Odd page size default

[Michael Sweet]

Toby Blake wrote:
>> Right now it uses the DefaultLanguage setting in the cupsd.conf file,
>> which defaults to the (equivalent) of "printenv LC_ALL" (if LC_ALL
>> is defined) or "printenv LANG" (otherwise).
> 
> 
> Ah, OK, the DefaultLanguage is set to 'en'.

OK, that will default to Letter size (en, en_US, en_CA, and fr_CA
are Letter, anything else is A4).

> Curiously, even though the printer seems to be set to Letter in CUPS' 
> config, printing comes out A4, from apps and also from the command line 
> (using lpr), so I'm a little confused as to how this is happening - i.e. 
> what value the printing system actually uses for paper size?

It can come from many places; for the GUIs on OSX, Apple has their
own stuff for saving printing preferences, and probably is overriding
the PPD setting automatically.  Also, I believe that Apple's PDF
filters always set the page size based on the PDF file, which would
affect printing from both GUIs and the command-line.

For the command-line programs, we use "lpoptions" and command-line
options to override the defaults; use "lpoptions -p printer" to see
the options for a particular printer.

> (Basically I want to distribute ppd files for all our printers to our 
> Mac users, with a script to set up the printers for them - but first I 
> want to make sure that all is working correctly).

Is there a reason you aren't using printer sharing for this instead?

-- 
______________________________________________________________________
Michael Sweet, Easy Software Products           mike at easysw dot com
Internet Printing and Document Software          http://www.easysw.com