Thank you very much! I've been playing around a little bit but I didn't try to transfer anything yet. But I'm having a hard time with drivers... (both HP and Samsung)
I'm using Windows 8.1. When I connect the printer for the first time, Windows installs a Microsoft version of a PCL6 driver. It prints fine but I don't have any control; printer "properties" are limited to the bare minimum: only color / B&W (which on this printer is amusing), portrait/landscape, paper size and that's all.
Then I can of course install HP drivers from
this page, that is, either PCL or PS version of their "universal print driver". Apparently they don't provide the custom driver (which they call "full solution") for this specific model, or at least not anymore.
Here is the 1st problem : in "print quality" dialog, 1200 dpi (or ProRes 1200) is not available. The only choices are 600dpi, as well as a range of HP "custom" settings which are all 600dpi with various interpolations : FastRes 1200; ImageRet3600, General Office, Professional, Presentation.
The 2nd problem is that all these "quality" settings don't seem to make any difference in the final print, and all of these give worse results than with the Microsoft basic driver. I checked with naked eye and with a USB microscope. The edges of any black lines or shapes are all slightly crenelated. At least they are not as fuzzy as they are with the PostScript driver, but still not great.
It seems that HP's "universal" driver doesn't support "true" 1200dpi. At least I've found two forum threads were people had the same problem :
(1) and
(2).
I downloaded the Samsung driver upon your suggestion, but sadly I couldn't use this Samsung driver myself on Windows 8.1. If I run the standalone installer, the Samsung utility doesn't detect the printer. And if I manually unzip the Samsung drivers somewhere, and then I manually update the drivers from the Device Manager, then the drivers are installed, and when I click "printer properties" for the HP 2300 printer I get the Samsung version of the window (which is good) ; but then it won't print anything; an error message "There's an error, the printer couldn't print..." each time I try to print something.
So, before I go through the hassle of setting up virtual machines to redo my tests on older Windows versions, would anyone please tell me if you have any suggestions? I'd be glad to hear. Does anyone happen to have a copy (if they ever existed) of "full feature drivers" from HP for this model? (HP LaserJet 2300). And if so, for which versions of Windows?
Maybe I can just use the standard Microsoft driver, because it works OK, but it is a bit disappointing to be forced to give up on all the detailed controls that the official HP driver is supposed to offer.
Thank you very much for your help! I've also emailed Pulsar, because they seem to be regular users of this printer. I'll report back here if I get a reply