Confusing printer properties for some HP printers

[Steven Flintham]

Binary package hint: cups

The 'Color Options' in the printer properties for the HP Color Laserjet 2605 using the recommended driver are confusing, with multiple drop-down lists with the same name. See attached screenshot 1. My understanding based on web searches is that these repeated options specify the desired configuration for different printing modes (text, graphics and photo). This is not at all clear from the dialog. Moreover, I cannot see any way to choose which of these three printing modes to use.

I believe this is upstream (hplip) bug 236734, although the behaviour is not identical - the screenshot in the upstream bug shows an additional 'Color Options' choice at the start, which may be a way to choose one of the three printing modes. In any case, that choice is not visible on my machine.

There is also an apparently empty section 'Image Quality' at the bottom of the 'Printer Options', which is at best ugly and to my mind suggests some kind of error in the PPD or its interpretation. See attached screenshot 2.

Both the confusing 'Color Options' section and the empty 'Image Quality' section are the same in the local CUPS web page (http://localhost:631/admin/#HPColorOptionsPanel), allowing for the different presentation.

This can be reproduced without owning the printer - I found this bug while examining the support for this printer prior to purchasing.

Detailed steps to reproduce:
- choose System->Administration->Printing from the top menu
- click Add in the Printing window toolbar
- choose 'LPT #1' and click Forward (I have nothing attached to the parallel port, for what it is worth)
- choose 'HP' and click Forward
- choose 'Color Laserjet 2605' under 'Models'
- leave the default option of 'HP Color Laserjet 2605 Postscript [en] (recommended)' selected under 'Drivers'
- click Forward
- click Forward
- click Apply
- say 'No' to printing a test page
- right-click on the newly added printer in the Printing window and choose Properties
- select 'Printer Options' in the list box at the left of the properties dialog
- scroll down to 'Color Options' to see the duplicate drop-down menus
- scroll down to the bottom to see the 'orphan' header 'Image Quality'

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: cups 1.4.3-1ubuntu1.2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-22.36-generic 2.6.32.11+drm33.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-22-generic i686
Architecture: i386
Date: Sat Jun 26 21:59:20 2010
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release i386 (20100427.1)
Lpstat: Error: command ['lpstat', '-v'] failed with exit code 1: lpstat: No destinations added.
Lsusb:
 Bus 002 Device 002: ID 045e:0084 Microsoft Corp. Basic Optical Mouse
 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 001 Device 002: ID 058f:6362 Alcor Micro Corp. Hi-Speed 21-in-1 Flash Card Reader/Writer (Internal/External)
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
MachineType: System manufacturer System Product Name
Papersize: a4
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-22-generic root=UUID=6954574a-bda6-46a7-9708-778400b38c48 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_GB.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: cups
dmi.bios.date: 01/13/2006
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 0702
dmi.board.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.board.name: A8N-VM
dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
dmi.board.version: Rev 1.xx
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: Asset-1234567890
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: Chassis Manufacture
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dmi.product.name: System Product Name
dmi.product.version: System Version
dmi.sys.vendor: System manufacturer

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

The PPD for the HP Color LaserJet 2605 in PostScript mode is broken. This is an upstream bug of HPLIP as this PPD is shipped with HPLIP. Moving to HPLIP and adding upstream task on HPLIP ...

Problems are the following:

1. The group HPImagingOptions (Image Quality) does not contain any option (*OpenUI: ... *CloseUI:). Groups in PPDs are only for UI options, empty group definitions or group definitions which bracket only non-UI stuff have to be removed.

2. In the "Color options" group there are different options which have the same UI string, so these options appear with the same name in printing and printer setup dialogs. There should never be two or more options with the same UI string in any language. Also no options should have two or more choices with the same UI string.

This seems not to break Adobe compliance and so cupstestppd does not complain about these problems, but it need to get fixed to not get such confusing user interfaces.

[Steven Flintham (saf)]

Thanks for such a clear and prompt response. You say the PPD for this printer *in Postscript mode* is broken. Is there another non-Postscript PPD which works better (and if so how can I install it), or am I reading too much into your words? My driver selection dialog lists the driver I reported the bug against and one more, 'HP Color Laserjet 2605 Foomatic/Postscript [en]' driver, but that doesn't appear to support colour printing at all.

Thanks once again.

[Naga Samrat Chowdary, Narla (samrat-hplip)]

Yes, options are confusing user.
But, each options has its own specification.
Halftone, RGB Color, Neutral Grays in first set are for text, second set are for Graphics and third set are for Photo.

I have updated PPD as show GUI will show with text, Graphics and Photo entries.
Please let me know, if need more updates.

Thanks,
Naga Samrat Chowdary, Narla

[Naga Samrat Chowdary, Narla (samrat-hplip)]

Please replace attached PPD file in /etc/cups/ppd and restart CUPS to check GUI options.

Thanks,
Naga Samrat Chowdary, Narla

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

Thank you for the fixed PPD. For users with English UI and for users with UIs which do not support internationalized PPDs the PPD is OK now, but the translations are not fixed. Non-English display of the options still shows the confusing interface with equally-named options. Please fix also the translations.

[Naga Samrat Chowdary, Narla (samrat-hplip)]

Thank Till for reviewed the changes.
Localisation has been done, yet to look at Image quality options.

Thanks,
Naga Samrat Chowdary, Narla

[Naga Samrat Chowdary, Narla (samrat-hplip)]

I have updated PPD file for HP Color LaserJet 2605. Currently i don't have this printer with me.

Steven Flintham,
Can you please check weather Image Quality options, Halftone, RGB Color, Neutral Grays options are coming on your machine.
also, please do print using these options.

Thanks,
Naga Samrat Chowdary, Narla

[Naga Samrat Chowdary, Narla (samrat-hplip)]

Please replace attached PPD file in comment #9 in /etc/cups/ppd directory and restart CUPS (/etc/init.d/cups restart) to check GUI options.

Thanks,
Naga Samrat Chowdary, Narla

[Steven Flintham (saf)]

Thanks a lot, I can confirm that the halftone etc options no longer have 'duplicate' names.

I can also see a 'Printer Resolution' option under 'Image Quality'. I must admit I am now confused as to how this works, since I can apparently specify the resolution there *and* in the 'Print Color as Gray' option. If 'Print Color as Grey' was a simple yes/no choice, it would make sense, but it allows me to choose resolution as well.

I have performed a couple of test printouts and they worked; I am not going to pretend I am enough of an expect to distinguish whether the options are working correctly.

[Rüdiger Kupper (ruediger.kupper)]

The same problem appears with a HP Color LaserJet CP1515n. Same confusing color options, and no way to specify which printing mode will be used for my print job.
Is there a fixed PPD available for this printer?

[Rüdiger Kupper (ruediger.kupper)]

Changed bug title to reflect that this problem appears for several HP printer types.

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

To the developers at HP: Can you check through all PostScript PPD files, especially the ones for color printers, that the above-mentioned problem of the Color LaserJet 2605 does not occur with them? There should be no two options with the sam UI strings in any language and there should be also no option with two choices with the same UI string in any language. Note also that there are printing dialogs where the option groups do not appear and so options with equal UI strings are not distinguished by groups.