Overview

Universal Print Driver (UPD) release information found in this article:

•     A brief description of new functionality introduced in each release
•     Major issues addressed or significantly improved in each release
•     Known issues and workarounds applicable to each release

Contents

• Version Numbering for Universal Print Driver
• Driver Compatibility and Availability
  
  • Additional Installation Information
• Universal Print Driver version 2.x.5 Release Notes (October 2012)
  • New Functionality
  • Fixes and Improvements
  • Device Compatibility
  • Known Issues and Workarounds
• Universal Print Driver version 2.x.4 Release Notes (April 2012)
  
  • New Functionality
  • Fixes and Improvements
  • Device Compatibility
  • Known Issues and Workarounds
• Universal Print Driver version 2.x.3 Release Notes
  
  • New Functionality
  • Fixes and Improvements
  • Device Compatibility
  • Known Issues and Workarounds
• Universal Print Driver version 2.x.2 Release Notes
• Universal Print Driver version 2.x.1 Release Notes
  
  • New Functionality
  • Fixes and Improvements
  • Known Issues and Workarounds
• UPD version 2 Release Notes
• UPD v1.6.2 Release Notes
  
  • Fixes and Improvements
• Additional Information

Universal Print Driver Version Identification

Starting with the first release of Universal Print Driver version 2, Lexmark introduced a new version numbering scheme for print drivers.

Driver Version Identification Table

For example

NOTES: 

• Notifications or statements that reference driver versions such as 2.x.4 signify information representative of ALL drivers of that major and minor revision, regardless of datastream.
• UPD v1 used a different numbering scheme, showing Major Revision, Minor Revision, and two fields reserved for Private Revision. Datastream did not appear as part of the driver version number. Using that naming scheme, three UPD v1 drivers had a version number of 1.6.2.0 (one each for PCL 5, PostScript, and PCL XL).

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Driver Compatibility and Availability

View the UPDv2 White Paper (English only) for a list of supported devices, or visit lexmark.com and select Software followed by Universal Print Driver to for more driver information. You can also follow the typical driver-download path via support.lexmark.com to find additional driver package details.

*Page description language

APW – Add Printer Wizard

NOTE: UPD v2 is not compatible with Windows 2000. 

Additional Installation Information

When a version of UPD v2 is installed, any earlier version of that identically-named driver is overwritten. For example, installing UPD 2.3.4.0 (the current release of UPD for the PCL XL datastream) would overwrite the previously-installed 2.3.1.0 driver (the initial UPD v2 release for PCL XL). Note that the driver name includes a reference to the supported datastream, so multiple UPD v2 drivers can be installed concurrently if they are different datastreams.

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Universal Print Driver version 2.x.5 Release Notes (October 2012)

New Functionality

Added Arabic language support, which includes right-to-left reading order support for booklet and N-Up

Fixes and Improvements

• New user interface for Printer Driver Configuration Utility
• Watermarks are automatically repositioned during rotation to ensure they appear on the page. Previously, rotation often caused watermarks to be clipped off. NOTE: A watermark that is too long to fit within the printable area will still be clipped.
• Addressed several problems with mixed paper sizes or mixed orientation for N-Up and booklet printing
• Release 2.x.4 addressed an issue where a significant amount of data could be cached in the registry by moving that data from the registry to the %allusersprofile% directory. Release 2.x.5 contains two improvements to this functionality:
  • UPD 2.x.5 caches that data in the %allusersprofile%\Application Data directory. This supports restricted domain users on Windows XP, who may not have permission to write to the %allusersprofile% directory by default.
  • If the user lacks write permission to the %allusersprofile%\Application Data directory, the driver will attempt to cache that information in the %AppData% directory. This is a user-specific directory.
• Improved install performance on Point and Print clients; previously, the client’s driver would query the printer for installed options even though the print server supplies a list of the options currently installed. That query has been removed and the client now relies on the information supplied by the print server.
• Addressed a PostScript UPD issue where scaling set by the application could be ignored by the driver
• Added support for additional finishing options and job accounting settings to the generic Universal Color Laser and Lexmark Mono Laser models

Device Compatibility

Added driver support for the following new devices: 

Known Issues and Workarounds

In environments where users do not have permission to write to either the %allusersprofile%\Application Data directory or the %AppData% directory, the UPD 2.x.5 drivers can show a slight delay when opening the Printing Preferences or when the queue is selected in the Print dialog of an application.

To work around this delay, you should copy the %allusersprofile%\Application Data\<driver name> directory from a print server to the corresponding location on the restricted client workstation.
Windows logon scripts can be used to automate this process for ease of maintenance.

