[TUHS] off-topic: retrocomputing: HP Laserjet 6MP question

[arnold@skeeve.com (Aharon Robbins)]

Hello All.

This is a bit off topic, but I figure people on this list may have the
experience and also the knowledge I need...

I have an HP Laserjet 6MP printer; it is 16 years old but still going
strong. It has a level 2 Adobe Postscript interpreter and a whopping 3
Megs of memory.

It is attached to an ethernet-to-parallel port thingy that lets me spool
to it over the network; I am printing from Linux systems running CUPS. Here's
the problem:

No matter how I have the printer settings set for the paper source, when I
use tiff2ps to convert a TIFF file into PostScript:

1. If I use the 'make level 2 postcript' option to tiff2ps, I get a much
   smaller file, but the printer decides it wants paper to come from the
   manual feed paper tray.  The problem is that this paper tray usually
   doesn't have paper in it, so I have to go to the basement and put paper in.

2. OTOH, if I use the default which makes level 1 postscript, I get a file
   that is 10 times bigger, but the printer then decides it will take paper
   from the tray, like it's supposed to.

I keep the postscript file around for easy reprinting. I don't care for
big files, and they take longer to send, too.

Googling has not helped.

If anyone knows what kind of magic string to add to the generated level 2
postscript to make it choose a paper source, or has any other ideas, I
would love to hear from you.

Thanks!

Arnold Robbins