DeskJet 880C/882C/895C Ghostscript Driver
(c) Copyright 2000 Matthew J. Gelhaus
All rights reserved.
Overview
This is a driver for Aladdin
Ghostscript to allow full-color printing to Hewlett-Packard DeskJet 880C, 882C, 895C, and
possibly other HP 800-series printers. It is based on work done by Uli
Wortmann for his DeskJet 850C driver.
Uli's driver has recently been admitted into the main Ghostscript
distribution. We (Uli and I) are working to merge my code with his, so this
driver would become part of Ghostscript as well.
Supported printers
printer |
GS device |
support |
812C
815C
832C
880C
882C
895C |
cdj880 |
v1.31 - Good text & color, photos
poor. v1.4beta - Photos working, not suitable for text. |
932C |
cdj880 |
??? - probably the same
as the 970C below. Please let me know if you try this out! | 970C |
cdj880 | v1.31 -
Good text & color, photos poor, doesn't use color cartridge optimally.
v1.4beta - Photos working, not suitable for text. Doesn't use color cartridge
optimally. |
Regarding the 900-series printers above, I have received reports of it working
with the new 970C printer, but I am sure it doesn't take full advantage of
that printer's new color cartridge. I do plan to add full support for the
970C in the near future.
Please let me know if you can
confirm this driver works with one of the models listed above, or if you find
it works with an unlisted model. I would like to keep a complete list of
printers it works with right here.
BTW, if you are looking for a good list of how various printers are
supported under Linux be sure to check out Grant Taylor's Linux Printing
HOWTO Database. (Yes, I know his page looks similar to mine. I think he
liked the style of my web page. ;-) )
Features
v1.4beta
Yes!!! This is the first version to achieve
photo-quality! As you can see by the version number, it is a beta and as such
is not complete. Gamma is way off, resulting in photos that are still too dark
and contrasty. This version also doesn't use the black cartridge at all
(yet). If you are adventurous and/or would like to help improve this driver,
check this version out. This version has the best photo output, but is not
yet suitable for text output (I still need to work in a
true-black/composite-black switch).
v1.31 This driver works pretty well for most
tasks. Text and color graphics come out guite good. The main known problem is
the dithering for photographs is too coarse, given the capabilities of the
printer. For most tasks, except printing of photographs, this driver is an
acceptable substitute for the Windows driver. For photographs, this driver is
still the best alternative I have found for Ghostscript. This version also
has an annoying blinking-light bug (on the printer) after a job is finished,
but it doesn't really affect anything. This version currently produces the
best text output and good graphics (but not photo) output. System
requirements This package requires Aladdin Ghostscript. It will work
with all versions >= 5.5, including the latest 6.0 release. It may work with
older versions of Ghostscript as well, but I have not tested it. (This might
be your excuse to upgrade, anyway!)
Ghostscript is platform independent, but as I use Linux I can give info
about the systems I have tested it on. I have successfully tested it on Linux
2.0.30, 2.0.36, and 2.2.5 with both libc5 (2.0 kernels) and glibc (2.2
kernel). I only have an 880C, so I rely on reports from others to confirm
it works on other HP DeskJet models.
License
Until now, I have been working under the GNU General Public License,
which is a fine open-source license that protects against unethical use of
open-source code. Ghostscript is under the Aladdin Free
Public License, which unfortunately is incompatible with the GPL. In
order to make my code compatible with Ghostscript so it can be included in
future distributions, I will be changing the license to the Aladdin Free
Public License for the final version 1.4.
Download I only provide source code, because I simply
don't have time to maintain binaries. If someone wants to contribute binaries,
I would be willing to post them here, or provide a link to wherever you wanted
to host them. You may want to shift-click to save the following links
directly to a file:
1.4beta |
26-Feb-2000 |
gdevcd8.c (103K) |
tar/gz (24K) |
ZIP (24K) |
BETA! Photo-quality, but too dark and
contrasty. Composite black, so unsuitable for text. Lays down too much ink.
