Xerox Phaser 7400DN

Post by John Jason Jordan
OS: Fedora 16, x86_64
I cannot get documents with the Junicode font to render the font. I
absolutely need this font for work in linguistics. What comes out of
the printer is a garbled font, although it has the same line endings
and spacings.
The same font prints perfectly to HP laserjets at my house, and to
printers at the university. It is only when I print to the Phaser 7400DN
from Linux that I cannot get the font to render correctly.
The same thing happens whether I print from LibreOffice, LibreOffice >
PDF export, Scribus, or any other program. It does not matter if I
embed the font. Scribus allows converting the font to paths on PDF
export, which is the only way I can get the font to appear properly in
the printout. However, I normally need output from LibreOffice. The same
PDF that won't print the font correctly from Linux prints perfectly from
Adobe Reader on Windows. On Linux I have tried printing from Adobe
Reader, Okular and Evince, and directly from LibreOffice, always with
the same garbled output.
I tried printing to CUPS-PDF, but that embeds the font and I get the
same results. I cannot find any way in LibreOffice to print directly to
a PS file without selecting a printer. Regardless of what printer I
select it does not convert the font to paths, as the resulting .ps file
will still print with the font garbled.
I have four different "printers" installed for this printer. One will
render the font correctly, but this driver cannot understand "portrait"
- it prints portrait on a landscape page, regardless of what
orientation I specify in the print dialog boxes. And none of the
drivers recognizes all the features of the printer. Or if they do see
a feature they won't allow it to be selected. For example, with one
of the drivers I can specify "tray 2" and it will insist on printing
from tray 1. I go back into the dialog box and, right after selecting
tray 2 I see it has reverted to tray 1 as soon as I close the dialog
box.
Please, does anyone have one of these printers with a CUPS driver that
actually works? If so, I beg you to tell me which driver you are using!

We used this printer a couple of years in a commercial environment without
any software related problems (only had some issues with print quality and
toner waste hancling). But note that we only used the Xerox supplied
PostScript PPD - no other pdl whatsoever.

Helge

John Jason Jordan

2013-01-30 18:50:38 UTC

On Wed, 30 Jan 2013 05:25:31 -0800

Post by John Jason Jordan
The same font prints perfectly to HP laserjets at my house, and to
printers at the university. It is only when I print to the Phaser
7400DN from Linux that I cannot get the font to render correctly.
Please, does anyone have one of these printers with a CUPS driver
that actually works? If so, I beg you to tell me which driver you
are using!

We used this printer a couple of years in a commercial environment
without any software related problems (only had some issues with print
quality and toner waste hancling). But note that we only used the
Xerox supplied PostScript PPD - no other pdl whatsoever.

I did not make one thing clear at the outset: All fonts, graphics, etc.
in all documents appear perfectly on screen.

So just now I downloaded the PPD from Xerox. I selected the Linux
option and downloaded the tar file. After untarring it I found and
installed the following PPD:

xrx7400dn.ppd 85.0 KB Mon 02 Jan 2040

Disregarding the fact that apparently my net connection hyperlinked me
into the year 2040, this is the only PPD file that fits my printer.
Phaser 7400DN
Adobe PostScript(R) 3: 3016.101 (3)
PCL 5c Versions: OS 6.26 / PS 4.2.0 / Eng 0.11.2 / Net
25.72.10.07.2005
Installed RAM 256 MB
Hard disk: Not Connected
Duplex Unit: Installed
Print Quality: Standard
TekColor Automatic

And other stuff not pertinent to this discussion.

The printer has only the standard manual feed tray (Tray 1) and the
lower Tray 2. It does not have any of the optional large capacity
trays, nor does it have stackers or output bins other than the bin on
top. This is just the basic printer without any of the optional
accessories.

After installing this PPD as a new driver I tried to print to it:

1) The Properties options in the driver (in the printer management GUI)
do not list Tray 2. I tried to add Tray 2 as an option, but it gave me
an error that Tray 2 was not installed. Of course, all Phaser 7400DN
printers come with a Tray 2, so why was that not in the PPD? I checked
the box saying that the "optional" input bins were installed, and then I
was able to select Tray 2 as the default paper source. However, printing
from LibreOffice the only tray options are Tray 1 and "Paper."
Regardless of which I select, the job as sent to the printer is set to
pull from Tray 1. The only way I can get it to print is to walk over to
the printer and manually tell it to "use available paper."

