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My organization recently purchased a HP DesignJet T3500 printer with the HP Designjet PostScript/PDF Upgrade Kit. HP offers 3 specific drivers in 2 packages. Which driver do I use?

When I run the Add Printer wizard and I select Have Disk, I get the following options:

  • The HP-GL/2 Driver Package contains two drivers
    • "HP Designjet T3500 HPGL2"
    • "HP Designjet T3500ps HPGL2"
  • The PostScript Driver Package contains only the PostScript driver.
    • "HP Designjet T3500 PS3"

My understanding is HP-GL/2 printing language is used for plotters (it fits our intentions as AutoCAD users) and that PostScript is for high levels of control and detailed publishing.

My questions revolve around the HP Designjet T3500ps HPGL2 driver. It gives me the impression that this driver is capable of using multiple print languages.

My immediate options/questions are:

  • Which driver do I install in the client machines?
    • Do I install both the HPGL2 and PS3 drivers with the instruction to users that HPGL2 is for CAD and PS3 is for PDFs/Documents?

OR

  • Do I install only the mysterious "HP Designjet T3500ps HPGL2"?

Why? :

  • What is the difference between the HP Designjet T3500ps HPGL2 and HP Designjet T3500 HPGL2 drivers?
  • Are Window's print drivers capable of using multiple description languages for output?
    • If so, how could such a driver distinguish the type of content it is printing? Does it, for example, send this .docx to the PostScript interpreter and this .dwg to the HPGL2 interpreter?
HopelessN00b
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Goldfish Sandwich
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  • I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because this is a question best suited to be answered by the vendor, which is the quickest, most efficient path to getting a correct answer. – joeqwerty Mar 12 '15 at 15:21
  • @joeqwerty I thought it was similar enough to [What printer driver should I use?](http://serverfault.com/questions/125514/what-printer-driver-should-i-use) that it merited being asked. In addition if I do get an answer from the vendor I believe that knowledge, and the reasoning behind it should be shared and easily available on the web, hence the great Q&A/Wiki StackExchange network. – Goldfish Sandwich Mar 12 '15 at 15:30

2 Answers2

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I'm fairly certain that the HP Designjet T3500ps HPGL2 driver is intended for printers with the optional accessory C0C66A Designjet PostScript/PDF Upgrade Kit installed. As I recall, it just adds functionality, so it will work just fine for a Designjet T3500 without that accessory as well.

HopelessN00b
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We have (3) HPT3500 since February 2015. We set each one up with (2) sets of drivers. One for CAD/GIS files using the HPGL2 driver and the second with just the Adobe (PS) Post Script drivers for printing from "PDF's". The HP universal multi-language driver was discouraged by our vendor.

Lance-STL
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