http://forums.linux-foundation.org/list.php?21 EN Mon, 16 Aug 2010 04:29:01 -0700 Mon, 16 Aug 2010 04:29:01 -0700 OpenPrinting Announcements Phorum 5.1.25 60 http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,12541,12541#msg-12541 till
This release fixes several bugs which got reported to us in the past 6 months.

foomatic-rip now errors out on any problem instead of continuing or silently exiting, fixed-size string buffers are enlarged and causes for segmentation faults eliminated, '0' as a placeholder for the custom value in the prototype for a custom option actually works now, custom option settings embedded in PostScript input work now also without the initial comment containing the value, and remainders of the libgs time are removed from the documentation.

foomatic-db-engine got updated to fit to the newest changes and requirements of the OpenPrinting database on our web server, especially links to signature keys of downloadable packages are now supported, XMLs generated from PPDs do not reference to the removed driver entry "lj5mono" any more, and fixes on the build system and the man pages got done.

Thanks to everyone who reported bugs to us (or to their distributions) or sent feature requests.

Have a lot of fun with the new Foomatic release!

Till]]> OpenPrinting Announcements http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,12541,12541#msg-12541 Mon, 16 Aug 2010 04:29:01 -0700 http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,11512,11512#msg-11512 till
probably the web interface of the pages to browse the OpenPrinting database looked somewhat old-fashioned to you and was perhaps also a little bit slow. This interface got near 10 years old without major changes, During the time we only changed to the corporate identity of the Free Standards Group and later the Linux Foundation. Last year, as we got several server breakdowns due to high traffic we started to work on a new more modern web site, especially backed by a relational database, and to overcome the server break downs I backed the old web interface with the new database last fall.

But now we got into the second generation with a new shiny interface: Much faster, more beautiful and using latest web UI technologies.

Besides the new browsing interface which you can use immediately and anonymously, we have improved especially on managing contributions. For contributing a new printer entry (for example your experience with your printer) you have to get a Linux Foundation account and log in. This way we avoid the flooding with spam printers. We are also having soon a moderation facility so that your (constructive) contribution will quickly made an official entry which will be adopted by the Linux distributions through our foomatic-db package.

We will also allow trusted users/developers/printer manufacturers to contribute printer and driver entries without needing moderator approval.

We also accept any comments about printers or drivers via the new comment facility on the printer and driver entry pages.

Please excuse that all old user-contributed printers are not visible any more. We must clean this data from bad entries and import the good ones. This will take some time.

Note also that we have discontinued the "Execution Details", the pages which showed the Ghostscript command lines of the drivers. As most users currently use CUPS or at least Foomatic it got uncommon to enter Ghostscript command lines manually. We did not update the script behind this facility anyway and did not see user complaints about it.

I hope you will enjoy the new site!

Till]]> OpenPrinting Announcements http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,11512,11512#msg-11512 Fri, 19 Feb 2010 13:36:03 -0800 http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,11485,11485#msg-11485 till
This release fixes several bugs and drops the need of libgs (shared library of Ghostscript).

Most importantly, we have removed the linking of foomatic-rip against the libgs library. It really caused more problems than it had benefits. First, this required users and packagers of Linux distributions to compile Ghostscript with the shared library. This is not very easy and can have negative impact on other software which uses Ghostscript. It also requires the license of foomatic-rip being compatible with the license of libgs which would require us to change the license of foomatic-filters when the license of Ghostscript gets changed. In addition, there were problems with building and packaging foomatic-rip for Mac OS X. These problems should be solved with this release. The libgs has no real advantages in its programming interface (API) as the command line call of Ghostscript has, so we have switched to calling Ghostscript via command line now.

We also improved the documentation and the comments in the source files to more clearly show that foomatic-filters is published under the GPL v2 and later, to avoid any doubts or confusions in the future.

There were also several bugs in foomatic-rip: Insertion of CUPS page logging code for CUPS was not suppressed on the request of the PPD file, the "pdftops" utility of Poppler did not get called correctly when incoming PDF had to be converted to PostScript due to the needs of the driver, settings of numerical options did not get applied correctly, and foomatic-rip could crash when PPDs got treated by the "alignmargins" script.