2) While printing from LibreOffice I can enter the Properties for the
printer, where I note in the Device tab that the Printer Language is
set by default to PDF. If I leave it at that the fonts are garbled. In
the drop-down there are options for Postscript Level 1, 2, 3 and "from
driver." This printer has genuine Adobe Postscript Level 3, so I
selected that. Now, if I close the options dialog box and reopen it I
find that it is set to Level 2. It won't accept Level 3. Disregarding
that problem, regardless of which Postscript option I choose I get
fonts printing correctly, but the entire letter size page appears in
the upper left corner of the paper 1.75 inches wide by 2.25 inches
high. I looked all over for some "scale" option, but cannot find one,
either in the LibreOffice print dialog options or in the Printer
Management options.

3) For my next exercise I opened the PDF file exported from LibreOffice
in Evince. When I went to print it the print dialog box does show Tray
2, and selecting Tray 2 does work correctly. Yay! So now we know the
tray problem is in LibreOffice. However, the fonts render garbled. I
repeated with Okular and Adobe Reader, and got the same results.

I have not opened the PPD file in a text editor to see what it says. I
know PPDs are just text files, but I probably wouldn't understand much
of the syntax anyway.

I hope someone has other suggestions.

Helge Blischke

2013-01-30 22:59:44 UTC

Post by John Jason Jordan
On Wed, 30 Jan 2013 05:25:31 -0800

We used this printer a couple of years in a commercial environment
without any software related problems (only had some issues with print
quality and toner waste hancling). But note that we only used the
Xerox supplied PostScript PPD - no other pdl whatsoever.

I did not make one thing clear at the outset: All fonts, graphics, etc.
in all documents appear perfectly on screen.
So just now I downloaded the PPD from Xerox. I selected the Linux
option and downloaded the tar file. After untarring it I found and
xrx7400dn.ppd 85.0 KB Mon 02 Jan 2040
Disregarding the fact that apparently my net connection hyperlinked me
into the year 2040, this is the only PPD file that fits my printer.
Phaser 7400DN
Adobe PostScript(R) 3: 3016.101 (3)
PCL 5c Versions: OS 6.26 / PS 4.2.0 / Eng 0.11.2 / Net
25.72.10.07.2005
Installed RAM 256 MB
Hard disk: Not Connected
Duplex Unit: Installed
Print Quality: Standard
TekColor Automatic
And other stuff not pertinent to this discussion.
The printer has only the standard manual feed tray (Tray 1) and the
lower Tray 2. It does not have any of the optional large capacity
trays, nor does it have stackers or output bins other than the bin on
top. This is just the basic printer without any of the optional
accessories.
1) The Properties options in the driver (in the printer management GUI)
do not list Tray 2. I tried to add Tray 2 as an option, but it gave me
an error that Tray 2 was not installed. Of course, all Phaser 7400DN
printers come with a Tray 2, so why was that not in the PPD? I checked
the box saying that the "optional" input bins were installed, and then I
was able to select Tray 2 as the default paper source. However, printing
from LibreOffice the only tray options are Tray 1 and "Paper."
Regardless of which I select, the job as sent to the printer is set to
pull from Tray 1. The only way I can get it to print is to walk over to
the printer and manually tell it to "use available paper."
2) While printing from LibreOffice I can enter the Properties for the
printer, where I note in the Device tab that the Printer Language is
set by default to PDF. If I leave it at that the fonts are garbled. In
the drop-down there are options for Postscript Level 1, 2, 3 and "from
driver." This printer has genuine Adobe Postscript Level 3, so I
selected that. Now, if I close the options dialog box and reopen it I
find that it is set to Level 2. It won't accept Level 3. Disregarding
that problem, regardless of which Postscript option I choose I get
fonts printing correctly, but the entire letter size page appears in
the upper left corner of the paper 1.75 inches wide by 2.25 inches
high. I looked all over for some "scale" option, but cannot find one,
either in the LibreOffice print dialog options or in the Printer
Management options.
3) For my next exercise I opened the PDF file exported from LibreOffice
in Evince. When I went to print it the print dialog box does show Tray
2, and selecting Tray 2 does work correctly. Yay! So now we know the
tray problem is in LibreOffice. However, the fonts render garbled. I
repeated with Okular and Adobe Reader, and got the same results.
I have not opened the PPD file in a text editor to see what it says. I
know PPDs are just text files, but I probably wouldn't understand much
of the syntax anyway.
I hope someone has other suggestions.

