laserjet P2014 - problems printing from forms software

[david coates]

We have always used HP Laser printers to print from our main Business system without any problems, for example 1300, 4000 etc. When we come to print with the Laserjet P2014 the printer just prints out the control codes from the print job as though the printer cannot interpret the Printer Control Language. We have installed the PCL5E printer driver.

[Kenneth Chan_2]

David,

The LJ2014 is a "weird" printer in that it is a host based printer AND also supports PCL5 ; it is a fairly new printer and looks as if it is based on the engine as the LJ2015.

Two things spring to mind.

1. the LJ2015 had limited PCL5 font support - see the following post for details :-

http://forums12.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/bizsupport/questionanswer.do?threadId=1128102&admit=10944...

2. Could the problem be that your forms software is not sending the right sequence to change personality to PCL5?

You might be able to change personality by using the toolbox.

For other printers (and hopefully the LJ2014) you can change personality via software ; you send it the PJL sequence before the forms job :-

Ec%-12345X@PJL
@PJL ENTER LANGUAGE = PCL
Ec%-12345X

(where Ec is the ASCII escape character)

- attached is a HP support document that details PJL for the LJ2014)

You can check this as follows, if you use say Word to create a simple document then using the PCL5 driver you installed, print that document to a file and look at the very beginning of the file, it should have something similar to the PJL above.

Attached is a HP support document that details PJL for the LJ2014)

Hope this helps, regards

Ken

[david coates]

Thanks for your reply Ken, i tried the control codes but no luck - i think i am now resigned to the fact the printer will work for Windows application but not for our Business forms application which is very disappointing. I will look to see if i can purchase older printer models, for example HP 1320.
Thanks for your help.

David

[Kenneth Chan_2]

David,

I don't think all is lost. I downloaded the 2014 PCL5 driver just to see what it generates - seems like pretty standard PCL5. I'm convinced that the problem is do with generating the correct code in your forms software to switch to the PCL5 personality.

If the output from the forms software is non-confidential, can you attach a sample here that works on your other printers but fails on the LJ2014 so I can analyze it ?

Ken

[david coates]

Hi Ken

I have attached the job that our software sends, looks like it is a pfd formatted file.

When we send normal pdf files through Adobe on a Windows PC it does print ok.

Thanks

David

[Kenneth Chan_2]

David,

It the file you sent is PostScript not PCL5! The LJ2014 won't print this.

You may find it difficult to find a LJ1320 - this model has been discontinued but its replacement the LJ2015 which does support postscript.

regards

Ken

[david coates]

Thanks for all your help Ken. I think i need to more careful when selecting future laser printers i.e make sure they support postscript, sounds like i have just been unlucky selecting this type of printer.

Cheers

David