I don't know if this is significant but since the last OS4 update with the work done to the usb side of things I can use the printer half of the HP C3180 all in one photosmart express with just the bog standard HP_Deskjet_970c driver in Devs and the Usbprinter.device. I couldnt get the usb printer working at all before. only glitches so far are with PPaint and XiPaint, trials are ongoing. Well done Hyperion.
@bean great, thanks for that. I had not even seen it on OS4 depot before. It has sorted out the Xipaint printing problem so I can print all my PPaint pics from that. although PPaint itself still will not print and I have not tried PSmode with it. My main concern was to reprint my business cards ( It might have been easier to design new ones on Art Effect, but we get attached to our favourites don't we?)
I've tried every Epson driver I could find on aminet and been through the complete Epson Range of Drivers in turboprint 7.6. None of them seem to work with my Epson though. Hope one appears for the USB RX range one day.
Has development of the Amiga Version of turboprint halted ? The linux version seems years ahead interms of modern printer support.
Not that old of a thread, so it's practically still alive
I got a HP Laserjet 5L from a rummage sale (well, tbh i got it because i fixed a lovely lady's PeeCee - still, it WAS for sale) and tried it on the AOne parallel port ...
... nearly instant success, with the HP_Laserjet_5 driver and a first try in AmigaWriter it worked straight out of the box (after i taught AmigaWriter that there *IS* a printer attached, no matter what the program thinks)
I now have formatted text on print-outs again (need to test graphics though, it's a b/w, but thats ok)
Thank you Hyperion, thanks for all you done so far
/me is breaking every lance for Hyperion me can get
My impression is that development of Turboprint for the Amiga stopped years ago. All of the Epson drivers for the Amiga are too old. I was going to write an OS4 driver for the Epson Stylus C8x series, but the current SDK doesn't include the files for native drivers and I don't have time for it.
I've decided that the next time that I buy a printer, I'll look for one that supports postscript. That will bypass the lack of drivers issue.
Basicky, cups is a smart frontend to gs (Ghostscript). Ghostscript has an option to build some printer drivers in, this will do the trick: gs -sOUTPUTFILE=par: -sDEVICE=put-your-printer's-gs-dirver-here somefile.ps (will work for pdf) edit: or use ghostscript print in amigs/amipdf with these two switches in the opions field.
I used gs as printer driver on my A1200 once and I'm pretty sure this was enough.
And: gs is in development, and free and there's an OS4 port Here's its output with what I recognize as designated printer drivers in bold Quote:
9.AOS4:> gs -help GPL Ghostscript 8.54 (2006-05-17) Copyright (C) 2006 artofcode LLC, Benicia, CA. All rights reserved. Usage: gs [switches] [file1.ps file2.ps ...] Most frequently used switches: (you can use # in place of =) -dNOPAUSE no pause after page | -q `quiet', fewer messages -g<width>x<height> page size in pixels | -r<res> pixels/inch resolution -sDEVICE=<devname> select device | -dBATCH exit after last file -sOutputFile=<file> select output file: - for stdout, |command for pipe, embed %d or %ld for page # Input formats: PostScript PostScriptLevel1 PostScriptLevel2 PostScriptLevel3 PDF Default output device: amiga_printer Available devices: amiga amiga_printer bbox bit bitcmyk bitrgb bj10e bj200 bjc600 bjc800 bmp16 bmp16m bmp256 bmp32b bmpgray bmpmono bmpsep1 bmpsep8 cdeskjet cdj550 cdjcolor cdjmono cljet5 cljet5c deskjet devicen djet500 eps9high eps9mid epson epsonc epswrite faxg3 faxg32d faxg4 ibmpro jpeg jpeggray laserjet lj5gray lj5mono ljet2p ljet3 ljet3d ljet4 ljet4d ljetplus nullpage pbm pbmraw pcx16 pcx24b pcx256 pcxcmyk pcxgray pcxmono pdfwrite pgm pgmraw pgnm pgnmraw pj pjxl pjxl300 pkm pkmraw pksm pksmraw png16 png16m png256 png48 pngalpha pnggray pngmono pnm pnmraw ppm ppmraw ps2write psdcmyk psdrgb psgray psmono psrgb pswrite pxlcolor pxlmono spotcmyk stcolor tiff12nc tiff24nc tiff32nc tiffcrle tiffg3 tiffg32d tiffg4 tiffgray tifflzw tiffpack tiffsep turboprint uniprint xcf Search path: , Ghostscript:data/8.54/lib , Ghostscript:data/8.54/Resource , Ghostscript:data/fonts , FONTS:_Ghostscript For more information, see Ghostscript:data/8.54/doc/Use.htm. Report bugs to bug-gs@ghostscript.com, using the form in Bug-form.htm.
