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Participant
May 15, 2010
Answered

PCL Postscript pagination problem

  • May 15, 2010
  • 1 reply
  • 1096 views

Hello,

I have several print files that contain a PCL job and one or more Postscript Jobs.  The PCL job prints a cover letter that is one or more pages and this is printed simplex.  The Postscript Job(s) can be any number of pages from 4 to 9 and need to be printed duplex with each Postscript Job starting on a new page.  Each Postscript Job has PCL code before and after the Postscript Job. I inserted a duplex command into each Postscript Job and this produces the desired duplex output with each Postscript Job starting on a new page.

Everything is great until I encountered a file that does not paginate correctly. This file has one PCL Job and three Postscript Jobs with 7, 8 and 7 pages respectfully.  When this file is printed the second Postscript Job of 8 pages starts on the back of page 7 of the first Postscript Job.  In addition, when this print file is sent to my printer it is broken up in to only two print job (the PCL Job and one Postscript Job).  This is unlike the other print files where each job in the print file becomes a separate print job on the printer.

From what I have been able to determine so far there is some in the Postscript Job that is causing the problem because I can take this Postscript Job and insert into a print file that works correctly and produce this problem in the working print file.  I have tried inserting a false 0 startjob pop in a attempt the force the printer to end the job but this did not work.

If anyone can provide some suggestions as to how I could try and debug this file so I can determine what the problem is that would be very helpful. Thank you in advance.

David

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Dov Isaacs

Issues of how a particular printer model handles physical imaging of mixed streams of PCL and PostScript really are beyond the scope of the PostScript language itself. These are issues of how a particular printer manufacturer implements its page pipeline in conjunction with switching from processing one language to another. The solution would probably vary from print vendor to print vendor and even printer model to printer model. There is nothing explicitly in PostScript to help you with this particular problem.

I suggest you contact the technical support organization of your printer vendor. They would (or should) have information that might allow you to solve your problem.

          - Dov

1 reply

Dov Isaacs
Dov IsaacsCorrect answer
Legend
May 16, 2010

Issues of how a particular printer model handles physical imaging of mixed streams of PCL and PostScript really are beyond the scope of the PostScript language itself. These are issues of how a particular printer manufacturer implements its page pipeline in conjunction with switching from processing one language to another. The solution would probably vary from print vendor to print vendor and even printer model to printer model. There is nothing explicitly in PostScript to help you with this particular problem.

I suggest you contact the technical support organization of your printer vendor. They would (or should) have information that might allow you to solve your problem.

          - Dov

- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)