Also foomatic-db-engine got several improvements and bug fixes.

Especially, PPD generation got much faster as we avoid generating a full list of all printer/driver relations whenever a PPD for a given printer/driver pair is generated.

It is also not required any more that for Foomatic to return a PPD file for a given printer/driver combo that there is an XML file for both the printer and the driver. One XML file (either printer or driver) is enough when this file describes the printer/driver relation.

The listing of all available PPD files for CUPS ("lpinfo -m") showed some ready-made PPDs as Foomatic PPDs leading to have duplicate listings. This is fixed now.

Extra "*cupsFilter" lines in the PPDs for print jobs from Mac OS X are removed again, as they caused problems for some printers.

If a Foomatic PPD file is for a color printer but with a monochrome-only driver, the device properties in the PPD file are set to monochrome-only, as the PPD file is not only for the printer but for the printer/driver combo.

The tools to get printer XML files out of PPDs are improved in some points.

The README file is updated to reflect the most recent changes in the Foomatic XML database format and needs for the OpenPrinting web server.

Thanks to everyone who reported bugs to us or sent feature requests.

Have a lot of fun with the new Foomatic release!

Till]]> OpenPrinting Announcements http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,11485,11485#msg-11485 Mon, 15 Feb 2010 07:31:32 -0800 http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,10182,10182#msg-10182 till
This release fixes several bugs and drops the foomatic-db-hpijs package.

As HPLIP ships CUPS-DDK-generated PPD files for some time and also added a CUPS Raster driver, we have decided to drop the foomatic-db-hpijs package as it is not maintained any more by HP and so the PPDs generated by it got out-of-date. PPDs for non-HP printers used with HPIJS are now generated by foomatic-db, via the driver entries "hpijs-pcl3", "hpijs-pcl5e", and "hpijs-pcl5c". For HP printers the new driver entry "hplip" was introduced to reference to the full HPLIP driver suite. The "hpijs" driver entry got dropped.

Under the bug fixes are a fix to make foomatic-rip working with LPRng, letting foomatic-rip convert PDF to PostScript with Poppler instead of Ghostscript (if Poppler is installed), fixes on the JCL option handling of foomatic-rip, and fixes in the IEEE-1284 device IDs in the Foomatic-generated PPD files.

Thanks to everyone who reported the bugs to us.

Have a lot of fun with the new Foomatic release!

Till]]> OpenPrinting Announcements http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,10182,10182#msg-10182 Tue, 01 Sep 2009 04:00:37 -0700 http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,9708,9708#msg-9708 till
foomatic-filters now supports cups-config to discover which directories CUPS uses for filters and backends. This makes the installation much easier, especially on systems where CUPS is at an unusual location. Fixed also compiler warnings.

foomatic-db-engine contains various fixes in the PPD file generator. Especially entries for boolean options in the PPD files were generated incorrectly if the setting of the boolean option modifies the renderer command line. Also JCL/PCL option entries were generated incorrectly if the option is under the control of a composite option.

foomatic-db-engine also listed PPDs for printer/driver combos where there is no driver XML file for the driver. This was leading to entries in printer setup tools for which foomatic-db-engine could not create a PPD file.

All these problems are solved in the new release. Thanks to everyone who reported the bugs.

Have a lot of fun with the new Foomatic release!

Till]]> OpenPrinting Announcements http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,9708,9708#msg-9708 Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:58:15 -0700 http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,9146,9146#msg-9146 till
This is a bug fix release which fixes several bugs leading foomatic-rip to crash. This happened especially with PJL commands and if the incoming job comes from a Windows client.

In addition, foomatic-rip builds now on Mac OS X and this enables the new Foomatic generation also for this operating system.

My special thanks go to Lars Uebernickel who made the Mac OS X build working. He also fixed some bugs in the handling of the renderer command line.

