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HP Designjet 2500CP Printer - PostScript (R) Driver v 1.0 Readme with Microsoft (R) Windows 3.1

Readme for Adobe(R) PostScript (R) 3 (TM) for Windows 3.1

This document contains installation information and software release notes for version 3.0.1 of the Adobe PostScript printer driver for use with Windows version 3.1. This version of Adobe PS replaces all previous versions of Adobe PostScript Windows drivers and provides greater application compatibility, better performance, and many new features, including the following:
  • Easy-to-use PPD installation control panel
  • Advanced tab-style user interface
  • N-up printing allowing multiple pages to print on a single physical page
  • Watermarks allowing you to define and add text to the foreground or background of most documents
  • PostScript port monitor for bidirectional printers, providing on-screen job and printer status
The following topics are covered in this readme file:
  • Quick-install instructions
  • Instructions to delete previous versions of the driver
  • Font downloader installation information
  • Adobe printer driver disk contents
  • Installation of a PostScript printer from a new PPD
  • General driver and downloader compatibility issues
  • Application software compatibility issues
To install this driver, refer to the quick-install instructions in the following section, or for more detailed procedures, see the Adobe PostScript Printer Driver User's Guide, version 3.0 for Windows 3.1.

Quick-install instructions for Adobe PS 3 for Windows 3.1

The User's Guide fully describes installation of the driver under Windows 3.1. Installation is a three-part process: Install the Adobe printer driver software, install a PostScript printer from a PPD, and configure the PostScript printer. Perform the steps in the following order:

To install the Adobe printer driver software

  1. Start Windows 3.1.
  2. Exit from any applications that are now running.
  3. Insert the Adobe printer driver program disk into your floppy disk drive.
  4. From the Windows Program Manager, choose File, Run.
  5. In the Command Line box, type a:\setup (where a: is your floppy diskette drive indicator), and click OK.
  6. Click Skip to postpone viewing the readme file.
  7. Click Continue to continue the installation procedure. The installation begins. If the Adobe printer driver setup program cannot copy the files to the WINDOWS/SYSTEM directory because that directory is write-protected, it will alert you, asking whether to copy the files to your WINDOWS directory. To do so, click Continue.
  8. Once the copy has successfully completed, click Restart to restart Windows.

To install a PostScript printer from a PPD

  1. Insert the diskette containing the PPD to be installed in a floppy diskette drive.
  2. In the Control Panel of the Windows Program Manager, double-click the Adobe PostScript Printers icon. The Adobe PostScript Printers dialog box appears.
  3. In the Drives box, select the drive containing the PPD that you wish to install.
  4. In the Printer Descriptions Available box, select the PPD that you wish to use to install the PostScript printer.
  5. Click Install. You can continue to install PPDs by selecting entries in the Printer Descriptions Available box and clicking Install.
  6. Click Close when you have installed all the desired PPDs.

To configure the PostScript printer

  1. In the Control Panel, double-click the Printers icon. The Printers dialog box appears.
  2. Select the name of the printer that you want to configure in the Installed Printers list of printers.
  3. To customize the settings available for your printer, follow the instructions in "Changing Printer Settings" in the Adobe PostScript Printer Driver User's Guide.
  4. If your printer is not connected to LPT1 or the port currently shown, click Connect.
  5. In the Connect dialog box, select the port your printer is connected to and click OK. For more information, see "Setting Up the Printer Port for Your Printer" in the Adobe PostScript Printer Driver User's Guide.
  6. Once you have selected the correct port for your printer, follow the instructions to install the port-monitoring software in "Installing Port Monitor" in the Adobe PostScript Printer Driver User's Guide.

Deleting previous versions of the driver

To install the software, you are not required to remove previous versions of the driver or delete any previously installed PostScript printers. However, if you suspect installation problems, first remove your installed printers from the Printers dialog box in Windows Control Panel and reinstall them via the Adobe PostScript Printers dialog box, also in Windows Control Panel.
If after removing and reinstalling your printers, you are still experiencing problems, delete all previous versions of the driver and reinstall your printers using the Adobe PostScript Printers dialog box.

