As long as you are using intelligent-enough printers, this method will probably continue to work fine. But, I believe there are a number of "dumb" modern printers out there that this will not, as they require job prep to be done on the client-side. The question is, which are dumb and which aren't? Heck if I know - but I do know I have encountered these "dumb" printers in the past. I'm sure there is a more appropriate technical term for them, but I'm simply not aware of it.
I would recommend that you bring this up as a possible issue, to make your developers and superiors aware of this - and then absolve yourself from it. -- Espi On Wed, Sep 4, 2013 at 9:27 AM, Michael Leone <[email protected]> wrote: > On Tue, Sep 3, 2013 at 7:12 PM, Ben Scott <[email protected]> wrote: > > >> The job *does* seem to get into the print spool queue of the server, > >> because jobs come out, and they seem properly formatted (that's the > >> server using the print driver, I think) > > > > Unless something weird is happening, the printer driver is never > > invoked. The output of the application program is just passed to the > > printer "as is". Likely possabilities: > > > > (1) The application is outputting plain text. Most "good" printers > > will render and print plain text as if it had been typed by a > > typewriter. > > I have sent PDF files to the printer this way, and they came out fine. > That may be printer-model specific, however. > > > (2) The application's output is in a page description language > > acceptable to the printer. For example, the application could be > > outputting PCL or PostScript or something weirder, like "IBM > > Graphics". As long as the printer knows what to do with it, you get a > > formatted page. > > All our printers are either Xerox, Ricoh or HP models, all with > PostScript support. I dunno how the application is building the file > they are sending, maybe it is a PS file. > > > #2 was the only way to do things back in the days of MS-DOS, so if > > this application was dragged into the modern era from there, that will > > be likely. (One very rarely still sees it in "modern" apps, though. > > FedEx Ship Manager comes to mind.) > > I heard the developers mention that they "used" to use some Java print > engine/method/driver (I wasn't following this too closely, as I was > only on the periphery of this conversation). Why they stopped, I don't > know. > > My developers don't always make a whole lot of sense, to me ... > > >
