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ljet4
 
Built-in Ghostscript driver for PCL 5e laser printers
Supplier: GPL Ghostscript
License: GPL (free software)
User support:OpenPrinting forums (voluntary)
Max. rendering resolution: 600x600dpi   Only monochrome output   Type: Ghostscript built-in
Text:||||||||||  90Graphics:||||||||||  60System Load:Unknown
Line Art:||||||||||  90Photo:||||||||||  30Speed:||||||||||  90
 

Generic Instructions: CUPS, no spooler, PPD aware applications/clients,

Important for Windows clients: The CUPS PostScript driver for Windows has a bug which makes it choking on PPD files which contain GUI texts longer than 39 characters. Therefore it is recommended to use Adobe's PostScript driver. If you still want to use the CUPS driver, please mark "GUI texts limited to 39 characters" to get an appropriate PPD file.

Select printer:
the PPD file

 

Comments

This driver is available in the Ghostscript Printer Application

Ghostscript's HP LaserJet 4 (PCL 5e) driver.

"ljet4" is the classical Ghostscript driver for PCL 5e printers. It is probably widely used, as it is part of Ghostscript and does not require any extra software, but before Ghostscript 8.x its output quality was lousy and one has searched for alternative drivers. From Ghostscript 8.x the well-tempered screening was introduced which gives much better quality for half-tone images. You can make use of it by downloading the PPD file for your printer here and using the "HalftoningAlgorithm" option.

The "lj4dith" Ghostscript driver which uses Floyd-Steinberg dithering to improve the image output quality. Unfortunately, this driver has problems with the margins. The document is not placed exactly at the same position as with the "ljet4" driver. The page seems to be shifted to the upper right, probably due to the upper and right unprintable borders not taken into account. Formerly, you could use the driver with the same PPD file as "ljet4", simply by switching an option, but we have removed this feature due to the paper size problem. Use Well-Tempered screening if you want to enhance the image printing quality.

Use the "ljet4d" Ghostscript driver for Duplex (double-sided printing) support.

A Ghostscript bug in the driver breaks paper input tray selection. This patch for GPL Ghostscript 8.63 fixes the problem and allows to set the input tray with the "-dMediaPosition=X" commmand line option for Ghostscript. "X" is an integer number which depends on the printer model and tray. For HP "0" is usually the printer default, "7" automatic selection, "2" manual feed, "1" the upper, and "4" the lower tray. Note that for PCL 6/XL these numbers are different. The patch is required for Ghostscript 8.63 and older so that tray selection with the PPDs of this site works. The bug is fixed in Ghostscript 8.64 or newer.

A good PCL 5e driver is HPIJS which is developed by HP to support their non-PostScript laser printers. Gutenprint supports even PCL 4, 5, and 5e so that it serves as an alternative driver even for older printers. Gutenprint has many dithering algorithms to choose, but most are optimized for inkjets.

Note that many printers listed as supported by this driver also understand PCL-XL and so they can be used with the "lj5gray" and "pxlmono"/"pxlcolor" drivers which give a much higher output quality and resolutions up to 1200 dpi,

Unfortunately, the PCL drivers are not always absolutely compatible with every printer.

 

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