Stampa
ACLs
Abbreviation for Access
Control Lists;
ACLs are used to check for the access by a given
(authenticated) user. A first rough support for ACLs
for printing is available from ∪︀; this will be refined
in future versions.
Authentication
AppSocket Protocol
AppSocket is a protocol for the transfer of
print data, also frequently called "Direct TCP/IP Printing".
&Hewlett-Packard; have used AppSocket to add a few minor
extensions around it and were very successfull to re-name
and market it under the brand "&HP; JetDirect"...
&HP; JetDirect Protocol
Direct TCP/IP Printing
APSfilter
APSfilter is used mainly in the context of "classical"
&UNIX; printing (BSD-style LPD). It is a sophisticated shell script,
disguising as an "all-in-one" filtering program. In reality,
APSfilter calls "real filters" to do the jobs needed. It sends
printjobs automatically through these other filters, based on an
initial file-type analysis of the printfile.
It is written and maintained by Andreas Klemm.
It is
similar to Magicfilter and uses mostly Ghostscript for file conversions.
Some Linux-Distributions (like SuSE) use APSfilter, others
Magicfilter (⪚ &RedHat;), some have both for preference selection
(like has *BSD).
∪︀ has no need for APSfilter,
as it runs its own file type recognition (based on &MIME; types)
and applies its own filtering logic.
Ghostscript
Magicfilter
&MIME;-Types
printcap
Authentication
Proofing the identity of a certain person (maybe via username/password
or by means of a certificate) is often called authentication. Once you are
authenticated, you may or may not get access to a requested ressource,
possibly based on ACLs.
ACLs
Bi-directional communication
In the context of printing, a server or a host may receive additional
information sent back from the printer (status messages &etc;), either
upon a query or unrequested. AppSocket ( = &HP; JetDirect), ∪︀ and IPP do
support bi-directional communication, LPR/LPD and BSD-style printing
do not...
AppSocket Protocol
∪︀
Direct TCP/IP Printing
&HP; JetDirect
IPP
LPR/LPD
BSD-style Printing
Generic term for different variants of the traditional &UNIX;
printing method. Its first version appeared in the early 70s on
BSD &UNIX; and was formally described in RFC 1179 only as late
as 1990.
At the time when BSD "remote" printing was first designed, printers
were serially or otherwise directly connected devices to a host
(with the internet hardly consisting of more than 100 nodes!); printers
used pre-punched, endless paperbands, fed through by a tractor
mechanism, with simple rows of ASCII text mechanically hammered onto
the medium, drawn from a cardboard beneath the table, giving it back
as a zig-zag folded paper"snake". Remote printing consisted in
neighouring host from the next room sending a file
asking for printout.
How technology has changed! Printers use cut-sheet media, they have
built-in intelligence to compute the raster images of pages after pages
that are sent to them using one of the powerfull page description
languages (PDL), many are network nodes in their own right,
with CPU, RAM, HardDisk and an own Operation System and
they are hooked to a net with potentially millions of users...
It is a vast proof of the flexible &UNIX; concept for doing things,
that it made "Line Printing" reliably work even under these modern
conditions. But time has finally come now to go for something new
-- the IPP.
IPP
∪︀
LPR/LPD printing
∪︀
Abbreviation for Common
UNIX Printing
System; ∪︀ is most modern &UNIX; and Linux
printing system, providing also cross-platform printservices
to &Microsoft; &Windows; and Apple MacOS clients. Based on IPP, it does
away with all the pitfalls of old-style BSD printing,
providing authentication, encryption and ACLs, plus many more
features. At the same time it is backward-compatible enough
to serve all legacy clients that are not yet up to IPP via
LPR/LPD (BSD-style).
∪︀ is able to control any &PostScript; printer by
utilizing the vendor-supplied PPD (PostScript Printer
Description file), targetted originally for &Microsoft; Windows NT
printing only. &kde; Printing is most powerful if based on
∪︀.
ACLs
Authentication
BSD-style printing
IPP
KDEPrint
LPR/LPD
PPD
∪︀-FAQ
Presently only available in German (translation is on the way),
the ∪︀-FAQ
is a valuable ressource to answer many question anyone new to
∪︀ printing might have at first.
