Providing globalized ppds in Mac OSX

Debashis meetdpanda at yahoo.com
Wed Oct 4 17:06:01 PDT 2006


Hi,
While trying to install a printer in Mac OS 10.4, I thought of this idea. I am sure you guys must have already thought about this but just in case...

For a domestic/end user the most ideal scenario for printing is
1. Connect his printer to the machine.
2. And print.

In between step 1 and 2 the printer somehow magically detects the PPD/drivers needed for the device and downloads it from the internet or installs it in some other way.

If the Mac system is provided with one generic PPD which just contains the Manufacturer name, the printer model and a link to the website from where the actual PPD can be downloaded. While installing the printer the Printer Setup utility reads this generic PPD, gets the system locale and sends a query to the manufacturers website to download the actual PPD.

The manufacturer does not need to distribute so many language PPDs anymore and if there is an update to the ppd it will be immediately available.

Debashis




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