To delete a previous version of the driver

  1. Exit Windows.
  2. From DOS, delete the following files (not all files may actually exist in your configuration) from both your WINDOWS and WINDOWS\SYSTEM directories:
    • *.EBF
    • *.PPB
    • *.PPD
    • *.PFM (delete these only if you did not place them here using the ATM control panel or a font installation program)
    • ADOBEPS?.*
    • RUN_ENUM.*
    • PSINSTDV.EXE
    • WINDOWN.EXE
    • PS_ENUM.*
    • DOWN.DLL
    • DWN.HLP
  3. Restart Windows to use Notepad or another ASCII text editor to delete the following entries from the WIN.INI file in the WINDOWS directory:
[<printer_name>,<port>] <<<Delete this line
PrinterName=<printer_nickname> <<<Delete this line
[devices]
<printer_name>=ADOBEPS,<port>,... <<<Delete this line
[PrinterPorts]
<printer_name>=ADOBEPS,<port>,15,45,... <<<Delete this line
If the device= line in the [windows] section of the Win.INI file refers to Adobe PS, delete that line.

Font downloader installation

Adobe PS 3 is packaged with a font downloader that allows the driver to download PostScript fonts and PostScript files, and perform other printer and font-management tasks.
The font downloader is automatically installed along with the driver. Although the downloader can be run as a standalone program, Adobe does not recommend it for use with any other PostScript printer driver.

Adobe printer driver disk contents

Disk 1: driver and downloader

This disk contains assorted driver and downloader executable files, downloader and driver help files, the Adobe default PPD (PostScript Printer Description) file and possibly other PPDs, this readme file, and a number of other program-related files.

PPD disks: PPD files (Adobe-distributed driver only)

The PPD disks--named PPD Disk 2, PPD Disk 3, and so on--contain assorted PPD files. If you received this driver from a PostScript product vendor and not Adobe, PPDs may be provided on Disk 1 instead of on the additional diskettes.
Installing a PostScript printer from a new PPD
Adobe PS 3 makes it easy to install or add PPDs not supplied with this driver. Follow the steps in the procedure for installing a PostScript printer from a PPD in "Quick-Install Instructions" found earlier in this document.

General driver compatibility issues

Windows 3.x

This version of Adobe PS supports Windows 3.1 only.

Installation

When installing the driver or a printer PPD, you must first exit all applications using this driver or the Printers dialog in the Control Panel will not proceed with the installation.

Printer's nesting feature does not work

The printer will effectively ignore requests to nest prints if you use Novell network software to send a banner message and the JetDirect card is not configured to print it.
Workaround
Open JetAdmin's "PJL Settings" dialog box and enable "Banner (Queue Server Mode)."
Or
Request that your Novell printer administrator disable the "Print Banner" from the Novell print server.

Problems printing EPS files

You should avoid printing EPS files that were generated to contain "pure binary" data (an option in some applications).

Interaction with Control Panel Printers Dialog Box

Some selections made in the Printers dialog box, such as Set as Default Printer and Connect, take effect only after the Printers dialog box is closed.

Duplicate features in the driver and application

If your application contains the same feature as the driver (such as scaling, orientation, or number of copies), use your application to set the feature; do not set it using the driver. Use the driver tab dialogs only to set printer options you cannot control via your application's Print or Print Setup dialog box. If you do use the driver to set features that your application also provides, those features may not work as expected.

Printing from multiple applications

Multiple applications cannot use Adobe PS 3 at the same time. You can print from multiple applications, but you must wait until a job has completed before starting another one.

Image printing performance

For some applications, printing images may be slower than expected. Printing performance will depend on bitmap characteristics (such as size or color) and the method the application uses to print bitmaps. For example, 24-bit color images will generally print out more slowly than 1-bit black and white images.

Optimize for speed vs. optimize for portability

On the PostScript tab dialog, there is a group box called PostScript Performance. When you select Optimize for Speed, you may find certain jobs cause the printer to run out of memory, terminating the job with a VM or rangecheck error. If you encounter problems, try setting the PostScript Performance option to Optimize for Portability.