In foomatic-db-engine some small bugs in PPD file generation, especially for CUPS custom options, were fixed and the PPDs enable the integration of foomatic-rip in the PDF printing workflow of Mac OS X.

Have a lot of fun with the new Foomatic release!

Till]]> OpenPrinting Announcements http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,9146,9146#msg-9146 Sun, 19 Apr 2009 11:26:17 -0700 http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,8139,8139#msg-8139 till
It also uses the [url=http://www.cups.org/documentation.php/doc-1.4/spec-ppd.html]CUPS PPD extenstions[/url] for custom options (numerical, string, and password options) so that these options can get fully accessed in graphical user interfaces like the web administration interface of [url=http://www.cups.org/]CUPS[/url] 1.4 or the GTK printing dialog.

The universal print filter foomatic-rip is now rewritten in C, so that it can directly make use of libraries without needing Perl bindings. This simplifies future development, like adding job ticket support.

Support for more detailed driver information, to make it easier for users to choose the best driver, either by browsing the OpenPrinting web site or by the local printer setup tool offering drivers from OpenPrinting for automatic download. Also non-free drivers and PPDs are now supported by the database.

New driver search facility. The OpenPrinting database can be queried with a device ID read from a connected printer and also with incomplete or not absolutely correctly typed manufacturer and model names and it gives the best matches of possible printer models.

More flexibility in writing XML data files. printer/driver relations can now also be defined in the printer XML files and not only in the driver XMLs.

See more features in the [url=http://www.openprinting.org/foomatic-db-engine/README]README file of the foomatic-db-engine package[/url].

My special thanks go to Lars Uebernickel who did most of the work on developing Foomatic 4.0 as an intern at the Linux Foundation, mentored by me.

Have a lot of fun with the new Foomatic generation!

Till]]> OpenPrinting Announcements http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,8139,8139#msg-8139 Wed, 14 Jan 2009 13:26:44 -0800 http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,5702,5702#msg-5702 till
OpenPrinting has a Bugzilla-based bug/feature tracking system now. This way we will assure that bug reports and feature requests do not get forgotten under tons of postings on the forum or on mailing lists. In the system all bug reports get registered with priority, state, package they affect, they can get assigned to the developer who is supposed to fix it, ...

So if you think something is going wrong with Foomatic, the OpenPrinting, database, the web site, or anything else coming from OpenPrinting, please do not post on the forum, nor on any mailing list. Post on our new [url=http://bugs.linux-foundation.org/]bug tracker[/url], under the product "OpenPrinting". This way your problem will not get forgotten. Please report also feature requests here.

Please do not report small issues (like typos) on Wiki pages, you can fix them by yourself. Also do not report missing printer models in the database. Please add them via the [url=http://openprinting.org/edit_printer.cgi?newentry=1]printer input form[/url]. We are currently developing a [url=http://code.google.com/soc/2008/linux/appinfo.html?csaid=1897A851CAC216AC]facility to let user-contributed printer entries get more quickly into the Foomatic database[/url].

See all current open bug reports and feature requests concerning OpenPrinting [url=http://bugs.linux-foundation.org/buglist.cgi?query_format=advanced&short_desc_type=allwordssubstr&short_desc=&product=OpenPrinting&component=Common+Printing+Dialog&component=foomatic-db&component=foomatic-db-engine&component=foomatic-filters&component=OpenPrinting+database+maintenance+web+app&component=OpenPrinting+web+site&long_desc_type=substring&long_desc=&bug_file_loc_type=allwordssubstr&bug_file_loc=&bug_status=UNCONFIRMED&bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&emailassigned_to1=1&emailtype1=substring&email1=&emailassigned_to2=1&emailreporter2=1&emailcc2=1&emailtype2=substring&email2=&bugidtype=include&bug_id=&votes=&chfieldfrom=&chfieldto=Now&chfieldvalue=&cmdtype=doit&order=Reuse+same+sort+as+last+time&remtype=asdefault&field0-0-0=noop&type0-0-0=noop&value0-0-0=]here[/url].

