Low-level control on printers

[mes.newsgroups]

Hi everybody,

PCL, Postscript and other languages allow to describe documents sent to

printers. Is it possible to have a more low-level control on printers
(even if
it will certainly be different on each printer) ? For instance to load
paper or to move printing head.

I would like to print quickly a set of documents. Each document relies
on a
common format. I am looking for a solution to accelerate printing and
to have a
better control on it (for instance a best reaction time when a document
is sent
to a printer). I think it may be possible by taking into account
characteristics of my documents to control printing.

Thanks for any suggestions !

 

[Don Phillipson]

PCL, Postscript and other languages allow to describe documents sent to
printers. Is it possible to have a more low-level control on printers
(even if it will certainly be different on each printer) ? For instance to load
paper or to move printing head.

1. This would be straightforward in DOS, which
required that each app be configured for each printer.
2. but not in Windows, which offers one-step installation
of the printer to the PC (or network) which all apps may
then use uniformly. I.e. Windows does not expect
non-uniform printing instructions.
3. I don't know about printing under Linux.

 

[Warren Block]

PCL, Postscript and other languages allow to describe documents sent to
printers. Is it possible to have a more low-level control on printers
(even if
it will certainly be different on each printer) ? For instance to load
paper or to move printing head.

I would like to print quickly a set of documents. Each document relies
on a common format. I am looking for a solution to accelerate printing
and to have a better control on it (for instance a best reaction time
when a document is sent to a printer). I think it may be possible by
taking into account characteristics of my documents to control
printing.

It sounds like a template system. If it's something like a large
background that your data "fills in", you should be able to do that with
either PCL or PostScript.

I did a system like this. I wrote a PostScript program to draw the
background form rather than generating it through a printer driver.
This code turned out to be so small (20K or so, AFAIR) that it was
easier to send it with each page than to make it persistent. And of
course it prints much faster than the huge mass generated by a printer
driver.

 

[Pierre]

It sounds like a template system. If it's something like a large
background that your data "fills in", you should be able to do that with
either PCL or PostScript.

I did a system like this. I wrote a PostScript program to draw the
background form rather than generating it through a printer driver.
This code turned out to be so small (20K or so, AFAIR) that it was
easier to send it with each page than to make it persistent. And of
course it prints much faster than the huge mass generated by a printer
driver.

I thought about that but what can you do if you don't have a Postscript
printer ? Is it possible to introduce in a printer, or certain
printers, a specific "program" or set of commands to have a better
control ? I believe that the only interface with a printer is its
document language but maybe there are other accesses ?

 

[Warren Block]

I thought about that but what can you do if you don't have a Postscript
printer ?

You could use a PostScript interpreter that runs on the host computer,
like Ghostscript.

Is it possible to introduce in a printer, or certain printers, a
specific "program" or set of commands to have a better control ? I
believe that the only interface with a printer is its document
language but maybe there are other accesses ?

I'm pretty sure later versions of PCL support some types of persistent
downloads. PJL may also give you some options, if the printer supports
it.

Without specifics on what you want to do, it's hard to give specific
answers.