GS-STP(1)

NAME

stp - Ghostscript device driver for ESC/P, ESC/P2, RTL/PCL

OPTIONS

Options for the stp driver are given in normal Ghostscript
    manner. The resolution of the image calculated by Ghostscript is not bound to the resolution of the printer output. It is for example possible to specify -r360 to gs and print the output in 1440x720 dpi (see below for driver parameter). The result is a somewhat faster operation of the driver.

  Color Balancing Values: (min,max,default)

    Option=value | value: | range
    -dCyan=xxx | xxx: | 0.0 ... 4.0 (1.0)
    -dMagenta=xxx | xxx: | 0.0 ... 4.0 (1.0)
    -dYellow=xxx | xxx: | 0.0 ... 4.0 (1.0)
    -dBrightness=xxx | xxx: | 0.0 ... 2.0 (1.0)
    -dContrast=xxx | xxx: | 0.0 ... 4.0 (1.0)
    -dGamma=xxx | xxx: | 0.1 ... 4.0 (1.0)
    -dDensity=xxx | xxx: | 0.1 ... 2.0 (1.0)
    -dSaturation=xxx | xxx: | 0.0 ... 9.0 (1.0)
    -dColor=x | x: | 0 ... 1 (1) (0==gray, 1==color)

  Printer Model Selection (Option -sModel=name):
    model name | printer
    bjc-1000 | CANON BJC 1000
    bjc-2000 | CANON BJC 2000
    bjc-3000 | CANON BJC 3000
    bjc-4300 | CANON BJC 4300
    bjc-4400 | CANON BJC 4400 photo
    bjc-6000 | CANON BJC 6000
    bjc-6100 | CANON BJC 6100
    bjc-7000 | CANON BJC 7000
    bjc-7100 | CANON BJC 7100
    bjc-8200 | CANON BJC 8200
    escp2 | EPSON Stylus Color
    escp2-pro | EPSON Stylus Color Pro
    escp2-pro-xl | EPSON Stylus Color Pro XL
    escp2-400 | EPSON Stylus Color 400
    escp2-440 | EPSON Stylus Color 440
    escp2-460 | EPSON Stylus Color 460
    escp2-500 | EPSON Stylus Color 500
    escp2-600 | EPSON Stylus Color 600
    escp2-640 | EPSON Stylus Color 640
    escp2-660 | EPSON Stylus Color 660
    escp2-670 | EPSON Stylus Color 670
    escp2-740 | EPSON Stylus Color 740
    escp2-760 | EPSON Stylus Color 760
    escp2-800 | EPSON Stylus Color 800
    escp2-850 | EPSON Stylus Color 850
    escp2-860 | EPSON Stylus Color 860
    escp2-880 | EPSON Stylus Color 880
    escp2-900 | EPSON Stylus Color 900
    escp2-980 | EPSON Stylus Color 980
    escp2-1160 | EPSON Stylus Color 1160
    escp2-1500 | EPSON Stylus Color 1500
    escp2-1520 | EPSON Stylus Color 1520
    escp2-3000 | EPSON Stylus Color 3000
    escp2-photo | EPSON Stylus Photo
    escp2-700 | EPSON Stylus Photo 700
    escp2-ex | EPSON Stylus Photo EX
    escp2-720 | EPSON Stylus Photo 720
    escp2-750 | EPSON Stylus Photo 750
    escp2-870 | EPSON Stylus Photo 870
    escp2-1200 | EPSON Stylus Photo 1200
    escp2-1270 | EPSON Stylus Photo 1270
    escp2-2000 | EPSON Stylus Photo 2000P
    pcl-340 | HP DeskJet 340
    pcl-400 | HP DeskJet 400
    pcl-500 | HP DeskJet 500
    pcl-501 | HP DeskJet 500C
    pcl-520 | HP DeskJet 520
    pcl-540 | HP DeskJet 540C
    pcl-550 | HP DeskJet 550C
    pcl-560 | HP DeskJet 560C
    pcl-600 | HP DeskJet 600/600C (Single Cartridge)
    pcl-601 | HP DeskJet 600 series (2 Cartridge)
    pcl-690 | HP DeskJet 690 series (Photo-Ink capable)
    pcl-810 | HP DeskJet 810C
    pcl-812 | HP DeskJet 812C
    pcl-840 | HP DeskJet 840C
    pcl-842 | HP DeskJet 842C
    pcl-850 | HP DeskJet 850C
    pcl-855 | HP DeskJet 855C
    pcl-870 | HP DeskJet 870C
    pcl-890 | HP DeskJet 890C
    pcl-895 | HP DeskJet 895C
    pcl-900 | HP DeskJet 900 series
    pcl-P1000 | HP PhotoSmart P1000
    pcl-1100 | HP DeskJet 1100C
    pcl-P1100 | HP PhotoSmart P1100
    pcl-1120 | HP DeskJet 1120C
    pcl-1200 | HP DeskJet 1200C
    pcl-1220 | HP DeskJet 1220C
    pcl-1600 | HP DeskJet 1600C
    pcl-2000 | HP DeskJet 2000 series
    pcl-2500 | HP DeskJet 2500 series
    pcl-2 | HP LaserJet II series
    pcl-3 | HP LaserJet III series
    pcl-4 | HP LaserJet 4 series
    pcl-4v | HP LaserJet 4V, 4Si
    pcl-5 | HP LaserJet 5 series
    pcl-5si | HP LaserJet 5Si
    pcl-6 | HP LaserJet 6 series
    lexmark-4076 | Lexmark 4076 (PCL printer)
Most or all of the Epson Stylus printers are fully functional.  The
    others vary. In particular, all of the listed Epson Stylus Photo printers print in full 6-color photo mode; most of the others do not. The color output has also been better tuned for Epson Stylus printers than for others.

