Re: Inquiry Regarding Custom Inkset Control and ESC/P2 vs. ESC/P-R Clarification

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On Tue, Jun 10, 2025 at 02:53:28PM -0700, Kevin Hu via Gimp-print-devel wro=
te:
> Information about ESC/P-R appears scarce, especially regarding how it=20
> differs from ESC/P2. Given that Gutenprint lists support for some=20
> ESC/P-R printers (like the XP-15000), is it appropriate to assume that=20
> ESC/P-R largely overlaps with ESC/P2 but includes additional=20
> high-level commands, or is it fundamentally distinct?

It is my understanding that ESC/P-R presents only higher-level commands=20
whereas ESC/P2 operates at a fairly low level.  /P2 gives you full=20
control of the individual ink dots but requires you to handle all of the=20
color->ink mapping, dot size/patterns, density, dithering, etc to yield=20
usable output.  /P-R takes in a RGB (and presumably other colorspaces)=20
raster and the desired output parameters (media, resolution, quality,=20
etc etc) and the printer handles mapping that to the individual ink=20
droplets.

Some printers support both command languages, but others only support=20
one. (typically /P-R for modern consumer-grade models, /P2 for=20
commercial/industrial gear)

> Despite thorough review of the documentation on rasterization and=20
> color handling, I remain slightly concerned whether printers perform=20
> any additional internal processing of the rasterized data we=20
> send=E2=80=94particularly, could commanding specific CMY channels=20
> inadvertently activate the K channel in the printer's internal=20
> processing?

I can't speak authoratitively on all implementations of ESC/P2, but it=20
is my understanding that they do not perform any internal processing of=20
the data they are supplied.  Gutenprint itself will only utilize a K=20
channel if so requested.

(ESC/P-R by defninition does all sorts of processing to map the input=20
raster to ink dots. I have no idea how much customization is allowed)

> Does this mean that for printers with min_nozzles equal to
> the total nozzle count, all nozzles must actively be used at some point
> during each print cycle? Does this mean that for full control of individu=
al
> channels, we need to select printers that do not require all of the nozzl=
es
> used?

My understanding is that this means the printer may require that data=20
for a given ink channel may always need to be present.  However, that data=
=20
can be completely "blank", ie no ink gets deposited.

 - Solomon
--=20
Solomon Peachy			      pizza at shaftnet dot org (email&xmpp)
                                      @pizza:shaftnet dot org   (matrix)
Dowling Park, FL                      speachy (libera.chat)

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