Point and Print Environment

Client PC issues:

• Possible delay opening Printer Properties.
• Possible delay opening Printer Preferences.

Explanation:
The client PC, unable to properly communicate with the printer to identify its printer model information, incorrectly identifies the printer as a Universal Color model.

Becuse the server is reporting the original model,  whenever Printer Properties or Printer Preferences is opened, the driver attempts to build the GDL data to define a Universal Color driver, and it is this rebuilding of GDL data that causes a delayed response.

Please contact the Technical Support Center for a fix to this issue and please reference this article so that technical support represenatives can report on the frequency of this issue.   

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Universal Print Driver version 2.x.4 Release Notes (April 2012)

New Functionality

• Added automatic duplexer support for the Lexmark C540dw.
• Support for Citrix XenApp 6.5.

Fixes and Improvements

• Addressed an issue where a significant amount of data could be stored in the Windows Registry; see KnowledgeBase article TE440 for more details.
• Addressed issue with Printing Preferences being slow to open on clients in a Point-and-Print environment.
• Addressed issue where Microsoft Office mail merge feature was disabling Print and Hold functionality
• Addressed additional instances during driver installation and queue creation when a Windows Session 0 activity might trigger the Interactive Services Detection
• Running multiple self-extracting install packages is now supported properly.
• The asterisk (*) character is now supported in a fax dialing prefix.
• Addressed behavior with USB-attached printers which caused the following issues - when trying to undock a laptop the request was denied; when the printer is disconnected CPU usage goes up; problems communicating after the PC resumes from Sleep mode
  PCL XL only: Improved print quality when drawing certain types of complex curves, which were drawn too light in UPD v2 previously.
• Addressed issue where custom Lexmark tabs on Printing Properties were sometimes unavailable after installation on a Windows Server 2008 R2 cluster until a failover occurred.
• Addressed an issue in which the printer’s IP address changed and the driver did not always update properly, resulting in a loss of communication.

Device Compatibility

• Added support for Lexmark C740 Series
• Added support for Lexmark X740 Series

Known Issues and Workarounds

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Universal Print Driver version 2.x.3 Release Notes (December 2011)

New Functionality

• Added support for new color inkjet printers
• Added support for paper sizes and borderless paper sizes allowed by the added printer models

Fixes and Improvements

• Improved handling for Job Cancellation. Previous to this, the following issues could occur - cancelled print jobs may not clear the queue; print jobs may reports a status of ‘deleting’ indefinitely; print jobs may print again when the printer server or spooler service is restarted.
• Addressed issues with garbage characters printed over USB
• Improved reliability when creating a print queue using a profile from the Configuration Utility

Device Compatibility

Added support for the following color inkjet printers:

• Pro710 Series
• Pro910 Series
• Pro4000 Series
• Pro5500 Series
• ProS310 Series
• ProS410 Series
• ProS510 Series

Known Issues and Workarounds

UPD 2.x.3 and earlier can store a large volume of data in the Windows Registry under certain circumstances. See KnowledgeBase article TE440 for more details.
 

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Universal Print Driver version 2.x.2 Release Notes

Version 2.x.2 of the UPD was an interim release and is not generally available. Customers using 2.x.2 are encouraged to upgrade to a newer release.

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Universal Print Driver (UPD) version 2.x.1 Release Notes 09-2011

New functionality

• Look and feel of driver and driver components.
• Printing Preferences and Printer Properties dynamically adapts to display driver settings (characteristics) that correspond to the options and peripherals detected (or selected) by the print driver.
• New administrative controls:
  • New configuration utility—
    • Gives administrators the ability to control Printing Preferences settings.
    • Configures settings before or after driver installation.

• New Installer feature creates a self-extracting install package. 
• New design allows driver to work side by side with previously installed UPD versions. Why? This gives the administrators or end users the ability of having UPD version 2 coexist with previous versions.

Note: To upgrade to UPD version 2, all previous versions should be uninstalled before installing the new version.

• New level of Microsoft printing architecture redistributable files, version 7600.20630
• Job accounting feature with X792, X925 and all other new devices
• Plug and Play support for current and future devices
• Client-side rendering is used by default where possible for Point and Print.
• “Generate PostScript in driver” replaces “Disable PostScript passthrough”.
• “Reverse page order” replaces “Print last page first”.
• New “Use full printable area” enables printing as close to the edge as the printer allows. This is located under the Paper/Finishing tab.
• Metafile spooling control is added to the PostScript driver.
• Automatic mode chooses RAW format whenever possible for improved performance.
• Universal size has been standardized to be 8.5"x14.17" across all datastreams.