  Print Resolution Selection (Option -sQuality=):
."

The meaning of this is model-specific. ."

For Epson Stylus printers:

'180 DPI'
works on older printers

'360 DPI'
works on all printers

'360 DPI Softweave'
works on printers that support
    variable dot sizes, such as the Epson Stylus Color 740 and newer

'360 DPI High Quality'
works on printers that support
    variable dot sizes, such as the Epson Stylus Color 740 and newer)

'720 DPI Microweave'
    works on older printers

'720 DPI Softweave'
works on all printers except
    for Stylus Color, Stylus Color 1500, Stylus Color 1520, and Stylus Color 3000

'720 DPI High Quality'
works on all printers except
    above and Epson Stylus Color 440/460/480

'720 DPI Highest Quality'
works on all printers except
    above and Epson Stylus Color 440/460/480

'1440 x 720 DPI Microweave'
works on older 1440x720 dpi printers

'1440 x 720 DPI Softweave'
    works on all 1440x720 dpi printers except for Stylus Color 1520 and Stylus Color 3000

'1440 x 720 DPI Highest Quality'
works on all 1440x720 dpi
    printers except for Stylus Color 1520 and Stylus Color 3000

'1440 x 1440 DPI Emulated'
works on all 1440x720 dpi
    printers except for Stylus Color 1520 and Stylus Color 3000

'1440 x 2880 DPI Emulated'
works on all 1440x720 dpi
    printers except for Stylus Color 1520 and Stylus Color 3000

The last two modes use oversampling to emulate higher resolutions than the printers actually support. In some cases they may yield improved output quality, but they are slower than the lower resolution modes. The other 1440x720 modes use the printer in different ways to to achieve different tradeoffs of quality vs. performance; likewise with the 720 DPI modes.

The Microweave modes are extremely slow on many printers. Not all printers can do Microweave properly, particularly at 1440x720 DPI. If Microweave is used with these printers, the printing will be done one row at a time. In addition to being extremely slow (but often extremely high quality), this may be harmful to the print head and may cause clogging, due to ink pooling in the print head. If your printer is capable of non-Microweave modes, there is seldom any advantage to be had from using Microweave.

In general, using resolutions lower than 720 DPI on coated paper will yield unsatisfactory results.

For PCL printers (including Hewlett-Packard and Lexmark):

'150x150 DPI'
should work on all printers

'300x300 DPI'
should work on all printers, C-RET on
    DJ 850/855/870/890

'600x300 DPI'
DJ 6xx/810/812/840/842/895

'600x600 DPI monochrome'
DJ 6xx (except 69x) /8xx/1100/1120

'600x600 DPI'
DJ 69x/9xx/1220/2000/2500, PhotoSmart P1000
    P1100, LJ5/5Si/6

Note: the higher resolutions of newer PCL printers using "Photo-Ret" are not yet supported.

