(by Kurt Pfeifle, kpfeifle@danka.de<= /a>, Author of KDEPrint Handbook)
Here we will answer some frequently asked questions about CUPS which might occur to KDEPrint users whose print subsystem is CUPS, although they are not directly related to KDEPrint. We hope you'll find this section also useful. Feedback is welcome.
To re-start your "completed" jobs from the web interface, you need an entry of (in the /etc/cups/cupsd.conf)
PreserveJobFiles Yes
set (default is "Yes"). To see your completed jobs, you need
PreserveJobHistory Yes
set (default is "No"). You can use KDE's "CUPS Server Configuration Tool"=
to change the settings. It is available through the KDE Control Center
[ --> System --> Printing Manager --> click on third icon from
right ("Configure server")]
CUPS passes nearly every job through the pstops filter; pstops does, amongst other things, the page counting. Output of this filter then may be piped into other filters or even a chain of filters (like "pstoraster --> rastertopcl") or sent to the printer directly (if it is a PostScript printer).
In any case, this works for network, parallel, serial or USB printers the same. For pstops to work, it needs DSC, Document Structuring Convention compliant PostScript (or near-equivalent) as input. This way it calculates the pages during filtering on the print server and writes info about every single page (what time, which user, which job-ID and -name, which printer, how many copies of which pages of the document, how many kilo-bytes?) into /var/log/cups/page_log. (By the way: on my personal "wishlist" is a hack of "webalizer" to read and analyse the page_log and give a similar output. Anyone?)
However, it is *not* giving correct results in the following cases:
Therefore page accounting of CUPS is "only" an approximation (in many cases an excellent + good one, in others a quite poor one). The only *reliable* print count is the one done by the internal printer counter. (Because this is the one you pay for, if you are on a "click price" or similar.) Some, by far not most, printers can be queried remotely for that information via SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol). That means, in a bigger network with many different printers there *is* just no completely reliable and accurate page accounting tool!
=46rom Windows clients jobs nearly always need to be sent as "raw". Why? If CUPS works as a print server for Windows clients using the original native Windows driver for the target print device, this guarantees the correct formatting of the job on the clients already; therefor the server should not touch it -- this is also called "raw" printing; no filtering is started by print daemons being asked to handle a printfile as a "raw" printfile. (Filtering in most of thos cases is not even possible, as the input from the clients mostly is not PostScript as the CUPS filter pstops expects; hence no pagecount occurs other than the default "1"...
See the man page for the lpoptions command. You may investi= =3D gate a CUPS-enabled box about any option of its available printers. There is no need to have the printer installed locally. As long as the printer is available locally (through the CUPS "printer browsing" feature), it will also work remotely. To query for a printers' option, type something similar to:
lpoptions -h transmeta -p HitachiDDP70MicroPress -l
This will give a long listing of all available options as read from the PPD file for the given Hitachi-Printer (in my case installed on remote server transmeta). Remote server transmeta and its CUPS daemon as well as the localhost's CUPS daemon need to be up and running for this to succeed. If you leave out the "-h" specification to query a remote host, it is assumed that you want to query localhost for a local printer.
You should know, that for PostScript printer manufacturers it i "legal" to define their own internal names and procedures even for standard PostScript options. As long as the driver is able to retrieve the option from the PPD and show it to the user in a way that he understands it, everything is OK. But what do *you* do, if you want to use some obscure printer options on the command line? How do you find out its exact syntax?
Let's take an example. Looking at Hitachi's DDP70 printer and how it implements duplex printing is revealing somehow. How do you tell how to print double sided (duplex or Duplex?). Here is the CUPS solution (command should be given in one long line, not using the backslashes "\"):
lpoptions \
-h transmeta \
-p Hitachi_DDP70_ClusterPrintingSystem \
-l | grep uplex
This leads to the output
TR-Duplex/Duplex: False *True
This is to be interpreted like follows:
The "Duplex" option for this printer should therefor take the following form:
lpr -o TR-Duplex=3D3DTrue
To override the present default setting (duplex is true, as shown by the asterisk in above example) and print a job in simplex, you need to use the following command:
lpr \
-P Hitachi_DDP70_ClusterPrintingSystem \
-o TR-Duplex=3D3DFalse \
/path/to/your/printjob
Use the lphelp command which may be installed on your system locally. There is not yet a man page for lphelp. (lphelp was written by Till Kamppeter from Mandrakesoft; as it is distributed under the Free GPL license, you may find it by now on most other Linux distributions.)
lphelp infotecP450
This lists the available options for the named printer. It is nicely formatted and does explain every available option and how to use it. You can query different printers' options at once:
lphelp infotec7410color DANKA_fullcolor_D2000 HP_ColorLaserJet8550
It also works for PPD files. Just specify the path to the PPD:
lphelp /home/kurt/PPDs/HP-ColorLaserJet8550.ppdThis is quite handy if you want to inspect a PPD file for the abilities of a printer you plan to install.