Till]]> OpenPrinting Announcements http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,5702,5702#msg-5702 Fri, 16 May 2008 01:42:40 -0700 http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,5658,5658#msg-5658 till
in the beginning of this year the LSB 3.2 got released and the current versions of the major Linux distributions are LSB-3.2 compliant.

Therefore I have also updated the LSB DDK and the [url=https://www.linux-foundation.org/en/OpenPrinting/WritingAndPackagingPrinterDrivers]documentation/HOWTO[/url]. CUPS, Ghostscript, and foomatic-rip are not part of the LSB DDK anymore as they are now required by the LSB. The LSB DDK consists of an updated macro set, CUPS DDK 1.2.3, and SANE 1.0.19 (final) now.

Also the currently downloadable driver packages are updated to the LSB 3.2 standard: [url=http://openprinting.org/show_driver.cgi?driver=gutenprint]Gutenprint 5.0.2[/url] and the bleeding edge [url=http://openprinting.org/show_driver.cgi?driver=gutenprint52]5.2.0beta2[/url], [url=http://openprinting.org/show_driver.cgi?driver=splix]SpliX 1.1.1[/url], [url=http://openprinting.org/show_driver.cgi?driver=min12xxw]min12xxw[/url], and [url=http://openprinting.org/show_driver.cgi?driver=lm1100]lm1100[/url].

Please try it out.

Till]]> OpenPrinting Announcements http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,5658,5658#msg-5658 Fri, 09 May 2008 18:31:19 -0700 http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,5083,5083#msg-5083 till
* PAPI (Printing Application Programming Interface) integration in CUPS
* JTAPI (Job Ticket Application Programming Interface) implementation
* PDF as the standard print job transfer format: CUPS filters for PDF handling
* Common Printing Dialog: Coding on the dialog designed by OpenUsability, for KDE and/or GNOME
* OpenPrinting database: Web-based (CGI) software for reviewing and triaging user-contributed printer entries and comments

See descriptions of these projects and also projects offered by other work groups of the Linux Foundation on [url=https://www.linux-foundation.org/en/Google_Summer_of_Code]our project ideas page[/url].

To apply, please visit the [url=http://code.google.com/soc/]web site of the Google Summer of Code[/url] between March 24 and 31. You get a three-months scolarship of a total of 4500 USD from Google. Note that only students can apply. See more about the conditions and the schedules in the [url=http://code.google.com/opensource/gsoc/2008/faqs.html]Google Summer of Code FAQ[/url].

Till]]> OpenPrinting Announcements http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,5083,5083#msg-5083 Wed, 19 Mar 2008 07:56:18 -0700 http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,4846,4846#msg-4846 till
the web services of the Linux Foundation are moving to a new data center on Saturday. Note that these leads to some hours of downtime or read-only access to the OpenPrinting facilities during the 24 hours beginning on Saturday March 1, 2008 at 8am Pacific time.

Sorry for the inconvenience. On Sunday everything should be back to normal again.

Till]]> OpenPrinting Announcements http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,4846,4846#msg-4846 Fri, 29 Feb 2008 13:40:55 -0800 http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,3090,3090#msg-3090 till
I have also updated the [url=http://www.linuxprinting.org/download/printdriver/auxfiles/rpmmacros]LSB DDK RPM macro set[/url] fixing a bug of the path to the CUPS include files not being added to the compiler command lines.

In addition, I have added SANE to the LSB DDK some weeks ago. This makes it easier to create distribution-independent driver packages of drivers for multi-function devices which include both printer and scanner drivers. Even drivers for stand-alone scanners can now be packaged with the LSB DDK.

Note that SANE is not part of the LSB, but SANE comes with every distribution and LSB binaries of SANE drivers work with the SANEenvironments of the distributions.