KDEPrint Handbook
∪︀-O-Matic
∪︀-O-Matic was the first "Third Party" plugin for
the ∪︀ printing software. It is available on the Linuxprinting.org
website to provide an online PPD-generating service.
Together with the companion cupsomatic Perl-Script,
that needs to be installed as an additional ∪︀ backend,
it re-directs output from the native pstops filter into
a chain of suitable Ghostscript filters. Upon finishing, it
gives the resulting data back to a ∪︀ "backend" for sending
them onward to the printer.
Thusly, ∪︀-O-Matic enables support for any printers known to
have worked previously in a "classical" ghostscript environment,
if no native ∪︀ support for that printer is in sight... ∪︀-O-Matic
is now replaced by the more capable PPD-O-Matic.
cupsomatic
PPD-O-Matic
Foomatic
cupsomatic
The Perlscript cupsomatic (plus a working Perl installation
on your system) is needed to make any ∪︀-O-Matic (or PPD-O-Matic)
generated PPD work with ∪︀. It was written by Grant Taylor, Author of
the Linux Printing HOWTO and Maintainer of the printer
database at the Linuxprinting.org website.
∪︀-O-Matic
Foomatic
cupsomatic
Daemon
Abbreviation for Disk
and execution
monitor; Daemons are present
on all &UNIX; systems to perform tasks independent of user
intervention. Readers more familiar with &Microsoft; &Windows; might
want to compare daemons and the tasks they are responsible
with "services".
One example of a daemon present on most
legacy &UNIX; systems is the LPD (Line Printer Daemon); ∪︀ is
widely seen as the successor to LPD in the &UNIX; world and
it also operates through a daemon.
SPOOLing
Database, Linuxprinting.org
Already years ago, when Linux printing was still really difficult
(only commandline printing was known to most Linux users, no device
specific print options were available for doing the jobs), Grant Taylor,
Author of the "Linux Printing HOWTO", collected most or the available
infos about printers, drivers and filters in his database.
With the emerging
∪︀ concept, extending the use of PPDs even to non-PostScript printers,
he realized the potential of this database: if one puts the different
datablobs (whith content that could be described along the lines
"Which device prints with which ghostscript or other
filter how well and what commandline switches are available?") into
PPD-compatible files, he could have all the power of ∪︀ on top of
the traditional printer "drivers".
This has developed now into a broader
concept, known as "Foomatic". Foomatic extends the capabilities
of other spoolers than ∪︀ (LPR/LPD, LPRng, PDQ, PPR) to a certain
extend ("stealing" some concepts from ∪︀). The Linuxprinting
Database is not a Linux-only stop -- people running other &UNIX;
based OSes (like *BSD or MacOS X) will find valuable infos and
software there too.
Foomatic
Linuxprinting database
Direct TCP/IP Printing
This is a method that often uses TCP/IP port 9100 to connect
to the printer. It works with many modern network printers and has
a few advantages over LPR/LPD, as it is faster and provides some
"backchannel feedback data" from the printer to the host sending
the job.
AppSocket Protocol
&HP; JetDirect Protocol
Drivers, Printer Drivers
The term "printer drivers", used in the same sense
as on the &Microsoft; &Windows; platform, is not entirely applicable
for a Linux or &UNIX; platform. A "driver" functionality
is supplied on &UNIX; by different modular components working
together. At the core are the "filters" converting a given format
waeiting for their printing, to another format that is acceptable
to the target printer. The filter output is sent to the
printer by a "backend".
Filter
PPDs
Easy Software Products
Mike Sweet's company, which has contributed a few substantial
software products towards the Free Software community; amongst
them the initial version of Gimp-Print,, the EPM software packaging tool
and HTMLDOC
(used by the "Linux Documentation Project" to build the PDF versions
of the HOWTOs) -- but most importantly: ∪︀ (the 'Common &UNIX; Printing
System').
ESP finance themselves by selling a commercial version
of ∪︀, called ESP PrintPro,
that includes some professional enhancements.
∪︀
ESP PrintPro
ESP
Gimp-Print
Encryption
Encryption of confidential data is an all-important issue if
you transfer it over the internet or even inside intra-nets.
Printing
via traditional protocols is not encrypted at all -- it is very easy
to tap and eavesdrop ⪚ into &PostScript; or PCL data transfered
over the wire.
