HP printers and Compact Flash cards

[benwiggy]

Not really relevant to OS X, but I'm sure that a fair few people have got HP LaserJets, and I've found scant information on this topic, so I wanted to put it out there.

I've just bought an HP Laserjet 5200 DTN, and I decided to max out its memory with a 512Mb SODIMM. And it really works well, handling large duplex jobs.

According to the manual (and service manual), "Compact Flash cards can be used to add fonts to the printer." So I thought: "Why not get a CF card, stick it in, and see if that will make it even more impressive?"
However, that is pretty much all the info I can find on the subject. There are a couple of firms that sell pre-formatted CF cards for HP printers, with fonts for security printing (selling at a few hundred dollars!) But that's all I can find. No mention of CF cards in use, or anything.

I bought a 1Gb CF card, new, from eBay. (I didn't want to go mad with 32Gb or anything, as the printer is a 2006 design.) Installed, it, and the printer booted up. It spent a bit of extra time flashing lights at startup before being "Ready", and then it came up with an error "Card Slot Not Initialized".
I found one page on the web which came up with the fix:
Turn the printer on, and as it is counting up its memory, hold down the "Menu" button. Then it should stop and all three lights will stay on.
Press the "Back" button, and an option "Initialize Disk" will appear. Press the big Green button.
The printer will flash its lights in turn for a while. (1Gb took c. 2 minutes.)

After that: hey presto! The Web front end describes Card Slot 1 as having 900 Mb of Free Space.

Now, I have no idea if the printer is going to use that space of its own accord. I also don't know whether there's any performance benefit in uploading all my fonts to the disk -- particularly with PDFs that subset fonts and give them unique fontnames. I also don't know if it's possible of if there's any point in uploading print jobs to the card (and if so, how to print them from there). The HP Utility app has a "File Upload" button, as well as "Font Upload". 900 Mb is a lot of fonts!

Anyway, I just thought I would write up my experience, and it may be of interest to others, or some people may have more info to add. Not even the Service Manual has the trick about holding down the Menu button.

[NovaScotian]

Aeons ago if my memory serves me, early laser printers would use extra memory themselves. Each time you downloaded (uploaded?) a print job that the printer didn't have a font for, it downloaded it from your computer, printed the job, but kept the font.

If I were you, I'd load a couple of print jobs with fonts the printer doesn't have, and then check the available flash memory again. If it goes down the printer is keeping the fonts and ought to print a job like the first faster the second time.

[benwiggy]

Quote: Originally Posted by NovaScotian Each time you downloaded (uploaded?) a print job that the printer didn't have a font for, it downloaded it from your computer, printed the job, but kept the font.

Are you saying that print stores any font it comes across that it doesn't already store? Hmm. interesting.
I always thought you had to expressly upload the font data. (Hence the vestigial wording in font licences that says you can install the font on five computers and one printing device, or multiples thereof.)

Still, I'm wondering what font subsetting does to that, as fonts are given unique names in the ps stream.

Given the size of font data (32K) and the power of the printer (460 MHz CPU, 512 Mb RAM), I'm surprised that this was still an option in a printer designed in the mid-2000s.

I'll keep you posted on any developments.

[benwiggy]

More results from this experiment:

1. The HP Utility app only seems to upload TrueType Fonts.
Trying to upload PostScript or OpenType fonts fails. (Type 1 printer fonts give "file is corrupted" error; Type 1 screen fonts or OTF fonts are selected into a list, but then when you hit "upload", the error is "This font is not a recognised format". (There's nothing corrupt about my fonts!)

What is weird is that when you do a Directory listing of the Flash disk, the TrueType fonts are stored in a directory called "PostScript\fonts".

2. The printer doesn't just add any fonts that go through it as they get used in print jobs. That didn't sound right for starters.

3. At startup, the printer seems to scan/verify the whole CF drive. As 1Gb is quite large by the machine's standards, this adds 2-3 minutes to the startup time.

In short, the whole thing is a bit pointless. If anyone is thinking of adding CF storage to an HP printer, they would do well to be cautioned by the above.

The HP Laserjet 5200 DTN is a very fine printer, even without the CF memory!

[NovaScotian]

Are you sure that the printer can't convert TT to PS fonts?

