Unzipping question.?

[James Elliott]

I cannot get my Minolta PagePro 1200w printer to work with Ubuntu, even 
though in "Add printer" my printer is found and correctly identified, and 
installed without any errors - the printer is listed in my printers 
directory, but won't print anything.

I have searched the Internet and download some Linux drivers for this make 
and model printer.  They are *.tar.gz files.  I did some Linux a few years 
ago at Uni and remember that these are compressed files, but I cannot 
remember what to do with them.

1.  Do I need to unzip them before trying to install them? - if so, how?
2.  Do I point to the zipped or unzipped file when installing the printer?
3.  Can I use the Ubuntu GUI to install these drivers or do I need to go to 
command line and use something like grep?

I look forward to your help - thanks,  James.