Need Help with HPIJS...HP Printer....

N

New2Mac06

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I currently have a HP Inkjet 4plus on a windows network.
I can connect to the network with no problem and connect to the printer, however when i print; it comes out in jibberish.

I was instructed to download the HPIJS driver for my printer (it does include the drivers for this printer) from members on this site.

I downloaded the file from http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=16846&package_id=14424&release_id=350953.

The instructions can be found at http://hpinkjet.sourceforge.net/install_hpijs.php

I download it to the desktop of the Mac (OSX10) and then unzip the file, it creates a file on the desktop with all appropiate files inside (folder called hpijs-2.1.4)


FROM HERE im basically lost even when following the install instructions. It states there is a automakefile which will compile and install the driver....but nothing has happened at all.

Can someone please help a NON-Mac user understand and get this situation on the move!

Thanks for everything.
Kay
 
You have downloaded the printer driver for Linux (or X11) operating systems, not Mac OSX. [Mac OSX is based on unix and you can download/use Linux or X11 which is apples version but probably do not have this installed].

For Mac OSX we need to go to HP's and Apple's sites to see what they suggest. Below is the list of included drivers in OSX 10.4 and there are lists at apple.com/support for other version of the OS. You do need to know exactly the name of your printer (Inkjet 4 and Deskjet 4 don't seem to come up at the HP site).

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301175#hpdrivers

What driver did you pick when you first set up this printer? When you add a printer from the print dialog box it either finds the printer automatically and selects a printer driver OR you can select your own printer driver manually. You might want to try this step again and select a different printer driver that you already may have.
 
Stop!
Don't compile that!

Cam, for network printing, you Must have CUPS drivers, and Kay is on the right track - to get CUPS drivers for an HP non-postscript printer. (Brother is the only manufacturer of non-postscript printers to provide CUPS drivers)

Kay, Apple has already included a driver that will work for your model - the "HP Laserjet 4 Series, CUPS + Gimp-Print" driver.

But if you want to get another driver that is just for the 4L, you can still get the hpijs and ESP ghostscript from:
http://www.linuxprinting.org/macosx/hpijs/
Don't get the source code, get the regular Mac installer files (ending in .dmg).
 
You guys have been an amazing help and I thank you very much.

I was attempting to connect to 2 printers.
1. HP Laserjet 4plus
2. HP Color Laserjet 3500

When i installed the hpijs-footmatic, and the ghostscript...EVERYTHING WORKED GREAT! I'm very happy i got to figure this issue out.

2 more questions though!

1. The color laser jet is not printing when i attempt to print to it. It states "The process "footmatic-Rip" stopped unexpectedly with status 3." Do you have any idea why it would be returning this when i attempt to print to it?
The printer is defiently on the list for the printers on this driver i installed.

2. Let me just understand this and have it confirmed. The "HPIJS" i installed was the printer driver correct? However the "ESP Ghostscript" i installed; what is its purpose in being installed on the computer?

Once again thanks for the help! I appreciate it very much.
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghostscript

I had to look this up, I had seen but not needed to use Ghostscript. I am not sure if this definition clears this up further. My take is that ghostscript allows non-postscript native printers to print postscript files. I think both of your printers are postscipt native, although as before I can be wrong (our laserjet 4M plus printers were postscript native). So ghostscript would translate postscript commands so that a cheaper non-postscript printer could be used.

Now we have to look up postscript? http://www.cs.indiana.edu/docproject/programming/postscript/what-is-it.html

PostScript is a programming language optimized for printing graphics and text (whether on paper, film, or CRT is immaterial). In the jargon of the day, it is a page description language. It was introduced by Adobe in 1985 and first (to my knowledge) appeared in the Apple LaserWriter. The main purpose of PostScript was to provide a convenient language in which to describe images in a device independent manner. This device independence means that the image is described without reference to any specific device features (e.g. printer resolution) so that the same description could be used on any PostScript printer (say, a LaserWriter or a Linotron) without modification. In practice, some PostScript files do make assumptions about the target device (such as its resolution or the number of paper trays it has), but this is bad practice and limits portability.
 
Yup - that's it - ghostscript is the postscript translation & printer driver part and hpijs/Foomatic is the PPD files plus PPD interpreter part of the combo.

"stopped unexpectedly with status 3"
I've never had that error, but similar errors can be cleared by repairing permissions (Disk Utility) and restarting the Mac and trying again.

Good luck.
 
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