Here is an example output (cut short after a few lines):
kurt@transmeta:~> lphelp /etc/cups/ppd/mopier320.ppd
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
HP LaserJet 8100 Series
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
Black & white printer
Printer-specific options
------------------------
Besides the options described in the CUPS software users manual
(http://localhost:631/sum.html) you can use also the following
options, when you print on this printer with the "lp" or "lpr"
command. -- A choice with the "default" mark represents the
behaviour of the printer when the appropriate option is *not*
given on the command line):
Duplex: -o Duplex=3D[choice]
<choice> can be one of the following:
DuplexNoTumble (Flip on Long Edge (Standard), default)
DuplexTumble (Flip on Short Edge)
None (Off (1-Sided))
Medien-Gr=F6=DFe : -o PageSize=3D[choice]
[choice] can be one of the following:
A3 (A3, size: 11.69x16.54in)
A4 (A4, size: 8.26x11.69in, default)
A5 (A5, size: 5.83x8.26in)
[....cut here....]
Support for inspecting PPD files is already built into the current KDEPri= nt versions in so far as it shows all the options on the "Advanced" tab of the "Prope= rties" dialog that is part of the "kprinter" dialog. What you won't get i= n this GUI is the "<choice>" options for the commandline specified... W= e just ask you: if you need a commandline option -- use a commandline ("lpoptions= " or "lphelp") to ask for it...
--------------78B56ED526203C6033A124D9 Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1; name="kdeprint-use-in-nonkde-faq.html" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Disposition: inline; filename="kdeprint-use-in-nonkde-faq.html"(by Kurt Pfeifle, kpfeifle@danka.de<= /a>, Author of KDEPrint Handbook)
Here you will learn how to use KDEPrint from non-KDE application to ge= t the best results from your printer. We hope you'll find this section also useful. Feedback is welcome.
No. You may use it in any non-KDE program that allows you to specify a "print command".
Yes. We even know some GNOME developers who use the "kprinter" utility on a day-to-day basis for their printing needs... :-)
Click on the "Print" icon (or select File... --> Print... from th= e menue bar -- or hit the [Alt]+[P] shortcut.) In the opened print dialog = you'll see the presently active print command.
Edit it to read "kprinter" (maybe you need to use the full path, f.e. /opt/kde2/bin/kprinter). Click= [Print]. This will pipe the Netscape-generated PostScript-output into "kprinter", = which will then open its dialog box. Choose your settings. Then print.
Netscape will remember this. Next time "kprinter" will automatically be c= alled. If you have many printers (like I do, not at home, but at my employer's p= lace :), you can pre-select the "Netscape default printer" by adding the "-d"-option to the kprinter print command. (F.e. entering as the print command f.e. "/opt/kde2/bin/kprinter -d infotec4700MF" will bring up my in= fotec4700MF printer preselected in the kprinter dialog for every print from Netscape. I could= still easily select another model from there if I need to...)
Click on the "Print" icon (or select File... --> Print... from th= e menu bar -- or hit the [Ctrl]+[P] shortcut.) In the opened print dialog= you'll see a line with the presently active Printer:.
Edit it to read "kprinter" (maybe you need to use the full path, f.e. /opt/kde2/bin/kprinter). Comp=F6lete your other necessary settings= (like your paper size, etc.). Click [Print]. This will pipe the Galeon-generated PostScript-output into "kprinter", wh= ich will then open its dialog box. Choose you settings. Then print.
Galeon will remember this. Next time "kprinter" will automatically be cal= led, if you want to print from Galeon. If you have many printers (like I do, not at home, but at my employer's p= lace :), you can pre-select the "Galeon default printer" by entering the print com= mand with the "-d"-option; f.e. "/opt/kde2/bin/kprinter -d digimaste= r9110".
Click on the "Print" icon (or select File... --> Print... from th= e menu bar -- or hit the [Ctrl]+[P] shortcut.) In the opened print dialog= you'll see the presently active print command.
Edit it to read "kprinter" (maybe you need to use the full path, f.e. /opt/kde2/bin/kprinter). Click= [Print]. This will pipe the Mozilla-generated PostScript-output into "kprinter", w= hich will then open its dialog box. Choose you settings. Then print.
