Selecting Large Format Paper: what printing options work?

Question

I have an Epson WorkForce WF-7520. It has two input trays: the upper has Letter paper (8½×11"), the lower has Ledger (11×17"). Everything I print comes out on Letter, even if I select options like -o PaperSize=Custom.11x17in,Lower and send it a Ledger sized document.

How can I make the printer recognize the larger paper size?

My lpoptions for the printer are:

MediaType/Type: *PLAIN EMATTE EULTRAGLOSSY EPREMGLOSS EPSGLOS EPENTRY EGCP ENVELOPE
PrintQuality/Quality Option: FastEconomy Economy *Normal Fine Quality HighQuality BestQuality
PageSize/Size: Custom.WIDTHxHEIGHT A4 4x6in 5x7in A6 A5 A3 A3+ B4 B5 3.5x5in 5x8in 8x10in 169widesize 100x148mm ENVELOPE_10 ENVELOPEDL ENVELOPEC4 ENVELOPEC6 *Letter Legal A2 B3
InputSlot/Source: *AutoSelect PaperCassette1 PaperCassette2
Color/Color: *Color Grayscale
Borderless/Borderless: *Off On
ReduceEnlarge/Reduce/Enlarge: *Off ByOutputPaperSize ByPercentage
OutputPaper/By Output Paper Size: *SameDocumentSize A4 4x6in 5x7in A6 A5 A3 A3+ B4 B5 3.5x5in 5x8in 8x10in 169widesize 100x148mm ENVELOPE_10 ENVELOPEDL ENVELOPEC4 ENVELOPEC6 Letter Legal
ScaleRatio/By Percentage: 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 *100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400
Duplex/Duplex Printing - Binding Edge: None DuplexTumble *DuplexNoTumble
AdjustPrintDensity/Adjust Print Density: *Text TextGraphic TextPhoto
PosterPrinting/Poster Printing: *Off 2x1 2x2 3x3 4x4
Rotate180/Rotate 180 degrees: *Off On
MirrorImage/Mirror Image: *Off On
Watermark/Watermark: *None Confidential Draft Urgent Priority Hot DoNotCopy ForYourEyesOnly ReviewCopy TopSecret Duplicate
ColurWatermark/Color: Black Blue Lime Aqua *Red Fuchsia Yellow
PositionWatermark/Position: *Middle TopLeft Top TopRight Left Right BottomLeft Bottom BottomRight
DensityWatermark/Density: Level1 Level2 Level3 *Level4 Level5 Level6
SizeWatermark/Size: 10 20 30 40 50 60 *70 80 90 100
CorrectionColor/Color Mode: *EPSONVivid AdobeRGB
GammaValue/Gamma: 1.8 *2.2
BrightnessValue/Brightness: -25 -24 -23 -22 -21 -20 -19 -18 -17 -16 -15 -14 -13 -12 -11 -10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 *0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
ContrastValue/Contrast: -25 -24 -23 -22 -21 -20 -19 -18 -17 -16 -15 -14 -13 -12 -11 -10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 *0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
SaturationValue/Saturation: -25 -24 -23 -22 -21 -20 -19 -18 -17 -16 -15 -14 -13 -12 -11 -10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 *0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
CyanValue/Cyan: -25 -24 -23 -22 -21 -20 -19 -18 -17 -16 -15 -14 -13 -12 -11 -10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 *0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
MagentaValue/Magenta: -25 -24 -23 -22 -21 -20 -19 -18 -17 -16 -15 -14 -13 -12 -11 -10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 *0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
YellowValue/Yellow: -25 -24 -23 -22 -21 -20 -19 -18 -17 -16 -15 -14 -13 -12 -11 -10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 *0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

Update: the driver PPD (/opt/epson-inkjet-printer-201115w/ppds/Epson/Epson-WF-7520_Series-epson-driver.ppd.gz) doesn't contain any size or handling definitions for 11×17" paper. My attempts to edit it have not been successful.

Answer 1

Okay, resolved this with a rather pointless workaround. You will need to set up two printer devices using different drivers, one for each size of paper.

1. Put the B-size/11×17" paper in Tray 1 (the upper one), and the Letter paper in Tray 2. This, unfortunately, matters — the driver that can print large format can only access the upper tray. On the setup menu on the printer console, tell the printer which tray holds what size of paper.
2. Install the epson-inkjet-printer-escpr driver; it should be in the standard Ubuntu repos. Define a printer (wf7520-lf, for example) that uses this driver. Set the paper size to "US B 11 x 17 in".
3. Ensure that the lsb and lsb-printing packages are installed: sudo apt-get install lsb lsb-printing
4. Download and install the non-free epson-201115w driver from the EPSON Download Center. Define a printer (I used wf-7520 for the name) using this driver, making sure that the correct PPD (epson-inkjet-printer 1.0.0-1lsb3.2 (Seiko Epson Corporation LSB 3.2)) is used. Set it up to use Letter paper, and (important!) set the source to Paper Cassette 2. You might want to make this printer the system default.

To print to large format, use the command:

lp -d wf7520-lf -o PageSize=USB file.pdf

To print regular size, just send the job to the wf-7520 device.