[cups.general] cups and pstops...

[Helge Blischke]

Wolfgang Wegner wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I newly installed cups yesterday, and after having sorted out
> the basic configuration, printing somewhat works on a HP CLJ4500.
> I can print simple PS documents or pdftops output two-sided
> using "-o Duplex=DuplexNoTumble".
> 
> However, I do have a problem printing booklets, made from PDF
> files using pdftops and pstops, the command for generating the
> postscript is: 'psbook | psnup -2 | pstops "2:0,1U(21cm,29.7cm)"'
> 
> The file prints, but is printed one-sided regardless of specifying
> options like sides=two-sided-long-edge or Duplex=DuplexNoTumble
> The same file (generated with the above commands) could be printed
> in duplex mode using LPRng (unfortunately, newer versions of ifhp
> broke other things), and are also printed two-sided when switching
> the printer to duplex mode manually.
> "-o raw" also does not change this behaviour.
> 
> I used the standard PPD from HP, have tray3, duplexer and 64MB of
> memory installed. Printing is over the network using AppSocket.
> 
> Does anybody have an idea what I am overlooking here?
> Even with log level "debug" I did not get a hint why cupsd
> arbitrarily changes print job parameters without warning
> me.
> 
> Regards,
> Wolfgang
> 

There is nothing wrong with your CUPS installation (as far as I can
see). The culprit is the pstops
utility from the PSUtils package. It inserts a procset into the PS job
just after the
header comments which - among other tings - defines the setpagedevice
operator as a noop. Thus, 
any defaults defined by your printer's PPD or given as options in the
print command are just
ignored.
The only chance you'd have is with printers that need things like media
size, duplexing or the
like to be specified by PJL commands or with native IPP printers that
natively support these attributes
via the IPP interface.

Helge

PS: Since the PSUtils package seems not to have been updated since about
10 years, I could imagine
to make (at least some of) these utilities CUPS compliant, maybe even
usable as CUPS filters,
if there is sufficient public interest. Perhaps you could start a poll
on this subject?

-- 
Helge Blischke
Softwareentwicklung
SRZ Berlin | Firmengruppe besscom
http://www.srz.de