[THIN] Re: Xerox Phaser 4400
- From: "Rick Mack" <Rick.Mack@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2005 19:48:30 +1000
Hi Steve,
I knew I was leading with my chin ;-)
Once you know how taking a standard printer.inf file for something like the HP
Laserjet 4500 (download from HP) and hacking it to suit any 2003 native printer
isn't that hard. But that means I'd have to write up the whole process in a
way that anyone could understand. Kind of busy at the moment so there had to be
an alternative ;-)
It occurred to me that there was probably an easier way at least for using
native 2003 drivers that didn't exist for windows 2000.
Native printers are defined by the entries in %systemroot%\inf\ntprint.inf, and
any files are automatically found in %systemroot%\Driver cache\i386\driver.cab.
This doesn't look very promising until you look in the driver cache\i386
dirctory and realise it's a repository for driver updates and additional
service pack driver update files etc. So any additional cab files would
probably also be searched.
This is what I tried on a Windows 2000 server:
1. rename the c:\winnt\inf\ntprint.inf file to old_ntprint.inf.
2. Copy the driver.cab file from a 2003 CD or system (c:\windows\driver
cache\i386) to c:\winnt\driver cache\i386\w2k3_drv.cab.
3. Now copy the ntprint.inf file from a Windows 2003 system into c:\winnt\inf.
When you try to add a printer now you'll see something peculiar. A lot entries
are duplicated, one with a (Microsoft) tacked on the end of the driver name and
one with (Microsoft Windows 2000). The first one is the Windows 2003 driver.
For new drivers, (win2k3 only), there isn't any label tacked on.
If you select one of the new (2003 only) drivers, the dozen or so I've tried
install and work without problems.
If you rename or delete ntprint.pnf, the duplication disappears, however I
prefer to leave it there. It reminds me that for duplicates, the older driver
will be installed regardless. This is because unless I rename w2k_drv.cab to
something like aa_drv.cab a duplicated driver will be installed from driver.cab
first even if you selected the win2k3 version.
Driver.cab is used for other win2k drivers and mixing sytem level win2k and
win2k3 drivers would make life a bit too interesting. I think I'd prefer to
leave things as they are.
Anyway, this way you've got all the native win2k drivers AND the new (not
duplicated) win2k3 drivers for standard installation. No command line stuff or
anything.
Grafting a non-native PPD file on to the native postscript drivers is
relatively easy. All you need is something to use as the raw template.
Go to (http://www.sharpusa.com/products/TypeWizardShow/1,2122,18,00.html) and
download cop_soft_AR-PB2_XP_PSPPD.exe
This is self extracting archive with some ppd files and an P2AD2ENU.INF file
that grafts the selected sharp PPD files on to the native postscript drivers.
There's even a batch file for making your own ppd driver disk.
All you've got to do is take any PPD file from a non-native postscript driver,
change the appropriate entries in the INF file (it's pretty obvious), rename
the inf file (not essential but tidy) and you're away.
regards,
Rick
Ulrich Mack
Volante Systems
Level 2, 30 Little Cribb Street
Coronation Drive Office Park
Milton Qld 4064
tel: +61 7 32431847
fax: +61 7 32431992
rmack@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
________________________________
From: thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx on behalf of Steve Parr
Sent: Fri 11/03/2005 3:51 PM
To: 'thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx'
Subject: [THIN] Re: Xerox Phaser 4400
Rick is there any info. anywhere on how to "port 3rd party postscript drivers
into native format" or to "graft a postscript PPD file onto a native postscript
driver"?
-----Original Message-----
From: Rick Mack [mailto:Rick.Mack@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Thursday, March 10, 2005 7:57 PM
To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [THIN] Re: Xerox Phaser 4400
Hi Steve,
There's nothing wrong with native Postscript drivers, and it's not that hard to
port third-party postscript drivers into native format (get rid of resource
DLLs and just use ppd file). For text only printing, postscript is quite
efficient. Mix in graphics and doesn't look quite so attractive from a print
job size viewpoint.
Before I get flamed I should state that postscript can be really efficient, but
there's unfortunately a huge gap between theory and practice with most
postscript driver implementations..
I had some nasty experiences on NT4 TSE with some of the third party (eg
Xerox!!!) postscript drivers. Pain tends to be something you remember for a
long time so I can understand Stephen's tendency to PCL.
If in doubt I graft the postscript PPD file on to the native postscript driver,
and with the exception of some special features (and a possible print size
penalty), postscript is fine.
regards,
Rick
Ulrich Mack
Volante Systems
________________________________
From: thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx on behalf of Steve Parr
Sent: Fri 11/03/2005 8:12 AM
To: 'thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx'
Subject: [THIN] Re: Xerox Phaser 4400
Thanks Rick.
That takes my understanding a few notches up.
By the way are Postscript drivers that bad in comparison to PCL on Citrix.
I noticed the printer matrixes from Stefan Vermullen tend to map the PCL
drivers for
Postscript drivers which would indicate a preference to not install PS drivers
on Citrix.
-----Original Message-----
From: Rick Mack [mailto:Rick.Mack@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Thursday, March 10, 2005 4:46 PM
To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [THIN] Re: Xerox Phaser 4400
Hi,
Last things first I guess.
