re: tools to compare PPDs?
Hi Till,
thanks for your explanations.
>> foomatic:HP-Color_LaserJet_5500-pxlcolor.ppd HP Color LaserJet 5500 Foomatic/pxlcolor
>
> This is a PCL-6 driver. Can be used as alternative to PostScript if the
> printer has problems in PostScript mode, like interpreter bugs or low memory.
Can you tell me how your divined that from just the description line,
which doesn't mention PCL-6 ?
Is it just from your experience with all this stuff?
I've read enough that I understand foomatic usually provides a "generic"
postscript PPD but I don't recall seeing any description of pxlcolor.
I was wondering if PCL drivers could be used with clients sending postscript.
It seems (for a modern enough revision of PCL) this is possible. Great.
>> My question is - are there tools available to compare the capabilities
>> offered by different PPD files, so I can make an informed choice?
>
> Not really tools to compare, but you can use the different modes of the
> cupstestppd and lpoptions commands to get information about the PPD files.
That's useful, thank you. I'll have a play with this.
>> Most PPD auto generators in /usr/lib/cups/driver/ are simply
>> self-extracting archives, others are generated from
>> /usr/share/cups/drv/*.drv files.
I have a related question about ppd locations but I'll start a separate
thread for that.
> The "(recommended)" is simply an entry in the *NickName lines of the PPD
> files. For your printer the (recommended) is in the native PostScript PPD.
Oh. I thought there might be some kind of automatic recommending
based on the openprinting.org ratings of the various drivers.
So the manufacturers usually set this in the *NickName lines, yes?
Or do openprinting.org, or you (debian/ubuntu) guys?
I'm seeking to understand the decision process so can figure out
how to select one PPD over another, in the general case.
> "lpinfo -m" calls all PPD generators in /usr/lib/cups/driver/ without
> command line parameters ...
Nice.
(For those reading along, I tried this and found I needed to give the
word 'list' as an argument, but the lists then duly appear.)
Cheers
Vince
(please cc: me, I'm not subscribed).
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