Mozilla will remember this. Next time "kprinter" will automatically be ca= lled. If you have many printers (like I do, not at home, but at my employer's p= lace :), you can pre-select the "Mozilla default printer" by entering the print co= mmand with the "-d"-option; f.e. "/opt/kde2/bin/kprinter -d danka5000= color".
Start StarOffice's Printer Administration Tool spadmin as root. (O= n my system it is located at /opt/office52/program/spadmin.) This opens the di= alog box for printer administration. Click on [Connect...].Edit the dialog box to achieve a resulting command = line of
default_queue=3D/opt/kde2/bin/kprinterMaybe you need to select the "Generic Printer" first from the list of "In= stalled Printer Drivers" in the lower half of the dialog window. This printer is = generating PostScript. At the end of your clicks and keyboard hits, there should be visible a Generic Printer on Queue default_queue=3D/opt/kde2/bin/kprinter amongst the list of "Configured Printers". Click on [Default Printer]<= /b> to make it your default. Click on the "Print" icon (or select File... --> Print... from th= e menu bar -- or hit the [Alt]+[P] shortcut.) In the opened print dialog = you'll see the presently active print command.
Edit it to read "kprinter" (maybe you need to use the full path, f.e. /opt/kde2/bin/kprinter). Click= [OK]. This will pipe the StarOffice-5.2-generated PostScript-output into "kprin= ter", which will then open its dialog box. Choose you settings. Then print.
First off: We do not recommend to sidestep the Gimp-Print drivers!= (But sometimes you might have no other choice. Read on.)
If you print from the latest Gimp-Print plugin (Version 4.2 has just been released (Nov. 2001) and mig= ht not yet be part of your Gimp installation), this plugin has direct support for mo= re than 130 printers (and nearly 300 through emulations, see the list of gimp-print-driven models on www.linuxprinting.org). Read the Gimp-= Print User Manual for the exact settings and how to proceed if you want to use t= he Gimp-Print drivers from within the print-plugin.
Inside the plugin, all data are prepared in a "final" format so they can be digested directly by the = printer: They therefor need to be sent as "raw". Sending this to the kprinter comm= and would simply not result in pages printed...
There is, however, a case to leave this above re-commended method to print from within the Gimp print-plugin: that is...
In this case, proceed as described below. In the print-plugin dialog (rig= ht-click on your file opened in the Gimp, select File... --> Print...), you need to= follow these steps:
Click on the "Print" icon (or select File... --> Print... from th= e menu bar -- or hit the [Ctrl]+[P] shortcut.) In the opened print dialog= you'll see the presently active Printer Command.
Edit it to read "kprinter" (maybe you need to use the full path, f.e. /opt/kde2/bin/kprinter). Check or choose the other settings offered in this dialog. They will dete= rmine the PostScript generated by Acrobat Reader. Then click [OK]. This will pipe the Acrobat Reader-generated PostScript-output into "kprin= ter", which will then open its dialog box. Choose your printer-specific settings there (li= ke duplex, staples etc.). Then print.
Acrobat Reader will not remember this. After your next re-start of= Acrobat Reader your newly set print command "kprinter" for this applicati= on will be lost.
[QUESTION: Is there anybody who can tell me how you can make this s= etting permanent?]
[To BE COMPLETED]
Start gv (for those of you who don't know: it is a PostScript- and PDF-Vi= ewer that also allows you to print...). Click on State --> Setup Options....= A window opens with a big range of configurable gv settings. Lokk fokr the field n= amed "Print Command". Edit it to read "kprinter" (possibly you might need to use the = full path, f.e. /opt/kde2/bin/kprinter). Then click [Apply], [Save] and final= ly [Dismiss] to close this dialog box.
[To BE DONE]
I am not yet a very experienced GNOME user. (I started to play with it on= ly recently, and I must say, I like a lot of its features very much. I think KDE can learn= from it in quite a few fields... but this distrcts from what I wanted to tell you he= re... ;-)
All GNOME applications I have used so far let you edit the print command = they use. So you can always insert "kprinter" there (maybe you need to use the full= path, f.e. /opt/kde2/bin/kprinter). Check or choose the other settings offere= d in the original GNOME dialog. For example, choose the margins and the papersize = there, as it is determining the PostScript file that is generated by the GNOME app = and then handed over to "kprinter" for the other settings.
[TO BE COMPLETED]
Install the two packages kdelibs and kdebase. This should b= e all. -- Be prepared, due to the nature of KDE and KDEPrint, that quite a few KDE Libraries need to be loaded in order for "kprinter" to run and = work. But we are sure you will enjoy its features...
[TO BE VERIFIED]--------------78B56ED526203C6033A124D9-- _______________________________________________ kde-print mailing list kde-print@mail.kde.org http://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-print