HP Color LaserJet 4550N Extra Page

[c567591]

One of our customers has a HP Color LaserJet 4550N. They are running SCO 5.0.6.
We have it printing fine on it except it prints a second page after each page.
We set it up like any of the other HP Lasers that we have setup w. 66 lines per page.

It is a big deal since it is preprinted forms that they are printing out. They tried reusing them, but there was too much curl in the pages that passed through the printer and they would jam too much.

I have tried editing the HPLaserJet script, and commenting out the printer reset inside the actual printing loop. There are no form feeds in the script. The program is not issuing a form feed between pages.

What else can we try?

Thanks,

Matt

 

[stanhubble]

If your data has exactly 66 lines defined it might be the initialization string in your printer script file.

if you have any lines like:
echo &quot;<bunch of escape sequences>&quot;
it should be:
echo &quot;<bunch of escape sequences>\c&quot;

if you data has spilled to the 67th line (even if its blank) then the printer will eject the next page on EOJ (end of job) faq219-2884

 

[c567591]

all echo commands in the script end in \c

Is there a way I can capture the spooled output before it gets sent to the printer?
Could I perhaps disable the printer or turn it offline, then copy the job so I can look at it and see if I can see a problem that way?

It is a networked printer connecting via its internal JetDirect card.

 

[apeasecpc]

It sounds kind of strange that you would be printing to preprinted forms yet are not using formfeed to advance the page.

Your problem could be margin settings, or the printer may be configured to append a form feed to the end of each job (this may be a setting in the control panel of the printer).

Have you tried loading plain paper in the printer and sending test data (such as a file with incrementing line numbers spanning more than 66 lines) to see how the printer behaves.

 

[jlasman]

In cooked mode, I believe that the HPLaserJet script pipes the output through /usr/lib/lprpp

That is where the FF is introduced.

You will never see the FF in a file as it is injected on the way to the printer.

If you add -o raw to the lp command, if I am correct, the extra pages will disappear; however, you will probably find you printing stairstepping at that point.
Jim Asman
jlasman@telus.net