Downloadable fonts

Printing lengthy documents that require the driver to download several fonts may generate one or more of the following error messages or conditions:
  • PostScript Error: limit check
  • PostScript Error: VM error
  • Page with the message that the printer has insufficient memory
  • Printer simply does not finish printing the job or resets
Workarounds: Try one of the following
  • Reduce the number of fonts in the document.
  • Try changing the PostScript Performance setting on the PostScript tab dialog to Optimize for Portability.
  • Add memory to your printer.

Do not download fonts option

The Job Control tab dialog contains the Font Control option Do Not Download Fonts. Use this option only if you know that the fonts you use in your documents are always available to your printer (for example, via a Font Folio disk attached to your printer). Otherwise, the printer may substitute Courier for your fonts.

Document structuring conventions

Adobe PS 3 does not display the DSC comments "%%BeginData ... %%EndData." Without these comments, some network spoolers may fail to process jobs correctly.

Some images print with limited color

Images based on RLE-4 and RLE-8 compression print with limited halftoning effects. Typically, shades of gray or color will print as either black or white.

Installation of printer font metrics

The list of characters available in a font has changed from Windows 3.0 to Windows 3.1. Adobe PS 3 uses the information in Printer Font Metric (PFM) files to help applications lay out text correctly and to instruct PostScript printers how to print text correctly. However, because of the changes in characters available, some older PFMs may incorrectly list character widths and cause either errors in layout of text on the screen, in the printer, or both. Adobe PS 3 includes the newest versions of font PFMs for all of the printers it installs.
If Adobe Type Manager (ATM) is installed and has included PFMs for fonts on your printer, Adobe PS 3 assumes that those PFMs are more up-to-date than the PFMs included during driver installation.
If you suspect that your ATM fonts are incorrect, you can force Adobe PS 3 to use its own PFMs by following these steps:
  1. Use Notepad to edit a line similar to PFM_Dir=c:\psfonts\pfm in the [Setup] section of the ATM.INI file to read as follows: ;PFM_Dir=c:\psfonts\pfm
  2. Save the modified ATM.INI file.
  3. Proceed to install a new printer using the Printers dialog box in the Control Panel.
  4. Restore the line in ATM.INI to its previous value.

Some printers reset when sent binary mode commands

Some printers do not support the Adobe Binary Communications Protocol (BCP) and will reset if sent the command to switch into binary mode (requested via the Job Control tab dialog, using Printer Mode, Send Mode). This happens only if you are using the incorrect PPD for your particular printer. To avoid this situation, install the correct PPD for your installed printer.

Using Print Manager

Windows Print Manager will create a temporary file when you print from an application. Deleting this temporary file terminates the print job.
Suggested use: Click Cancel from the dialog box to terminate the print job or delete from within Print Manager.

Custom paper dimensions

In some PPDs, the minimum width and height values for the Custom Paper option are represented by three decimal digits. Adobe PS 3 rounds off the value to two decimal digits, which may result in an error indicating that one or both of your dimensions are invalid.
Workaround
If you wish to use the minimum value, change the Adobe PS 3 rounded value (such as 8.26) to the exact value of the dimension with all decimal digits (such as 8.264).

Page Preview image

The Page Preview image on the Paper tab dialog reflects only an approximation of the actual printed page. Paper size, color, and border filling in the page preview, for example, may not accurately represent the corresponding characteristic of the printed page.
When you specify a watermark to print in outline format, the Page Preview image of the Watermark and Paper tab dialogs do not display the outline watermark. This is a limitation of the driver's display feature only; the watermark will print correctly on the physical page.

Watermark printing

In some applications, watermarks will print either in the background (the default) or in the foreground, but not in both.
Workaround
Try printing the watermarks in both the foreground and background to discover which location works best with your application and printed document.

Watermarks are enabled using the Forms capability in all Adobe PostScript Level 2 printers and will not print if sent to a PostScript Level 1 printer

Workaround
Send jobs specifying watermarks to a PostScript Level 2 printer.

In some applications, when the Watermark First Page Only feature and Number of Copies feature are combined, the watermark prints only on the first page of the first copy

Workaround
Print each copy as a separate job. Some applications do not support multiple pages, but can tile one page when printing. Depending on how your application tiles the page, Adobe PS 3 may not know that a single logical page is being printed as two physical pages, for example. If so, the watermark may appear only on the second physical page.

