Re: An Idea...

[Wolfgang Sourdeau <wolfgang ultim net>]

On 13 Jan 2000, Alan Shutko wrote:

> Kent Schumacher <kent@structural-wood.com> writes:
> 
> > Does anyone know more about PPD files, and if ghostscript can
> > support whatever functions PPD provides?
> 
> I've never seen PPD files for non-postscript printers, and I don't
> believe GS supports PPD files in any way.  I also doubt that most
> drivers in GS know how to do things like change the paper tray,
> etc... so there would be lots of work to do to make things happen.
> 
> (I'd be very happy to be corrected.)
> 
> 

(Ghostscript does support ppd files. Just take a look at
/usr/share/ghostscript/[version]/doc. Idem for printer resolutions
such as 600x600)

After reading a few mails on that subject, I guess that a clean and
consistent way to do all those things would be to create an abstraction
between the actual printing format and the applications. Such as the one
windows use (GDI is used for both printing and displaying on screen).
gnome-print could create postscript code without the apps developers to
worry about it.

For what the drivers are concerned, I still think ghostscript should be
used for the non-postscript printers. As it includes already a lot of
good drivers, the missing features such as "econofast" could easily be
added to the existing drivers. For example the Epson Stylus driver in gs
contains code to manage "MicroWeave technology" of those printers...
Ghostscript is GNU software and so it could and should be enhanced in
the same philosophy.

Gnome-print would then be used as a abstraction medium.
What do you think?


W
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