Re: [Gnome-print] GPr/libppd

[Miguel de Icaza <miguel helixcode com>]

> I was wondering if anyone here has heard of GPr, libppd, or any of the
> other pieces of the Open Source printing project sponsored by VA
> Linux?

I have heard of them, and I really want to add support to gnome-print
to it.  Currently gnome-print handles only the imaging part of the
problem, and some of the dialog boxes for printing.

Ideally, we could add support initially for libppd/GPr (dunno what GPr
really is though) and add GUI elements to take advantage of it.  I
think they fit naturally with each other.

> At this point, most of the pieces of the project deal with lower-level
> printing issues and would operate at a lower level (spooling,
> configuration, etc.), independent of gnome-print. GPr, however, is
> presently the GUI component of this system.

Is it?  OH PANIC.  What does it do?

> GPr is a gtk-based program that interacts with libppd to allow users to
> select all device-dependent options for their postscript printer. 

Oh.  The panic is gone.  

Seems like a good plan;  So we could really easily integrate with
that.

> It
> dynamically (well, maybe just semi-dynamically) creates a new user
> interface based upon the printer and corresponding ppd file chosen. 
> When the user has made all of his or her choices, the print command
> causes libppd to insert device-specific code into the previously
> device-independent postscript file. 

well, one of our drivers is Postscript, but one of the "big wins" of
GnomePrint is that we can rasterize directly to a printer, and we can
have native printer drivers.  I wonder how libpppd interacts with
this. 

> The newly inserted device-dependencies allows users to select some
> of the more advanced features of their printer such as mailbox
> sorters, alternative color rendering dictionaries, staplers,
> holepunches, etc.

Sounds nice.  But we need this to work in a non-Postscript world as
well.

Could you research this please?

> At this point, it would require some work to more properly GNOME-ify
> GPr. But, I think that it would be well worth it. Does anyone else think
> this would be valuable?

Yes.  I do.  Want to contribute in this area?

> BTW, if you'd like some more information on GPr, see the libbpd project
> site on source forge at
> http://sourceforge.net/project/?group_id=1658

I would love to.  Can you give us an executive summary for those of us
that are too busy, but still can hack?

> There are also some slightly outdated screenshots of GPr available on
> http://libppd.sourceforge.net

Nice.