N-Up printing

N-up printing may yield unanticipated results. When you combine layout and orientation page-setup options in one document, the first logical page of a job determines the layout for the rest of the job. For example, if you choose portrait orientation for the first page of a document printed in 6-up, all pages in the document will print in the standard order for portrait orientation, left to right, top to bottom, even if you change to landscape orientation in the middle of the job. If you specify landscape orientation for the first page of a 6-up document, all document pages print bottom to top, left to right. For rotated landscape orientation, document pages print top to bottom, right to left.
============= =============== ===============
| 1 | 2 | | 3 | 6 | | 4 | 1 |
============= =============== ===============
| 3 | 4 | | 2 | 5 | | 5 | 2 |
============= =============== ===============
| 5 | 6 | | 1 | 4 | | 6 | 3 |
============= =============== ===============
Portrait Landscape Rotated Landscape
Additionally, if you request a different resolution, page size, or paper source, or if you request duplex settings for different pages of a document while using the n-up feature, Adobe PS 3 completes the previous request and then starts a new page, applying the currently requested page-setup settings. The order of the layout remains the same, although virtual pages of an n-up layout may appear to be missing. This is because Adobe PS 3 starts the next set of instructions on a new sheet of paper.

In some applications, when the Layout and Copies features are combined, new pages are started, as needed, only in the first copy

Workaround
Print each copy as a separate job.

Dialog box warning of application incompatibility with watermark and n-up features

Some applications are incompatible with watermark and page layout (n-up) features. If this is true for an application you are using, Adobe PS 3 displays the Application/Printer Setup Incompatibility dialog box, which lets you cancel the print job, try to print using the driver's features, or print without using the driver's features. By default, Adobe PS 3 displays this dialog box each time you send a print job specifying features with which the application is incompatible. If this is an inconvenience for you, you can disable the dialog box.
To disable the Application/Printer Setup Incompatibility dialog box
  1. Use Notepad or another ASCII text editor to open the WIN.INI file and go to the [AdobePS] section.
  2. Choose one of two options:
    • Find the line "Show Compatibility Alert=1" and change the value from 1 to 0.
    • If the Show Compatibility Alert line does not exist, add the line "Show Compatibility Alert=0."
  3. Save and close the file.

Problems printing envelope and document in a single job

When you print an envelope-and-letter job involving paper source changes, if the first page uses the manual-feed paper tray and the next page changes to Auto Tray Select, printing may yield unexpected results. For example, envelope text may be printed on letter-sized paper instead of the expected envelope.
Workaround
Specify specific paper sources instead of Auto Tray Select, or print each page as a separate job.

Problems printing to printers in Adobe IntelliSelect (AIS) mode

A Printer Mode value of ASCII Mode, set via the Job Control tab dialog, is incompatible with printers in AIS mode and results in an error. Also, files with embedded EPS graphics or text created via drivers other than Adobe PS 3 may not print correctly to a printer in AIS mode.
Workaround
If your printer has a front panel, change from AIS mode to standard PostScript or TBCP and then reprint the job. Or, do not choose Send Mode and use only the printer's default mode.

Full-color bitmap printing performance

When you select the PostScript option Send Full Color Data and are using 24-bit color images, Adobe PS 3 sends the full image data to the printer. You may not need this data for printers that are unable to render 24-bit color images. However, selecting this option allows the printer's halftoning capabilities to be used to their greatest extent to print the best possible image.
Alternative: If improved performance is more important than accurate color halftoning, turn off the Send Full Color Data option.

Accidentally printing EPS files

If a printer driver is accidentally configured to print EPS output to a printer rather than a file, Adobe PS 3 displays a warning that EPS should not be output to a port; the job prints correctly within the application, then the printer stays in a waiting mode until either (a) another job is sent, or (b) a time-out error occurs. To avoid this situation, ensure that EPS format is only output to File, not Printer.

Font installation

The presence of fonts installed by some font installers may not be recognized.
Workaround
To notify the driver of fonts installed by non-Adobe font installers, manually update the ATM.INI file. For more information, see the Adobe ATM User's Guide.

