[Nottingham] PCL file - print via CUPS

Michael Erskine msemtd at yahoo.co.uk
Mon Jul 5 12:48:29 BST 2004


On Monday 05 July 2004 12:11, Martin wrote:

> PCL: Printer Control Language? ie: "raw"...

Yes, PCL = Printer Control Language -- has human-readable header - analogue 
postscript?

> Mmmm, unless anyone knows for sure, you'll have to try a sneak
> cat PCL_file >LaserJetDev
> ...and be quick on the reset button!

I set this printer up with KDE & CUPS so I've no idea what the device would 
be! 

I just managed to get it to work in a roundabout manner which involves no 
education (!): I noticed a context menu option in konqueror, 
"Actions->Print...", which pops a dialog listing the CUPS printers. There's a 
button labelled "Expand" which shows a whole bunch of options including a tab 
entitled "Files". My PCL file is listed after two files named 
"filequickprint" the paths of which don't exist... YET! I assume that these 
files perform some KDE plaintext-filtering magic. I remove these two files 
from the list and press the "Print" button. KDE raises mild disapproval of my 
actions asking me if I'm sure I don't want to filter through Ghostscript or 
similar, to which I reply "continue regardless" or somesuch, and it prints 
perfectly! 

I can't claim that I know what I'm doing but it worked first time :) - no 
failed prints, no annoyed users, no reams of wasted paper. Fantastic!

Regards,
Michael.



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