Letters are VERY faint when printing from Linux?

[r_ranasinghe69]

We have an issue like this: We print PDFs from a Linux box to a printer attached to a Windows machine.

Problem is when we print from the Windows the printout comes perfectly with the font bold and clear, but when printing from the Linux box the font is very FAINT and we can see dots in the fonts.

We tried changing the PDF to a text file (i.e. we created text file with the report) with the -o cpi=5 option and still it does not come out properly. Now the font gets bigger, but we can see dots in the font and it is not bold.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Rubberman]

How are you printing the files? Are you using CUPS for the Linux print system? If so, have you installed the proper printer drivers for this printer?

[r_ranasinghe69]

Hello Rubberman, thanks for your reply. Now our font faint problem is solved. Problem was as you said, printer driver was not correct one.

Now we have only 1 problem to solve. We are printing a receipt in a Epson LQ-300+II dot-matrix printer. Problem is that the printing starts at the bottom of the page. Our report does not have any space on top, but still when printing from Linux it starts printing from below the 50% of the paper. In Windows this prints correctly.

Any setting or command option to LPR command we can use to solve this?

[Rubberman]

Check your printer configuration settings on the Linux side, especially regarding margins, etc. Once you have set those, you can print a test page and see if it fixes your problem. Honestly, it has been a long time since I used a dot-matrix printer with Unix/Linux. Mostly these days we use inkjet or laser printers, though I do know that a lot of people still use dot matrix because it allows you to use multi-copy carbonless forms.

[r_ranasinghe69]

Check your printer configuration settings on the Linux side, especially regarding margins, etc. Once you have set those, you can print a test page and see if it fixes your problem. Honestly, it has been a long time since I used a dot-matrix printer with Unix/Linux. Mostly these days we use inkjet or laser printers, though I do know that a lot of people still use dot matrix because it allows you to use multi-copy carbonless forms.

Hello, i tried everything. I tried even changing the paper size in the printer definition in Linux side. No luck, still it starts printing from the middle of the page.

Do you need a driver to print in Linux? What is the difference between drivers and PPD files?

Where can I get a driver or PPD for the Epson I am using? I tried Google but I just could not find any which actually gave a solution.

[Rubberman]

Unfortunately, avasys.jp who provides Linux drivers and ppd support for Epson printers, does not appear to support impact printers; only laser, inkjet, all-in-ones, and scanners. Looking on the Epson site the LQ-300 support page had Windows and Mac driver support, but nothing for Linux. Other than looking at the configuration file for this printer, I am out of ideas. Sorry.

[r_ranasinghe69]

Thanks for your replies. Really appreciate it!