G & G Printing Options

UAF Geology & Geophysics Computer Lab

Printing In the Geology Dept.

This cookbook discusses how to setup for printing from Mac's and PC's to printers in the Geology Dept.

What to do if a printer is SPEWING GARBAGE (multiple pages with 1 - 2 lines of garbage characters.)

Available printers are listed below, click on the printer name for installation instructions. When you connect to a new printer do a small test print to make sure you've not mistakenly connected to a printer in (say) the SEM lab when you want to be connected to a 3rd floor printer... If the print job completes without errors it printed somewhere.

Printer Name	Location	Features	Drawbacks
HP LaserJet 8150n	316 NatSci	Rapid clean B&W output, 8.5 x 11, 11 x 14, 11 x 17 & other sizes.
HP LaserJet 4SiMX	341 NatSci	Rapid clean B&W output, 8.5 x 11
Lexmark Optra	155 NatSci	Rapid clean B&W output, 8.5 x 11
Dell 3100	316 NatSci	Photo-quality color printer, 8.5 x 11	Expensive, 7x more expensive than B/W.
HP DesignJet 5000	308 NatSci	Rapid photo-quality color plotter, output up to 42" wide	Expensive, see policy.
Lexmark C720	341 NatSci	Rapid clean color output, 8.5 x 11	Expensive, 10x more expensive than B/W

HP LaserJet 8150n

Installation and use from PC's (NT4 installation is similar to Win2k):

Usually this printer is loaded as a default. If not, then use this procedure:
From the Start button ... Settings ...Printers ... Click Add Printer.
In the Add Printer Wizard, select Network Printer, Find a printer in the Directory.
Click Find Now and select the HP8150PCL6
Delete any obsolete printer connections.

From Mac OS 9.2.x :

Make sure you have Adobe Acrobat and Photoshop installed (these are available site licenses).
Make sure you are encoding PS as ASCII -- this can be set from PhotoShop.
Install the 8150 drivers on your local machine (get CD from Bill W.).
From the chooser select the Adobe PS printer icon, select the UAF CNS zone.
Select the HP8150PS printer.
Beware of PS errors which can waste scads of paper quickly!!!
Tested well on: Photoshop 6.01., Acrobat 5, Appleworks 6, Canvas 3.5 & 8, MS Office Suite
Known problem: Canvas 5 fills do not print correctly. Fix: Print from Canvas 8.

From Mac OS X:

Consider installing Adobe Acrobat and Photoshop (this may not be necessary).
Make sure you are encoding PS as ASCII this can be set from PhotoShop.
Open the Print Center from the finder. (In OSX this is usually located at Mac HD/Applications/Utilities/Print Center)
Click on Add Printer, select LPR Printers using IP
In the box labeled LPR Printer Address, type: nugget.cns.uaf.edu.
Uncheck Use Default Queue on Server.
Type hp8150ps in the box labeled Queue Name.
Select the HP LaserJet 8150 series for the printer model.
Click Add.
The 8150 drivers installed by OSX seem to be adequate.

HP LaserJet 4SiMX

Installation and use from PC's (NT4 installation is similar to Win2k):

From the Start button ... Settings ...Printers ... Click Add Printer.
In the Add Printer Wizard, select Network Printer, Find a printer in the Directory.
Click Find Now and select the HP4Si MXpcl
Delete any obsolete printer connections.

From Mac OS 9.2.x :

Make sure you have Adobe Acrobat and Photoshop installed (these are available site licenses).
Make sure you are encoding PS as ASCII -- this can be set from PhotoShop.
Install the HP4SiMx drivers on your local machine (download from NUGGET or HP).
From the chooser select the Adobe PS printer icon, select the UAF CNS zone.
Select the HP4Si MXps printer.
Beware of PS errors which can waste scads of paper quickly!!!
Tested well on: Photoshop 6.01., Acrobat 5, Appleworks 6, Canvas 3.5 & 8, MS Office Suite
Known problem: Canvas 5 fills do not print correctly. Fix: Print from Canvas 8.
The postscript driver works best from Macs - if you have a print problem you might try using the PCL driver (Select the HP4Si MXpcl printer.

From Mac OS X:

Consider installing Adobe Acrobat and Photoshop (this may not be necessary).
Make sure you are encoding PS as ASCII this can be set from PhotoShop.
Open the Print Center from the finder. (In OSX this is usually located at Mac HD/Applications/Utilities/Print Center)
Click on Add Printer, select LPR Printers using IP
In the box labeled LPR Printer Address, type: nugget.cns.uaf.edu.
Uncheck Use Default Queue on Server.
Type HP4SiMXps in the box labeled Queue Name.
Select the HP LaserJet 4Si v2011.110 for the printer model.
Click Add.
The HP 4Si drivers installed by OSX seem to be adequate.

Dell 3100cn

Installation and use from PC's (NT4 installation is similar to Win2k):

From the Start button ... Settings ...Printers ... Click Add Printer.
In the Add Printer Wizard, select Network Printer, Find a printer in the Directory.
Click Find Now and select the 3100PCL(PCL drivers) or 3100PS(postscript drivers)
Delete any obsolete printer connections.

From Mac OS 9.2.x :

Make sure you have Adobe Acrobat and Photoshop installed (these are available site licenses).
Make sure you are encoding PS as ASCII -- this can be set from PhotoShop.
Install the HP4SiMx drivers on your local machine (download from NUGGET or HP).
From the chooser select the Adobe PS printer icon, select the UAF CNS zone.
Select the 3100pcl printer.
Beware of PS errors which can waste scads of paper quickly!!!
Tested well on: Photoshop 6.01., Acrobat 5, Appleworks 6, Canvas 3.5 & 8, MS Office Suite
Known problem: Canvas 5 fills do not print correctly. Fix: Print from Canvas 8.
The postscript driver works best from Macs - if you have a print problem you might try using the PCL driver (Select the 3100pcl printer.

