Arch Linux

Description:

It is unclear to me how the file /usr/share/ppd/HP/hp-color_laserjet_mfp_m278-m281-ps.ppd.gz is generated. It is my understanding that this file is generated by the cups ppd compiler from some
source driver file that is in the hplip sources. What happens is that this file, while carrying exactly the same version numbers as the one I find in ubuntu is different and while the one in ubuntu works the one in arch does not.

A notable difference, in fact the one that breaks my workflow is that the *HPPJLColorAsGray strings are both "%%" either for the True and the False case in the arch version of the file, while in ubuntu the string for the True case is a PJL command "@PJL SET GRAYSCALE=COMPOSITE<0A>"

As a result printing in grayscale is impossible in arch. Given the cost of color printing, it would be quite desirable to have grayscale printing working OK, particularly for the cases where you have a network printer that should print in grayscale by default and require an explicit action from the user to do color printing.

I am rather sure that ubuntu does not patch this file downstream. In fact, I think that ubuntu does not ship the HP PPDs at all, but that its print-drivers-postscript-hp package gets (via a cups ppd-updater) and compiles them (via cups) as needed. So, regardless of the fact that arch uses a different strategy for distributing the ppds, I think that there may be something wrong with the way in which they end up in arch.


Additional info:
* package version(s) hplip 1:3.21.10-1

Steps to reproduce:

Try to print in grayscale mode on an HP color laserjet pro m281.