Till]]> OpenPrinting Announcements http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,3090,3090#msg-3090 Mon, 10 Sep 2007 08:40:51 -0700 http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,2941,2941#msg-2941 till
* PDF is the common platform-independent web format for printable documents
* Portable
* Easy post-processing (N-up, booklets, scaling, ...)
* Easy Color management support
* Easy High color depth support (> 8bit/channel)
* Easy Transparency support
* Smaller files
* Linux workflow gets closer to Mac OS X

To turn this into reality work is needed in many components of the printing infrastructure. The japanese team of the OpenPrinting work group has already the needed CUPS filters in [url=http://sourceforge.jp/projects/opfc]their Subversion repositories[/url].

What is still missing is to make the universal print filter foomatic-rip (most printer drivers are integrated into the printing system with this filter) handling PDF input and to make the built-in printer drivers of Ghostscript also working with other renderers than Ghostscript, like XPDF/Poppler for example.

These two projects are now open for students or interns. If you like to take one of these challenges, go to the [url=https://www.linux-foundation.org/en/OpenPrinting/Implementation#We_are_hiring_students.2Finterns.21]detailed project description[/url] and/or contact Till Kamppeter (till.kamppeter at gmail.com).

Till]]> OpenPrinting Announcements http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,2941,2941#msg-2941 Wed, 29 Aug 2007 09:08:35 -0700 http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,2596,2596#msg-2596 till
If you are not yet registered, you register once for access to all services now and then you will use the same user name and password everywhere. Here is the [url=https://www.linux-foundation.org/users/signup.php]new registration page[/url].

If you are already registered, you log in as usual, using the same user name and password in forums and Wiki.

If you want to change the password or your e-mail address, do not use "My Control Center" of the forums or "My preferences" of the Wiki. Use the new "[url=https://www.linux-foundation.org/users/profile.php]Change User Account[/url]" link which you find in the upper right of every Wiki page (after logging in). Note that you need to log in again to access the page, using your usual login and password. For changes specific to forums or Wiki, like screen display options, e-mail notification settings, ..., use "My Control Center" and "My preferences" as before.

We will soon import the old mailing list postings.

Till]]> OpenPrinting Announcements http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,2596,2596#msg-2596 Tue, 24 Jul 2007 15:25:14 -0700 http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,2436,2437#msg-2437 till
Till]]> OpenPrinting Announcements http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,2436,2437#msg-2437 Sun, 08 Jul 2007 10:20:34 -0700 http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,2436,2436#msg-2436 till
this weekend a part of the services of the Linux Foundation are moved to servers at a new collocation in Oregon. This can lead to interruptions in the availability of the forums and the Wiki pages. The OpenPrinting database is not yet moved and should work without interruptions and new printer entries and comments will be accepted all the time.

Especially the write access to the forums will be interrupted for some time during the weekend.

Thank you for your comprehension.

The database will be moved later.

Till]]> OpenPrinting Announcements http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,2436,2436#msg-2436 Fri, 06 Jul 2007 15:10:01 -0700 http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,2347,2347#msg-2347 till
Thanks, Rick, for your great work!

Till]]> OpenPrinting Announcements http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,2347,2347#msg-2347 Mon, 25 Jun 2007 16:21:03 -0700 http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,2287,2287#msg-2287 till
But note that the drivers coming with the CUPS DDK are not required by the LSB. So do not make PPDs based on them or ship these drivers (or your customized version) with your package.

See [url=http://www.linux-foundation.org/en/OpenPrinting/WritingAndPackagingPrinterDrivers]our driver development and packaging HOWTO[/url].

Till]]> OpenPrinting Announcements http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,2287,2287#msg-2287 Mon, 18 Jun 2007 17:55:14 -0700 http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,2286,2286#msg-2286 till
Go to the [url=http://openprinting.org/show_driver.cgi?driver=gutenprint]Gutenprint driver page[/url], check whether your printer is supported via the updated list and download the driver package to get your printer working.

Till]]> OpenPrinting Announcements http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,2286,2286#msg-2286 Mon, 18 Jun 2007 17:38:22 -0700 http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,2115,2115#msg-2115 till
Now the first version of the LSB DDK is completed and available for download, so that everyone interested can easily package his driver (or any other driver, volunteers welcome to get all drivers packaged) to make it available as a distribution-independent binary package.

