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Samsung SCX-6545N, SCX-6545NX & SCX-6555 Print Languages
The Samsung SCX-6545 and SCX-6455 are A4 monochrome multifunction digital copiers and printers.
Analog copiers moved the image from the page using a bright light reflected through mirrors and a lense to activate the photoconductive drum.
Digital copiers use a bright light to activate a CCD sensor and data is then read in a stream to the laser or perhaps to an intermediate page-frame memory so that the image can be adjusted.
Printing is rather different. The amount of data needed to specify a page can be huge in historic terms (there are about 32 million pixels in a 600dpi A4 image and 128 million at 1200 dpi). Only quite recently have PC memory and network speeds been able to create such files, or printers to receive them. Computers tend to create a page to be printed using a page description language or print-language such as PCL or PostScript. This will give the page layout in vectors, the printable characters as text and only send graphics objects like photographs as bitmaps.
The Samsung SCX-6545 and SCX-6455 support the two standard print languages, PCL and PostScript, together with PDF (condensed PostScript), TIFF (similar to Fax and widely used in document storage) and JPG used by cameras and sometimes for storing colour documents.
PCL5e and PCL6 are two print languages originating with HP. PCL6 is regarded as very stable these days but at one time it was not, so there may still be some sites or computer applications that insist on PCL5e. Both types of PCL are regarded as efficient in memory use; if a job takes too long or can't complete using Postscript either try PCL or upgrade the printer memory. Samsung's manual says of PCL "(Note XC developed driver)" but we know nothing beyond that.
PostScript originated with Adobe and was for years the standard graphics language on Apple and Unix CAD workstations. Graphics professionals often prefer PostScript because it should render the page identically across a wide range of printers and professional RIPs. If it doesn't it is human-readable although considerable expertise is needed to interpret it. Samsung have used the Zoran version of PostScript on these printers.
Perhaps because PostScript is a general-purpose graphics language that has to be interpreted in the printer it is not particularly memory efficient. PCL was always intended to make more efficient use of printer memory and it is still reckoned that a job that is slow or cannot complete using PostScript may work using PCL. If that happens often it might be considered a sign that the printer memory needs upgrading.
Note that in the case of these printers the PCL6 driver and PostScript drivers offer a slightly different feature-set. Presumably tweaks to the firmware could iron this out.
PDF v1.4 is "Portable Document Format" and is commonly used to exchange documents ranging from invoices to service manuals. A PDF is a binary compressed subset of PostScript. Computer print drivers won't generally produce PDF format, although there are many programs that can. The main use for PDF on the printer is probably to read content directly from USB pens.
TIFF and JPG are graphics formats. Material scanned in and Faxes will commonly be held in TIFF format. Almost all cameras produce still photographs as a JPG. Once again, these formats will be most use reading from USB pens attached to the printer although they might also be used to transfer material as part of a workflow process.
These printers support two workflow related languages;
- JScribe - a language devised by German Company CCP and used under licence by Samsung (although there has been a dispute)
- Samsung’s XOA Platform (eXtensible Open Architecture)
There doesn't seem to be a great deal of public information about XOA at the time of writing. If several printers are to be bound into a company-wide workflow system details of this or of whatever API the printer presents to the network will be needed.
Copyright G & J Huskinson & MindMachine Associates Ltd 2013, 2015. Some pictures derived from Samsumg User and Service guides. These technical pages do not constitute an offer for sale; just our knowledge at the time of writing. See the catalog. Sales pages on this Web site use cookies to store user information. We also use Google Analytics to track site usage patterns.