Re: Printers using free software only
On Fri, 27 Jul 2012 16:43:24 +0100, Brian wrote:
> On Fri 27 Jul 2012 at 14:15:56 +0000, Camaleón wrote:
(...)
>> How can be that adding an extra step (which increases time and
>> resources) is something "good"? And good for "who" (developers,
>> printers or users)?
>
> Its a balance. Pros and cons. With a PDF printer:
Define a "PDF printer". What's that?
1/ A physical device (printer) with physical PDF interpreter on it (PDF
add-on card)?
2/ A physical device (printer) with logical PDF interpreter on it
(software that runs the convertion)?
3/ A software device (virtual printer) with logical PDF interpreter on it
(code that runs the convertion)?
Because until now I have not seen a thing like "1/" and PostScript
printer modules are truly costly (it can take up to $200/300) :-)
> On Lenny: PDF --> pdftops --> pstops --> pstopdf ----> Printer
>
> On Squeeze: PDF --> pdftopdf ----> Printer
>
> I don't think I would want to criticise the PostScript centred workflow
> solely on this.
No, of course, me neither.
But what I wouldn't like to see is a moving to PDF just because the sake
of moving to something more manageable without having into account
technical reasons but simplicity and force-joining (that is, "if CUPS -
owned by Apple- moves on PDF, linux will follow without questioning the
pros and cons"). I would like to see, now more than ever, less
"dependency" on CUPS (by "dependency" I mean here that it would be nice
to have different alternatives as powerful as CUPS).
> The heart of the matter could be seen as pdftopdf versus pstops. The
> advantages pdftopdf have been adequately covered - an earlier mail and
> points 2 to 5 above. Perhaps you could give us the advantages of pstops
> and what we are missing out on when it is not used.
Well, I still can't speak on pdftopdf because is too new (there you have
a "con") and not present in my system while pstops is:
sm01@stt008:~$ locate pstops
/etc/cups/oopstops.convs
/etc/cups/oopstops.types
/usr/lib/cups/filter/oopstops
/usr/lib/cups/filter/pstops
sm01@stt008:~$ locate pdftopdf
sm01@stt008:~$
Greetings,
--
Camaleón
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