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Q158903: Garbled Output from Macintosh to Shared PostScript Printer

Article: Q158903
Product(s): Microsoft Windows NT
Version(s): 3.1; winnt:3.5,3.51,4.0
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kbinterop kbprint
Last Modified: 07-SEP-2001

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Windows NT Advanced Server, version 3.1 
- Microsoft Windows NT Server versions 3.5, 3.51, 4.0 
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SYMPTOMS
========

Print jobs from Macintosh clients may be printed incorrectly, often producing
multiple PostScript error pages. The problem seems to happen only with complex
print jobs that contain graphics.

CAUSE
=====

This behavior occurs when the AppleTalk protocol is not used to connect to the
printer. This is because there are two predominant binary encoding schemes,
"standard protocol" and "Tagged Binary Core Protocol" (TBCP). PostScript
originally supported several text encoding schemes, plus "standard protocol"
binary. Other languages originally supported one or more text encoding schemes,
plus TBCP. Standard protocol and TBCP are mutually incompatible; neither is a
subset nor an extension of the other.

AppleTalk was designed to support PostScript printing, and although AppleTalk's
Printer Access Protocol (PAP) can transmit TBCP on the wire, nearly every binary
print job over PAP is PostScript using standard protocol encoding. As a result,
many print devices assume that all binary data that arrives over AppleTalk is
encoded with standard protocol.

Similarly, PC-based network printing protocols, such as DLC and LPR, were
designed to support PC clients. When those clients send PostScript jobs, data is
almost always encoded as text; when those clients send non- PostScript jobs,
binary data is almost always encoded as TBCP. As a result, many print devices
assume that all binary data over non- AppleTalk protocols is TBCP-encoded, even
though the network protocols can correctly transmit standard-protocol-encoded
data.

The Windows NT printing architecture lets you receive a print job, in any
language, from any client, with any encoding scheme, and send that job over any
available protocol to any network-attached print device. This flexibility lets
Windows NT deliver Macintosh print jobs over an LPT port connection (both DLC
and LPR). It also lets Windows NT deliver PC print jobs over AppleTalk. If this
violates the print device's binary encoding assumptions, you receive incorrect
output.

A Windows NT print server can receive PostScript jobs from Macintosh clients with
binary data encoded in the standard protocol scheme. It can send those jobs over
an LPT port connection (either DLC or LPR) to a network or locally attached
print device that assumes all DLC, LPT port, or LPR jobs use TBCP encoding. In
this case, jobs will be printed incorrectly.

RESOLUTION
==========

1. Use AppleTalk to connect to the printer.

2. When you create PostScript print jobs (on any platform) that might be printed
  over a network, use "ASCII" or "text" encoding rather than binary encoding.
  This is an option in the PostScript driver made by Adobe Corporation for
  16-bit Windows and Macintosh clients. The Windows NT PostScript driver always
  uses text encoding. Desktop publishing programs (on any platform) often
  generate their own PostScript code, completely independent of the operating
  system's driver. According to the Adobe Serial and Parallel Communications
  Protocols Specification, programs capable of both binary and text encoding
  should provide a user interface to select either scheme. The ability to
  switch modes can usually be found in the Printer Driver dialog box.

MORE INFORMATION
================

The third-party product discussed in this article is manufactured by a vendor
independent of Microsoft; we make no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding
this product's performance or reliability.

Additional query words: prodnt 3.10 PS error parallel sfm

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Keywords          : kbinterop kbprint 
Technology        : kbWinNTsearch kbWinNT351search kbWinNT350search kbWinNT400search kbWinNTSsearch kbWinNTS400search kbWinNTS400 kbWinNTS351 kbWinNTS350 kbWinNTAdvSerSearch kbWinNTAdvServ310 kbWinNTS351search kbWinNTS350search kbWinNT310Search
Version           : :3.1; winnt:3.5,3.51,4.0

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