This way users can easily install drivers which their distribution does not ship or only in a too old version. No compilers need to be installed and no knowledge about building from source is needed. Also the packages can easily be uninstalled later.

Also the fully automatic download of these drivers by printer setup tools is supported. As soon as printer setup tools pick up this functionality, printing will "just work" also for printers which are not supported by the distributions.

Find the instructions on how to create distribution-independent driver packages with all download links for the LSB DDK [url=https://www.linux-foundation.org/en/OpenPrinting/WritingAndPackagingPrinterDrivers]here[/url].

To printer manufacturers and printer driver developers it is highly recommended to provide their printer drivers in this form to once save packaging and testing effort and support a maximum of distributions and so make it as easy as possible for the user.

Volunteers welcome! We are grateful for every contributed package.

Till]]> OpenPrinting Announcements http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,2115,2115#msg-2115 Wed, 30 May 2007 08:39:48 -0700 http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,1634,1634#msg-1634 Till
As usual the entries come with PPD files to make use of the full functionality of the PostScript and PCL-XL printers.

Thanks to George Liu from Ricoh.

Till]]> OpenPrinting Announcements http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,1634,1634#msg-1634 Fri, 20 Apr 2007 15:10:34 -0700 http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,1538,1538#msg-1538 Till
At first, [url=http://openprinting.org/show_driver.cgi?driver=splix]SpliX[/url] is now the newest version 1.0.1-1 which adds a workaround for a firmware bug in the Samsung ML-2010.

In all driver packages I have fixed a bug of an infinite link loop being generated when updating the packages. This made CUPS hanging when looking for available PPD files/drivers ("lpinfo -m", model selection step in most printer setup tools).

Some driver packages contain man pages. These were not found by the system because they were installed in a subdirectory of /opt (as all other files of the package). Now the package adds the appropriate directory to the man page search path, so that on the next login the man pages get available.

The [url=http://www.linux-foundation.org/en/OpenPrinting/Database/DriverPackages]installation procedure[/url] is somewhat simpler now, as we require for all driver packages to link their PPD file directories to /usr/share/ppd, independent where the package installs its files. So less directories and links need to be created for being able to use the driver packages (on Ubuntu they work out-of-the-box).

Please test and report your success and problems with the new versions of the driver packages on our [url=http://forums.openprinting.org/]forums[/url].

Till]]> OpenPrinting Announcements http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,1538,1538#msg-1538 Thu, 12 Apr 2007 14:57:16 -0700 http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,1537,1537#msg-1537 Till
The driver package you get by following the links above. The [url=http://www.linux-foundation.org/en/OpenPrinting/Database/DriverPackages]installation procedure[/url] is the same as for the 32-bit packages.

Please test and report your success and problems on our [url=http://forums.openprinting.org/]forums[/url].

Till]]> OpenPrinting Announcements http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,1537,1537#msg-1537 Thu, 12 Apr 2007 14:41:56 -0700 http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,1401,1401#msg-1401 Till
This version supports many new printers, has improvements in the Canon support and borderless printing works on most Epson inkjets now. See release notes below.

Go to the [url=http://openprinting.org/show_driver.cgi?driver=gutenprint]Gutenprint driver page[/url] and click the download link there. Follow [url=http://www.linux-foundation.org/en/OpenPrinting/Database/DriverPackages]these instructions[/url] to install the package. Perhaps you will need to uninstall the Gutenprint packages of your distribution before.

Note that this package does not contain the GIMP plug-in and the IJS driver.

Till

OpenPrinting Manager
OpenPrinting (linuxprinting.org) Forum and web site administrator

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1) New printers supported in this release:

* Dye sublimation printers:

Canon CP-10
Fujifilm FinePix NX-500
Kodak Easyshare Printer
Olympus P-S100
Sony DPP-EX5
Sony UP-DR100

* Canon inkjet printers:

The support for these printers is under development, and there
are known issues with these printers. Please check with the
mailing list (gimp-print-devel@lists.sourceforge.net) if you
have any questions.

