[cups.general] Where to get PPD files?

[John Jason Jordan]

On Thu, 01 Nov 2007 08:27:47 -0700
Kurt Pfeifle <k1pfeifle at gmx.net> dijo:

> John Jason Jordan wrote:
> > First, I said I had a 4M Plus, not a 4L. But that's OK, I had already
> > been there. I ended up at:
> > http://openprinting.org/show_printer.cgi?recnum=HP-LaserJet_4M_Plus
> > And there is no option to download a PPD file.
> 
> Indeed. Something is not working any more on that website...
> 
> However, you should be able to print out stuff on the 4M Plus using
> the "laserjet.ppd" that ships with CUPS.
> 
> Check if it is installed on your system:
> 
>    su
>    lpinfo -m |grep laserjet.ppd

This resulted in a list of lots of PPD files, only two of which said
"HP" in the name of the vendor, and neither was for a 4M+. However,
there was something really strange in the list. Lots of entries like
the following:

foomatic:Kyocera-P-2002-laserjet.ppd Kyocera P-2002 Foomatic/laserjet
foomatic:Okidata-OL400-laserjet.ppd Okidata OL400 Foomatic/laserjet
(recommended)

Now, this confuses the devil out of me. I thought "laserjet" was a
trademark of Hewlett-Packard. 

>    ls -l /usr/share/cups/model/laserjet*

This just resulted in "no such file."

This whole PPD file issue is a mess, part of which is caused by my
failure to grasp what a PPD file does. I thought that you didn't need a
PPD file for a non-PostScript printer (e.g., the 4+, which has PCL
only), and that if you wanted to use a printer in PostScript mode the
PPD file was required. Yet, the file I used says it is for the 4+ or 4M
+. 

Adding to the confusion, the files usually have a cryptic name in order
to keep them in the ancient 8.3 format, and I haven't found any web
site with a cross-reference to the actual brand and model of the
printer. For example, when I unzipped the .exe file from Adobe I got 39
files with names like "BGHP30W1.PPD." That makes it pretty hard to
figure out which is the correct PPD file. In my case I guessed that it
had to be HP4PLUS3.PPD or HP4PLUS6.PPD. I knew that PPD files are text
files, so I opened each one in Gedit. Reading down to about the 20th
line I found a reference that one was for the HP4+ or 4M+ at 300 dpi
and the other was for 600 dpi. I used the HP4PLUS6.PPD file and it
seems to work. However, I have no idea if it is actually using the
PostScript SIMM installed in the printer, or if the other driver I
installed (where I did not use a PPD file) is a PCL only driver. When
you go to install a new printer in CUPS (Gutsy amd64) there are a
bewildering array of options (foomatic, gutenprint, use PPD file or
not?) and I can't figure out which to use. I just want to be able to
install the driver for the printer without first needing a degree in
computer science.

OK, enough ranting. I'll shut up now. :)