rastertopclx

[Michael Sweet]

Franz Pförtsch wrote:
> Are these drivers are part of cups-1.2.x?

No, the DDK drivers will remain part of the DDK, however we will be
working with the Linux distributions to get them packaged for general
usage.  We might also do LSB packages and offer them on the CUPS page
to make things easier.

> Today I am working on a ppd for a HP DesignJet 600 using the 
> rastertortl-driver. Should I switch to rastertopclx?

There isn't much incentive, unless you want a high-quality CMYK mode.
I've found that for typical usage the RGB modes will give the best
overall quality and print speed.

> Is the rastertortl-driver a old drive, with low support, or which
> role does he play?

The RTL driver is there specifically to provide basic support for
the HP DesignJet plotters in RGB mode.  It will receive the same
level of support as the other drivers in the main CUPS distro,
basically bug fixes and changes needed to support new models, just
keep in mind that the focus is on supporting as many devices with
the minimum of complexity and CPU overhead, i.e. fast, simple, and
broadly compatible with the printers out there.

The DDK drivers are focused on providing high-quality data-driven
drivers which support every printer capability and feature.  They are
at least an order of magnitude more complex than the CUPS sample
drivers, and are generally slower than the sample drivers due to
the color management and dithering code.

Both drivers have a useful place and will continue to exist and
be supported in parallel for a long time.

-- 
______________________________________________________________________
Michael Sweet, Easy Software Products           mike at easysw dot com
Printing Software for UNIX                       http://www.easysw.com