Mac driver for Panasonic DP-8020E

[Graham J]

Client has inherited a Panasonic DP-8020E which only implements GDI.

PC can drive it OK 'cos there is a GDI driver for PCs on the Panasonic
website.

Printer doesn't implement Postscript.

I can't find a GDI driver for a Mac - should there be one?

Any suggestions as to how I can drive this printer from a Mac running
OS7 ????

There is a PC with Windows 7 Pro on the site; I could install a PS RIP
and publish it on the network ... but is this overkill ?

--
Graham J

[Jaimie Vandenbergh]

On Wed, 14 Nov 2012 17:13:36 +0000, Graham J <graham@invalid> wrote:

>Client has inherited a Panasonic DP-8020E which only implements GDI.
>
>PC can drive it OK 'cos there is a GDI driver for PCs on the Panasonic
>website.
>
>Printer doesn't implement Postscript.
>
>I can't find a GDI driver for a Mac - should there be one?

Seems Unlikely. GDI was a Microsoft idea which allowed a printer to be
dumb (and therefore cheaper) by removing all its brains and
implementing them in software, outputting a bitmap in Windows' GDI
format to the print engine directly.

But the Panasonic product page doesn't match that at all - says it
talks PCL5, 6 and Postscript3. I'd go in that direction if I were you.

http://epp.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ModelDetail?storeId=11201&catalogId=13051&itemId=98442&catGroupId=34151&surfModel=DP-8020E&displayTab=F

Or is that the wrong printer?

>Any suggestions as to how I can drive this printer from a Mac running
>OS7 ????
>There is a PC with Windows 7 Pro on the site; I could install a PS RIP
>and publish it on the network ... but is this overkill ?

Not really. Set up the Win7 as a printer server, share it, job perhaps
done.

Cheers - Jaimie
--
"The only way to comprehend what mathematicians mean by infinity is
to contemplate the extent of human stupidity." -- Voltaire

[Graham J]

Jaimie Vandenbergh wrote:
> On Wed, 14 Nov 2012 17:13:36 +0000, Graham J <graham@invalid> wrote:
>
>> Client has inherited a Panasonic DP-8020E which only implements GDI.
>>
>> PC can drive it OK 'cos there is a GDI driver for PCs on the Panasonic
>> website.
>>
>> Printer doesn't implement Postscript.
>>
>> I can't find a GDI driver for a Mac - should there be one?
>
> Seems Unlikely. GDI was a Microsoft idea which allowed a printer to be
> dumb (and therefore cheaper) by removing all its brains and
> implementing them in software, outputting a bitmap in Windows' GDI
> format to the print engine directly.
>
> But the Panasonic product page doesn't match that at all - says it
> talks PCL5, 6 and Postscript3. I'd go in that direction if I were you.
>
> http://epp.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ModelDetail?storeId=11201&catalogId=13051&itemId=98442&catGroupId=34151&surfModel=DP-8020E&displayTab=F
>
> Or is that the wrong printer?
>
>> Any suggestions as to how I can drive this printer from a Mac running
>> OS7 ????
>> There is a PC with Windows 7 Pro on the site; I could install a PS RIP
>> and publish it on the network ... but is this overkill ?
>
> Not really. Set up the Win7 as a printer server, share it, job perhaps
> done.

Yes there are Panasonic drivers for PCL and Postscript; but these
languages are not actually implemented in this particular printer. What
that actually means is that the user has to buy a dongle to enable the
language - the code is present, but requires a license key to run.

The model is now obsolete so the dongles are no longer available.

I have this from the printer supplier - can anybody contradict this?

--
Graham J