KDE4 printing: results of IRC meeting

[Kurt Pfeifle]

Kurt Pfeifle wrote:
> Thiago Macieira wrote:
>> On Friday 14 September 2007 20:45:11 Kurt Pfeifle wrote:
>>> It looses the feature to "print to pdf" for nearly *any* other file type
>>> (text, images, PS) when loaded into the standalone kprinter dialog, as it
>>> is supported now when you selected "Convert" in the dialog that comes up
>>> by printing non-PS files (well, maybe the feature was lost through the
>>> bitrotting process in recent 12-18 months, but it used to work fairly
>>> well).
>>>
>>> I'm not complaining -- just want to make sure you're aware what gets lost
>>> by the current changes.
>> Then explain, because I did not understand what you said above.
>>
>> When is the print dialog shown outside KDE applications?
> 
> If you type "kprinter" in konsole or mini-cli and hit the [Enter]-key...

Maybe I should explain by giving some examples (from memory -- sorry,
don't have a working KDE system around here right now):


 kprinter /usr/share/cups/data/testprint.ps

 # Loads the file, preselects your last used printer. Pick any
 # printer you want, any option available for that printer (even
 # any pre-filters on your system, and print.


 kprinter -P printername /path/to/some/jpeg.jpg

 # Loads the file, preselects the named printer. Leave it or pick
 # any other printer you want. If you select the "Print to PDF"
 # special printer, this one needs PS/EPS as input. So hitting
 # "print" brings up a dialog asking you "Convert? -- Keep? --
 # Cancel?". Select "convert" to make kprinter pick an "image-to-ps"
 # converting program automatically before running Ghostscript to
 # create the PDF. For any other printer, the jpeg.jpg will go to
 # CUPS which takes care of the conversion on its own, and the
 # file will print on any printer.


 cat /var/log/cups/error_log | kprinter --stdin --nodialog [-P printername]

 # will print with the last selected printer (while kprinter
 # dialog was open), with all the options that were saved
 # (including any handy pre-filters that may have been set
 # up). I use this feature quite often when running a KDE
 # session. I have customers who use it too.


You may want to read here (a probably outmoded version) about how
to set up OOo, Mozilla, Acrobat and more to use the kprinter dialog
for printing:

   http://printing.kde.org/faq/kdeprint.php#IsKDEPrintforKDEusageonly

We'd loose all that without being able to run ${kprinter4} as a stand-
alone application. Or here about some creative use cases/extensions
that KDE users came up with to exploit the "Special Printers" feature:

   http://printing.kde.org/documentation/contrib/kprinter/

-- 
Kurt Pfeifle
System & Network Printing Consultant ---- Linux/Unix/Windows/Samba/CUPS
Infotec Deutschland GmbH  .....................  Hedelfinger Strasse 58
A RICOH Company  ...........................  D-70327 Stuttgart/Germany