Arch Linux

throbscottle

Member

Registered: 2011-11-05

Posts: 55

What do I do with these printer files?

I've just successfully got a secondhand laser printer to work using the manufacturers driver (manually copied files into place), but it came with some extra files, "Halftones", which are some .bmp's of dot patterns, and "Profiles" which are icc profiles. I know they are something to do with the printers colour settings, but I don't know how to use them. Can someone help?

HalosGhost

Forum Fellow

From: Twin Cities, MN

Registered: 2012-06-22

Posts: 2,097

Website

Re: What do I do with these printer files?

You should avoid manually installing things to the system. See makepkg and PKGBUILD for how to install things properly. As for the other files, do you have access to a setup where the printer's installer did the work so you can see where they are typically installed (or, is there a manual for the printer that might cover this)?

Also relevant: I don't think this should be in the "Apps & DEs" section. As this refers to getting hardware to function correctly, I would imagine "Kernel & Hardware" may be more appropriate, though the "Newbie Corner" probably makes the most sense.

All the best,

-HG

P.S., please read the Forum Etiquette. In particular, this section is rather pertinent. You don't include what type of printer this is, where you've looked before and failed to find the answer, etc.

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throbscottle

Member

Registered: 2011-11-05

Posts: 55

Re: What do I do with these printer files?

Oops, sorry!

Ok, printer is Konica Minolta Magicolor 2530dl. After struggling with the driver from the supplied disk I downloaded the foo2zjs driver from the AUR, which works reasonably well, but then downloaded the 64bit driver from the manufacturers website, which gives much better results, so there is no problem with the driver which is why I didn't mention it. The driver is supplied in rpm format and very old, so I thought file locations might be different (they aren't as it happens) so extracted and copied the files, I just didn't see the point in making a package (which for me means learning how to make a package, and I haven't got time) for 2 files, namely a .ppd and filter. But for these halftone and profile files I don't have anything to compare to and I don't know if they are being used correctly or if some other part of the system is supposed to be able to find them or what. I know that icc profiles are widely used, I just don't know how. and seeing as the halftone files are in an adjacent directory I'm assuming they are used together, again don't know how.

Okay that looked like quite a rant, apologies.

Oh and since the hardware works fine I didn't want to post in "Kernel & Hardware" - this looks like part of some kind of mystery application to me.