PBMTOPPA(1)

📦
version 11.13.03 · 7 versions
, in debian trixie, ubuntu noble, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💅 Pbmtoppa User Manual(1) 💅

okay bestie, welcome to the pbmtoppa user manual, straight outta the Netpbm fam. this is the glow-up guide for turning PBM pics into HP PPA printer juice. buckle up, it's giving ✨technical✨ but we're gonna make it make sense.

✨ NAME ✨

pbmtoppa — convert PBM image to HP Printer Performance Architecture (PPA)

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

pbmtoppa [pbm_file [ppa_file]]

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so real talk, this program is part of Netpbm(1). 🫶

pbmtoppa takes page images in PBM format and converts them into Hewlett Packard's PPA (Printer Performance Architecture) format. that's the data stream format that some HP "Windows-only" printers are literally obsessed with, including the HP Deskjet 820C series, the HP DeskJet 720 series, and the HP DeskJet 1000 series.

pbm_file is the file specification of the input file, or - for Standard Input. default? Standard Input, no cap.

the input file contains one or more PBM images, and each one is a single page. every image has to have the exact dimensions of a page (at 600 pixels per inch in both directions). and the tea is: that's exactly the format Ghostscript produces. iconic.

ppa_file is the file specification of the output file, or - for Standard Output. default is Standard Output. 💖

want to print Postscript on an HP PPA printer? just use Ghostscript with the pbmraw (or pbm) device driver. slay.

you can generate a test page for use with this program with pbmpage.

you can also set up a printer filter so you can submit PBM input directly to your print queue. check the documentation for your print spooler for how to do that, or peek in hp820install.doc for an example lpd print filter for Postscript and text files.

ngl, sometimes pbmtoppa generates a file the printer straight-up refuses to print (because pbmtoppa's input is unprintable). when that happens, all three lights blink to signal the error. and bestie, it's usually because there's material outside of the printer's printable area. to make the file print, bump up the margins via pbmtoppa options or a configuration file. see the calibration section below. 👇

🦋 About PPA 🦋

the PPA printer language is a far lower level language than most. like, way down there. when you use a PPA printer, most of the processing a conventional printer does is instead done on the computer end of the wire. specifically, pbmtoppa has to do "swath cutting," and "sweep formatting," which other printers do themselves. there is very little intelligence inside a PPA printer; pbmtoppa generates direct controls for the printer's hardware. main character energy, honestly.

the design goal of PPA was to reduce the cost of a printer by exploiting computing resources already present in the computer that requests the printing. CPU power, ROM, and RAM requirements inside the printer are all reduced compared to a conventional printer. frugal queen behavior. 👑

PPA was new in 1997. it was preceded by Hewlett Packard's PCL (Printer Control Language) language. HP manufactured PPA printers for only a few years, and no one else ever did. 💀

✨ OPTIONS ✨

in addition to the options common to all programs based on libnetpbm (most notably -quiet, see Common Options), pbmtoppa recognizes the following command line options:

  • -v version — printer version (720, 820, or 1000)
  • -x xoff — horizontal offset adjustment in 1/600 inches.
  • -y yoff — vertical offset adjustment in 1/600 inches.
  • -t topmarg — top margin in 1/600 inches (default: 150 = 0.25 inch)
  • -l leftmarg — left margin in 1/600 inches (default: 150 = 0.25 inch)
  • -r rightmarg — right margin in 1/600 inches (default: 150 = 0.25 inch)
  • -b botmarg — bottom margin in 1/600 inches (default: 150 = 0.25 inch)
  • -s paper — paper size: us or a4. Default is us.
  • -d dpi — Print resolution in dots per inch.
  • -f cfgfile — Read parameters from the configuration file named cfgfile. See CONFIGURATION FILES

the offset adjustments you specify with -x and -y accumulate. i.e. if you specify them multiple times, the total offset adjustment is the sum of the adjustments you specify. so -x 60 -x 120 is the same as -x 180. math is mathing. 🧮

the -v option undoes any preceding -x and -y options, leaving the horizontal and vertical adjustments their default values. yeah, it said that. watch out.

