[Hpoj-devel] Re: color printing in OfficeJets 300/500/600/700

[Joe P. <joe...@sn...>]

On Sun, 10 Sep 2000, David Paschal wrote:
> Hi.  For those of you who reported problems with color printing on the
> OfficeJet 300/500/600/700 series when using the DeskJet 550C ghostscript
> driver, has anybody tried using the "DeskJet 670/680/690 series" driver
> instead?  Does it work any better?
> 
> David


Though I didn't complain about print trouble here, I thought I'd pass along
some info regarding my officejet 600 that I'm using with a redhat 6.1 system.

I tried both drivers you mentioned above, but I seem to get the best print
quality with the "550C/560C/6xxC series" driver. Using only that driver, though,
the printing is too dark. To overcome that, I use an extra gs command to
change the gamma. The print quality still is not great compared to what this
printer can do under windoze, but it's acceptable for now.

For those who have redhat's "printtool" and are still having trouble setting up
their Officejet, I've listed my settings below. I can't guarantee that these
settings are the best, or that they will work correctly for anyone else. They
do work for me, though.

]$ su
printtool


Names: HPOfficejet|officejet|ojet|oj
( You can specify several alternate names here. It lets the
user choose the one they like best.)

Spool Directory : /var/spool/lpd/HPofficejet
(The printer-specific spool directory needs to be created inside your system's
default lpd spool dir. With redhat it's /var/spool/lpd. )

File Limit in Kb: 0

Printer device: /dev/lp0
( /dev/lp0 corresponds to the parallel port the printer is connected to. Some
systems call the first port /dev/lp1. I actually have two printers on this box.
The second is on device /dev/lp1.)

Suppress Headers: yes
Input Filter: click "select", choose this driver - 
"HP Deskjet 550C/560C/6xxC series"

Resolution: 300x300  (probably no choice here)
Paper Size: your choice. I use "letter".
Color Depth: "32, sometimes better than 24"
"send EOF after job... " - yes
"Fix stair-stepping" - yes
"Fast-text printing" - yes
Pages per Output Page: 1 (your choice)
Margins: 18, 18 
extra gs options -    "gs /usr/local/etc/gamma.ps %s" (without the quotes)

You will probably have to create the file /usr/local/etc/gamma.ps. The file can
be placed elsewhere, but that's where I have it. Wherever you do put it, you
need to specify its location on the "Extra gs Options" line in printtool. 
Using this file is only necessary if you need to modify the brightness of the
output. My gamma.ps contains the following text (between the lines).  In case
the lines wrap, the '%1' is on the first line. The rest all on the second. I don't
really understand all of these commands, but they work on this system.
------------------------------------------------

%! 
{0.333 exp} {0.333 exp} {0.333 exp} currenttransfer setcolortransfer 

------------------------------------------------

Setting ownership and permissions for gamma.ps:
]$ su
cd /usr/local/etc
chown root:root gamma.ps
chmod 644 gamma.ps

After all this, restart lpd.
You don't need to restart lpd if you are only modifying 'gamma.ps'.

The suSe linux site has information on printer gamma here:
http://sdb.suse.de/sdb/en/html/jsmeix_print-gammakorrektur.html

A google.com search for "gamma.ps" will turn up more information.

I hope this is useful to someone.

My thanks to David for working on a driver for the officejets.

Joe Piolunek