For Canon printers:

1200 DPI printers (BJC 7000, BJC 7100, BJC 8200, BJC 8500):

1440 DPI printers (BJC 1000, BJC 2000, BJC 3000, BJC 4300, BJC 4400, BJC 5100, BJC 5500, BJC 6000, BJC 6100, BJC 6500):

  Dithering Algorithms (Option -sDither=algorithm):
."

Hybrid algorithms use error diffusion, but a matrix is used when a random number is required. Adaptive algorithms use error diffusion except in very light regions, where ordered dithering is used.

Ordered dithering typically works best in solid-color graphics on four color printers, and in very pale regions. The results on six color printers tend to be poor. The adaptive algorithms do perform well on six color printers.

Adaptive hybrid dithering usually gives the best results overall.

The Fast algorithm gives the fastest results at the expense of color accuracy. On simple four color printers (or other printers used in four color mode), the quality is similar to Ordered, although dark gray rendition is not as good. It generally gives poor results in six color mode. In black and white, it is an efficient way to render grayscale, but it may not give best results when used with variable dot size printers.

Very Fast is even faster than Fast, with even more loss of quality.

  Ink Types
This is printer type specific. The option names are case sensitive. Not all ink types are supported on all printers.

Option -sInkType='ink type'

For Epson printers:

Six color printers can print using four color inks or all six colors. Six color mode is recommended for photographs. Four color mode may be useful when printing text with embedded graphics to reduce ink consumption.

For Canon printers:

For PCL (Hewlett-Packard and Lexmark) printers:

  Media Types

This is printer type specific. The option names are case sensitive.

Option -sMediaType='media type'

For Epson printers:

For Canon printers:

For PCL (Hewlett-Packard and Lexmark) printers:

  Media Sources

This is printer type specific. The option names are case sensitive.

Option -sInputSlot='media source'

No media sources are currently defined for Epson printers. At present, only the single sheet feeder can be used.

." For Canon printers:

For PCL (Hewlett-Packard and Lexmark) printers:

  Image type (to optimize the dither):

Option -dImageType=x with x: 0 ... 3 (0)

Select the image type most representative of what's being printed.
    0 | Line art (color or gray scale)
    1 | Primarily solid colors or smooth gradients (color or gray scale)
    2 | Continuous-tone photographs (color or gray scale)
    3 | Pure black and white or pre-screened (currently black only)

For mixed documents, options 0 or 1 will probably work best. Option 0 will dither faster and yield sharper text, but images will be grainier. Option 1 will yield smoother images, but text will not be as sharp and the dither process will be slower. Option 2 will yield the best natural images, but is quite slow. Option 3 is very fast and accurate, but should not be used if there are any tones other than pure black and white (or you want absolute black and white contrast).

Note that any of the modes (except monochrome) may be used with either color or black & white output. If black and white output is requested, but a color mode used, composite color will be printed. This generally offers smoother tone, but less purity of gray or black, than pure black ink. Furthermore, it is possible to tune the color of the gray (to achieve warmer or cooler effects) using the color controls in this fashion.

EXAMPLES:
Example 1 (print charts to file, color, 360 dpi):

gs -sDEVICE=stp -sModel=escp2-ex -dDensity=1.6 -dGamma=1.5 \
   -dSaturation=0.9 -dBrightness=40 -dImageType=1 \
   -sOutputFile=itsyourchoice.prn foo.ps

Example 2 (print color photograph to /dev/lp0 at maximum quality):

gs -q -dSAFER -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=stp -sModel=escp2-870 \
   -dDensity=0.8 -r1440x720 \
   -sQuality='1440 x 720 DPI Highest Quality' \
   -dImageType=2 -sOutputFile=/dev/lp0 foo.ps

Example 3 (print pure black text to stdout)

gs -q -dSAFER -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=stp -sModel=escp2-660 \
   -dDensity=0.8 -r720 -sQuality='720 DPI Softweave' \
   -dImageType=3 -sOutputFile=- foo.ps

SEE ALSO
gs(1), gs-hpdj(1), /usr/share/ghostscript/#.##/doc/*
where "#.##" represents the Ghostscript version number.