✨ CONFIGURATION FILES ✨

you can use a configuration file to specify parameters rather than use invocation options. pbmtoppa processes the file /etc/pbmtoppa.conf, if it exists, before processing any options. it then processes each configuration file named by a -f option in order, applying the parameters from the configuration file as if they were invocation options used in the place of the -f option.

configuration files have the following format:

#Comment
key1 value1
key2 value2
[etc.]

valid keys are version, xoffset, yoffset, topmargin, leftmargin, rightmargin, bottommargin, papersize, or any non-null prefix of these words. valid values are the same as with the corresponding invocation parameters. 🍓

✨ EXAMPLES ✨

Print a test pattern:

pbmpage | pbmppa >/dev/lp1

Print three pages:

cat page1.pbm page2.pbm page3.pbm | pbmppa >/dev/lp1

Print the Postscript file myfile.ps:

gs -sDEVICE=rawpbm -q -dNOPAUSE -r600 \
   -sOutputFile=- myfile.ps ;\
| pbmtoppa | lpr
lowkey note: yes, those first two examples say pbmppa. we're keeping it exactly as written, bestie. don't come for me. 🙈

✨ CALIBRATION ✨

to be able to print successfully and properly, you need to tell pbmtoppa an X and a Y offset appropriate for your printer to use when generating the page. you can specify these offsets with the -x and -y invocation options or with the xoff and yoff parameters in a pbmtoppa configuration file.

to determine the correct offsets, use the pbmpage program.

if while trying to do this calibration, the printer refuses to print a page, but just blinks all three lights, specify large margins (e.g. 600 pixels — one inch) via pbmpage invocation options while doing the calibration.

for example:

pbmpage | pbmtoppa >/dev/lp1

or

pbmpage | pbmtoppa | lpr -l

(if your printer filter recognizes the -l (direct output) parameter).

in the test pattern, the grid is marked off in pixel coordinate numbers. unfortunately, these coordinates are probably cut off before the edge of the paper. you'll have to use a ruler to estimate the pixel coordinate of the left and top edges of the actual sheet of paper (should be within +/- 300, may be negative; there are 600 pixels per inch). yes, a physical ruler. we're going analog for this one. 📏

add these coordinates to the X and Y offsets by either editing the configuration file or using the -x and -y command-line parameters.

when pbmtoppa is properly calibrated, the center mark should be in the center of the paper. also, the margins should be able to be as small as 1/4 inch without causing the printer to choke with 'blinking lights syndrome'. we do NOT want blinking lights syndrome. 😭

✨ RED HAT LINUX INSTALLATION ✨

RedHat users may find the following tip from Panayotis Vryonis <vrypan@hol.gr> helpful. the same should work for the 820 and 1000, but it hasn't been tested. also, use the pbmraw GSDriver if you have it; it's faster. ⚡

here is a tip to integrate HP720C capability in RedHat's printtool:

Install pbmtoppa. Copy pbmtoppa to /usr/bin.

Edit "printerdb" (in my system it is found in /usr/lib/rhs/rhs-printfilters) and append the following lines:

----------------------Cut here-----------------------

StartEntry: DeskJet720C
  GSDriver: pbm
  Description: {HP DeskJet 720C}
  About: { \
        This driver drives the HP DeskJet 720C \
        inkjet printer. \
        It cannot do color printing. \
        IMPORTANT! Insert \
           "- | pbm2ppa -" \
        in the "Extra GS Options " field.\
      }

  Resolution: {600} {600} {}

EndEntry
----------------------------------------------------

now you can add an HP720C printer just like any other, using printtool. periodt. 💅

✨ SEE ALSO ✨

pbmpage(1), pstopnm(1), pbm(1)

this program was derived from pbm2ppa. pbm2ppa is obsolete and has been replaced by pnm2ppa, which does the same things as pbmtoppa except it also works with color and has lots more features. see http://pnm2ppa.sourceforge.net for more information about the PPA protocol and the separately distributed pnm2ppa program.

the file INSTALL-MORE in the pbmtoppa directory of the Netpbm source code contains detailed instructions on setting up a system to use pbmtoppa to allow convenient printing on HP PPA printers. it was written by Michael Buehlmann. 🫶

✨ AUTHOR ✨

Tim Norman. Copyright (C) 1998. Licensed under GNU General Public License

Manual page by Bryan Henderson, May 2000.

✨ DOCUMENT SOURCE ✨

this manual page was generated by the Netpbm tool makeman from HTML source. the master documentation is at

http://netpbm.sourceforge.net/doc/pbmtoppa.html

okay bestie that's the whole thing, you're officially PPA-literate. this was netpbm documentation, 01 May 2005, and fr fr you ate this whole manpage. go print something cute. 🎀✨🦋

📦 where this page comes from