[open-beos-printing] Re: Updates?

Hi Philippe,

thanks for your comments. :)

philippe.houdoin@xxxxxxx schrieb:

Karsten, Julun, Michael,


Karsten == Julun
I would also like to merge the preview and pdf printer as inbuild classes, so that, e.g preview printing works instantly without print to preview or tons of clicks in the printer panels. The same counts for pdf, it should be provided by default and always be available, but not as independent system printer. 


<snip>


But why inbuild PDF Writer driver ?! It actually push PDF formatted data
thru a transport, a transpart that can be not only "Print To File" but
whatever port to which a PDF-compliant device could be connected to.
Don't assume PDF Writer will be only used to generate PDF files, please. I
used to have access in my previous job (prepress IT) to a PDF-compliant
printer, connected thru HP JetDirect protocol.

PDF is no more special format than HP's PCL4/5/6 or Canon's cryptic BJ
printers protocol. They're all formats to describe pages content, that
different devices - hardware or software - knows to render. Preview use Haiku/BeOS native BPictures format, which can't be rendered outside Haiku/BeOS. But PDF is not in such case. Please, keep it as a printer add-on.
I will keep it or i won't remove it. Hmmm :) The idea is to have it inbuild, always available but not as printer node as in it's current state.
I'm not talking about the near future, but i always consider print server to die at some point in time in favor of cups. And then we would need it anyway. And i can imagine that there will be an pdf driver for cups as well? 


AFAIK, Haiku images have a "Save as PDF" printer connected to "Print To
File" pre-installed.
Maybe the single issue users will have is we don't offer a quick way to
swith the printer target *at* print time, contrary to other OSes. What
about adding a "printer: " popup menu on the print/job panel(s), like under
Zeta ?
That way, the pre-installed "Save To PDF" will be at one click too, but no
need to handle PDF differently than others drivers.
I have done this already in the new JobSetupPanel. There will be an 'Properties' button, to access printer specific options as well (cups ppd info, pdf Author etc.) 


Best Regards,
Karsten

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