Blinking-light bug finally squashed for good. |
1.31 |
15-Mar-1999 |
gdevcd8.c (98K) |
tar/gz (23K) |
ZIP (23K) |
Excellent text, good graphics, poor photos.
Currently the best general-purpose driver. |
Installation Now that Ghostscript 6.0 includes Uli's driver,
installation is a lot easier than it used to be. Along with the instructions,
I include an example for Linux (or other versions of Unix). Ghostscript
6.0 1. Unpack the Ghostscript distribution according to the
official instructions at the Ghostscript home page. 2.
Copy the file gdevcd8.c you obtained above into the Ghostscript source
directory. (if necessary, unpack the archive first). 3. Edit the
file contrib.mak. Find the section for the cdj850 driver (it begins at
line 451 for Ghostscript 6.0). Insert the following between the cdj670.dev
line and the cdj890.dev line: - $(DD)cdj880.dev :
$(cdeskjet8_) $(DD)page.dev
- $(SETPDEV2) $(DD)cdj880 $(cdeskjet8_)
Make sure you insert a -TAB- character before the second line (not
spaces)! For your convenience, here is a copy of contrib.mak already
edited (for GS 6.0 only!): contrib.mak.
4. Edit the appropriate makefile for your system and add the cdj880
device to one of the DEVICE_DEVS# lines. For example:
DEVICE_DEVS19=$(DD)cdj880.dev
Here is a modified unix-gcc.mak for Linux/Unix: unix-gcc.mak
5. Build Ghostscript. Refer to the
Ghostscript home page if you need
instructions.
Example build of Ghostscript 6.0 on Linux:
$ su
Password:
# cd /usr/local/src
# tar zxvf /tmp/ghostscript-6.0.tar.gz
# cd gs6.0
# tar zxvf /tmp/ghostscript-6.0jpeg.tar.gz
# tar zxvf /tmp/ghostscript-6.0libpng.tar.gz
# tar zxvf /tmp/ghostscript-6.0zlib.tar.gz
# mv jpeg-6b jpeg
# mv libpng-1.0.3 libpng
# mv zlib-1.1.3 zlib
# cd src
# cp /tmp/gdevcd8.c ./
# kwrite contrib.mak
- ...some editing happens...
# kwrite unix-gcc.mak
- ...some editing happens...
# cd ..
# ln -s /usr/X11R6 /usr/X11 (needed by some Linux
distributions)
# make -f src/unix-gcc.mak
Usage
This driver adds the device cdj880. Use the switch
-sDEVICE=cdj880 to invoke.
This driver adds a few specific
command-line options to Ghostscript:
option |
default |
meaning |
-dPapertype |
0 |
0=plain paper, 1=bond paper, 2=special paper, 3=photo
paper, 4=transparency |
-dQuality |
1 |
-1=draft, 0=normal, 1=best |
-dMasterGamma |
1.0 |
(v1.31) Master gamma value. Must be >1.0 for
other gamma values to have an effect. |
-dGammaValC |
0.0 |
(v1.31) Cyan gamma value. |
-dGammaValM |
0.0 |
(v1.31) Magenta gamma value. |
-dGammaValY |
0.0 |
(v1.31) Yellow gamma value. |
Consult the Ghostscript documentation for
general usage information about Ghostscript.
Example using the driver in Linux:
$ gs -q -sDEVICE=cdj880 -dNOPAUSE -dSAFER -dBATCH\
-sOutputFile=- test.ps |lpr
Contact
Please e-mail me with bug reports
and code improvements. I definitely encourage others to work
on this driver with me!
You can also ask me questions about compiling and
usage, but I am not always able to respond to my e-mail promptly. I try to
answer every one, but sometimes I get too far behind.
E-mail: hp880@gelhaus.net
Credits As
mentioned above, this driver is based on the work of Uli Wortmann, who wrote
the original DeskJet 850C driver. He had other contributors as well, check his web page.
Last modified: March 6, 2000. (c) Copyright 2000 Matthew J.
Gelhaus All rights reserved. |