Use linux as an printer

fdahl_009 · 03-23-2009, 02:31 AM

Hello!

I have got an problem that I hope there is an easy solution to using linux.

At work we have an printer that is being used from an windows based remote software solution. The printer is an Brother DCP-8040 USB. Some days ago the printer broke. I have an another printer here, but the software vendor says they cannot setup for that printer since it is not pcl compatible or something.. The other printer is an HP Color Laserjet 3550.

The printer that broke is shared via an windows machine, \\192.168.1.6\printer1

What I was hoping for, is there an way for me to configure my laptop (Debian 5) to use the HP printer, but emulate the Brother towards the 192.168.1.6 machine?

Maybe I could get the laptop configured so that the windows machine thinks that it is an printer and save the printings to pdf files or something?

Hopefully someone understand what I am trying to do here and can give me some help..

Fredrik.

asymptote · 03-23-2009, 03:29 AM

Can't you just plug the printer into your laptop and print from it that way?

farslayer · 03-23-2009, 07:23 AM

HP Printers are pretty well supported under Linux.. hplip has support for the HP Laserjet 3550. And your vendor is right it is NOT a PCL or Postscript printer, althought the driver should handle that portion anyway, not your appication..

Quote:

Printer language - HP JetReady 4.1 enhanced host-based printing for Windows and Macintosh (For PostScript printing, HP recommends the HP Color LaserJet 3700 or 2550 series printers.)

http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web...rjet_3550.html

Hern_28 · 03-23-2009, 03:09 PM

If I understand what you want to do correctly, could just use printer sharing with the windows machines or samba on a linux machine to share the printer.

jhcaiced · 03-23-2009, 04:51 PM

Hi,

If I understand correctly your windows printer solution works with PCL printers only
so the approach I suggest is to setup a linux printer with a filter to convert PCL
files to Postscript and then you can print these files to your HP printer, you can
share these printer under Linux with Samba to transparently replace the Brother
printer.

A solution for PCL conversion is GhostPDL (google it for a download link)

Best regards,

fdahl_009 · 03-24-2009, 02:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jhcaiced

Hi,

If I understand correctly your windows printer solution works with PCL printers only
so the approach I suggest is to setup a linux printer with a filter to convert PCL
files to Postscript and then you can print these files to your HP printer, you can
share these printer under Linux with Samba to transparently replace the Brother
printer.

A solution for PCL conversion is GhostPDL (google it for a download link)

Best regards,

Aha, thanks, this looks like something I was thinking about doing. Have not done anything like this before, so I did not know what the right "computer-term" for it was.

You are correct, the windows system thinks that it has an brother printer that it prints to, then I need the linux box setup so that it can handle that "request" and do what needs to be done to redirect it to the hp printer. Locally installing the hp printer should be the small problem her I think.