Match Color Across Printers option

The Match Color Across Printers option uses the device-independent color-rendering feature available in PostScript Level 2 color printers to render color output as close as possible to the colors of other Level 2 printers. This feature is intended to give accurate and consistent color rendering across a wide range of color devices.

General font downloader compatibility issues

Downloading task thermometer

The task-progress thermometer does not always reflect the true status of the font downloading task. Even though the font does download, the thermometer may not reflect 100%.

Printer serial connection

If your printer is connected to a serial port, the Font Downloader may not work correctly. You may receive misleading error messages, and some of the dialogs may not display the correct data, with regard to installed devices, for example.

Downloading PostScript files containing binary data

The Font Downloader can download only PostScript files containing ASCII data and may display an error if the PostScript file contains binary data.
Workaround
In the PostScript tab dialog, turn off the Send Data in Binary option in the Performance Options box, and redownload the PostScript file. Or, do not use the Font Downloader; instead, send PostScript files containing binary data to the printer from DOS using the Copy command.

Device installer problems

Sometimes the Font Downloader does not allow deleting installed devices, does not display newly-installed devices in the device list box, or continues to list fonts previously deleted.
Workaround
Exit completely from the driver. Reenter the program via the Setup button of the Printers dialog box; choose the Fonts tab dialog; click the Font Downloader button, and the Font Downloader dialog box appears. Click Device Installer. The newly-installed devices should now appear. To delete a device, highlight it, and choose Remove.

Update of WIN.INI file

The Font Downloader does not update the WIN.INI file to reflect the fonts that it has downloaded; therefore, other PostScript drivers or application programs that read WIN.INI for information updates will not know which fonts have already been downloaded.

Misleading memory messages

Sometimes when downloading a group of fonts, the Font Downloader sends messages indicating that there may not be enough available memory to download the individual font. This message may or may not reflect the true state of your printer.
Workaround
If you know your printer has plenty of memory, choose Yes in response to the Font Downloader message and continue downloading the fonts. Also, to avoid display of the insufficient-memory message, download the fonts individually, not by group. If your printer is low in memory, you may not be able to download all fonts to it.

Application software compatibility issues

Adobe Illustrator

If you install Adobe Illustrator after the Adobe PostScript driver, the following message may appear:
"The file C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\PS_ENUM.DLL already exists and has a different date than the file Illustrator is about to install. Do you wish to overwrite the current file on the system?"
Select No; do not overwrite the file. This same dialog will again appear for RUN_ENUM.EXE. Select No; do not overwrite this file.
If Illustrator has been installed without regard to the above instructions, reinstall the driver using the instructions listed in "Deleting Previous Versions of the Driver." You must clear all previous files to ensure a successful installation.

Aldus Freehand

Aldus Freehand does not support the Rotated Landscape Orientation option of the Paper tab dialog.

CorelDRAW (TM)

When using the driver to perform scaling, your drawing is clipped.
Workaround
Use the scaling feature of CorelDRAW or use the driver's "Scale to page:" feature.

Freelance

By default, the size of the image in Freelance will be the same as the page size you have selected. This will result in clipping when you send the image to be printed because the printer will force certain margins around the edges of the page.
Workaround
Freelance's "Preview" feature will show you if clipping will occur at print time. Shrink the image in Freelance until the Preview feature shows no clipping.

Fractal Design Painter 2.0

In the PostScript tab dialog is a group box called PostScript Performance. Fractal Design Painter 2.0 is compatible only with the Optimize for Portability option of that box.

Micrografx ABC FlowCharter 3.0

In documents over seven pages long, letters might print superimposed upon each other. This problem seems to occur on printers with a resolution of 600 dpi or higher.
Workaround
Print to a printer with a resolution lower than 600 dpi.

Micrografx Designer

Adobe PS 3 does not support the Colored Pattern Brush feature of Designer 4.0 and the earlier application Charisma, and prints filled areas of color bitmaps in black and white.
Black lines created in Designer 4.0 and 4.1 that have "Flat" line ends may be printed incorrectly.
Some gradient fills created in Designer 4.1 may lose the gradient effect over complete zones of the fill area. Where possible, you should try moving the gradient fill area; you may be able to avoid this effect.

