[cups.general] JobSheets printed from a different input tray

[Helge Blischke]

Steve Wilson wrote:

> All,
> 
> I've recently upgraded from CUPS 1.3.7 to 1.4.3 and found that my
> Postscript banner page no longer prints on the colored paper from a
> reserved tray in my printers.  I used to include a line like the
> following in my custom banner page that works for our HP printers:"
> <</ManualFeed false /MediaClass(Upper) /MediaPosition 0
> /MediaType(Color)>> setpagedevice
> 
> This no longer works under 1.4.3.
> 
> Is there another way to force banner pages to print on paper from a
> specific input tray?  Banner pages are almost useless if we can't
> quickly spot them and separate print jobs.
> 
> Thanks for any tips on how to get this working!
> 
> Steve

In CUPS 1.4.x, the banner pages are generated from a data type calld 
"application/vnd.cups-banner" and converted to PostScript by the bannertops 
filter. Unfortunately, this filter does not supply options deviating from  
the general job options.

I'd suggest two possible workarounds (I agree that unspottable banner pages 
are pretty useless):

(1)
set up a pair of mime files, say banner.types and banner.convs as follows:
banner.types:
---snip---
application/vnd.cups-bannerps	contains(0,1024,"%%Creator: bannertops/CUPS")
---snip---
baner.convs:
---snip---
application/vnd.cups-banner application/vnd.cups-bannerps 10 bannertops
application/vnd.cups-bannerps application/postscript 10 your_own_filter
---snip---

and set up your own filter e.g. as a Perl- or Python or even Shell-Script 
that spots the two lines
%%BeginPageSetup
%%EndPageSetup
and inserts your own PostScript code for selecting the required paper
just between these two lines.


(2)
Ask me for my modified pstops filter (based on CUPS 1.3.5 but working in 
1.4.x as well) which has a banner page generating algorithm of its own.

Helge