Re: Looking for documentation about standard names in PPD files
On Wed 07 Oct 2015 at 14:30:47 +0200, Vincent Danjean wrote:
> Hi,
Hello Vincent. Your mail is probably more suitable for discussion on
debian-user, but now you are here.... :)
> I've a printer (brother DCP-9020CDW for the record, but this is
> not important) where the Manufacturer provides GPL PPD file and
> glue (shell and C code) to call a binary driver.
> The glue translate PPD options into correct options for the
> binary driver.
>
> Globally, whereas it is a pity the driver is not free, I can
> use my printer with cups and Debian.
>
> However, most options in the PPD file (attached to this mail
> if you want to look at it) have non-standard names (most with
> a "BR" prefix). This fact leads that standard cups interface
> do not present the options at the right place.
It's really the GTK print dialogue which presents the options.
> For example, with evince, in the "Page Setup" tab, the
> "Two-sided:", "Paper source:" and most other options are not
> available. In the "Color" tab, I found a "Color Mode:" option
> with "Normal" and "Vivid" choice and an unavailable
> "Printer Profile:" option.
> But, in the "Advanced" tab (probably where evince put all cups
> options it does not recognize), I find the following options:
> "Two-Sided:", "Paper Source:", "Color/Mono", ...
The "Advanced" tab displays the printer functions which are present in
the PPD. CUPS knows about and recognises these; please see the lpoptions
command.
> So, as I can easily modify the PPD and the glue code, I would
> like to know where to find a list of option names and option
> values that cups front-ends know how to interpret. I did a quick
> test to rename the "BRDuplex" PPD option into "Duplex" and then
> the option can correctly be set up in the "Page Setup" tab of
> evince instead of the "Advanced" tab.
The standard keyword is "Duplex". CUPS does recognise a handful of
manufacturer inspired keywords for the same function but BRDuplex is not
one of them. This means 'lp -o sides=two-sided-long-edge filename' is
not acted on because sides= does not map to Duplex.
> Is there such a documentation somewhere? I did not find it myself
> for now.
I think you want 5003.PPD_Spec_v4.3.pdf. The Adobe site should have it.
You may care to note the "Advanced" tab does not allow a resolution to
be chosen so CUPS will default to 300dpi. It's not hard to alter the
PPD and the display.
Regards,
Brian.
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