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Toshiba 5570/6570 printer/copier and PS drivers in XP

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bankboysb

Technical User
Jun 7, 2004
121
US
We had a situation where a PC workstation could not print PDFs to this printer, and additionally had weird errors when printing from MS Office.

The solution was tri-fold: first it was necessary to completely uninstall and remove registry traces of Acrobat and the installed printers. Second, we re-installed the printer with the SC-2 PS drivers from Toshiba. Third, we discovered that ** you must manually change the Language Level from three to two every time you print **. This was in the advanced printing choices if I recall correctly. (I have yet to understand why it does that because the driver is supposed to be a level 2 driver)

For some reason the default level is three, which absolutely will not work with this printer/copier!

We found it necessary to use the PostScript driver, but a Toshiba rep told me it is possible to use HP Laserjet5 drivers too. Don't know if I care to try it, as I went through heck trying to get this solved to begin with.

Any feedback on this post is welcomed!
 
Most PostScript printers also support PCL. So, if PostScript is giving you problems, then by all means switch over to PCL.

I don't know what feedback you're seeking, but PostScript printing involves:

1) a PostScript driver. This is part of the OS. It is used by applications to create a PostScript language stream, to be sent to a PostScript printer. Windows XP comes with its own PostScript driver, but Adobe has one too. Installation of most Adobe products gives the user the option to install Adobe's PostScript driver.

2) A PostScript Printer Driver (PPD). Despite the similar name, this is not the same as the PostScript driver described above. A PPD will be supplied by your printer. It contains PostScript Language code snippets specific to your actual device. For example, multiple paper trays, duplexing, and other options that vary from one device to the next. The PostScript driver (above) will use the PPD to create PostScript specific to your device and its options. This is why your Print Dialog box will vary from one printer to the other. The OS is using the PPD to present the various options.

3) A PostScript printer, with a built-in PostScript interpreter. This PostScript interpreter can support PostScript Level 1, Level 2 (the most common) or Level 3.

All three must work in concert. If you install a "new" printer driver (PPD) without checking which level it supports, or install an Adobe app and Adobe's PostScript Driver, but point it to the wrong PPD, problems like you describe can appear.



Thomas D. Greer

Providing PostScript & PDF
Training, Development & Consulting
 
Not looking for any particular feedback, but it's nice that you provide these insights. Thanks to your input on another related post I put up it helped me to look at the problem in a more enlightened way.
 
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