Home / server / Questions / 244469
Accepted
ItsPronounced
Asked: 2011-03-08 20:09:17 +0800 CST

Printer server drivers for Samsung ML printer series

  • 772

I have a Printer Server running server 2008. I'm trying to setup some Samsung ML printers on it (ML-3050, 2150 and 2570 printers). The print server is server 2008 and all my clients are Windows 7 x86. I just never know which drivers to get for the server. On the site they have Universal, PCL5 and PCL6, PostScript, and SPL drivers. From what I've read PS is the best right?

I just have problems getting them installed on the server and having clients connect. Which driver type is the best?

windows-server-2008 printing print-server

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    You want PCL6 99% of the time unless you have specific needs for PostScript. PS is usually for graphic design work with specific applications. PCL5 is just older then 6. Microsoft wrote/supports the PCL format, Adobe wrote the PS format. For that reason PCL is more reliable and faster IMO.

    Try to download just drivers rather then the full software installs for printers, extract them to a directory and point the Server 2008 wizard to that directory. You're looking for .inf files which will tell Windows what printer models go to what .dll files (the actual driver).

    To add a printer to a x64 version of Server 2008 you must add the x64 driver first, then you can go back and add additional drivers to include the x86 ones required by Windows 7 or any other x86 clients. This way clients will pull the proper driver (x86/x64) when they first connect.

    • 1

  2. PostScript has historically produced more reliable printing results, though it does tend to create larger print-files in the spool itself. Some of that is the result of bad drivers printing to bitmap instead of producing actual postscript descriptions of what needs to be printed. PS has been around a very long time, is supported by almost everything, and just works.

    We've had problems with PCL5 and Office 2010 files in some odd edge cases, and is really, really old. PCL6 is an update to PCL5 and has taken a really long time to fully bake.

    If you want stability and consistent results across different printer models, PostScript is the best choice.

    If you want good enough, smaller print-files (which typically results in faster printing), and a risk of print-jobs looking different on different printer models, PCL6 is your best choice.

    • 1