[cups.general] Re: Printer classes and Windows

Helge Blischke H.Blischke at srz-berlin.de
Thu Jul 22 04:31:47 PDT 2004


Anthony Chavez wrote:
> 
> 
> On Tue, 20 Jul 2004 16:10:27 +0200 Helge Blischke <H.Blischke at srz-berlin.de> wrote:
> 
> > Anthony Chavez wrote:
> >
> >> Fellow cups-lovers:
> >>
> >> I've set up a printer class and would like my Windows (2k|NT|98) clients
> >> to use it.  I've configured all of these clients to use IPP (via the
> >> Internet Printing update for Win98 and ShinePrint for NT).
> >>
> >> In this class are two distinctly different printers: an HP DeskJet 1220C
> >> and a Toshiba e-Studio28.  Both are configured in CUPS as raw devices
> >> and PostScript printers (Toshiba has native PS support, whereas the HP
> >> uses GIMP-Print).
> >>
> >> I've currently got the class set up to use the PostScript devices, with
> >> Adobe's drivers installed on the client machines.  This works great
> >> except Ghostscript renders pages quite slowly.  So I'm interested in
> >> using class that will print to the raw devices instead.
> >>
> >> However, when I try to configure the clients, I get prompted to install
> >> a driver (as you would expect), but I'm not sure what to tell it, since
> >> the class is heterogeneous.
> >>
> >> Where do I go from here?  I'd prefer to use IPP over SMB if at all
> >> possible.
> >
> > I guess you'd make a .inf file and use a PPD that reflects the
> > common properties of both of your printers.
> 
> Thank you for your response, Helge.  Could you perhaps elaborate a bit
> more on what needs to be done?  Maybe provide some examples and links?
> 
> Thanks!
> 

Well, I posted just what I would do in that case. As for the .inf file,
an example
has been posted recently in the cupd.development newsgroups.
As for the "joint PPD", things are a little bit tricky, as both physical
printers have to be handled differently. A first approach may be to
write a
PPD that only contains those statements, e.g. for paper sizes, that are 
  a) supported by both printers
AND
  b) switched on or off by exactly the same PS code on both printers.

Any things beyond this "primitive" approach would require quite a lot
more 
work, including special filters for post-processing the code coming from
the Winxx box(es).

Helge

-- 
H.Blischke at srz-berlin.de
H.Blischke at srz-berlin.com
H.Blischke at acm.org




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