Hello,
Our art department uses a program called EagleRIP to rip postscript files to an old image setting device (Linotype-HELL LTC330). The EagleRIP software is installed on a Windows XP Pro machine (x86) and we have configured 3 NT Pipeline input printers that we use so that our other XP workstations (x86) can print directly to the RIP from InDesign CS6 (our art department is very adamant about keeping the direct print functionality and have no interest in changing to a workflow that would involve distilling PDFs and then saving them to a RIP hot folder).
To setup the NT pipe printers on the host RIP machine and on the client workstations we had used the Adobe Generic Postscript Printer Driver (winsteng.exe) which lets you use a generic postscript driver but associates it with a specific .ppd file for your image setter. This has worked flawlessly for us for the past few years.
The problem we are facing is that we need to implement a new Windows 7 Pro workstation (x64) into the art department. The Adobe Generic Postscript Driver only supports Windows XP x86 and below so we are unable to use that to create the printers on the Windows 7 workstation. I have the .ppd file for the image setter but without the Adobe software I have no way of associating it with a printer. I know that Windows did incorporate a generic postscript printer driver into Windows 7 but I have not found anyway to have it associate with my supplied .ppd file.
I tried looking for answers from the manufacturers of the EagleRIP software but they are based in China and even getting a reply to an email is like pulling teeth. They did post a "Postscript Print Driver for Windows 7" on their site that does allow me to install the printer but the .ppd file that is associated with it is for a AGFA Avantra 44/44S image setter instead of the Linotype-HELL LTC330 that I need it to be. Now I don't really no much about the inner-workings of print drivers and .ppd files to know if it would really make a huge difference that it references the wrong device but it seems to me that they should match.
After reading a bunch of forum posts regarding similar situations with Windows 7 and .ppd files I did try and hack the .ppd by installing the printers using the Postscript Print Driver for Windows 7 that I had found on the mfg's site, going into C:\Windows\System32\spool\drivers\x64\3 and then opening the Av44.ppd (the ppd that is installed by the driver for the AGFA Avantra 44/44S) in notepad and replacing all of the information with the information from the LTC330.ppd file for my device. I saved that and then deleted the Av44.bpd file. After doing that, when I went to print from InDesign it did show that the printer was associated with the Linotype-HELL LTC330 device which was what I wanted. I printed a job and it did make it successfully to my RIP however it came over with a file name of "Remote Downlevel Document on ....name of computer....." instead of the actual file name (i.e. "664835 Solutions Network #9 BRE.....") like it does when we print from any of our other workstations.
Now while this does work, it is certainly not ideal because there are hundreds of jobs ripped each day and if they are all labeled "Remote Downlevel Document..." it makes it vary hard to keep things organized. I tried researching the remote downlevel document thing but I was unable to find anything that was very helpful because when others were experiencing this issue they had, locking up print queue, generating multiple print jobs, generating 0 byte print files, or not making it to the printer at all but mine sends only one print job that makes it successfully to the RIP and doesn't lock up the queue. The other thing that others said could cause this is a virus but I don't think this could be possible in my situation as this computer is brand new and other than CS6 and MS Office this machine has nothing else on it.
Sorry for the wordy explanation, just wanted to make sure I had covered everything.
Is there anyone that is more familiar with .ppd files and Windows 7 that would be able to shed a little more light on my situation and possibly provide guidance on how to get this working?
or more specifically, does anyone have any information on how I can fix the issue of it changing my file names to "remote downlevel document?"
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Our art department uses a program called EagleRIP to rip postscript files to an old image setting device (Linotype-HELL LTC330). The EagleRIP software is installed on a Windows XP Pro machine (x86) and we have configured 3 NT Pipeline input printers that we use so that our other XP workstations (x86) can print directly to the RIP from InDesign CS6 (our art department is very adamant about keeping the direct print functionality and have no interest in changing to a workflow that would involve distilling PDFs and then saving them to a RIP hot folder).
To setup the NT pipe printers on the host RIP machine and on the client workstations we had used the Adobe Generic Postscript Printer Driver (winsteng.exe) which lets you use a generic postscript driver but associates it with a specific .ppd file for your image setter. This has worked flawlessly for us for the past few years.
The problem we are facing is that we need to implement a new Windows 7 Pro workstation (x64) into the art department. The Adobe Generic Postscript Driver only supports Windows XP x86 and below so we are unable to use that to create the printers on the Windows 7 workstation. I have the .ppd file for the image setter but without the Adobe software I have no way of associating it with a printer. I know that Windows did incorporate a generic postscript printer driver into Windows 7 but I have not found anyway to have it associate with my supplied .ppd file.
I tried looking for answers from the manufacturers of the EagleRIP software but they are based in China and even getting a reply to an email is like pulling teeth. They did post a "Postscript Print Driver for Windows 7" on their site that does allow me to install the printer but the .ppd file that is associated with it is for a AGFA Avantra 44/44S image setter instead of the Linotype-HELL LTC330 that I need it to be. Now I don't really no much about the inner-workings of print drivers and .ppd files to know if it would really make a huge difference that it references the wrong device but it seems to me that they should match.
After reading a bunch of forum posts regarding similar situations with Windows 7 and .ppd files I did try and hack the .ppd by installing the printers using the Postscript Print Driver for Windows 7 that I had found on the mfg's site, going into C:\Windows\System32\spool\drivers\x64\3 and then opening the Av44.ppd (the ppd that is installed by the driver for the AGFA Avantra 44/44S) in notepad and replacing all of the information with the information from the LTC330.ppd file for my device. I saved that and then deleted the Av44.bpd file. After doing that, when I went to print from InDesign it did show that the printer was associated with the Linotype-HELL LTC330 device which was what I wanted. I printed a job and it did make it successfully to my RIP however it came over with a file name of "Remote Downlevel Document on ....name of computer....." instead of the actual file name (i.e. "664835 Solutions Network #9 BRE.....") like it does when we print from any of our other workstations.
Now while this does work, it is certainly not ideal because there are hundreds of jobs ripped each day and if they are all labeled "Remote Downlevel Document..." it makes it vary hard to keep things organized. I tried researching the remote downlevel document thing but I was unable to find anything that was very helpful because when others were experiencing this issue they had, locking up print queue, generating multiple print jobs, generating 0 byte print files, or not making it to the printer at all but mine sends only one print job that makes it successfully to the RIP and doesn't lock up the queue. The other thing that others said could cause this is a virus but I don't think this could be possible in my situation as this computer is brand new and other than CS6 and MS Office this machine has nothing else on it.
Sorry for the wordy explanation, just wanted to make sure I had covered everything.
Is there anyone that is more familiar with .ppd files and Windows 7 that would be able to shed a little more light on my situation and possibly provide guidance on how to get this working?
or more specifically, does anyone have any information on how I can fix the issue of it changing my file names to "remote downlevel document?"
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