MS Excel

Printers with resolutions in excess of 300 dpi may exhibit uneven patterning in graphics using color fill patterns.

MS Notepad and Cardfile

Resolution of 600 dpi or above may cause Notepad and Cardfile to print with incorrect margins. Sometimes this can be corrected by specifically changing the requested margins from 0.75," the default margins, to another value; this does not always fix the problem.
Workaround
Most printers with resolution above 600 dpi have lower resolution modes; if so, select a lower resolution in the printer's Print Setup, Setup, Features tab dialog. If not, install the Adobe Default Printer and select it when printing from Cardfile or Notepad.

MS Online

Microsoft Online may not print when Adobe PS 3 is selected and the printer name is longer than 29 characters.
Workaround
Choose a printer name with fewer than 30 characters.

MS PowerPoint 3.0

Resolution changes requested from within the PowerPoint 3.0 Print Setup dialog box do not take effect.
Workaround
For printers that allow control of their resolution, use the Adobe PS 3 Features tab dialog to change resolution in your PowerPoint 3.0 files.
When printing some colored text from PowerPoint 3.0, the text prints in black rather than the selected color.

MS PowerPoint 4.0

Printing files containing multiple embedded EPS objects from this application sometimes results in either lost text or lost EPS objects.
Workaround
Convert the embedded EPS objects to PowerPoint objects by double-clicking them.

MS Publisher 2.0

The BorderArt feature of MS Publisher 2.0 is incompatible with Adobe PS 3. If you try to use this feature with Adobe PS 3, the printed file may be missing lines from the upper and bottom right and left corners of the border.

Adobe PageMaker 5.0

PageMaker files print, but with unexpected results.
Workaround
Make sure that you have selected the correct type of printer in the PageMaker print dialog box and that the PageMaker private PPD directory contains the correct PPD for the printer you are using.

Adobe PageMaker 6.0

The PPD file for your HP DesignJet printer does not appear in PageMaker's "Print Document" dialog box.
Workaround
Use one of the Windows NT PPD files which can be found on the disk labeled "HP DesignJet 2500CP PPDs for Microsoft Windows NT."
To do this, you should copy either of the two PPD files to the "PM6\RSRC\USENGLSH\PPD4" folder on the disk drive where you have installed PageMaker and restart PageMaker 6.0. You should now be able to select the PPD file for your HP DesignJet 2500CP printer.
note:
When using the PPDs from the "HP DesignJet 2500CP PPDs for Microsoft Windows NT" disk, you are advised to open the "Print options" dialog box and ensure that "Include PostScript error handler" is disabled.

Adobe Photoshop (R)

Your HP DesignJet 2500CP printer seems to receive your print job, but never prints it or it is flushed from the printer's buffer memory.
Workaround
If the data format selection made within Photoshop is binary, you must set a compatible data format setting within the driver to prevent a printing error.
Open the driver's PostScript properties page and select the "Send data in binary" option in the Performance options menu, and:
  • If your printer is connected over a pure binary channel, such as AppleTalk, make sure you have selected None (AppleTalk).
  • If your printer is connected via a parallel connection, or via a non-AppleTalk network, make sure you have selected Default - Serial/Parallel.

Persuasion 3.0

Depending on the file you are trying to print, Persuasion 3.0 is sometimes incompatible with Adobe PS 3. Printing sometimes results in a blank first page or a PostScript error.

QuarkXPress

The number of copies that you set using the driver is not used at print time.
Workaround
Use the "Copies" feature of QuarkXPress to set the number of copies.

Quicken 3.0 (R)

If you choose to print partial checks in 1s or 2s, instead of the standard 3s, you may get unexpected results. When you request partial check printing, Quicken prints a blank first page, a second page in portrait orientation, and a third page in landscape orientation.

WordPerfect 5.1

Early versions of WordPerfect may exhibit some problems with this driver. Examples include: unreadable text in the WordPerfect Select Printers dialog; dimmed Select control in the Select Printers dialog when switching printers; and mismatched settings between Adobe PS 3 and WordPerfect.
Workaround
Use at least version 5.1 of WordPerfect.