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Sending an ASCII text file directly to a HP DeskJet 694C printer



I have a Hewlett-Packard DeskJet 694C at home. If you want to but an HP ink-jet printer those days, then the 690's are the standard model. This printer can print in both B&W and color, and holds two cartridges at once: one black and white and the other a color ink cartridge. The printer uses each cartridge in its context.

After installing the ghostscript fonts, ghostscript and nenscript from the RedHat 4.1 RPMs, I managed to config my printer so it will print in B&W with postscript only. In order to print text, I had to enable the nenscript stuff, that converts the ASCII characters into a postscript bitmap and only then sends it to the printer. 

This DeskJet can accept ASCII text that is simply sent to the parallel port (like the DOS command "copy file.txt lpt1") and prints it OK. However, I couldn't do the same with the RH printer configuration tool on Linux. At most I got some characters scattered around the top of a page, or the printer kept outputting blank pages. Printing an ASCII text file via nenscript is considerably slower.

Is there anyway to fiddle with the parameters of the PostScript DeskJet 500C-600C driver, so that it will print ASCII quickly and correctly by sending it directly to the port? Or should I define a new Text-only driver with the same port?

And a related question: as I mentioned, I configured the printer to be grayscale only, and it prints caller as shades of gray. I know how to enable colors in the driver, but I'm afraid that in that case the driver will use the color cartridge even for purely black & white images, like printed text. Can I safely create two or more instances of the same printer driver with the same port, one configured for B&W printing and the other for color? Assume that I, being the only Linux user in my household, will not simultaneously print more than job.

Thanks for any help.

	Shlomi Fish