RE: Printer driver confusion (long)

["Thomas Michanek" <thomas.michanek@xxxxxx>]

The plot thickens...

> From: "Jason Aiken" <jason.aiken@medtronic.com>
> The basic rundown is: printer driver + postscript printer 
> description (PPD) = printer instance.

I'm willing to agree with this, despite the terms and
selections that I find in Windows NT/2000:

The list available in the Printers control panel undoubtedly
contains "printers", and there's the "Add Printer" wizard.

When looking at the Properties for such a "printer", both the
Model and Driver is specified as the same "AdobePS ..." name!
In the Advanced tab (General tab on NT), there's a list of
Drivers to select from, and this list is clearly different from
the list of printers, but is much more elaborate than simply
"AdobePS" or "PSCRIPT".
The list of drivers may contain entries that are not associated
with any printer currently on the system, but that may have been
installed and used earlier. You can apparently change the Driver
associated with the printer.

The Device Settings tab contains settings for a Device, with
the same name as the Model and Driver (see above)! This Device's
About box claims to be the "PostScript Printer Driver Version 5.xx"
regardless if the printer was created by using AdobePS or the
Add Printer wizard. The Model name again includes "AdobePS".
(So now we have a Model, Driver and Device with the same name...)

When looking at the Server Properties from the control panel, the
Drivers tab (not available on NT) contain the same list of installed
printer drivers as above, again regardless if they are currently
used by any printer on my system.
The Properties for such a driver (not possible to see on NT) indicate
that the driver consists of a Help file, a Config file (the UI),
a Data file (the PPD), a Driver file (PSCRIPT5.DLL), and a Dependent
file (PSCRIPT.NTF, no idea what this is).
The Driver file claims to be the "PostScript Printer Driver", but the
version number is different from the About box described above...
(You'll get this information also if you print out a test page.)

Obviously, these terms are not used in any consistent way, but I'm
willing to conclude that my system, according to Microsoft, contains
a set of printers, each associated with a separate printer driver.
The set of printers is separate from the set of printer drivers.
The printer drivers are created when you add a printer, either by
running the AdobePS installer or the Add Printer wizard. But since
Adobe calls AdobePS a printer driver, perhaps the printer drivers
on my system should be called printer driver instances?

> The AdobePS InstallShield can and should replace any thoughts 
> of using the MS "Add Printer" button.

Except for the fact that the AdobePS InstallShield takes several
minutes to start on my system, due to factors mentioned by Dov
Isaacs earlier.

> You can run the Installer again, usually, 
> by going to Start > Programs > Adobe > AdobePS, I believe. 

I've seen this claim on the Adobe web pages, but I have never seen
this option with any AdobePS printer driver installer.


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Thomas Michanek, Technical Writer
IAR Systems AB, Sweden: http://www.iar.com
mailto:Thomas.Michanek@iar.se
Tel: +46 18 167800, Fax: +46 18 167838
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