Lpd

N

Niatross

I am using FreeBSD 9.0-RELEASE-p4 and have a HP Photosmart C7180 All-in-One (AiO) printer.

This printer is setup on the LAN and it looks like it does not have a built-in LPD server. It looks like it only accepts data on port 9100.

Anyway, I'm new to printing with FreeBSD.

Since I can't use LPD with this printer, what can I use to setup this printer?

Is CUPS my only solution?
 
Actually, it looks like lpd(8) will work with that printer. For printing text, it should be no problem to use port 9100.

For graphics printing, ghostscript may have a driver that supports it. The HPLIP drivers probably provide better quality. As far as I know, those require CUPS.
 
wblock@ said:
Actually, it looks like lpd(8) will work with that printer. For printing text, it should be no problem to use port 9100.
Click to expand...

Ok, I got it to work with port 9100 and I can print text. The problem is:

The text is not formatted (meaning the text is running across the page).

It looks like this:

Code: 
LINE1
                    LINE2
                                        LINE3
                                                            LINE4
                                                                                LINE5

When (in reality) it should look like this:
Code: 
LINE1
LINE2
LINE3
LINE4
LINE5
 
That is the classic "stairstep problem". The Handbook section on printing shows an escape sequence for some HP printers that tell it to treat a linefeed as a carriage return. Or you can create a filter that converts linefeeds in the incoming file to carriage returns.
 
Although I have found an occasional error at OpenPrinting, generally the information is good.
OpenPrinting Entry for HP C7180
has
Best output quality reachable with the HPLIP driver (printer compatible to HP DeskJet 990C), especially the 4800-dpi high resolution mode gives excellent photo quality.
Click to expand...
If you are just printing, you should be able to use the Deskjet 990C driver. If you want the scanner, fax and other features you will need print/hplip.
The OpenPrinting Site for the HP-DeskJet_990C indicates that the driver is pcl3 compatible. If that is the case
this wiki lpd Printing With FreeBSD should work. The ljet4 driver used in the wiki example is pcl3 compatible and the wiki has an example for JetDirect printing on port 9100.
 
Bill Evans at Mariposa said:
No link lasts forever. Here's the latest (as of this writing) link to the Handbook section on printing. Unfortunately, it seems not to contain the fancy HP escape sequence, unless I'm reading carelessly.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I rewrote that section not too long ago. The HP escape sequence has always bugged me, because it only works on HP PCL printers, and possibly not all of them. There is a general-purpose anti-stairstep filter included as an example.
 
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