You'd be surprised!!
HPGL is *STILL* en ENTIRELY ENCAPSULATED subset of PCL.
You need to send an escape sequence to the PCL capable printer to enable it, but it is STILL THERE, as part of the language spec.
Though, yeah, your printer does not speak PCL.
Afaik, no printers have spoken 'native' hpgl since the penplotter era...
Have you considered ghostscript for windows?
wierd_w wrote on 2024-08-02, 05:53:You'd be surprised!! […]
You'd be surprised!!
HPGL is *STILL* en ENTIRELY ENCAPSULATED subset of PCL.
You need to send an escape sequence to the PCL capable printer to enable it, but it is STILL THERE, as part of the language spec.
I would be very surprised indeed if PCL did not work (as the docs say that it should not, AFAIU ), but HPGL did work.
I would actually be a bit less surprised if both PCL and HPGL worked while being undocumented.
Fundamentally, unless I am misreading the docs OR the docs are wrong, the MFC-L2700DW DOES NOT HAVE PCL support.
EDIT: I just saw your new comment. I believe we're on the same page.
Ghostscript is an option, but I believe the most transparent solution is to run CUPS in a Linux VM (or a dedicated machine) and share that through IPP (a Windows 98 client exists) or through an older, Windows 9x compatible, version of SAMBA installed on the Linux VM. If the MFC-L2700DW can be made to work on a Raspberry Pi, that would be another option.
Yeah, looks PS only?
Adobe made a generic PS printer driver for windows bitd.
Was here, once, long ago.
ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/printerdrivers/ … .x/winsteng.exe
I am looking for a mirror.
Ok, Dubious, but driverguide lists it.
https://www.driverguide.com/driver/detail.php … driverid=622543
wierd_w wrote on 2024-08-02, 06:09:Yeah, looks PS only? […]
Yeah, looks PS only?
Adobe made a generic PS printer driver for windows bitd.
Was here, once, long ago.
ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/printerdrivers/win/1.x/
I am looking for a mirror.
AFAICT, the docs say the MFC-L2700DW does not support PostScript either.
OK, according to this thing, it speaks GDI.
https://www.laserexpressinc.com/manuals/Broth … w-datasheet.pdf
OpenPrinting waxes about how nasty of a practice this, but suggests a linux CUPS driver that is known to work.
https://www.openprinting.org/printer/Generic/ … ric-GDI_Printer
The afore mentioned WINSTENG driver is able to accept PPD files to define the printer.
Would it be possible to frankstein Ghostscript for windows, with the WINTSTENG driver, and the GDI.PPD?
Can you get to it's web interface with IE 5.0 or something? Then this kinda thing might be possible..
https://support.brother.com/g/s/id/htmldoc/pr … apter3_4_2.html
Not sure that's exact for your model but that was 5 mins longer than I wanted to spend finding anything about emulation modes anyway.
Though it used to be that printers would autodetect FX80 emulation mode and just do text in default font.
Unicorn herding operations are proceeding, but all the totes of hens teeth and barrels of rocking horse poop give them plenty of hiding spots.
There are Linux drivers provided by Brother .
https://support.brother.com/g/b/downloadlist. … us_eu_as&os=127
I get that I can use an intermediary computer to get this to work but it's quite the hassle.
I guess the docs confused me and I hope I had misread them and this damn thing would support PCL. I guess it's time to hunt an older laser that will do PCL.
kikendo wrote on 2024-08-14, 13:01:I get that I can use an intermediary computer to get this to work but it's quite the hassle.
I guess the docs confused me and I hope I had misread them and this damn thing would support PCL. I guess it's time to hunt an older laser that will do PCL.
To be fair, that that doc is rather confusingly laid out. In decades past when manuals, spec sheets, etc were provided in printed form, it made sense to have a unified document covering several similar models, to save on printing costs.
As for avoiding the hassle of an intermediate computer, it really depends on what one already has running. In my case, I have a machine that get used mostly as a NAS, but has sufficient resources to handle a tiny Debian VM that is mostly idle anyway. If one does not already have an always on machine, I agree that setting on up just as a print server would be inconvenient.
I hope you find a PCL or Postscript compatible printer at reasonable cost and in good condition.
It's not just the manual that's confusing - go to {printer's IP}/net/net/service.html and tell me what you see 😀
Yup, it says POSTSCRIPT and PCL and they're enabled by default, but they don't work, just like service mode function 43 which is where you're supposed to configure the default printer options beyond the 3 you get on the official front panel & web UI 😀 🙁
FYI the codecs it supports are the native "brlaser" and URF (the least common denominator for Airprint), which are rather implausible to have any implementation on XP (SP2) or older 😉
darry wrote on 2024-08-14, 18:41:As for avoiding the hassle of an intermediate computer, it really depends on what one already has running. In my case, I have a machine that get used mostly as a NAS, but has sufficient resources to handle a tiny Debian VM that is mostly idle anyway. If one does not already have an always on machine, I agree that setting on up just as a print server would be inconvenient.
Damn, you know, I didn't think of this. I have a media server that's always on. I'll see if I can load it there, I just hate using Docker.