As this printer has been put out of service some time ago at our company, I
have no chance to do real tests now.
But I suspect the problems with PDF printing is due to the fact that
(nearly) all Linux distros recently switched to PDF as the standard/default
print job format. The printer itself does not offer native PDF printing, so
there is some cups filter used to convert PDF to PostScript.
Depending on the make of that filter there may be problems with certain
types of fonts.

My suggestion is to revert your CUPS installation to PostScript as
default/standard print job format or use another pdf to ps filter.

To give you further advice, I'd need
- your /etc/cups/*.convs and /usr/share/cups/mime/*.convs
- information on your pdftops filter (/usr/lib/cups/filter/pdftops)
(you may send me the filter binary; I have 2 differenv virual Linux
installations working)
And, just for interest, send me one of the PDFs that exhibit the garbled
font(s) for me to have a look into.

Helge

PS: you may send me the files to
h dot blischke at acm dot org

John Jason Jordan

2013-01-31 00:29:49 UTC

On Wed, 30 Jan 2013 14:59:44 -0800

Post by John Jason Jordan
Please, does anyone have one of these printers with a CUPS driver
that actually works? If so, I beg you to tell me which driver you
are using!

We used this printer a couple of years in a commercial environment
without any software related problems (only had some issues with
print quality and toner waste hancling). But note that we only used
the Xerox supplied PostScript PPD - no other pdl whatsoever.

So just now I downloaded the PPD from Xerox. I selected the Linux
option and downloaded the tar file. After untarring it I found and
xrx7400dn.ppd 85.0 KB Mon 02 Jan 2040
1) The Properties options in the driver (in the printer management
GUI) do not list Tray 2. I tried to add Tray 2 as an option, but it
gave me an error that Tray 2 was not installed. Of course, all
Phaser 7400DN printers come with a Tray 2, so why was that not in
the PPD? I checked the box saying that the "optional" input bins
were installed, and then I was able to select Tray 2 as the default
paper source. However, printing from LibreOffice the only tray
options are Tray 1 and "Paper." Regardless of which I select, the
job as sent to the printer is set to pull from Tray 1. The only way
I can get it to print is to walk over to the printer and manually
tell it to "use available paper."
2) While printing from LibreOffice I can enter the Properties for the
printer, where I note in the Device tab that the Printer Language is
set by default to PDF. If I leave it at that the fonts are garbled.
In the drop-down there are options for Postscript Level 1, 2, 3 and
"from driver." This printer has genuine Adobe Postscript Level 3, so
I selected that. Now, if I close the options dialog box and reopen
it I find that it is set to Level 2. It won't accept Level 3.
Disregarding that problem, regardless of which Postscript option I
choose I get fonts printing correctly, but the entire letter size
page appears in the upper left corner of the paper 1.75 inches wide
by 2.25 inches high. I looked all over for some "scale" option, but
cannot find one, either in the LibreOffice print dialog options or
in the Printer Management options.
3) For my next exercise I opened the PDF file exported from
LibreOffice in Evince. When I went to print it the print dialog box
does show Tray 2, and selecting Tray 2 does work correctly. Yay! So
now we know the tray problem is in LibreOffice. However, the fonts
render garbled. I repeated with Okular and Adobe Reader, and got the
same results.

Just minutes before receiving your e-mail I finally found a solution.

Yesterday I was desperately trying to print something for class and I
was running out of time. Finally I fired up Windows 2000 that I have
installed in Virtualbox. Previously I had set this printer up there. I
opened the PDF that I had exported from LibreOffice into Adobe Reader
on Windows 2000, sent it to the printer and it printed flawlessly. The
same file printed with garbled text from Adobe Reader on Linux.

After thinking about this I tried a few more things, including creating
a new Linux printer, but using the Windows PPD file instead of the one
in the Linux downloads section on xerox.com.

When I print to this printer I get perfect output from Evince, Okular and
Adobe Reader. But when I printed from LibreOffice I got garbled text.
The print dialog box in LibreOffice had been set to Postscript Level 2
(because it wouldn't accept Level 3). So I changed it to PDF and tried
again. Voilà! Perfect output!

Also, the printer trays now appear and work correctly.

So your observation that Linux CUPS defaults to PDF fits this scenario.
However, before when I used the Linux PPD file the text was garbled
regardless of what language setting I chose. So the other part of the
solution was to discard the Linux PPD file, because evidently it is dreck.

Thanks for the help and suggestions.

Helge Blischke

2013-01-31 12:21:37 UTC

Post by John Jason Jordan
On Wed, 30 Jan 2013 14:59:44 -0800

Post by John Jason Jordan
Please, does anyone have one of these printers with a CUPS driver
that actually works? If so, I beg you to tell me which driver you
are using!