Canon PIXMA iP2000
Canon PIXMA iP3000
Canon PIXMA iP3100
Canon PIXMA iP4100
Canon PIXMA iP4200
Canon PIXMA iP4300
Canon PIXMA iP5000
Canon PIXMA iP5200
Canon PIXMA iP6700
Canon MULTIPASS MP150
Canon MULTIPASS MP500
Canon MULTIPASS MP700
Canon MULTIPASS MP730
Canon MULTIPASS MP750
Canon MULTIPASS MP760
Canon MULTIPASS MP770
Canon MULTIPASS MP780
Canon MULTIPASS MP790
Canon MULTIPASS MP830
Canon PIXUS iP3100
Canon PIXUS iP4100
Canon i560
Canon i850
Canon i860
Canon i865

* Epson inkjet printers:

Epson Stylus CX5000
Epson Stylus CX5000F
Epson Stylus CX6000
Epson Stylus CX7000F

* Lexmark inkjet and compatible printers:

Compaq IJ1200
Lexmark X73

* PCL laser printers (monochrome only):

Lexmark Optra E220
Xerox WorkCentre M118

2) CUPS 1.2 is now supported using on-the-fly PPD file generation.
In addition, the resolution names are all compliant with the PPD
specification. cups-genppdupdate correctly updates on-the-fly
PPD files.

3) The native CUPS driver offers a new Shrink Page If Necessary to
Fit Borders option, enabling the user to choose how to fit the
output to the imageable area of the page. This is useful when a
printer offers a choice of imageable areas, typically normal
(which has margins) and full bleed (which allows printing to the
edge of the paper, or even beyond). The following options are
available:

* Shrink (default): the output is shrunk if necessary to fit the
imageable area of the page. If a printer is capable of
borderless operation but normal margins are selected, the
output will be shrunk. This will print the entire page
(nothing will be lost), but will not preserve the dimensions of
the printout. For example, a line intended to be 10 cm long
may print smaller than that.

* Crop: the output is cropped if necessary to fit the imageable
area of the page. The dimensions of the page will be preserved
(a line intended to be 10 cm long will print out exactly 10
cm), but the edges of the output may be truncated (cropped).

* Expand: the output is expanded to fit the maximum possible
imageable area of the page. When selected on printers capable
of full bleed output, in conjunction with any other necessary
options, the output will be expanded to match the maximum page
dimension. The dimensions of the page will be expanded if
necessary beyond the page size; a line intended to be 10 cm
long may print longer than that.

This option has no effect on printers not capable of full bleed
or other expanded margins. It also has no effect when printing
to CD's or the like.

4) Support for the GIMP 1.2 has been removed.

5) Epson inkjet printers now correctly support borderless printing.
In addition, printing at the top and bottom of the page has been
improved on printers that support borderless printing, although
this is still not perfect in all cases.

Certain printers (in particular the C/D8x and C6x series) do not
print correctly to the bottom of the page with all colors. This
problem is understood, but we do not know when a fix will be
available.

6) The list of resolutions supported on newer Epson printers has
been changed; resolutions of 5760x1440, 2880x2880, and 5760x2880
(as appropriate) have been added, replacing various 1440x2880
enhanced resolutions.

7) The output for the Canon PIXMA printers has been improved.

8) The Canon driver now supports DuplexNoTumble for the PIXMA
iP4000.

9) Roll printing now works correctly on the Epson Stylus Photo
R800.]]> OpenPrinting Announcements http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,1401,1401#msg-1401 Fri, 30 Mar 2007 09:13:01 -0700 http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,1134,1134#msg-1134 Till
I have now implemented such an interface. See [url=http://www.linux-foundation.org/en/OpenPrinting/Database/Query]these instructions[/url] about how it is used. The interface works by calling special URLs describibg your requests. It provides printer and driver data, including paths to download the packages and package version information. Examples for typical use cases are provided on the instructions page.

