Re: Printers using free software only
On Fri 27 Jul 2012 at 16:21:42 +0000, Camaleón wrote:
> On Fri, 27 Jul 2012 16:43:24 +0100, Brian wrote:
> >
> > 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 $200/300) :-)
http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/review/1956699/review-hp-laserjet-cp4525-colour-printer
And please don't complain about the price. You did ask and this is
debian-user - not debian-market_place. :)
> > On Lenny: PDF --> pdftops --> pstops --> pstopdf ----> Printer
> >
> > On Squeeze: PDF --> pdftopdf ----> Printer
> >
> > I don't think I would want to criticise the PostScript centred workflow
> > solely on this.
>
> No, of course, me neither.
>
> But what I wouldn't like to see is a moving to PDF just because the sake
> of moving to something more manageable without having into account
> technical reasons but simplicity and force-joining (that is, "if CUPS -
> owned by Apple- moves on PDF, linux will follow without questioning the
> pros and cons"). I would like to see, now more than ever, less
> "dependency" on CUPS (by "dependency" I mean here that it would be nice
> to have different alternatives as powerful as CUPS).
Moving to a PDF workflow was a considered decision based on technical
considerations. A good deal of the CUPS printing system is now managed
directly by Debian/Ubuntu and not by upstream.
> > The heart of the matter could be seen as pdftopdf versus pstops. The
> > advantages pdftopdf have been adequately covered - an earlier mail and
> > points 2 to 5 above. Perhaps you could give us the advantages of pstops
> > and what we are missing out on when it is not used.
>
> Well, I still can't speak on pdftopdf because is too new (there you have
> a "con") and not present in my system while pstops is:
>
> sm01@stt008:~$ 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:~$
If you are using Lenny, what do you expect!
Reply to: