Panther/Epson Aculaser printing issues

[Stormyguy]

OK, I wish I could log on here sometimes to help with answers rather than only being able to post queries!

We have a network in our office - 1 X OSX 10.2.8 machine, 1 X OS9.2.2 and a Win98 PC - all linked to our Epson Aculaser C1900PS printer. All works OK (except for TERRIBLE print quality on the 10.2 machine).

My PowerbookG4 (OSX 10.3.4) sometimes comes in to join the network. In the past it has always printed fine - great quality and I never had to load any drivers. Today I have tried to print from it and there were no printers in the list for me to choose from whereas before I just hit print and off it went. When I went to the Printer Utility to add printer it will find the Aculaser on Appletalk but it won't find a 'driver' or 'printer description file' AND the print quality is now horrendous (like the OSX 10.2 machine).

Can anyone explain why, before, everything was cool with no need for drivers, ppd files or any other external software and now I cannot get a quality print (Epson have had me install a driver - no difference - and also download the ppd file - also no difference)??

Recently I have printed on a friend's A3 HP deskjet - no problem - no driver needed - great quality and also I print at home by sharing the Epson Photo printer that's connected to my home iMac - again no issues.

Apparently the issues with the OSX 10.2 are Espon issues but my Panther machine did work perfectly until today.

-- To shed another little light (hopefully) I can find in my Home/Library/Printers folder an .app file which is call AL-C1900PS(AT) which has an icon that looks just like my printer and i'm SURE is the same icon that used to bounce in my dock when my Powerbook started to print here in the office network environment. When I print now I get a printer that looks completely different (it's not the printer application icon either).

Forgive the rambling post but with the other two Macs in our office about to be replaced by new ones running 10.3 I am understandably concerned that I will end up with 3 macs that won't print quality documents and the lone PC will be the only useful machine for printing (heaven forbid)!

Thank you in advance as usual,
Danny

 

[ohmeo]

Had the same problem, in fact I am just picking up the computer and printer from the front garden from where I threw them out of the window last night...

The printer drivers load fine from the disk or net, but I cam't appear to find a suitable printer description file when choosing printers. I've spoke with Epson & they say it is because OS Xhas its own postscript installed & we no longer need postscript drivers.

All I know is that I can't print to my c1900 ps because the quality is so poor.

I have to load up classic & print from Quark 5 or something which is really annoying.

 

[Stormyguy]

OK, I seem to have achieved a work around on this. It's not perfect but it's MUCH better than before!

If you load up Print Centre and look for the AL-C1900PS (AT) driver and use that one then you will get a far far superior quality print from OSX 10.2. It's by no means as good as the OS9 print quality but it does work. It's not a post script printer driver either I don't think so I guess that may or may not be good depending on what your line of work is and what you're printing. For us it's cool - good enough for the jobs at hand but I am still very disappointed with the print quality with 10.2.

Furthermore, my Powerbook (Panther 10.3.up-to-date) will now print a high quality document using the basic AT print driver (which I have managed to locate again in Print Centre).

 

[rand()]

OK, I seem to have achieved a work around on this. It's not perfect but it's MUCH better than before!

I'm glad you found a work-around.

How (may I ask) is the printer actually attached to the network; that is, is it shared from the Windows machine, the OS 9 machine, or the OS X machine? Or is it a standalone networked PS printer? That helps a lot when answering.

One thing to try is to add the Gimp-print drivers in Panther. This adds a multitude more ppd's to OS X, and using one of those may increase the quality quite a bit. They are on the third install CD, if I recall correctly. Also, Gimp-print will fairly easily install in Jaguar, should you find that this works better.

Let me know how it comes out!
-rand()

 

[MisterMe]

OK, I wish I could log on here sometimes to help with answers rather than only being able to post queries!

We have a network in our office - 1 X OSX 10.2.8 machine, 1 X OS9.2.2 and a Win98 PC - all linked to our Epson Aculaser C1900PS printer. All works OK (except for TERRIBLE print quality on the 10.2 machine).

My PowerbookG4 (OSX 10.3.4) sometimes comes in to join the network. In the past it has always printed fine - great quality and I never had to load any drivers. Today I have tried to print from it and there were no printers in the list for me to choose from whereas before I just hit print and off it went. When I went to the Printer Utility to add printer it will find the Aculaser on Appletalk but it won't find a 'driver' or 'printer description file' AND the print quality is now horrendous (like the OSX 10.2 machine).

Can anyone explain why, before, everything was cool with no need for drivers, ppd files or any other external software and now I cannot get a quality print (Epson have had me install a driver - no difference - and also download the ppd file - also no difference)??

Recently I have printed on a friend's A3 HP deskjet - no problem - no driver needed - great quality and also I print at home by sharing the Epson Photo printer that's connected to my home iMac - again no issues.

Apparently the issues with the OSX 10.2 are Espon issues but my Panther machine did work perfectly until today.

-- To shed another little light (hopefully) I can find in my Home/Library/Printers folder an .app file which is call AL-C1900PS(AT) which has an icon that looks just like my printer and i'm SURE is the same icon that used to bounce in my dock when my Powerbook started to print here in the office network environment. When I print now I get a printer that looks completely different (it's not the printer application icon either).

Forgive the rambling post but with the other two Macs in our office about to be replaced by new ones running 10.3 I am understandably concerned that I will end up with 3 macs that won't print quality documents and the lone PC will be the only useful machine for printing (heaven forbid)!

Thank you in advance as usual,
Danny

I have a very difficult time trying to decipher your post to find your problem. However, I can say a couple of things definitively. First, if your printer is in proper working order, Apple's MacOS X PostScript print driver will work. Second, PPD files are plain text and are absolutely cross-platform. This means that you can obtain a PPD file for your printer from anywhere and be confident that it will work. You don't have to properly install it. The Printer Setup Utility allows you to chose a PPD file when it is not installed already. You can access the required PPD file from where ever you find it and the Printer Setup Utility will save a copy in the proper location.

If you used Printer Setup Utility to set-up your printer with the proper PPD file and are still having problems, I have only one possible explanation. My guess is that you did not do a proper page setup. Go to File > Page Setup.... Chose your printer from the pop-up menu. You will then be able to tweek the printer's specific settings and features.