We used this printer a couple of years in a commercial environment
without any software related problems (only had some issues with
print quality and toner waste hancling). But note that we only used
the Xerox supplied PostScript PPD - no other pdl whatsoever.

Just minutes before receiving your e-mail I finally found a solution.
Yesterday I was desperately trying to print something for class and I
was running out of time. Finally I fired up Windows 2000 that I have
installed in Virtualbox. Previously I had set this printer up there. I
opened the PDF that I had exported from LibreOffice into Adobe Reader
on Windows 2000, sent it to the printer and it printed flawlessly. The
same file printed with garbled text from Adobe Reader on Linux.
After thinking about this I tried a few more things, including creating
a new Linux printer, but using the Windows PPD file instead of the one
in the Linux downloads section on xerox.com.
When I print to this printer I get perfect output from Evince, Okular and
Adobe Reader. But when I printed from LibreOffice I got garbled text.
The print dialog box in LibreOffice had been set to Postscript Level 2
(because it wouldn't accept Level 3). So I changed it to PDF and tried
again. Voilà! Perfect output!
Also, the printer trays now appear and work correctly.
So your observation that Linux CUPS defaults to PDF fits this scenario.
However, before when I used the Linux PPD file the text was garbled
regardless of what language setting I chose. So the other part of the
solution was to discard the Linux PPD file, because evidently it is dreck.
Thanks for the help and suggestions.

Well, then I'd like to see the Linux PPD that lead to garbled output.
Perhaps I then could file a bug to your Linux distibutor (pelase tell me who
it is).

Helge

Johannes Meixner

2013-01-31 13:09:15 UTC

Hello,

Post by John Jason Jordan
So just now I downloaded the PPD from Xerox. I selected the Linux
option and downloaded the tar file. After untarring it I found and
xrx7400dn.ppd 85.0 KB Mon 02 Jan 2040

...

... I tried a few more things, including creating
a new Linux printer, but using the Windows PPD file instead of the one
in the Linux downloads section on xerox.com.
When I print to this printer I get perfect output ...

...

Post by Helge Blischke
Well, then I'd like to see the Linux PPD that lead to garbled output.
Perhaps I then could file a bug to your Linux distibutor (pelase tell
me who it is).

As far as I understand it, the Linux PPD was downloaded
from Xerox in the Linux downloads section on xerox.com.

Kind Regards
Johannes Meixner

--
SUSE LINUX Products GmbH -- Maxfeldstrasse 5 -- 90409 Nuernberg -- Germany
HRB 16746 (AG Nuernberg) GF: Jeff Hawn, Jennifer Guild, Felix Imendoerffer

John Jason Jordan

2013-01-31 18:04:41 UTC

On Thu, 31 Jan 2013 14:09:15 +0100 (CET)

Post by Johannes Meixner

Post by John Jason Jordan
So just now I downloaded the PPD from Xerox. I selected the Linux
option and downloaded the tar file. After untarring it I found and
xrx7400dn.ppd 85.0 KB Mon 02 Jan 2040

...

... I tried a few more things, including creating
a new Linux printer, but using the Windows PPD file instead of the
one in the Linux downloads section on xerox.com.
When I print to this printer I get perfect output ...

...

Post by Helge Blischke
Well, then I'd like to see the Linux PPD that lead to garbled
output. Perhaps I then could file a bug to your Linux distibutor
(pelase tell me who it is).

As far as I understand it, the Linux PPD was downloaded
from Xerox in the Linux downloads section on xerox.com.

That is correct.

The Windows PPD was also downloaded yesterday from xerox.com. The two
PPD files are not the same size or time stamp. I do not understand why
they are not the same. I always thought a PPD file was a PPD file,
written for the specific printer, and platform agnostic.

Johannes Meixner

2013-02-01 10:12:09 UTC

Hello,
...

Post by Johannes Meixner
As far as I understand it, the Linux PPD was downloaded
from Xerox in the Linux downloads section on xerox.com.

That is correct.
The Windows PPD was also downloaded yesterday from xerox.com. The two
PPD files are not the same size or time stamp. I do not understand why
they are not the same. I always thought a PPD file was a PPD file,
written for the specific printer, and platform agnostic.

Your understanding and your expectation is right.

But at the few printer manufacturers that I know about (not yet Xerox)
those who deal with their Windows customers work basically totally
separated from their "special forces" who deal with those strange
Linux folks out there that nobody else understands ;-)
As a result what they provide to their Windows customers is basically
totally decoupled from what they provide to the Linux users.
I guess I learned right now that it is basically the same at Xerox.

