HP-GL PCL job will not print on new printers (4301, etc) and I cant figure out why

[elsaylor]

Hi community! I have a really old print job that was written many years ago in early PCL or HP-GL, or a combination if thats possible. The print job comes from a database app running on an RHEL 8server (current).

This print routine (and others) has been in use since the 1990s and we use it every day. It prints an invoice so it has some graphics - boxes and a shaded area and some lines and columns, then fills in the line items and cost amount and puts the customer address and etc.

I deployed a new HP mfp 4301fdn and this job will not print. I can print other things, and from windows and linux. But these certain jobs with a mix of graphics and text will not print.

If I send the same job to an older printer, say an HP 3015, it prints out perfectly. Send the same job to a new printer and I get no output. RHEL says the job completed OK.

At the printer I have a guest: print failed type of warning.

I'm guessing that the supported printer language standards have changed enough over the decades that the language this job is written in is no longer supported. But what is the best path forward? Is there a way to convert or translate my old print  job into a new language? Short of going line by line and re-writing the whole thing? Egads.

Could anyone suggest what has depreciated? Any path of backwards-compatability I could explore?

I'm kind of kicking in the dark.. my PCL job prints on an old printer, so im not sure even where to look. i didnt even know i had any issue until i introduced a new printer 🙂

I opened it in ghostPCL and it did not render correctly there. I opened it in redtitan escapeE and it finds a few errors, mostly on font point size it looks like.

but again - it prints on my old printers. just not these new ones.

please help!

Thanks!

[Valsimot]

Are the new printers color or monochrome?

Did you print that job previously on the old printer model that is colour?

[elsaylor]

hi! thank you for the reply.

The OLD printers are black/white

the NEW printers are color.

thanks!

[Valsimot]

In the past, I had issues with PCL on color printers, never figured out why it didn't work.