HP 3390 + PCL5e

[Icarium]

Embedded PCL5e print commands no longer seem to function properly when printing to the HP 3390 AIO printer, even though this is not a problem when printing to any other HP printer (old 6L, 1100, 1300, P2014, M2727, 4250 all work fine).

Specifically, using ascii '027040115xx086' to set the hight to xx has no effect, although the ascii commands to position the cursor to a specific starting row/collumn, and to select between varying degrees of bold seem to work just fine.

This is for a COBOL program with CentOS as the OS. No HP 3390 specific drivers installed (Would HPLIPS help this, or is this a PCL5e/PCL6 compatability issue?)

 

[DansDadUK]

The escape sequence:

{esc}(s#V

(decimal 027,040,115,#,086; hexadecimal 1B2873#56)

is only a partial font selection sequence, and will only have any effect if the currently selected primary font is proportionally-spaced; it will have no effect if the curently selected primary font is a fixed-pitch one.

 

[Icarium]

Thats interesting, but doesn't explain the problem.

The full set of PCL5e commands being used is setting the printer to landscape, then proportional, arial, wieght bold. I am then seetting the x/y coordinates of where I want to print and the hieght (being the decimal as you described) and then printing the text.

This has always worked just fine on all HP printers we've used till now, up to and including some fairly new models (as listed in my original post). Only on the HP 3390 is the hieght being ignored (but not the landscape, positioning, bolding etc - those work fine)

 

[DansDadUK]

But does your 'full' font selection sequence match the characteristics of any of the printer-resident PCL5 fonts?

Note that some of the newer printers (e.g. LJ P2015) have limited PCL5 font support (only Courier, LetterGothic and LinePrinter, all of which are fixed-pitch fonts).

I'm not familiar with the LaserJet 3390 AIO, so I don't know which PCL5 fonts are resident, nor how you can print off a PCL Typeface list (which should provide you with the font selection sequence required for each of the resident fonts).

With some printers you can initiate this printout via front panel menus, with others via the Embedded Web Server (EWS), or via the WebJetAdmin application.

The full PCL5 font selection sequence should include:
symbol set;
spacing (fixed-pitch or proportionally-spaced);
height/pitch (as appropriate to 'spacing');
stroke weight;
style;
typeface.

e.g. for Arial Regular 12-point, using the Windows ANSI coded character set:

{esc}(19U{esc}(s1p12v0s0b16602T

 

[Icarium]

Thanks, that may well be it. According to the printers PCL font list this printer only supports Courier and LinePrinter (It supports a much larger range of fonts for PCL6, but that is going to be tricky...)

 

[DansDadUK]

There is an add-on DIMM available for the LJ P2015, which provides the 'normal' set of PCL5 fonts (plus a bit more memory with which to handle them); see

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/bizsupport/questionanswer.do?threadId=1087760

for details.

I don't know if this DIMM (or perhaps an equivalent) can be fitted to the LJ 3390 AIO.

As you've intimated, writing a PCL6 print stream is totally different to generating a PCL5 one; it is actually relatively easy, ONCE you've got over the rather steep learning curve.

 

[hpwizzard]

If you Esc. sequence tries to call a ariel font it will not work.
With your printers current configuration you will not be able to print any other PCL5 fonts on this printer than Courier and Line Printer.
The reason is that you model of the LJ 3390 is probably the CB379 that has a 4mb formatter with very limited PCL5 support.
There is another version of the LJ 3390 with a 8 MB formatter and a wide range of PCL5 font support with product number CC379.
Whether there is a font dimm available for your printer is another good question. There are indications that such exist (says so both in the user guide, service manual and software technical reference) But I have not found any partnumber yet.
My best suggestion is to contact

http://www.jetcaps.com

and speak with these folks regarding as font dimm. If anyone knows of a dimm that works they are the ones !