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<html>
<head>
<title>foo2oak: a linux printer driver for OAKT protocol</title>
<link REL=STYLESHEET TYPE="text/css" HREF="style.css">
</head>
<body>
<font SIZE="+1"><b>foo2oak: a linux printer driver for OAKT protocol
(e.g. HP Color LaserJet 1500)
</b></font><br>
<p><font SIZE="-1">Tarball last modified: <i>${MODtarball}</i>
- <a href=${URLZJS}/ChangeLog>ChangeLog</a>
</font> <br>
<blockquote>
<p>
<font color=#ff0000>
This driver is currently available only in binary form for
Linux x86.
The source code for this driver WILL NOT be made available
until a sponsor funds the completion of the project with a donated
printer and enough money to cover my expenses.
DO NOT whine and complain to me, I will not change my stance on this issue.
Whine and complain to HP or someone with deep pockets.
<p>Reports from users (as of 04/11/04) are that this driver works
in monochrome and in 1-bit color.
</font>
</p>
<img src=archoak.gif>
<p>
<b>foo2oak</b> is a printer driver for printers that use the
Oak Technology (now Zoran)
<a href=http://www.zoran.com/products/imaging/software/printer_drivers/raster_driver.html>
OAKT protocol</a> for their print data, such as the
<a href=http://www.hp-expo.com/uk/eng/products/laserjet/q2489a.html>
HP Color LaserJet 1500</a>. These printers are often erroneously
referred to as winprinters or GDI printers. However, Microsoft GDI only
mandates the API between an application and the printer driver, not the
protocol
on the wire between the printer driver and the printer.
In fact, OAKT printers
are raster printers which happen to use a fairly efficient wire protocol
which was developed by
<a href=http://www.oaktech.com>Oak Technology</a>
and licensed by some printer
manufacturers for at least some of their product lines. OAKT is
just one of many wire protocols that are in use today, such as Postscript,
PCL, Epson, ZjStream, etc.
<p>
This driver uses <a href=http://www.ghostscript.com>Ghostscript</a>
to perform all of the heavy lifting (image processing).
There are five major components to the <b>foo2oak</b> printer driver.
<ul>
<li><b>foo2oak</b> - the page image to protocol conversion engine of the driver.
<li><b>foo2oak-wrapper</b> - a shell script (compatible with foomatic)
which runs <b>ghostscript</b> and <b>foo2oak</b> in a pipeline.
<li><b>icc2ps</b> - converts an ICM color profile to a Postscript CRD,
which is then fed into Ghostscript before the users Postscript program.
<li><b>foomatic-db</b> - <a href=http://www.linuxprinting.org>foomatic</a>
database entries which describe the supported printers and their options so that
printer spoolers know how to access the printer using <b>foo2oak-wrapper</b>.
<li><b>oakdecode</b> - a tool for developers to inspect OAKT protocol.
</ul>
<p>
You can read the <a href=${URLZJS}/manual.pdf>manual pages</a>
for more information.
<p>
With the <b>foo2oak</b> driver, you can print to some
HP and possibly other OAKT protocol printers:
<blockquote>
<table border>
<tr> <th>Printer</th>
<th>B/W<br>1-bit</th>
<th>B/W<br>2-bit</th>
<th>Color<br>1-bit</th>
<th>Color<br>2-bit</th>
<th>Driver</th><th>Notes</th> </tr>
<tr> <td>HP LaserJet 1500</td>
<td>Yes</td> <td>?</td>
<td>Yes</td> <td>?</td>
<td>foo2oak</td>
<td>Contact me to sponsor this project</td> </tr>
</table>
</blockquote>
<p>
You might also be interested in my <a href=${URLZJS}/>foo2zjs</a> driver for
ZjStream printers such as the Minolta/QMS magicolor 2300DL.
</blockquote>
<h3>Download and Install</h3>
<blockquote>
Click the link, or cut and paste the whole command line below to download
the driver.
<p>
<blockquote><pre>
$ wget <a href=${URLZJS}/foo2zjs.tar.gz>${URLZJS}/foo2zjs.tar.gz</a>
</pre></blockquote>
<p>Now unpack it:
<blockquote><pre>
Unpack:
$ tar zxf foo2zjs.tar.gz
$ cd foo2zjs
</pre></blockquote>
<p>
Now compile and install it.
The <a href=INSTALL>INSTALL</a> file contains more detailed instructions;
please read it now.
<blockquote><pre>
Compile:
$ make
Install driver, foomatic XML files, and extra files:
$ su
# make install
</pre></blockquote>
<p>Now create printer entries for your spooler.
Create at least one queue for monochrome, and another
queue for color printing. Create the queues first, then edit them
and set the device options as desired. See your
operating system documentation for further details on creating
a printer queue.