Till]]> OpenPrinting Announcements http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,1134,1134#msg-1134 Wed, 07 Mar 2007 13:26:41 -0800 http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,1033,1033#msg-1033 Till
If there is a distribution-independent driver package for downloading, you find the appropriate links in the info box, too.

In addition, all this data is also provided in a machine-readable form, not only in the XML files of the Foomatic database, but also in the generated PPDs (lines starting with "*driver...") and in the PPD listing which CUPS produces with "lpinfo -l -m" if you have installed the newest snapshots of the Foomatic packages and CUPS 1.2. This way also printer setup tools can make use of this information.

Unfortunately, the database is not completely populated with this data yet, so there are only a few drivers with this extra info. Try "[url=http://openprinting.org/show_driver.cgi?driver=splix]splix[/url]", "[url=http://openprinting.org/show_driver.cgi?driver=hpijs]hpijs[/url]", "[url=http://openprinting.org/show_driver.cgi?driver=ljet4]ljet4[/url]", and "[url=http://openprinting.org/show_driver.cgi?driver=min12xxw]min12xxw[/url]".

Enjoy the new driver pages!

Till]]> OpenPrinting Announcements http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,1033,1033#msg-1033 Fri, 23 Feb 2007 17:53:24 -0800 http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,845,845#msg-845 Till
The packages are based on the LSB 3.1, so they will work on all Linux distributions which are LSB-3.1 compliant (current Red Hat/Fedora, Novell/SuSE, Ubuntu, Mandriva, ...). After doing some simple preparative steps on your system, you can easily install printer drivers from the OpenPrinting site at any time and so you get your printer working with the latest drivers without needing to wait for your distribution to include the driver. Future plans are that the distribution's printer setup tools automatically look for driver packages at OpenPrinting and download and install them if needed.

To start the new service I have created packages of the [url=http://openprinting.org/show_driver.cgi?driver=splix]SpliX[/url] driver (current Samsung grayscale and color laser printers) and of the [url=http://openprinting.org/show_driver.cgi?driver=min12xxw]min12xxw[/url] driver (Minolta's PagePro "W" series). I have tested them on Ubuntu Feisty and Fedora Core 6, please test and report on the [url=http://forums.openprinting.org/]forums[/url].

Instructions for how to prepare your system and how to install the driver packages you find [url=http://www.linux-foundation.org/en/OpenPrinting/Database/DriverPackages]here[/url].

A driver development and packaging HOWTO for developers I will post later.

Till]]> OpenPrinting Announcements http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,845,845#msg-845 Wed, 07 Feb 2007 14:07:25 -0800 http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,615,615#msg-615 Till
Thanks to Rick Richardson for this great work, eliminating three other paperweights.

Till]]> OpenPrinting Announcements http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,615,615#msg-615 Wed, 17 Jan 2007 11:23:29 -0800 http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,515,515#msg-515 Till
This driver is now the recommended driver for these printers and the printer's ratings are now raised from "Mostly" to "Perfectly" working.

Till]]> OpenPrinting Announcements http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,515,515#msg-515 Sun, 07 Jan 2007 14:50:38 -0800 http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,506,506#msg-506 Till
[code]
- Gestetner MPC3500 DSc535
- Gestetner MPC4500 DSc545
- Gestetner P7245
- Infotec ISC 3535
- Infotec ISC 4045
- Lanier LP145n SP 8100DN
- Lanier MP C3500 LD435c
- Lanier MP C4500 LD445c
- NRG MP C3500
- NRG MP C4500
- NRG SP 8100DN
- Ricoh Aficio MP C3500
- Ricoh Aficio MP C4500
- Ricoh Aficio SP 8100DN
- Savin C3535
- Savin C4540
- Savin MLP145
[/code]

Thanks to George Liu from Ricoh for adding these printers.]]> OpenPrinting Announcements http://forums.linux-foundation.org/read.php?21,506,506#msg-506 Sat, 06 Jan 2007 10:33:20 -0800