Kind Regards
Johannes Meixner

--
SUSE LINUX Products GmbH -- Maxfeldstrasse 5 -- 90409 Nuernberg -- Germany
HRB 16746 (AG Nuernberg) GF: Jeff Hawn, Jennifer Guild, Felix Imendoerffer

upscope

2013-02-01 16:24:09 UTC

Post by Johannes Meixner
Hello,
...

Post by Johannes Meixner
As far as I understand it, the Linux PPD was downloaded
from Xerox in the Linux downloads section on xerox.com.

That is correct.
The Windows PPD was also downloaded yesterday from xerox.com. The two
PPD files are not the same size or time stamp. I do not understand
why they are not the same. I always thought a PPD file was a PPD
file, written for the specific printer, and platform agnostic.

Your understanding and your expectation is right.
But at the few printer manufacturers that I know about (not yet Xerox)
those who deal with their Windows customers work basically totally
separated from their "special forces" who deal with those strange
Linux folks out there that nobody else understands ;-)
As a result what they provide to their Windows customers is basically
totally decoupled from what they provide to the Linux users.
I guess I learned right now that it is basically the same at Xerox.
Kind Regards
Johannes Meixner

I found this to be true with Brothers also.

--
openSUSE 12.2(Linux 3.4.11-2.16-desktop x86_64)|
KDE 4.9.5 "release 3"|Intel core2duo 2.5 MHZ,|8GB DDR3|GeForce
8400GS(NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-304.60)

James Cloos

2013-02-01 06:22:34 UTC

Can you post the two PPDs somewhere so that we can compare?

I'm also curious what the difference could be which would impact an
embedded font.

-JimC

--
James Cloos <cloos-GRsvFm/Gh/***@public.gmane.org> OpenPGP: 1024D/ED7DAEA6

John Jason Jordan

2013-02-01 06:49:32 UTC

On Thu, 31 Jan 2013 22:22:34 -0800

Post by James Cloos
Can you post the two PPDs somewhere so that we can compare?
I'm also curious what the difference could be which would impact an
embedded font.

You can get them from xerox.com. One is in the Linxu section and the
other is in the Windows section. Search on Phaser 7400DN.

Johannes Meixner

2013-01-30 16:06:37 UTC

Hello,

Post by John Jason Jordan
I cannot get documents with the Junicode font to render the font.

...

Post by John Jason Jordan
... Scribus allows converting the font to paths on PDF
export, which is the only way I can get the font to appear properly in
the printout.

...

Post by John Jason Jordan
... I cannot find any way in LibreOffice to print directly to
a PS file without selecting a printer. Regardless of what printer I
select it does not convert the font to paths, as the resulting .ps file
will still print with the font garbled.

I don't have a Xerox Phaser 7400DN and I am not at all an expert
regarding fonts.

Nevertheless it seems what you need for the Xerox Phaser 7400DN
is a conversion tool that can convert a PostScript or PDF file
with an embedded font into a PostScript or PDF file with the
font converted to paths.

As far as I know Ghostscript can do this, in particular the
Ghostscript "devices" pswrite/ps2write that convert PostScript
or PDF into PostScript and pdfwrite that convert PostScript or
PDF into PDF.

Usually those Ghostscript devices can be used via bash scripts
like /usr/bin/ps2ps /usr/bin/ps2ps2 /usr/bin/ps2pdf /usr/bin/ps2pdf12
/usr/bin/ps2pdf13 /usr/bin/ps2pdf14 /usr/bin/ps2pdfwr

The Ghostscript devices pswrite/ps2write and pdfwrite
have many options for almost any kind of special stuff.

I don't know which Ghostscript version you have installed but on
http://ghostscript.com/Documentation.html
you can get Ghostscript documentation for various Ghostscript versions
for example for the current GPL Ghostscript 9.06 there is
http://www.ghostscript.com/doc/9.06/Ps2ps2.htm
and
http://www.ghostscript.com/doc/9.06/Ps2pdf.htm
and
http://www.ghostscript.com/doc/9.06/Devices.htm#PS

Kind Regards
Johannes Meixner

--
SUSE LINUX Products GmbH -- Maxfeldstrasse 5 -- 90409 Nuernberg -- Germany
HRB 16746 (AG Nuernberg) GF: Jeff Hawn, Jennifer Guild, Felix Imendoerffer

John Jason Jordan

2013-01-30 18:55:05 UTC