[cups.general] OS X question

[Matt Broughton]

In article <22413-cups.general at news.easysw.com>,
 Bill Moseley <moseley at hank.org> wrote:

> I'm trying to understand CUPS on the Mac a bit more (I'm new to the
> Mac).  When I received the Mac (10.3.9) I could print on the Mac using
> all the special PPD options of the printer (page size, resolutions,
> paper type, etc.), but when printing via CUPS from a remote machine
> (Linux) none of those options were available.  I could print, but the
> options were not available.
> 
> I deleted all the printers on the Mac and then installed Gutenprint on
> the Mac and selected the printer again (Epson Photo 870).  Now I have
> the options available both when printing on the Mac (from a native Mac
> applications) and from any client via CUPS.
> 
> Why were the options only available on the Mac and not on the clients
> via CUPS?
> 
There are others who can answer you more authoritatively than I can.  
However, I suspect that you originally were using the Epson supplied 
drivers in the beginning.  Epson drivers (as well as HP drivers) do not 
really use CUPS in OS X.  They are more self contained software like 
they were in OS 9 and before.  The jobs you print with those drivers 
will not even show up in the Jobs list in the CUPS web interface.  Also, 
the PPDs that Epson places in the /etc/cups/ppd directory are not valid 
PPDs according to CUPS.  Here is a CUPS test of my Epson 1280 PPD:

Mini:~ matt$ cupstestppd /etc/cups/ppd/Stylus_Photo_1280.ppd
/etc/cups/ppd/Stylus_Photo_1280.ppd: FAIL
      **FAIL**  BAD ModelName - "(" not allowed in string.
                REF: Pages 59-60, section 5.3.


By installing Gutenprint, you also installed valid PPDs.  I am sure that 
you could run the Epson drivers along side the Gutenprint drivers and 
have the "best" of both worlds.  Just keep the Gutenprint Epson Photo 
870 PPD installed.

-- 
Matt Broughton
Only relatives are absolute.