Printer drivers

[deB]

I have to tell you, it's with some trepidation that I dip my toe into this exceedingly attractive pool of quicksand ... so often in the past a large chunk of my existence has occasionally disappeared, with the only trace being a faint green glow emanating from behind these doors.

Having said that: who the heck writes printer drivers, other than the big names (Adobe, HP, Epson, MS)?

The other day I was reminiscing with someone about when PostScript was new and the MS PS driver sucked for imagesetter output (aka Did Not Work Right), and we (DTPFOR) discovered that MS *owned* some Linotronics but hadn't thought to test their driver on them.

I also vividly recall the various bastardacious things committed by some application vendors - hacks to work around a bug here and there, but never removed, plus at least one hack that *used* a bug in the LaserWriter driver. (It cost me a plane ticket and a Fudrucker's hamburger to extract that info from the guy who did it...the hack caused failure in all printers that actually implemented PS correctly. And why did the guy do it? "It was the only thing that would work on the LaserWriter I had at my desk." Arrrgghhhh...)

If I'd thought of it at the time (and if I'd known how), I would have snagged the opportunity to generate something that works right. I'm not the sharpest apple in the tree (sic), so I figure somebody else must have done so. But who?

deB

[terrie]

deB: "It was the only thing that would work on the LaserWriter I had at my desk." Arrrgghhhh...)LOL!!!

I kinda remember having problems with these odd kluges but not for the last few years...I don't know if that's a function of the kluges not being done anymore or that fact that the only new printers I've bought have been inkjets--non-ps--and my HP6MP just keeps chugging along...

Terrie

[Howard White]

who the heck writes printer drivers, other than the big names (Adobe, HP, Epson, MS)?
deB

Dear Doctor deBrinko,

Pardon me for asking, but many People who Seem to Know What They're Talking About use the term "printer driver" when what they really mean is PPD. Are you really talking about the thing that talks to the operating system (e.g.CUPS in the *nix world and OSX)? or about PPDs? If the latter, what OS are you struggling with? In the *nix/Open Software world, there are lots of alternatives.

Best from yr aging 'ol buddy ;)

HW

[ktinkel]

And why did the guy do it? "It was the only thing that would work on the LaserWriter I had at my desk." Arrrgghhhh...That explanation I believe!

There was a time, and admittedly quite a while ago, when an H-P PostScript driver had a typo in it. Someone figured out how to fix it and then users passed the fix around so they could get their expensive laser printers to print their pages.

So far as I know, H-P never owned up to this. And by the time I got my current H-P printer (the 5000N), everything worked well.