Thus in the design of IPP the provision was made for an easy
plugin of encryption mechanisms (which can be provided by the same
means as the encryption standards for HTTP traffic: SSL and TLS.
Authentication
∪︀
IPP
SSL
TLS
Epson
Epson inkjets belong to the best supported models by Free software
drivers as the company was not necessarily as secretive about their
devices and handed technical specification documents to developers.
The excellent print quality achieved by Gimp-Print on the Styli
series of printers can be attributed to this openness.
They have also
contracted Easy Software Products to maintain an enhanced version
of Ghostscript ("ESP GhostScript") for improved support of their
printer portfolio.
ESP Ghostscript
Escape Sequences
The first ever printers printed ASCII data only. To
initiate a new line, or eject a page, they included special
command sequences, often carrying a leading [ESC]-character.
&HP; evolved this concept through its series of PCL language
editions until today, when they have developed a fullblown
Page Description Language (PDL) from this humble beginnings.
PCL
PDL
ESC/P
Abbreviation for Epson
Standard Codes for
Printers. Epsons ESC/P printer language is besides
&PostScript; and PCL one of the best known.
ESC/P
PCL
&PostScript;
hpgl
ESP
Abbreviation for Easy
Software Products;
the company that developed ∪︀ (the "Common &UNIX; Printing System").
Easy Software Products
∪︀
ESP PrintPro
ESP Ghostscript
A Ghostscript version that is maintained by Easy Software
Products. It includes pre-compiled Gimp-Print drivers for
many inkjets ()plus some other goodies). ESP Ghostscript
drives especially the Epson Stylus model series to photographic
quality in many cases.
Easy Software Products
∪︀
ESP PrintPro
ESP PrintPro
This professional enhancement to ∪︀ (the "Common &UNIX;
Printing System") is sold by the developers
of ∪︀ complete with more than 2.300 printer drivers for several commercial
&UNIX; platforms. ESP PrintPro
is supposed to work "out of the box" with little or no configuration
for users or admins. ESP sell also support contracts for
∪︀ and PrintPro. These sales help to feed the programmers who
develop the Free version of ∪︀.
∪︀
Filter
Filters, in general, are programs that take some input
data, work on it and pass it on as their output data. Filters
may or may not change the data.
Filters in the context of printing, are programs that convert
a given file (destined for printing, but not suitable in the
format it has presently) into a printable format. Sometimes
whole "filter chains" have to be constructed to achieve the
goal, piping the output of one filter as input to the next.
Ghostscript
RIP
Foomatic
Foomatic started out as the wrapper name for a set of
different tools available from Linuxprinting.org
These tools aimed to make the usage of traditional
ghostscript and other print filters more easy for users and
extend the filters capabilities by adding more commandline
switches or explain the drivers execution data.
Foomatic's different incarnations are ∪︀-O-Matic, PPD-O-Matic,
PDQ-O-Matic, LPD-O-Matic and xyz. All of these allow the generation
of appropriate printer configuration files online, by simply
selection the suitable model and suggested (or alternate) driver
for that machine.
More recently, Foomatic gravitated towards becoming a "meta-spooling"
system, that allows to configure the underlying print subsystem
through a unified set of commands. (However this is much more
complicated than KDEPrints &GUI; interface, which does a similar
thing regarding different print subsystems.)
∪︀-O-Matic
PPD-O-Matic
cupsomatic
Ghostscript
Ghostscipt is a &PostScript; RIP in software, originally
developed by L. Peter Deutsch. There is always a GPL version
of ghostscript available for free usage and distribution
(mostly 1 year old) while
the current version is commercially sold under another license.
Ghostscript is widely used inside the Linux and &UNIX; world
for transforming &PostScript; into raster data suitable
for sending towards non-&PostScript; devices.
&PostScript;
RIP
Gimp-Print
Contrary to its name, Gimp-Print is not any longer
just the plugin to be used for printing from the popular
Gimp program -- its codebase can also serve to be compiled
into...
*...a set of PPDs and associated filters that integrate seamlessly
into ∪︀, supporting around 130 different printer models, providing
photografic output quality in many cases;
*...a Gostscript filter that can be used with any other
program that needs a software-RIP;
*...a library that can be used by other software applications
in need of rasterization functions.
Lexmark Drivers
RIP
Ghostscript
&HP;
Abbreviation for Hewlett-Packard;
none of the first companys to distribute their own Linux printer
drivers [...to be completed...]