[benwiggy]

Quote: Originally Posted by NovaScotian Are you sure that the printer can't convert TT to PS fonts?

No, but it seems bizarre to require TT font data and convert it into PS data, but not accept PS data directly. (Particularly as TT the format does not contain PS hinting, so is, in a sense, "lossy".)
And if you have a Type 1 font and want to upload it, why convert it to TT, only for the printer to convert it back?

Anyway, for me, the lengthy startup delay and lack of any real benefit don't really justify keeping the card. It was a fun experiment, though.

However, there does seem to be very little written on this subject. I don't know anyone one (or company) who has ever uploaded a font for permanent on-board storage, even though many manufacturers have provided this facility for years.

[mclbruce]

Interesting. I wonder if the printer can spool print jobs to the CF card. Also, note that a 1 GB card can hold an enormous amount of fonts, print jobs, or what have you. I think a 128 MB CF card would probably be just as useful, and not nearly as annoying.

[benwiggy]

There are methods of uploading files using FTP or the HP Utility app, but if they are valid print jobs, they get printed immediately.

You can store print jobs through the print menu itself. I didn't try this. It's possible that might work, but it can do this without the CF memory installed.

Yes, a smaller CF card might be more useful (for very small values of useful), but I couldn't find one smaller than a Gig! I might look again.

[benwiggy]

Storing Jobs on the printer doesn't seem to affect the disk storage. There's no mention of the job on the directory listing, and the job is lost at power down. Though there is an option to keep stored jobs over power off, which may suggest putting them on flash storage. But anyway, I've removed the card for now as I don't really have the need for that.

The user manual also gives a tantalising glimpse of further expandability, listing error messages relating to "USB storage devices". Apart from this, it says nothing on the subject.
It's got the square-type USB socket, so I'm not sure how I would connect a USB flash stick to it.

The Linux Open Printing Forums seem to be down the past few days, which is one of the reasons why I've posted this here. This thread is now pretty high up when Googling on the subject!

[mclbruce]

Quote: Originally Posted by benwiggy The user manual also gives a tantalising glimpse of further expandability, listing error messages relating to "USB storage devices". Apart from this, it says nothing on the subject. It's got the square-type USB socket, so I'm not sure how I would connect a USB flash stick to it.

In olden days some HP printers would accept a hard drive, which could be used for fonts and for spooling. That would free up more memory for processing print jobs. Freeing up printer memory would speed up the printer significantly. In a networked environment, having jobs stack up on the printer HD instead of waiting on each individual Mac would speed up the Macs noticeably.

Quote: Originally Posted by benwiggy Yes, a smaller CF card might be more useful (for very small values of useful), but I couldn't find one smaller than a Gig! I might look again.

Small values indeed. If the printer handles what you throw at it, why bother except for curiosity. If I did need a small CF card, I would look for digital cameras on ebay, craigslist, etc. I have seen a few ancient cameras that take CF with tiny CF cards included in the sale price.

[benwiggy]

Yes, the 5200 takes a hard drive (on an HP special connector/sled/fitting, 20GB or 80GB). They're quite pricey to buy from most vendors, though eBay has some for not much money at all. I've put a bid for £30 on one.

I've spoken to HP "Online Chat" Support ("please wait whilst I consult the manual"). They don't offer any support for OS X, but they eventually told me that the printer does indeed only upload TrueType fonts on Windows.

Only some versions of the 5200 have a USB connector on the circuit board (mine doesn't), and if it does, you can plug in flash memory directly.

Ever since I had several old beige PowerMacs - 7200, 7600, G3 - I've always loved trying to fill all the empty expansion sockets with stuff!

[NovaScotian]

Quote: Originally Posted by benwiggy It's got the square-type USB socket, so I'm not sure how I would connect a USB flash stick to it.

You'd use one of these: USB A Female to Mini USB B 5 Pin Male Adapter

[benwiggy]

Close -- the printer uses the full-size B socket. There are similar adaptors, but I think their purpose is just to allow the conversion of A to A cabling into A to B.

As I understand it, the reason for B sockets (of any sort) is to distinguish them as "downstream" peripherals. Plugging in a flash drive into a B socket is a bit like a push-me-pull-you. You've got two heads of a llama connected together, with no backside. (Or more properly, it's like two horses' a.....)

At only a few quid, it might be worth a punt.