From Mac OS X:

Consider installing Adobe Acrobat and Photoshop if you anticipate the spewing garbage problem (this may not be necessary).
Make sure you are encoding PS as ASCII this can be set from PhotoShop.
Open the Print Center from the finder. (In OSX this is usually located at Mac HD/Applications/Utilities/Print Center)
Click on Add Printer, select LPR Printers using IP
In the box labeled LPR Printer Address, type: nugget.cns.uaf.edu.
Uncheck Use Default Queue on Server.
Type Dell3100ps in the box labeled Queue Name.
Select the Dell3100 for the printer model.
Click Add.
The Dell drivers installed by OSX seem to be adequate.

Lexmark Optra Rn+

Installation and use from PC's (NT4 installation is similar to Win2k):

From the Start button ... Settings ...Printers ... Click Add Printer.
In the Add Printer Wizard, select Network Printer, Find a printer in the Directory.
Click Find Now and select the SEM_PPCL (PCL drivers) or SEM_PPS (postscript drivers)
Delete any obsolete printer connections.

From Mac OS 9.2.x :

Make sure you have Adobe Acrobat and Photoshop installed (these are available site licenses).
Make sure you are encoding PS as ASCII -- this can be set from PhotoShop.
Install the HP4SiMx drivers on your local machine (download from NUGGET or HP).
From the chooser select the Adobe PS printer icon, select the UAF CNS zone.
Select the SEM_PPS printer.
Beware of PS errors which can waste scads of paper quickly!!!
Tested well on: Photoshop 6.01., Acrobat 5, Appleworks 6, Canvas 3.5 & 8, MS Office Suite
Known problem: Canvas 5 fills do not print correctly. Fix: Print from Canvas 8.
The postscript driver works best from Macs - if you have a print problem you might try using the PCL driver (Select the SEM_PPCL printer.

From Mac OS X:

Consider installing Adobe Acrobat and Photoshop (this may not be necessary).
Make sure you are encoding PS as ASCII this can be set from PhotoShop.
Open the Print Center from the finder. (In OSX this is usually located at Mac HD/Applications/Utilities/Print Center)
Click on Add Printer, select LPR Printers using IP
In the box labeled LPR Printer Address, type: nugget.cns.uaf.edu.
Uncheck Use Default Queue on Server.
Type SEM_PPS in the box labeled Queue Name.
Select the Lexmark Optra T series for the printer model.
Click Add.
The Lexmark Optra T drivers installed by OSX seem to be adequate.

Lexmark Color C720

Installation and use from PC's (NT4 installation is similar to Win2k):

From the Start button ... Settings ...Printers ... Click Add Printer.
In the Add Printer Wizard, select Network Printer, Find a printer in the Directory.
Click Find Now and select the LexColorPCL (PCL drivers) or LexColorPS (postscript drivers)
Delete any obsolete printer connections.

From Mac OS 9.2.x :

Make sure you have Adobe Acrobat and Photoshop installed (these are available site licenses).
Make sure you are encoding PS as ASCII -- this can be set from PhotoShop.
Install the HP4SiMx drivers on your local machine (download from NUGGET or HP).
From the chooser select the Adobe PS printer icon, select the UAF CNS zone.
Select the LexColorPS printer.
Beware of PS errors which can waste scads of paper quickly!!!
Tested well on: Photoshop 6.01., Acrobat 5, Appleworks 6, Canvas 3.5 & 8, MS Office Suite
Known problem: Canvas 5 fills do not print correctly. Fix: Print from Canvas 8.
The postscript driver works best from Macs - if you have a print problem you might try using the PCL driver (Select the LexColorPCL printer.

From Mac OS X:

Consider installing Adobe Acrobat and Photoshop (this may not be necessary).
Make sure you are encoding PS as ASCII this can be set from PhotoShop.
Open the Print Center from the finder. (In OSX this is usually located at Mac HD/Applications/Utilities/Print Center)
Click on Add Printer, select LPR Printers using IP
In the box labeled LPR Printer Address, type: nugget.cns.uaf.edu.
Uncheck Use Default Queue on Server.
Type LexColorPS in the box labeled Queue Name.
Select the Lexmark C720 for the printer model.
Click Add.
The Lexmark C720 drivers installed by OSX seem to be adequate.

Spewing Garbage

Occasionally when printing from Mac's and PC's to a Laserwriter the printer will print continuous pages with a single line of garbage text at the top of each page. One line of garbage text, printed at the top of multiple pages is symptomatic of a printer receiving binary encoded data that cannot be understood by the printer. Setting the program to output ASCII (rather than Binary) usually resolves this issue.

Some applications do not include ways for the user to manage the encoding, however most Adobe products include excellent controls and are probably the best way to resolve this issue. Adobe Photoshop 7 is a free download for UAF staff and faculty on UAF hardware. Make sure you have KeyAccess 5.2.3.3 and Photoshop 7. These can be downloaded at: http://www.uaf.edu/dcc/keys/index.html.

It seems that if you change this setting in Adobe products it changes it for all applications. In Photoshop you can set the encoding in the Print Dialog box. Select File ... Print with Preview (make sure you check Show More Options). If the encoding is set as ASCII, then you should not get the garbage output. Macintosh Adobe Photoshop dialog box shown below:

The Encoding can also be set in MS Word (although this method might not propogate this setting to other applications). Select File ... Print ... Select Postscript Settings from the pulldown menu, and check that the Data Format is set as ASCII. Macintosh MS Word dialog box shown below:

Revised November 2005