&HP;/GL
Abbreviation for &HP;
Grafical Language;
a &HP; printer language mainly used for plotters; many CAD
(Computer Aided software programs output &HP;/GL files for
printing.
ESC/P
PCL
&PostScript;
&HP; JetDirect Protocol
A term branded by &HP; to describe their implementation
of print data transfer to the printer via an otherwise "AppSocket" or
"Direct TCP/IP Prining" named protocol.
AppSocket Protocol
Direct TCP/IP Printing
IETF
Abbreviation for Internet
Engineering Task
Force; an assembly of internet, software
and hardware experts that discuss
new networking technologies and very often arrive at
conclusions that are regarded by many as standards. "TCP/IP"
is the most famous of examples.
IETF standards, but also
drafts, discussions, ideas or useful tutorials are
put in writing in the famous series of "RFCs" which
are available to the public and on burnt onto most Linux or
BSD-CDs.
IPP
PWG
RFC
IPP
Abbreviation for Internet
Printing Protocol;
defined in a series of RFCs accepted by the IETF with
status "proposed standard"; was designed
by the PWG. -- IPP is a completely new design for network printing,
but it is utilizing a very well-known and proven method for the
actual data transfer: HTTP 1.1! By not "re-inventing the wheel",
and basing itself on an existing and robust internet standard,
IPP is able to relativly easy bolt other HTTP-compatible standard
mechanisms into its framework:
* Basic, Digest or Certificate authentication
mechanisms;
* SSL or TLS for encryption of transferred
data;
* LDAP for directory services (to publish
data on printers, device-options, drivers, costs or
elso to the network; or to check for passwords while
conducting authentication).
∪︀
PWG
IETF
RFC
TLS
KDEPrint
The new printing functionality of &kde; since its version 2.2
consists of several modules that translate the features and settings
of different available print subsystems (∪︀, BSD-style LPR/LPD, RLPR...)
into nice &kde; desktop &GUI; representation and dialogs to ease their
usage.
Most important for day-to-day usage is "kprinter", the new
&GUI; print command. -- Note: KDEPrint does not implement its own
spooling mechanism or its own &PostScript; processing; for this it
relies on the selected print subsystem
-- however it does add some functionality of its own on top of this
foundation...
BSD-style printing
∪︀
kprinter
KDEPrint Handbook
KDEPrint Handbook...
...is the name of the reference document that describes KDEPrint
functions to users and administrators. You can load it into Konqueror by
typing "help:/tdeprint" into the address field. The KDEPrint website
is the ressource for updates to this documentation as well as PDF
versions fit for printing it. It is authored and maintained by Kurt
Pfeifle.
∪︀-FAQ
kprinter
kprinter is the new powerfull
print utility that is natively used by all &kde; applications.
Contrary to some common misconceptions,
kprinter is not a ∪︀-only tool,
but supports different print subsystems. You can even switch
to a different printsubsystem "on the fly", in between two jobs,
without re-configuration. Of course, due to the powerful
features of ∪︀, kprinter is in
best shape when used as a ∪︀ frontend.
kprinter is the successor
to "qtcups", which is no longer being actively maintained. kprinter has
inherited all the best features of qtcups and added several new ones.
AND MOST IMPORTANT: you can use kprinter
with all its features in all non-&kde; applications that allow
a customized print command, like gv, AcrobatReader, Netscape,
Mozilla, Galeon, StarOffice, OpenOffice and all GNOME programs.
kprinter can act as a "standalone"
utility, started from an X-Terminal or a "Mini-CLI" to
print many different files, from different directories, with different
formats, in one job and at once, without the need to first open the
files in the applications! (File formats supported this way are &PostScript;,
PDF, International and ASCII Text and many different popular Grafic
formats, such as PNG, TIFF, JPEG, PNM, Sun RASTER &etc;)
kprinter
Lexmark
was one of the first companys to distribute their own Linux printer
drivers for some of their models. [...to be completed...]
Linuxprinting.org
Linuxprinting.org = not only for Linux; all &UNIX;-like OS-es
like *BSD and also commercial Unices may find useful printing
information on that site; Foomatic -- Printer Data Base -- Driver Data
Base....
