This is not really an HP3000 issue, but I know you laserjet gurus are out
there!

The brief version:
1) Can anybody provide the (PCL6) escape sequences needed to specify a
paper-type to a LJ5si/mx or LJ8100 ?
2)Why must I be a member of "HP Peripheral Development Group" to get my
hands on this documentation?
3) Is the pre-PCL6 special-paper workaround for non-driver users to
specify  paper source (tray)?  I've heard a few vague references to "tray
locking", including a brief note somewhere in the PCL5 tech ref, but that
brief note is all I could find.  Totally wrong track?


The long version:

Duplex printing on LJ5si/mx and LJ8100@ "requires the second side to be
printed first".  All is well (unnoticed) until special forms are used,
such as letterhead or prepunched 3-hole paper.

At <http://www.hp.com/cposupport/printers/support_doc/np101064.html>, HP
provides "a software solution" to the problem, in the form of "the PCL6
driver", which sees the combination of DUPLEX and PREPUNCHED, & responds
by rotating the page image 180 degrees.  This allows the use of one
properly loaded paper tray to do what was expected in the first place, =
support simplex AND duplex printing (even though it only works for
"prepunched", and not "letterhead", which poses exactly the same
situation!).

My PCL is NOT in a "driver" (client-specific knows-the-printer-intimately
object code?); it resides in an environment file on an HP3000.


Correct me if I'm wrong, but it appears to me that

HP is admitting that PCL6 exists, and that the LJ5si/mx supports it.  But
they're refusing to document it for public consumption!!  The 5si/mx has
been around since at least late 1995; it obviously has some sort of
support for "paper-types", but the inner workings of this seem to be a
closely guarded secret.  You can configure a paper-type specification to
a tray via printer console, but PCL5 provides no way to specify a
paper-type, nor does the printer seem to really support its own knowledge
of special paper in a tray; only paper-size is considered when selecting
which tray to use; the special paper gets used by any job requesting the
same size paper.

(I can only guess that the reason for the switch from you-gotta-pay to
you-can't-get-it  documentation of the feature is the embarassment to be
endured due to the lack of backward compatibility which could easily have
been provided by assuming "PLAIN" when no paper type is specified?)

One workaround suggested here (sorry I can't give credit, I seem to have
lost it) involved using 2 trays for the special paper, one simplex one
duplex.  Can somebody enlighten me re this 2-tray 'solution'?  Seems I
might need to dedicate an entire printer to my special forms.  Anybody?

K Tracy Pierce
Systems Programmer
Golden Gate Bridge Highway & Transportation District
San Francisco, CA  94129-0601

PS if my mood is coming through too loudly, please feel free to flame me,
public or private.  Sorry and Thanks!