great resource for information. For example, if you will search for
HP LaserJet 1022, you will find that driver 'foo2zjs' supports it.
If you will follow the link mentioned there (http://foo2zjs.rkkda.com/),
you will find out:

foo2zjs is an open source printer driver for printers that use the Zenographics ZjStream wire protocol for their print data, such as
the Minolta/QMS magicolor 2300 DL or Konica Minolta magicolor 2430 DL. These printers are often erroneously referred to as
winprinters or GDI printers. However, Microsoft GDI only mandates the API between an application and the printer driver, not the
protocol on the wire between the printer driver and the printer. In fact, ZjStream printers are raster printers which happen to use
a very efficient wire protocol which was developed by Zenographics and licensed by most major printer manufacturers for at least
some of their product lines. ZjStream is just one of many wire protocols that are in use today, such as Postscript, PCL, Epson, etc.

Similarly, you can find about PPA protocol:
http://undocprint.printassociates.com/formats/page_description_languages/ppa

The Printing Performance Architecture (PPA) is a closed, proprietary protocol developed by Hewlett Packard for a short-lived series
of DeskJet printers.
In essence, the PPA protocol moves the low-level processing of the data to the host computer rather than the printer. This allows
for a low-cost (to produce) printer with a small amount of memory and computing power. However, in practice the printer was often as
expensive as more capable printers.
HP has since discontinued the use of PPA in favour of returning to PCL3e in their latest USB-based printers.

Anyhow, here are "Page Description Languages":
http://undocprint.printassociates.com/formats/page_description_languages
and here "Print Control Languages"
http://undocprint.printassociates.com/formats/printer_control_languages

Cheers, Roman


P.S. Samsung is using SPL:
http://www.samsung.com/in/products/laserprinterslaserbasedmfps/technicalinfo/features.htm

Microsoft and Samsung developed the Samsung Printer Language (SPL). This enabled the windows GDI language to be converted into
bitmap while printing. The advantage here helped prevent heavy dependence on the PC memory and processor. The image is rendered
during printing process, which greatly reduces the amount of processing power required from the PC.

In fact there exists "SPL II" (it seems that internal name is QPDL)
http://emergent.unpythonic.net/software/01134173186

I'm going to try to reverse engineer the new format, which is called "SPL II" in the GUI and "QPDL" in the generated file (@PJL
ENTER LANGUAGE = QPDL). My approach is to print a postscript file using the binary driver, saving the result to a local file. At no
time do I plan to disassemble the binary software provided by Samsung.