Chris McKeever wrote:
So - the PPD controls the print options - therefore driver independence isnt fully achievable since you need the printer specific PPD (if you want to be able to set printer specific information per job)
Yes, that is true. What I am not sure about as I've not done the testing to support it, is whether just changing the PPD and re-running cupsaddsmb will result in the client getting the new ppd installed (our login script maps the printers on this site). If it does then swapping out a printer should be as simple as changing the ppd on the server.
from the howto:
"A postscript file that was created to contain device-specific ommands for achieving a certain print job output on a specific target machine, may not print as expectd, or may not be printable at all on other models"
One of the things about Postscript is that it tends to degrade reasonably well. I'm fairly confident that in most cases you could send a file that (for example) requests duplex printing to a printer without that feature and it will still print (but without the duplex of course).
Now what would be nice (and who knows if at all possible) - if there was a generic CUPS PPD, which gave general print options (duplex/punched) -- when sent from windows into the cups spooled, cups could extract what the client requested, use the PPD of the vendor to ensure what was requested is available, recreated the PS file and send it to the printer. With this, the client could be completely driver/ppd independent
from the howto:
"for real PS printers, DO NOT use the foomatic PPD's. The original vendor PPD's are always first choice"
You could roll your own !
I don't know if you've looked at the contents of a ppd, but they tend to be fairly easy to understand (if a bit large for a complex printer). If you started with a complex printer ppd and stripped out the bits you don't need then you could end up with something that would just have the features you want, and I think you would probably find the output reasonably portable.
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