Common print options

[Michael Sweet]

Michael Kaply wrote:
> I'm looking at adding some CUPS support into Mozilla.
> 
> Currently I've just done it by enumerating the printers using CUPS and 
> using our existing postscript code to pass the PS file to the printer 
> given to us by CUPS.
> 
> I'd also like to make the printer properties button do something 
> interesting - right now it allows selection of six hardcoded form types, 
> an explicit lpr command, color/grayscale, and the margin.
> 
> My question is, if I were to create a "common" printer properties 
> dialog, what should it have on it?
> 
> And how do I know what options are "common" between different printers, 
> such that I could put them onto this dialog?

The usual common options are:

     Page Size
     Duplexing
     Orientation
     Resolution
     Copies
     Page Range

You can get the supported values via IPP and/or HTTP requests,
and they can be defaulted pretty easily when printing without
CUPS.  Also, CUPS supports embedded "job tickets" in PS files like:

     %!PS-Adobe-3.0
     %cupsJobTicket: media=a4 sides=two-sided-long-edge
     %cupsJobTicket: resolution=600dpi

so you can pass the options that way if you like and use a
common print command path.

I'd be happy to work with you on this, provide sample code, etc.
My flPhoto software (http://www.easysw.com/~mike/flPhoto/) does
some of this to provide printing with and without CUPS...

Also, there is a print API being defined by the Free Standards
Group called PAPI which supports CUPS, Berkeley LPR/LPRng, and
System V LP which would allow you to use a common API to get a
list of available destinations and their common options, and submit
jobs.

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