Postscript job

[patron011965]

Hi,

How do I create a postscript job to load postscript fonts to an Ricoh IP5000 printer?

[jdeubert]

I’ll refer you to a set of Acumen Journal articles:

September 2002 (#19) "Converting PFB files to PostScript" describes how to convert Windows-style .pfb font files to something you can embed in a PostScript file or download to a printer.

If you just want to store the font temporarily in memory, you can take this PostScript font definition and precede it with

true 0 startjob pop

The font will remain in the printer until the printer restarts. On the other hand, if you need the font to be stored permanently on the printer, you’ll need to read:

January 2007 & April 2007 (#47 & 48) "PostScript Resources"

which discuss how to store onto a printer’s hard disk the PostScript font file that you derived from the pfb file in Journal #19.

The Acumen Journal is free for the downloading at www.acumentraining.com/acumenjournal.html.

Hope this helps a bit.

- John

-------

John Deubert

Acumen Training

PostScript & PDF consulting and training

www.acumentraining.com

[Dr.Adam]

All vendors like Canon, Xerox , Konica Minolta provides utility or tools to download and save fonts to the hard disk of the printer , this is free from their website! For example this is for Konica Minolta

http://onyxftp.mykonicaminolta.com/download/SearchResults.aspx?productid=1327&filetypeid=5

Canon has this tool as well but Xerox has it within thin VIPP tools

if the printer has Xerox freeflow !

I believe Ricoh have (must have) this tool as well!

If the printer has EFI then you can use efi free CWS - command work station-which has font load in the menu -  CWS supports all efi  rip for all vendors  (either built-in or external)

If you have Postscript font Type 1 you also can manuallay download them directly to any postscript printer

but first you need to convert it to ASCII format.  from PFB to PFA

after that you can simply copy the ASCII file to the printer using LPR dos command or any utility that send the file directly to the printer and bypass the windows driver.

The font will reside in the memory of the printer till power reset

PS. there are free utility to convert Type 1 font to ASCII format. .. you can google for them

Adam.

[Dov Isaacs]

FWIW, the capability of adding resident fonts to a PostScript printer, either in memory or into a printer's file system, is of dubious utilility.

The standard printer drivers for MacOS and Windows only assume that the fonts listed in the PPD file for a particular printer are resident and you can't modify PPD files dynamically. The fonts needed for a PostScript print job are included in the job stream. Yes, there is overhead in including those fonts with each job, but with typical ethernet or even USB 2.0 speeds, this overhead is inconsequential, especially compared to the problems of trying to synchronize fonts on the host computers with those resident in the printer.

Most graphic arts programs encourage you to ignore the printer-resident fonts. In fact Adobe Reader and Acrobat totally ignore printer-resident fonts and always use either the fonts embedded in the PDF file or lacking same, host fonts.

Those “in the know” actually modify their PostScript PPD files to only show one resident font, Courier, and that is only for the purpose of preventing certain driver bugs from occurring.

Exactly why do you want to load fonts into a PostScript printer?

          - Dov

[Dr.Adam]

Dov Isaacs "

" Exactly why do you want to load printers into a PostScript printer? "

I guess you are trying to say Why do you want to load fonts into a Postscript Printers."

Normally some output required special fonts with special character sets , none PS standard typefaces etc   and these fonts can not be embedded into the data stream and that's why download them to printer memory or printer hard disk is required.

" Most (if not all) PostScript interpreter (2004+) either third party or RIP with Adobe PS like EFI recognize the font in either memory resident and hard disk! 

It is normal routine for all Postscript developers and traditional application designers with VDP to download fonts into printer hard disk or resident memory.

But if you use the windows driver (Windows/Mac) to create your postscript job - I guess this is not the case with member patron011965   then a work around through PPD modifications must be done! That was in Win 98/XP where PPD is required for each printer !

I am not sure it can be done in new OS like Vista /Win7  etc

Dr. Adam

[Dov Isaacs]

Our experience with quite a few VDP applications doesn't confirm what you are claiming in terms of requirements for persistent downloaded fonts. Certainly PPML (which typically yields PostScript output) doesn't have such a requirement. Nor do any mainline VDP applications that are plug-ins to InDesign. It is certainly not difficult for a program generating its own PostScript and independently sending same to a printer or even a Windows application generating its own PostScript and using the passthrough feature to embed font information within the PostScript file.

          - Dov

[Dr.Adam]

I can name few VDP Applications which can use the font downloaded to printer hard disk

- PlanetPress

- Pres

- GMC

-VIPP

- Elixir

Of course you need to download the font first and find out the exact PS name.

[Dov Isaacs]

Can is very different than require!

          - Dov

[Dr.Adam]

The Software can address the font ! But the requirements is up to the print job!

It is almost 100% required in non-English Environment to implement fonts saved on the hard disk with English/Non English characters.

and that's why those VDP applications I mentioned - as example -  are allowing users to call/implement these fonts.

As I said it is  well know process among VDP Applications developers and PS coders but not among traditional users and outsider.

Dr. Adam