HP LaserJet 1022n - Can't print Chinese characters sent with GDI device file

[AngelaA]

Hi,

We are trying to print document to HP LaserJet 1022n printer.  It contains a mixture of English and Chinese characters.  However, only English characters were printed without Chinese characters.  I was told (by printer technician) that GDI doesn't work on HP LaserJet 1022n printer and the only approach is to use MingLiU true type font for Chinese characters with ps3, pdf or GDI device file.  

I'm not well versed in printer languages and compatibility.  Would need advice from the experts here.  

Thanks.

Regards,

Angela

[dansdaduk]

I don't really understand the statement that "... GDI doesn't work ...", so just a few comments:

• According to the datasheet,  the only Page Description Languages supported by this printer are PCL 5e and (an unnamed) host-based language:

• Host-based languages are proprietary, often applicable only to one model or range of printers, and the printers which use them are often referred to as "Windows" or "GDI" printers.

• If using the relevant host-based  printer driver on the workstation, the generated print job does not refer to any font, and does not contain any text strings; all of the objects in the source document are converted to a series of encapsulated, compressed, raster images, and the printer then just unencapsulates and uncompresses these images, and prints the resultant dots.

• If using a PCL5 printer driver on the workstation, the generated print job will usually select one (or more) of the printer-resident fonts in the printer, and print the required text strings using that/those font(s).

• It is exceedingly unlikely that any of the printer-resident fonts on this printer include any Chinese characters in their repertoires.

• With most PCL5 printers, if the printer driver recognises that it is unlikely to be able to print the required characters using the available printer-resident fonts, it will either render the characters on the workstation (using the Windows display font) into printer-format raster images (like the host-based situation), or dynamically construct and download to the printer a printer-format equivalent of the workstation-based Windows TrueType display font.

• As this printer only has 8 MB of memory (modern LaserJet devices may have hundreds of MB), it may be the case (I don't know) that the firmware does not include all features (like soft font download handling) of the PCL 5 language.

Can you actually view the source document on your workstation?

i.e. does the workstation have an installed display font which can show the Chinese characters successfully on screen?

[AngelaA]

Hi Dansdaduk,

Thanks for the details.  

I'm printing from an application.  This application sends XML information to a server and after formatting, the print is sent to the printer directly.  Based on the technician, their software (the one that does formatting) accepts PCL5, PCL5e and PCL6.  However, truetype font (MingLiu) can't be used with PCL.  The only way to use truetype font is ps3, pdf or GDI.  GDI was print tested and we saw hundreds of papers printed all in texts in codes.  Thus, the technician concluded that GDI doesn't work on HP LaserJet 1022n.  In addition, the technician tested on another printer HP LaserJet P4014n with GDI and it works.  

I believe 8Mb memory shouldn't be an issue since this printer has been used for printing Chinese characters (directly from computers) and it has been working well so far.  

Pls help.

[dansdaduk]

I still don't understand how your system is working, from the description you give; some more comments and questions:

• "... application sends XML information to a server ..." - does this mean that your application just sends blocks of text (as a series of 8-bit or 16-bit character codes) together with an attribute indicating which font is to be used for each block of text?

• "... formatting ... software ... accepts PCL5, PCL5e and PCL6 ..."; surely it accepts XML and converts this to a PCL5 or PCL6 stream to send to the printer.

• "... truetype font (MingLiu) can't be used with PCL ..." - why not? As I indicated in a  previous reply, most (perhaps not all) PCL5 printer drivers will dynamically generate (with the help of standard Windows library routines) and subsequently download a PCL-format encapsulated version of a donor Windows TrueType display font as part of the print job - perhaps this can't be done with the cheap 1022n because it has insufficient memory to handle such downloaded soft fonts?

• "... technician concluded that GDI doesn't work on HP LaserJet 1022n ..." - but what does he mean by "GDI" in this context?. The term is usually used to refer to the Microsoft Graphics Device Interface, but no printers directly support this - 'host-based' printers use one of a set of (proprietary) languages which provide equivalent constructs to the objects defined in GDI, but the languages are not the same.

• The Laserjet P4014n printer supports the three 'traditional' Page Description Languages: PCL5, PCL6 (PCL XL) and PostScript; it does not understand any of the 'host-based' languages, so it can't understand 'GDI' - so just what does your technician mean by this term?

As an aside, the cost of the time and effort involved in attempting to diagnose this issue (with no guarantee of any satisfactory resolution) would easily purchase a more capable printer.

[AngelaA]

Hi dansdaduk,

Thanks for your help.

Similar to your suggestion, our technician gave up and requested us to get a new printer.