Adobe Post Script and PPD files(Problems with PDF and Printing)

["Craig McKerlie" <crud17 -at- hotmail -dot- com>]

I am a tech writer that has spent many a day having to work out printing 
problems and PDF creation problems. Mainly due to employers that did not 
want to spend the money to make things right.

One thing I can relate to all of you is that Adobe products (All of them.) 
Do not particularly like HP printers and a few others. If you have spent 
some time with these printers then you know that HP sells their line of post 
script printers with the model designation of PCL. HP does not use the PPD 
files and post script in the same manner as Adobe. In fact the PCL stands 
for an emulated post script printer. After many hours of conversations with 
Adobe techs and going over the miles of text concerning problems with HP 
printers. I discovered that while Adobe products will work on a some what 
regular basis with HP PCL printers, they don't recommend it. I wish I still 
had the text to share with you all, but I have miss placed it.

Most of the problems that arise with using an HP PCL printer happen with 
documents that are created and then exported as PDF's from Page Maker and 
Frame Maker. Adobe tech support does have work arounds available, but unless 
you have administrator privileges on your network it won't do you any good. 
Not to mention that you have to spend hours on the phone and get elevated to 
the next higher level above the person who normally answers the tech support 
lines.

To save time and a lot of head aches, I usually just have a printer driver 
installed for a non-existent true Adobe Post Script printer. That way I can 
create PS files and PDF's without problems.

Note: In case you do not know what a PPD file is- It is a printer 
description file that is used by some software to acquire information about 
a printer in order to pass the correct information to the printer. For 
instance in include the post script level that the printer uses, etc.

So if you want to eliminate some of your problems look in to whether or not 
your printer is a true post script printer or is it using an emulated post 
script file. Remember HP does not manufacture true post script printers.

That's my $.02
-Craig
________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com