[Sussex] CUPS Answers

[Geoff Teale]

I got the following response from the writer of the driver Tony 
asked about:

>In general, Windows sends raw PCL to the printer.  This means the printer is
>responsible for rendering the file into a bitmap.
>
>Using CUPS, it (CUPS) first renders the file to a bitmap (converts >PCL
to
>CUPSRASTER) then encodes the raster lines in HP-RTL (a subset of PCL
>specific for raster graphics).  In general, HP-RTL used for small
>bitmaps on
>a page, like a company logo.  When it is used to describe the entire
>page,
>it is large relative to raw PCL.
>
>For example, a simple text file may be encoded in PCL in 10 or 20 >kb.
The
>same file rasterized at 600 DPI on 8.5 x 11 paper would be:
>
>8.5 x 11 x 600 x 600 / 8 or 4.2 MB.  HP-RTL allows compression of the
>data
>so it will compress down somewhat but it depends on the content of >the
>image.
>
>The printer stops between pages because it must buffer the entire HP-
>RTL
>file.

-- 
Geoff Teale
Cmed Technology <gteale at cmedltd.com>
Free Software Foundation <tealeg at members.fsf.org>