[THIN] Re: OT: Color printing that defaults to b/w
- From: "Matthew Shrewsbury" <MShrewsbury@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 23 Dec 2005 07:50:50 -0500
Wow thanks so much for that explanation! That is really helpful and I
never really understood the classes but now that does make a lot of
sense. Most helpful, thanks!
Matthew Shrewsbury, MCSE+Internet MCSE 2000 CCA Server+
Senior Network Administrator
-----Original Message-----
From: thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Rick Mack
Sent: Thursday, December 22, 2005 7:09 PM
To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [THIN] OT: Color printing that defaults to b/w
Hi Matthew,
What I normally do is create a second queue that's configured to print
black only and then set permissions on the color queue so that only
people who need to print colour have access.
Configuring a queue to print black only is a simple as using a
comparable (in terms of bins etc) black only print driver for the
black/white queue, something like an HP LaserJet 4200 would probably
work fine for you.
A slightly more fun way to do the same thing is to alter the existing
color drivers to print only in black. That way you have a
printer-specific black-only driver that can be used anywhere.
Anyway, a bit of background.
There are 3 printer driver classes used on Windows 2000 and later.
The first class is basically a traditional driver written by the
manfacturer that does everything itself. Just about every bad driver
you've ever used falls into this category. There is really no reason for
any manufacturer to use this type of driver anymore.
The second class is Unidriver-based printer drivers. The unidriver was
intrduced by Microsoft (in win2k) to make the job of creating and
modifying safe printer drivers easier. It consists of a printer
definition file (GPD extension) that is a text file that defines
everything the printer can do. There may be additional GPD files as
include files and the driver may also include custom DLLs to handle
bi-directional printer comms, stapling etc. The first time you use a
unidriver-based print driver, the GPD file is compiled to a binary file
(.BUD extension) which is used by the spooler subsystem.
It's worth noting that whenever the .ppd file (or ANY of the include
.ppd files) are changed, the compile process happens again. That's why
its a good isea to give users write access to the spool\drivers\w32x86\3
directory, otherwise the compile only happens for admins, and the driver
won't work 'til an admin tries to print.
Anyway, the 5500dn PCL6 driver is a uni-driver but interestingly enough
the PCL5 driver isn't. This is one case where PCL6 is actually better.
The PCL6 driver uses hpc55006.gpd and the color section is shown below:
*Feature: ColorMode
{
*rcNameID: =COLOR_PRINTING_MODE_DISPLAY
*%IDS_COLOR_PRINTING_MODE
*DefaultOption: 24bpp
*HelpIndex: 12024
*Option: Mono
{
*rcNameID: =MONO_DISPLAY *%IDS_MONOCHROME
*DevNumOfPlanes: 1
*DevBPP: 24
*DrvBPP: 24
*Color? : FALSE
*PaletteSize: 1
*PaletteProgrammable? : TRUE
*Command: CmdDefinePaletteEntry { *Cmd: "" }
}
*Option: 24bpp
{
*rcNameID: =24BPP_DISPLAY
*DevNumOfPlanes: 1
*DevBPP: 24
*DrvBPP: 24
*PaletteSize: 256
*PaletteProgrammable? : TRUE
*Command: CmdDefinePaletteEntry { *Cmd: "" }
}
}
So if you wanted, you could modify the .gpd file to disable the color
capabilities.
The last class is postscript drivers. These used a unidriver like
mechanism even in NT 4. Postscript printer characteristics are defined
in a printer-specific PPD file that's a text file with high level
printer driver capability code that will get compiled into a BPD file
which is used to produce the print output.
There is a sub-class of Adobe postscript drivers, but these really fit
in the first class of drivers. I've had some real fun with some of
Xerox's early Adobe postscript drivers, so putting them into the dud
class isn't really all that cruel.
If we look at the 5500dn again, the postscript driver uses hpc5500s.ppd,
which has a section that defines the basic printer characteristics, eg
*% ---------------------------------
*% Basic Device Capabilities
*% ---------------------------------
*LanguageLevel: "3"
*Throughput: "22"
*FileSystem: False
*ColorDevice: True
*DefaultColorSpace: CMY
*TTRasterizer: Type42
*?TTRasterizer: "
So by changing the entry "*ColorDevice: True" to "*ColorDevice: False",
you've just created a driver for a a black only printer.
The correct way to use the dumbed-down driver is to create an inf file
to install the renamed, modified gpd or ppd file. You need to rename the
INF file, and edit the INF file to change the driver name in the
[Strings] section and change the name of the gpd/ppd file.
You now use the modified driver anywhere.
I'd probably advise you to stick with the 4200 drivers though ;-)
regards,
Ulrich Mack
Volante Systems
________________________________
From: thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx on behalf of Matthew Shrewsbury
Sent: Thu 22/12/2005 11:17 PM
To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [THIN] OT: Color printing that defaults to b/w
Is there a way that I could default a print driver to B/W? If the user
wants to print color they would have to go in and make the selection of
printing in color.
We have a number of people printing to a HP LaserJet 5500DN and the
consumables are running around $15,000 per year. I've observed that most
people printing to it really don't need to print in color but they are
to lazy to select another printer or select B/W. Since there is no way
to track each users printing they have no reason to try and reduce the
amount printed in color.
Sorry for the off topic post but someone on here normally knows the
answer. Thank you for any suggestions!
Matthew Shrewsbury, MCSE+Internet MCSE 2000 CCA Server+
Senior Network Administrator
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