Fixes and improvements

Language emulation specific symptoms fixed by UPD v2.x.1

PCL XL

• Windows XP 32-bit  – Manual Duplex not working when duplex job initiated from the application.
• Watermark is printing under the document when intensity level is < 100.
• Setting change for TrueType fonts to print as outlines (previously bitmaps)

PCL 5(e)

• GL/2 – Incorrect output for printer at both 1200 dpi and 600 dpi resolutions
• No difference in opacity (transparency) level of watermarks when printing N-up (sides per page)

PCL (non-emulation specific)

• Booklet with "Maintain Letter/A4" is asking for "Letter/A4" for Corel presentation docs.
• Landscape page printing upside down when booklet with cover option is selected.
• Landscape page is printing upside down for Booklet of *.wpd files. 
• The application watermark of document "Smart Art Test Document Original" is not printing.
• Discrepancy for Envelope paper size strings in General tab

PostScript

• Wrong operator panel prompt for any Envelope job from Envelope feeder in multiple input options
• Incorrect Watermark positions regardless of portrait and landscape orientation
• Incorrect Watermark position for Booklet printing regardless of portrait or landscape orientation
• Point and Print: Default settings of fonts are wrong in Windows Vista client machines and Windows Server (2003)
• Discrepancy for Envelope paper size strings in General tab

Additional Items

• When printing booklets with Corel Word Perfect, the printer asks for A4/letter regardless of application setting.
  
• Clipping issue observed for booklet printing
• Black patches overlap in the booklet for "Letter" with "Maintain original page size on booklet" 
• Printer prompts to "Load Letter" instead of custom paper size.
• Job Accounting commands missing for when maximum character limit is input.
• Document (*.doc) is not printing if job given as 4-up, 6-up, 9-up, 16-up for N-up values. 
• Print job flushed with this combination of settings: Custom paper; Fit to paper size; Restricted user
• Pattern missing from *.pmd document
• Page order is not correct for duplex job with print last page first.
• Background is not printing properly in *.cdr.
• Profile created with a name like c:\fgh does not work and cannot be deleted. 
• Changing Custom Names via EWS (webpage) does not reflect on Paper Type drop-down via Ask printer.
• Paper size: Envelope C5/A6 changes to Letter while 'Fit to paper: Letter' and Duplex is selected.
• Newly created Watermarks are not propagating to clients in a Point and Print server-client environment.
• Change "Lettre" to "Letter" in French PPD to make Letter appear as default on French/Canada OS.
• Paper available under General tab only shows one supported paper.
• Server created "Saved settings" are not transferred to the client machines.
• Under Printing Preferences > Paper tab not retaining Paper size: Envelope (NLS: Romania)
• Special character not retaining in non-print time cover page > name field (Print time OK).
• Officio paper size is not retained on the driver (NLS:Romania).
• Watermark is not working properly for a document mixture of portrait+landscape.
   

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Known issues and workarounds...

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Universal Print Driver (UPD) 2.x.0 Release Notes

Version 2.x.0 of the UPD was a Beta release and is not generally available. Customers using 2.x.0 are encouraged to upgrade to a newer release.
 

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Universal Print Driver (UPD) 1.6.2 Release Notes 12 -2010

Fixes and improvements

• Change to detect terminal services ports and eliminate session-zero pop-ups in terminal services / Citrix environments
• Crash observed in LMUD05C64Z!CreateFontList while creating print queues
• LMUD054A.DLL memory leak and double prints with app verifier
• SetPSOptionsforFormtoTray() memory leak
• HKEY leak reported in hrOEMDevicePropertySheets() function
• PCL XL driver crashing Explorer on clicking Factory Defaults a number of times
• Watermark printed on all pages of document though first page only selected from driver
• Outlook crash when printing after updating the UPD PS driver to 1.5.2.7 and 1.5.2.10
• Explorer crash when updating from UPD 1.6 to UPD 1.6.1 PS driver
• MS Word frame object prints bold instead of regular weight

Additional Information

Click here for more information regarding UPD v2.0 driver settings.

Click here for more information regarding UPD v1.6.2 driver settings.

Still Need Help?

Please contact Lexmark Technical Support for additional assistance. NOTE: When calling for support, you will need to know your printer model/machine type and serial number (SN).

Please call from near the printer or near a computer in case a technician on the phone requests that you perform a task on either one these devices.