Tek-Tips is the largest IT community on the Internet today!
Members share and learn making Tek-Tips Forums the best source of peer-reviewed technical information on the Internet!
-
Congratulations derfloh on being selected by the Tek-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!
'Remote' printing a pdf to a LaserJet 4700dn
- Thread starter okiiyama
- Start date
There are control sequences available in various different languages (PJL, PCL5, PML, etc.) which can toggle the duplex mode; the PJL (and maybe PML) variants are not well documented, and can vary from device to device.
But any such setting will usually be lost as soon as the next print job starts, because the printer will reset to its User Default Environment at job start, unless the setting sequence changed the DEFAULT duplex setting, thus affecting any subsequent jobs which do not contain a 'set duplex mode' sequence.
But if you are using a standard Windows application, in conjunction with a standard Windows printer driver, the generated print stream will usually ALWAYS include a 'set duplex mode' sequence (to set simplex, duplex long-edge or duplex short-edge) which will reflect the settings in the application (highest priority) or driver preferences.
So unless you are generating a print stream yourself, without the aid of a driver, I can't see the point of attempting to do this.
But any such setting will usually be lost as soon as the next print job starts, because the printer will reset to its User Default Environment at job start, unless the setting sequence changed the DEFAULT duplex setting, thus affecting any subsequent jobs which do not contain a 'set duplex mode' sequence.
But if you are using a standard Windows application, in conjunction with a standard Windows printer driver, the generated print stream will usually ALWAYS include a 'set duplex mode' sequence (to set simplex, duplex long-edge or duplex short-edge) which will reflect the settings in the application (highest priority) or driver preferences.
So unless you are generating a print stream yourself, without the aid of a driver, I can't see the point of attempting to do this.
- Thread starter
- #3
Hmmm.... I'm thinking I'm biting off more than I can chew here. What I know that I can do is FTP files to the printer. What I would like to do is also in some way or another also turn duplex printing on for the files being sent via FTP. Is this possible? I don't know anything about web jetadmin, but is this something I can setup in web jetadmin?
Thanks again.
Thanks again.
You can use WebJetAdmin for most of your printers; it is a GUI-based control system.
There is a new version (10) out now, which I think is Windows only, but (because it is not Java-based) is supposed to be considerably faster than version 8 (there is no version 9).
I've no experience of either version, so I can't tell you much about it, but you should be able to use it to control the sort of properties that you can set via the printer front panel (if it has one - smaller ones don't).
Alternatively, for individual printers, most modern office/departmental network models have a built-in Embedded Web Server (EWS) - just point your browser at the printer's IP address and you'll see it - it should give you much the same as the basic WebJetamin gives you.
Bear in mind that if you are FTPing files direct to the device, the files need to be in a format that the printer understands: this usually means one of:
(a) Plain ASCII text; in this case the default Duplex setting will have an effect, as will default font settings, etc.
(b) A 'print file', already formatted (by 'printing' a document, from within an application, 'to file'), and using the target Page Description Language (PDL) of choice (PCL5, PCL6 or PostScript); these files will usually contain control sequences to set simplex/duplex, which will over-ride whatever you set as default on the printer.
(c) A PDF file: some of the more modern LJ models have a PDF interpreter built-in (but it usually only works if 128MB of memory, or more, is installed); I'm not sure if PDF has any concept of simplex/duplex, so the printer default may have an effect.
There is a new version (10) out now, which I think is Windows only, but (because it is not Java-based) is supposed to be considerably faster than version 8 (there is no version 9).
I've no experience of either version, so I can't tell you much about it, but you should be able to use it to control the sort of properties that you can set via the printer front panel (if it has one - smaller ones don't).
Alternatively, for individual printers, most modern office/departmental network models have a built-in Embedded Web Server (EWS) - just point your browser at the printer's IP address and you'll see it - it should give you much the same as the basic WebJetamin gives you.
Bear in mind that if you are FTPing files direct to the device, the files need to be in a format that the printer understands: this usually means one of:
(a) Plain ASCII text; in this case the default Duplex setting will have an effect, as will default font settings, etc.
(b) A 'print file', already formatted (by 'printing' a document, from within an application, 'to file'), and using the target Page Description Language (PDL) of choice (PCL5, PCL6 or PostScript); these files will usually contain control sequences to set simplex/duplex, which will over-ride whatever you set as default on the printer.
(c) A PDF file: some of the more modern LJ models have a PDF interpreter built-in (but it usually only works if 128MB of memory, or more, is installed); I'm not sure if PDF has any concept of simplex/duplex, so the printer default may have an effect.
- Moderator
- #5
Can you first FTP a set of control codes to turn on printing? You should be able to whip up the codes in something like FRHED (Free Hex Editor), sending the escape sequences to put the printer into duplex mode, then FTP your file.
I guess I would try that first... sending the control code to the printer prior to the print job, and see if that works for you.
Just my 2¢
-Cole's Law: Shredded cabbage
--Greg
I guess I would try that first... sending the control code to the printer prior to the print job, and see if that works for you.
Just my 2¢
-Cole's Law: Shredded cabbage
--Greg
Greg
>> Can you first FTP a set of control codes to turn on
>> printing? You should be able to whip up the codes in
>> something like FRHED (Free Hex Editor), sending the
>> escape sequences to put the printer into duplex mode,
>> then FTP your file.
As I vaguely outlined in an earlier response, I don't think that this will work with many modern devices, because (unlike older devices) they usually consider each 'connection' as a separate 'job' - and each new job will generally cause the printer to reset itself to the User Default Environment state.
The only situations in which it would work is one of:
(a) If the 'control codes' changed the DEFAULT value(s) for one or more properties (implies use of PJL and/or PML sequences) - hence these values would effectively become part of the User Default Environment.
(b) Or if the 'control codes' were prepended to the file being FTPed.
But I may be wrong - all this is theoretical, since I don't have easy access to relevant devices (or the time) in order to test it practically.
>> Can you first FTP a set of control codes to turn on
>> printing? You should be able to whip up the codes in
>> something like FRHED (Free Hex Editor), sending the
>> escape sequences to put the printer into duplex mode,
>> then FTP your file.
As I vaguely outlined in an earlier response, I don't think that this will work with many modern devices, because (unlike older devices) they usually consider each 'connection' as a separate 'job' - and each new job will generally cause the printer to reset itself to the User Default Environment state.
The only situations in which it would work is one of:
(a) If the 'control codes' changed the DEFAULT value(s) for one or more properties (implies use of PJL and/or PML sequences) - hence these values would effectively become part of the User Default Environment.
(b) Or if the 'control codes' were prepended to the file being FTPed.
But I may be wrong - all this is theoretical, since I don't have easy access to relevant devices (or the time) in order to test it practically.
- Status
Similar threads
