Mac OS X printing to networked NEC dot matrix printer

[Dirk Rösler]

Hello --

I am on Mac OS and have just purchased a NEC MultiImpact 700XX2N (PR-D700XX2N) dot matrix printer that is supposed to print carbon copy forms (switching printer not an option).

http://www.nec.co.jp/products/dot/suihei/index.html (sorry, all in Japanese)

It has a network interface (with an embedded print server, I believe) and networks fine, but there is no Mac driver or PPD. I can ping it and configured it on the Mac in printer control panel/CUPS web admin.

I can print to it from apps with Generic PS Printer configured, but of course it spits out all the postscript gibberish. I don't need any control over fonts etc., just plain output of ASCII characters or text data I sent to it, line by line and perhaps form feed. I need to set up label templates and start printing from my backend software (not decided).

There is Windows software provided, but I'd rather avoid setting this up and I have no Win machines.

I don't think the printer is a PS printer.

At some point I was able to print using the following command, but now that doesn't work anymore.

lpr -P NEC_MultiImpact_700XX2N -o raw file.txt

The printer uses a command set called 201PL, which seems proprietary to NEC and probably used in Japan only as it supports Asian Multibyte Printing. Solaris Japanese supports NEC PC-PR201 (based on 201PL). Solaris seems to incorporate a filter/function called jprconv to convert to this.

Is there a way I just can send plain characters to the printer and print on tractor-fed paper? Ideally I would like to print from applications, but if only the command line works, I'd be happy too.

Thanks for any suggestions and help.