<blockquote>
For Redhat 7.2/7.3/8.0/9.0 and Fedora Core 1 users:
<blockquote><pre>
# printconf-gui
</pre></blockquote>
For Mandrake users:
<blockquote><pre>
# printerdrake
</pre></blockquote>
For Suse 9.0 users:
<blockquote><pre>
# yast
</pre></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<p>For low level testing, you could also create a "raw queue", which will accept
OAKT files as-is and send them directly to the printer.
</blockquote>
<h3>Donate</h3>
<blockquote>
<table>
<tr>
<td>
<form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_xclick">
<input type="hidden" name="business" value="linuxtrade@mn.rr.com">
<input type="hidden" name="undefined_quantity" value="1">
<input type="hidden" name="item_name" value="foo2oak printer driver">
<input type="hidden" name="item_number" value="donation">
<input type="hidden" name="amount" value="">
<input type="hidden" name="no_shipping" value="1">
<input type="hidden" name="return"
value="${URLOAK}/">
<input type="hidden" name="cancel_return"
value="${URLOAK}/">
<input type="image"
src="http://images.paypal.com/images/x-click-butcc-donate.gif"
border="0" name="submit"
alt="Donate to foo2oak development">
</form>
</td>
<td>
<-- Click here to help support the development of printer drivers for
Linux. Any amount is appreciated. Also desired: Minolta 2300 DL duplexer
and lower paper tray, HP LaserJet 1500, Apple Mac OS X system.
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</blockquote>
<h3>Bugs And Deficiencies</h3>
<blockquote>
<ul>
<li>
Can output in 1 or 2 bit monochrome and color, but none of these
have been tuned yet, even on a gross level. Tuning requires having one of
these printers.
<li>
The manufacturer-supplied ICM color profiles can help considerably in
getting the right colors out of the printer, even though they are not
tuned to the particular characteristics of Ghostscript+foo2oak.
However, I have been unable to locate the HP ICC/ICM files for this
printer. So the driver is running without any color correction at all.
<p>
If anybody can supply an ICC/ICM color profile for this printer, I will
add the option to select the profile to the foomatic driver options.
<li>
Need to figure out how to get near-invisible dithering out of Ghostscript
without affecting the colors. With Ghostscript 7.05, if you
set -dDITHERPPI=150,
for example, the dithering becomes less visible but you get areas of
color blotches. No way to win.
<li>
Ghostscript 8.0 has worse color dithering compared to 7.05.
The symptom is slanted bands separated by 0.5 to 2mm, at a 30 degree angle.
<li>
Need to support a better input color file format which includes
explicit page boundary indications. The current use of the Ghostscript
<i>bitcmyk</i> format precludes having pages of different sizes within a
Postscript stream.
</ul>
</blockquote>
<h3>Resources</h3>
<blockquote>
<ul>
<li>
<a href=http://www.linuxprinting.org>www.linuxprinting.org</a>
- Home of foomatic
<li>
<a href=http://www.freecolormanagement.com/color/links.htm>freecolormanagement.com</a>
- CMS Links
<li>
<a href=http://www.aim-dtp.net/index.htm>www.aim-dtp.net/index.htm</a>
- Accurate Image Manipulation for Desktop Publishing
<li>
<a href=http://www.color.org/>http://www.color.org/</a>
- The International Color Consortium
<li>
<a href=http://web.access.net.au/argyll/color.html>web.access.net.au/argyll/color.html</a>
- icclib - ICC (.icm) file format I/O library
<li>
<a href=http://www.fho-emden.de/~hoffmann/howww41a.html>Gernot Hoffmann</a>
- Color printer test pages
<li>
<a href=http://www.drycreekphoto.com/custom/customprofiles.htm>Dry Creek Photo</a>
- Possible source for buying a custom .ICM color profile ($50)
<li>
<a href=http://www.chromix.com/ColorValet/Print/>ColorValet</a>
- Possible source for buying a custom .ICM color profile ($100)
<li>
<a href=http://www.icscolor.com/profilecity1.asp>ProfileCity</a>
- Possible source for buying a custom .ICM color profile ($100)
<li>
<a href=http://digitaldog.net/services.html>The Digital Dog</a>
- Possible source for buying a custom .ICM color profile ($100)
</ul>
</blockquote>
<hr WIDTH="100%">
Please <a HREF="mailto:rickr@mn.rr.com">E-mail</a>
<a href=http://home.mn.rr.com/richardsons/>Rick Richardson</a> with any
questions, comments or corrections.
I do not read or reply to HTML email or messages sent under an alias.
Use your real name in any correspondence.
<br>
<img src="http://rkkda.com/tinc?key=G4NgRyQ9&no=2">
<font SIZE="-1">Last modified: <i>${MODindex}</i></font>
<br>
</body>
</html>
|
