CUPS 1.4.3 && printing UTF-8 text

[Helge Blischke]

Matthias Apitz wrote:

> 
>> > The way generating PCL from the big Postscript file, using Ghostscript'
>> > driver ljet4, works fine; the resulting file is only around 64 Kbyte
>> > (and not 1 MByte Postscript) for a single half page; the PCL prints
>> > fine on HP LaserJet models, but not on some Kyocera Mita FS1010, which
>> > are attached on USB to Windows PC's and controlled by some kind of
>> > Windows spooling software (in CUPS they are configured as socket:/....
>> > using a Generic PCL driver);
>> >
>> > I know that is now already far of topic, but maybe someone has an idea
>> > were to look, because the customer has around 70 of these old printers
>> > and awaits that they work with Unicode as they did before with ISO
>> > 8859-1 printing.
>> >
>> > Thanks in advance
>> >
>> >     matthias
>>
>> See
>> http://www.openprinting.org/printer/Kyocera/Kyocera-FS-1010
>> Kyocera's website states that this printer speaks pcl as well.
>>
> 
> Yes, I have checked the page before and tested in Ghostscript all the
> mentioned drivers 'ljet4', 'ljet4d' and 'pxlmono'; the PCL output is just
> not understood by the printer or is mangled by the Windows spooler sw
> before it goes to the printer itself; I have asked the customer to provide
> me one of the printers and the spooling software and will check in detail
> (for example connecting the USB printer directly a UNIX running CUPS)
> what's going on;
> 
> thanks as well for your other hints; I will see what I can drain from
> them;
> 
>    matthias

Well, if the printers in question are hooked to Windows boxes, they probably 
are configured to speak Kyocera's PRESCRIBE language.

It is certainly possible to write a filter which converts PostScript (to be 
precise: mime type application:/vnd.cups-postscript) to Prescribe, but as 
this is
(1) a fairly exotic thing which certainly won't gain wide spreading,
and
(2) would take at least 3 to 4 weeks of work for a first implementation,
I think it is too big a task for an ad-hoc open source project.
But, if your customer heavily relies on such a thing, I could think about 
implementing such a beast for a reasonable fee.

Helge