Jack
"the expression, 'atonal music,' is most unfortunate--it is on a par with calling flying 'the art of not falling,' or swimming 'the art of not drowning.'. A. Schoenberg
Basicky, cups is a smart frontend to gs (Ghostscript).
I don't think so. CUPS has its own Driver Development Kit (DDK), and Ghostscript hasn't seen any development of its printer drivers in over a decade (IIRC). In fact, the OS4 version has printer backends for the Amiga printing system and Turboprint for that very reason.
I'm not sure what to think of CUPS. It looks like everything is network based. IMHO, the printer API should be a non-network API, with network support using that API. I always think it's stupid if local programs have to communicate with other local programs via TCP/IP. What a waste.
The other problem I have at present, is that I haven't found a clear document explaining how an application would use the CUPS API to print. Sure, there's autodoc style documentation, but that's inadequate. It is important to show, step-by-step, how to render a document to a printer. The printing API should be easy to use.
I don't think so. CUPS has its own Driver Development Kit (DDK), and Ghostscript hasn't seen any development of its printer drivers in over a decade (IIRC). In fact, the OS4 version has printer backends for the Amiga printing system and Turboprint for that very reason.
As far as I saw, you can supply a .ppd file to cups to add a printer. And .ppd-s as far as I bothered to look included sets of gs options in a structured way so the could be easily wrapped to act as a "driver" (trays, duplex options etc). If it is not always true then I've just been looking into ones that support PostScript?
And as you said (and me on several ocasions and I'm doing it again): wanna printer for Amiga -- buy a postscript one, a world which is much better than inkjet one. Have one here, no regrets.
Jack
"the expression, 'atonal music,' is most unfortunate--it is on a par with calling flying 'the art of not falling,' or swimming 'the art of not drowning.'. A. Schoenberg
They may well be using Ghostscript as a rasterizer, but they still have their own drivers. In that case Ghostscript becomes a tool, in the same way that Turboprint uses Ghostscript to allow all printers to print postscript files.
BTW, am I the only one that thinks that ?69 ($89 US) is too high for a program that hasn't been updated in almost four years and appears to no longer be developed? It's also very high compared to the cost of the printers that it supports, many of which are no longer being manufactured.
The still actively developed (AFAIK) Linux version is ?29.95 ($38 US).
I think if you look on the turbo-print website, it tells you somewhere that Amiga developement has indeed stopped. Last time I checked was quite a while back, mind you.
Edit: Just checked again. The last version for Amiga is 7.60 for 69 Euros, but the last update was 2004 for OS 2.04.
Not that I had much luck with cups a few years ago when the A1's only had linux to run at first. . . \
but. . .
Why would people pay 30 euros for a printer driver for Linux when cups and others systems are avaiable?
I got fed up with Irsee way back when there was no way they would provide the program in a format that could be installed on my A1. I didn't get TP running on the A1 until after I got a cat weasel and got it running, so I could get around the "registration via floppy" situation with their install routine.
Paul
Builder of Frankenthousand The monster A1000 The Young Frankenthousand A1-XE G4 X5000
I finally got so tired of waiting for Irsee that we went out and bought a Minolta postscript laser. Some results are a little unporedictable using the generic Workbench PS driver, but overall it works.
Paul
Builder of Frankenthousand The monster A1000 The Young Frankenthousand A1-XE G4 X5000
Why would people pay 30 euros for a printer driver for Linux when cups and others systems are avaiable?
It's the Micro$oft syndrome(tm) ... most "normal" users don't know/care about OpenSource software, they only see the soft that is being put in papers and television ... i can't count the list of people i tried to convince using OO.org instead of M$Office .. guess what? Most of them went back paying hundreds of dollars to get the newest version of M$
Not that I had much luck with cups a few years ago when the A1's only had linux to run at first. . . \
but. . .
Why would people pay 30 euros for a printer driver for Linux when cups and others systems are avaiable?
I wouldn't. However, not all of the open-source drivers work properly. The Epson driver for my printer routinely corrupted the page and started spitting out blanks. I could see someone buying drivers simply because the open-source ones for his/her printer don't work properly.
My point was this: why is the Amiga version which is old, and no longer developed, more than twice the price of the actively developed version? The value for money just isn't there. $89 (not including postage) for the ability to print using a printer that can probably be bought for half that now. If the price had been reasonable, I would have forked out the cash for it.
Well I personally cannot justify the cost, no matter how good-looking the results are. If Irseesoft dropped the price, I'd consider it, and I'm sure that others would too.
I'm not sure if development would continue if OS4 hardware were available as I've been told that many of the drivers are in 68k assembly.
If i dont need Proffesional Color output i would get GS or the HP printer drivers from Aminet to print text and simple color papers ...
But if you need very good quality then NO WAY without TP .....
IMHO the core is assembler [and partialy PPC code (WOS) ] The drivers assembler.
But with the sources this is not a big task, the basical writen from the driver and making a good color translation table is the way more time expansive task.