Is there any method to use a Printer MFD with PlanetPress Fax? I'm specifically looking at a Ricoh MDF.

Uomo,

What exactly is an MFD?

Rapha

Sorry,

Multifunctional Device or Printer

Uomo,

PPFax sends job to the fax queue configured on your machine. The actual fax machine doesn't really matter, as long as a fax queue can be created to it in one of the three supported fax services. So if you can configure Windows Fax, Winfax Pro or Rightfax to send jobs to the MFD, then it should work fine with PPFax since it will send the job to the fax queue, not directly to the MFD, so at that point, the fax queue will take care of the job.

Regards,
Rapha

Hi Uomo,

Did you manage to create a setup to Fax on your MFD? There is a very specific way to Fax on these devices from PlanetPress.

First step would be to to use a MSWord test document and print to file, using the MFD driver with the Fax output option. The PRN file created will contain the PJL commands necessary to communicate with the Fax device on the printer.

In a Watch process, use the add document plugin, and select the appropriate ptk file for your data.
Then, copy paste the PJL commands in an "add/remove text" plugin, to add those commands at the beginning of the file. You can use variables to assign data to the fax number command. Then, as an output, use a printer queue pointing on your MFD, with no documents selected(passthrough).

You can open a support call if you need assistance with this procedure. Hope this helps.

Thanks. Regards,

Olivier

Oliver,

I was not able to get the faxing to work, yet. If I Fax/Print to a file, the header portion it looks like this.

Hi,

Try adding the following commands to the PS document.
Just change some parameters to fit your environment.
I have indicated below what you need to replace.

Let us know if this works.
Keep in mind that it may or may not work (driver dependent)

Cosimo

Cosimo,

Thanks, I tried it, but it failed.

I found a white paper and have been writing a VB application that passes the parameters to the installed Lan-Fax driver.

This works, but I still need to figure out how to open up the tiff or PDF file to send through the Lan-Fax driver. So far I'm only sending text based faxes.

Would the "Windows Document Printing" Watch plugin help at all?
Windows Document Printing

As I understand, you can't just push a tiff, ps, or PDF file down to the Ricoh with the PJL commands as the header and have it work?

This would be a pretty cool connection to get working.

-nth-

Hi nth,

The problem with printing through the driver is that most of the time, it will pop a window to manually enter the fax number and sender's details, which you don't want in Watch. No user intervention must be needed at any given time. We often manage to find the right commands to communicate with the Fax on a printer. In this case I would recommend opening a support call so we can work more efficiently towards a solution with this device.

Thanks.

Olivier