cups virtual printer for PDF and print to file path

[H.S.]

Hello,

When I print from Iceweasel (or any other application) on Debian
Testing, I get a choice of printers (my networked laser printer,
CUPS/Virtual printer and postscript file printer). The first sends the
job to the networked laser printer, the second prints a PDF file in
~/PDF directory and the last prints a PS file.

In the second case, if I check the 'print to file' check box, I am asked
for the location but the printed file is a PS file instead of a PDF file.

How do I make the virtual printer ask me where to save the printed PDF
file? It appears that it will save it to a fixed path (configurable by
the localhost:631 gui, I suppose), which is ~/PDF in my case.

Thanks.
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[H.S.]

On Tue, 05 May 2009 13:34:22 -0400

Post by H.S.
Hello,
When I print from Iceweasel (or any other application) on Debian
Testing, I get a choice of printers (my networked laser printer,
CUPS/Virtual printer and postscript file printer). The first sends the
job to the networked laser printer, the second prints a PDF file in
~/PDF directory and the last prints a PS file.
In the second case, if I check the 'print to file' check box, I am asked
for the location but the printed file is a PS file instead of a PDF file.

My print to file box (Sid, IW 3.0.9) offers me a choice of ps or pdf.

Mine doesn't. I too have the same version (3.0.9-1). I wonder if I am
missing some other package which provides this functinality in iceweasel.

Post by H.S.
How do I make the virtual printer ask me where to save the printed PDF
file? It appears that it will save it to a fixed path (configurable by
the localhost:631 gui, I suppose), which is ~/PDF in my case.

I don't know how to make it ask you, but the default is set in
'/etc/cups/cups-pdf.conf'. Mine is set to 'Out ${HOME}/PDF', just
like yours.

The default location is not a problem (once I became aware of it, i.e.,
at first I had no idea where the PDFs were being sent to!). It is only
the I would like to print web pages to a PDF file to a location of my
choice.

Thanks.
--
Please reply to this list only. I read this list on its corresponding
newsgroup on gmane.org. Replies sent to my email address are just
filtered to a folder in my mailbox and get periodically deleted without
ever having been read.

[Celejar]

On Tue, 05 May 2009 21:47:12 -0400

Post by H.S.

My print to file box (Sid, IW 3.0.9) offers me a choice of ps or pdf.

Mine doesn't. I too have the same version (3.0.9-1). I wonder if I am
missing some other package which provides this functinality in iceweasel.

Beats me; I don't know much about this sort of thing.

Celejar
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[Mark Shroyer]

Post by H.S.

My print to file box (Sid, IW 3.0.9) offers me a choice of ps or pdf.

Mine doesn't. I too have the same version (3.0.9-1). I wonder if I am
missing some other package which provides this functinality in iceweasel.

As far as I know, the "save to PDF" functionality provided in Ubuntu
(and I assume Sid is the same way) is through gtkprint, not CUPS-PDF.
The version of GTK in Lenny does not provide this, I don't know about
Squeeze.

CUPS-PDF, on the other hand, can't pop up a dialog box for the user,
since it's just a CUPS backend. Hence the need to set it up in advance
to save to a given directory. However, the CUPS-PDF method has the
advantage of working with all applications; not all programs use
gtkprint.

[H.S.]

Post by Mark Shroyer
As far as I know, the "save to PDF" functionality provided in Ubuntu
(and I assume Sid is the same way) is through gtkprint, not CUPS-PDF.
The version of GTK in Lenny does not provide this, I don't know about
Squeeze.

hmm... apt-cache searching gtkprint in Testing and in Unstable does not
give me anything.

Post by Mark Shroyer
CUPS-PDF, on the other hand, can't pop up a dialog box for the user,
since it's just a CUPS backend. Hence the need to set it up in advance
to save to a given directory. However, the CUPS-PDF method has the
advantage of working with all applications; not all programs use
gtkprint.

Okay. That explains the CUPS-PDF part.

Thanks.
--
Please reply to this list only. I read this list on its corresponding
newsgroup on gmane.org. Replies sent to my email address are just
filtered to a folder in my mailbox and get periodically deleted without
ever having been read.

[Mark Shroyer]

Post by H.S.

Post by Mark Shroyer
As far as I know, the "save to PDF" functionality provided in Ubuntu
(and I assume Sid is the same way) is through gtkprint, not CUPS-PDF.
The version of GTK in Lenny does not provide this, I don't know about
Squeeze.

hmm... apt-cache searching gtkprint in Testing and in Unstable does not
give me anything.

Sorry for being unclear: it would have been more precise for me to refer
to gtkprint as GtkPrintOperation, i.e. the GTK+ printing API. It isn't
a separate package in Debian, it's part of libgtk2.0.

[H.S.]

Post by Mark Shroyer

Post by H.S.

Post by Mark Shroyer
As far as I know, the "save to PDF" functionality provided in Ubuntu
(and I assume Sid is the same way) is through gtkprint, not CUPS-PDF.
The version of GTK in Lenny does not provide this, I don't know about
Squeeze.

hmm... apt-cache searching gtkprint in Testing and in Unstable does not
give me anything.

Sorry for being unclear: it would have been more precise for me to refer
to gtkprint as GtkPrintOperation, i.e. the GTK+ printing API. It isn't
a separate package in Debian, it's part of libgtk2.0.

Okay, that make more sense. I listed the installed packages on a Testing
and Unstable machine. Both have libgtk2.0-0 2.16.1-2. Unstable gives
that dialog where one can save to PDF while Testing does not. Anyway, I
will search around a bit more since I now know more about what to look for.

Thanks.
--
Please reply to this list only. I read this list on its corresponding
newsgroup on gmane.org. Replies sent to my email address are just
filtered to a folder in my mailbox and get periodically deleted without
ever having been read.

[Celejar]

On Tue, 05 May 2009 13:34:22 -0400

Post by H.S.
Hello,
When I print from Iceweasel (or any other application) on Debian
Testing, I get a choice of printers (my networked laser printer,
CUPS/Virtual printer and postscript file printer). The first sends the
job to the networked laser printer, the second prints a PDF file in
~/PDF directory and the last prints a PS file.
In the second case, if I check the 'print to file' check box, I am asked
for the location but the printed file is a PS file instead of a PDF file.

My print to file box (Sid, IW 3.0.9) offers me a choice of ps or pdf.

Post by H.S.
How do I make the virtual printer ask me where to save the printed PDF
file? It appears that it will save it to a fixed path (configurable by
the localhost:631 gui, I suppose), which is ~/PDF in my case.

I don't know how to make it ask you, but the default is set in
'/etc/cups/cups-pdf.conf'. Mine is set to 'Out ${HOME}/PDF', just
like yours.

Celejar
--
mailmin.sourceforge.net - remote access via secure (OpenPGP) email
ssuds.sourceforge.net - A Simple Sudoku Solver and Generator

[Stefan Monnier]

Post by H.S.
In the second case, if I check the 'print to file' check box, I am asked
for the location but the printed file is a PS file instead of a PDF file.

IIUC the "print to file" thingy is completely separate from CUPS and
doesn't use it. It basically saves the file *before* passing it on the
CUPS, so the choice of printer doesn't affect it much.


Stefan