TechNote

Photoshop CS3 prints multiple pages of garbled characters on Mac OS

Issue

When you print from Adobe Photoshop CS3 or Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended to a PostScript capable printer on Mac OS X 10.4 or later, the image only partially prints or many pages print with random, garbled characters at the top of the page.

Details

You are printing to a PostScript capable printer, such as the HP LaserJet 2550. The printer may be connected via USB or via a network.

Solution

Do one or more of the following solutions:

Solution 1: Install an updated PPD (PostScript Printer Definition) file for the printer.

Contact the printer manufacturer or check their website to find out if an updated PPD file is available for your model.

Solution 2: Install updated firmware for the printer.

Contact the printer manufacturer or check their website to find out if an updated firmware is available for your model.

Solution 3: Set the printer to PostScript-only mode.

Use the setup options in the printer's built-in menu, driver settings, or configuration software to disable automatic detection of the print job language, and then set the printer to PostScript-only mode. The options may use descriptions such as "Job Language", "Language Auto Sense", "Personality", "Emulation", or similar. Consult the documentation for the printer or contact the printer manufacturer for specific configuration instructions for your printer.

Note that configuring the printer to function only in PostScript mode may cause problems when you print from non-PostScript applications, such as blank pages or garbage characters.

Solution 4: Enable TBCP for the print queue. (Mac OS 10.4 only)

Enabling Tagged Binary Control Protocol (TBCP) mode for the printer forces Mac OS to translate some PostScript characters into "safe" alternatives that the printer will understand.

Open the Printer Setup Utility application, located in the Applications\Utilities folder.
Note the name of the printer you are printing to, as listed in the Name column.
Open the Terminal application, located in the Applications\Utilities folder.
Type the following, replacing <Print Queue Name> with the name of your printer as noted in step 2.
sudo /usr/sbin/lpadmin -p "<Print Queue Name>" -o protocol=TBCP
Press Enter.
You may be presented with a warning about the sudo command and prompted for your password. Enter an administrator password. (If you do not have administrator access to the computer, consult your system administrator.)

This option may become disabled after Mac OS updates are installed, or if you install updates for the printer or reconfigure the printer options. Re-enable TBCP mode if the problem recurs after the update.

Additional Information

When Photoshop sends the data for a print job to the printer driver, it sends it using the Adobe PostScript language. Printer drivers are expected to detect what language the print job is using and translates the data to send to the actual printer.

The issue addressed by this document occurs with some printers because of two problems: Photoshop CS3 does not correctly label the print job data as PostScript, and some printers do not automatically detect PostScript data correctly. If a newer PPD file is available for the printer, then it might correct the printer's language auto sensing capabilities. If a newer PPD is not available, then disabling the automatic print job language detection on the printer and setting it to accept all print jobs as PostScript will force it to expect all incoming print jobs are in PostScript. If a newer PPD is not available and the printer does not have a PostScript-only setting, then setting the print queue to translate all print jobs to TBCP will send the data using only a "safe" range of PostScript characters.

Some older printers may exhibit a similar issue (blank pages and/or garbage characters) if the Encoding option in the Print dialog box for Photoshop is set incorrectly. Changing the PostScript encoding from Binary to ASCII may resolve the issue for older printers, however this difference is generally not required for printers; the printer drivers automatically detect the PostScript encoding type of the data and process it appropriately.