This is possibly a bit unfair but I think that UPDII was a stopgap until Citrix
could get the EMF printing sorted out.
The 2003 4500 driver definitely produces smaller print jobs. I suspect HP have
been reworking their drivers (at least some of them) to make them a bit more
efficient. Had one site where updating their HPLJ 4200 drivers resulted in a
70% reduction in the size of print jobs. Over the WAN this was a massive
improvement.
In terms of using 2003 drivers generically on 2000, yes it'll work, and it
certainly gives you a lot more "native" drivers to play with without worrying
about the truly awful drivers some manufacturers have turned out.
I agree with your ordering in general. The basic criteria you can use to screen
a manufacturers drivers (accept/reject, try alternatives first) are: is it a
version 3 driver, does it use unidrv.dll (Universal driver mechanism), does it
use 5 DLLs or less.
As an example, many HP printer drivers (non-PS one anyway) are unidriver-based.
Now if only they'd get rid of all the fancy (zoom etc) crap (reduce number of
resource DLLs) they'd be really good. Lexmark went through a bad patch but
they're pretty good now, Xerox, as stated are variable. A lot of others just
use variants of HP's PCL drivers.
Citrix UPDs aren't necessarily going to be better than the trusty HPLJII (which
is what UPDI is). The problem is what they do at the client end. When you see a
5 MB print job blow out to 300 MB at the client end (and hugely slow
printing!!!) then the UPD mechanism just doesn't seem as attractive. I view
Citrix UPD as a very convenient (in terms of admin input) but expensive (in
terms of WAN bandwidth) alternative.
regards,
Rick
Ulrich Mack
Volante Systems
Level 2, 30 Little Cribb Street
Coronation Drive Office Park
Milton Qld 4064
tel: +61 7 32431847
fax: +61 7 32431992
rmack@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
________________________________
From: thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx on behalf of Steve Parr
Sent: Fri 11/03/2005 1:08 AM
To: 'thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx'
Subject: [THIN] Re: Xerox Phaser 4400
The OS is win 2000.
Do you mean replacing the HP Color LaserJet 4500 driver on the Citrix Win 2000
box(which is the UPD II driver by default) with the HP Color LaserJet 4500 from
Win 2k3 CD OR generally to use the Windows 2003 version drivers as native
drivers on the the Win2k box - eg. Lexmark Win2k3 drivers for Lexmark printers?
If I understand your email I think you are suggesting this type of ordered
preference for printing on a Win2k Citrix box:
1)For a Xerox Phaser 4400(can replace this model with any non-HP Laserjet)
first try using the Windows 2003 native driver for this Xerox printer ie. the
Xerox driver that comes on the Win2k3 CD to map to clients Xerox printer/driver.
2)Next to try would be the Win2k driver on the Win2k CD
3) If the Xerox Phaser driver not available on Win2k3 or Win2k CD download from
the manufacturer a version 3 driver for that model which can generally tell by
looking at Server properties in Printer settings to see if it says win2k driver
OR win2k and NT driver(in which case with NT is version2 and to be avoided). Is
that method of checking always foolproof? Thinking some manufacturers could be
cutting corners and claim a driver is version 3 but not actually be.
4)Use the UPD II or UPD I OR create a mapping to another HP Laserjet such as HP
LJ 4/5//8. Are the UPD's a better choice than using CMC to map to another HP
driver? I figure Citrix may have done a little extra work to make the UPD's
more stable than other hp LJ drivers, so maybe UPD's are all things being equal
going to be better choice than mapping to even the trusty HP LJ4.
The idea about using NUL: seems like a good one ...
-----Original Message-----
From: Rick Mack [mailto:Rick.Mack@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Thursday, March 10, 2005 6:54 AM
To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [THIN] Xerox Phaser 4400
Hi Steve,
You didn't state whether its Windows 2000 or 2003. But native drivers are
generally a first choice, followed by aliases and UPDI/II. If it's Windows
2000, then replacing the 2000 UPDII with the 2003 drivers makes for
significantly smaller print jobs. But if you're really serious then thinprint,
simplify printing, EOL universal printer etc are much better.
However you can improve 200 prinitng options a lot by using native 2003 drivers
since 2000 and XP/2003 all use the same printer mechanism. You can port any
2003 native driver to 2000 without too much hassle.
Traditionally the Phasers have had quite good drivers (I'm still in love with
the Phaser 850 [then tektronix]). However with Xerox it depends on where the
printer comes from. If it's from Japan, the drivers are third-party and
sometimes dodgy, if from the US the drivers are generally okay. Always provided
they really are version 3 (non-kernel mode) drivers of course.
You can get a reasonable idea of the stability of a printer driver by creating
a local port to NUL: and attaching the printer to that port. Let's you test
"print" hundreds of pages/documents without killing a single tree.
regards,
Rick
Ulrich Mack
Volante Systems
________________________________
From: thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx on behalf of Steve Parr
Sent: Wed 9/03/2005 11:19 PM
To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [THIN] Xerox Phaser 4400
Has anyone successfully used the native drivers successfully with XP FR3? Am
mapping HP drivers instead at moment but users want some advanced functionality
that may only work if it seems if you use the native drivers - the usual trade
off between functionality and stability.
Will version 3 Xerox Phaser 44OO drivers be stable?
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