Hello everyone,
I have bought a new printer, Brother DCP 7055 (wired via USB). I use it with openSUSE 12.2 64 bit, KDE 4.8.5. I have installed the drivers for scanning and printing from the Brother solutions center. Scanning and printing (via CUPS) work well, but the printouts are a little too dark! No matter which program I use for printing. The printer will be used mainly for text printing. And when printing text, it does not bother much. But anyway pictures printouts are really too dark.
For testing I connected the printer to a PC with Windows 7. There the printouts are as they should be. So I guess the printer is okay.
In CUPS Default Settings, there is no much to adjust, only DPI (600 or HQ1200) and Toner Save (on or off). But changes in these settings have no effect on the printouts.
Can anyone help me to improve my printouts, to get them a little brighter. Is there a file I can configure to improve it?
Thanks and greetings
flash
I have the same model printer, but I can’t say that I’ve noticed that the printing output is too dark. Of course, it is possible to adjust contrast and brightness from the front panel. (In general, any printing attributes are set in the associated ppd file residing in the /etc/cups/ppd/ directory).
CUPS provides a utility called cups-calibrate:
This program allows you to calibrate the color output of printers using the Gutenprint CUPS or ESP Print Pro drivers.
I’m not sure if it is compatible with the Brother drivers, but maybe worth a shot. If you launch it as a regular user, it can be used to generate a lpoptions file (in your ~/.cups directory). Here you can set resolution, media type, colour density, gamma and colour levels.
Hello deano,
I got it!
Below I have the bad sector copied out. I’ve played around a bit.
Then I changed the “Default Resolution” from 2400x600dpi to 600dpi. Now the printing outputs are as I would expect them. 
*%=== Output Bin =============================
*% === Collate ==========
*%==== 5.14 Finishing Features =================================
*%%%%% Resolution and Appearance Control %%%%%
*OpenUI *Resolution: PickOne
*OrderDependency: 11 AnySetup *Resolution
*DefaultResolution: 2400x600dpi
*Resolution 600dpi: " "
*Resolution 2400x600dpi/HQ1200dpi: " "
*CloseUI: *Resolution
But when I looked into the default settings of CUPS, the resolution there has changed from HQ1200dpi to 600dpi. I had already tried exactly this out. I don’t know why it hasn’t worked before.
Perhaps I was also too stupid. Now I am glad that the printing output is fine. Once I don’t try cups-calibrate.
Without your note I wouldn’t have looked at the ppd file more carefully.
Many thanks for your help!
Greetings to NZ.
flash
Glad to have been of help
Mine is already defaulted to 600dpi…
*%=== Output Bin =============================
*% === Collate ==========
*%==== 5.14 Finishing Features =================================
*%%%%% Resolution and Appearance Control %%%%%
*OpenUI *Resolution: PickOne
*OrderDependency: 11 AnySetup *Resolution
*DefaultResolution: 600dpi
*Resolution 600dpi: " "
*Resolution 2400x600dpi/HQ1200dpi: " "
*CloseUI: *Resolution