[cups] Printing to native XPS printers using CUPS

[Helge Blischke]

Look at
http://sourceforge.net/projects/cupsaddons/files/xpstopdf_or_ps/ <http://sourceforge.net/projects/cupsaddons/files/xpstopdf_or_ps/>
for a filter to convert XPS to PDF or PostScript. Note that – on most Linux distros – you need
not install ghostpdl to compile gxps but simply install the ibgxps2 and libgxps-utils packages.

To support native XPS printers that do not support PostScript or PDF, it would be quite easy
to derive a pdftoxps  or xpstops filter by cannibalizing an existing filter which uses Ghostscript
for conversion.

If the latter is needed, let me know.

Helge

Am 10.10.2015 um 17:42 schrieb Gernot Hassenpflug <aikishugyo at gmail.com>:
> 
> Hello,
> 
> Issue:
> ---------
> Is there a way to print XPS documents via CUPS?
> Extension(s)  :    .oxps, .xps
> MIME Type(s):    application/oxps, application/vnd.ms-xpsdocument
> 
> Background:
> -------------------
> On the Ubuntu User forums a user asks for help with a printer that
> turns out to be a re-branded Konica Minolta Bizhub 165 or 185:
> http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2297639
> The specifications for these devices note that they are "GDI, XPS" capable.
> Normally, GDI would make these paperweights for linux users (and
> MacOSX if no native driver is provided by the manufacturer).
> However, if the printer is natively capable of XPS interpretation,
> like PDF/PS/PCL, this I understand makes it at least possible in
> theory to print from linux/MacOSX.
> 
> Researching the XPS specification entry on Wikipedia,
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_XML_Paper_Specification
> it seem Konica Minolta, Canon, Minolta, Toshiba and Xerox produced
> native XPS printers.
> 
> I searched over several days and it seems that:
> 
> 1. Since the C550 and C451 in mid-2007, (almost?) all Konica Minolta
> Bizhub and Magicolor have native XPS capability.
> http://www.i-grafix.com/australia/konica-minolta-to-support-vista-xps-wsd-protocols/
> 
> 2. Canon does not, as far as I can tell, not sure if they have some
> printers with such support (XPS drivers under Windows require the
> normal driver installed as well, so presumably the XPS driver is only
> accepting the output of the Windows XPS printing path and then passing
> its output along to the normal driver).
> 
> 3. Several of the Xerox phasers have XPS emulation (not sure of
> beginning of support and its coverage).
> 
> 4. I did not check for Toshiba products, or Minolta (separate from
> Konica Minolta) products.
> 
> Review:
> ------------
> In August 2012 there was discussion on the CUPS User ML regarding
> printing to native XPS printers (ghostscript's PDL/XPS engine), or
> converting XPS documents to PS or PDF (xps2ps filter) for printers
> supporting those formats natively.
> 
> I could not find any other information regarding printing XPS
> documents directly from linux systems despite searching for quite a
> few days.
> 
> Idea:
> --------
> Possibly one could use GhostXPS (gxps), the Ghostscript software for
> XPS interpretation/rendering (maybe part of GhostPDL?) at the end of a
> filter chain where a PDF (or PS) document is produced. Something like
> (I see that Ghostscript 9.18 seems to have integrated the PCL and XPS
> interpreters, I cannot find the separate GhostPDL for my Debian
> package so I haven't tried this myself):
> gxps -sDEVICE=xpswrite -sOutputFile=printfile.xps (or "-o
> filename.xps"?) -dNOPAUSE inputfile.pdf
> 
> The XPS file could then be sent directly to the printer.
> 
> Conceptually are there several complications that need to be taken
> into account that make this infeasible in practice?
> 
> Regards,
> Gernot Hassenpflug
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