Linuxprinting database
Linuxprinting.org Database
....Data Base containing printers and drivers suitable
for them... ...a lot of information and documentation to be found... ...it
is now also providing some tools and utilities for easing the integration
of those drivers into a given system... ...the "Foomatic" family
of utilities being the toolset to make use of the data base
[.............TO BE COMPLETED........]
Foomatic
LPR/LPD printing
LPR == some people translate Line
Printing Request, others:
Line Printer
Remote.
BSD-style printing
Magicfilter
Similarly to the APSfilter program, Magicfilter
provides automatic file type recognition functions, and base
on that, automatic file conversion to a printable format,
depending on the target printer.
APSfilter
&MIME;-Types
Abbreviation for Multipurpose (or
Multimedia) Internet Mail
Extensions; &MIME;-Types were first used to allow
the transport of binary data (like mail attachments containing
grafics) over mail connections that were normally only transmitting
ASCII characters: the data had to be encoded into an ASCII representation.
Later this concept was extended to describe a data format in
a platform independent, but at the same time in a non-ambigious way.
From &Windows; everybody knows the *.doc extensions for &Microsoft; Word files.
This is handled ambigiously on the &Windows; platform: *.doc extensions are also
used for simple text files or for Adobe Framemaker files. And if a real
Word file is re-named to get a different extension, it can't be
opened any longer by the program
&MIME; typed filed carry a recognition string with them, describing
their file format base on main_category/sub_category.
Inside IPP, printfiled are also described using the &MIME; type scheme.
&MIME; types are registered with the IANA (Internet Assigning Numbers
Association) to keep them unambigious.
∪︀ has some &MIME; types of its own registered, like
application/vnd.cups-raster (for the ∪︀-internal
raster image format).
∪︀
Easy Software Products
ESP PrintPro
Gimp-Print
PCL
Abbreviation for Printer
Control Language;
developed by &HP;. PCL started off in version 1 as a simple
command set for ASCII printing; now,
in its versions PCL6 and PCL-X it is capable of printing grafics
and printing color -- but outside the &Microsoft; &Windows; realm and &HP-UX;
(&HP;'s own brand of &UNIX;) it is not commonly used...
ESC/P
&HP;/GL
PDL
&PostScript;
PDL
Abbreviation for Page
Description Language;
PDLs describe in an abstract way the grafical representation
of a page. - Before it is actually transferred into
toner or ink layed down onto paper, a PDL needs to be
"interpreted" first. In &UNIX;, the most important PDL
is PostScript.
ESC/P
&HP;/GL
PCL
&PostScript;
Pixel
Abbreviation for Picture
Element; this term describes the smallest
part of a raster picture (either as printed on paper
or as put on a monitor by cathode rays or LCD elements). As
any grafical or image representation on those kind of output
devices is composed of pixels, the values of "ppi" (pixel per inch)
and &dpi; (dots per inch) are one important parameter for the
overall quality and resolution of an image.
Filter
Ghostscript
&PostScript;
Raster
PJL
Abbreviation for Print
Job Language;
developed by &HP; to control and influence default and per-job
settings of a printer. May not only be used
for &HP;'s own (PCL-)printers; also many &PostScript;
and other printers understand PJL commands sent to them
inside a printjob or in a separate signal.
PCL
&PostScript;
&PostScript; (often shortened "PS") is the de-facto
standard in the &UNIX; world for printing files. It was
developed by Adobe and licensed to printer manufacturers
and software companies.
As the &PostScript; specifications were
published by Adobe, there are also "Third Party" implementations
of &PostScript; generating and &PostScript; interpreting software
available (one of the best-known in the Free software world
being Ghostscript, a powerfull PS-interpreter)
.
ESC/P
&HP;/GL
PCL
PPD
PPD
Abbreviation for PostScript
Printer Description;
PPDs are ASCII files storing all information about the special
capabilities of a printer, plus definitions of the (PostScript-
or PJL-)commands to call on a certain capability (like printing
duplex).
As the explanation of the acronym reveals, PPDs were originally
only used for &PostScript; printers. ∪︀ has extended the
PPD-concept towards all types of printers.
PPDs for &PostScript; printers are provided by the printer
vendors. They can be used with ∪︀ and KDEPrint to have access
to the full features of any &PostScript; printer. The KDEPrint Team
recommends to use a PPD originally intended for use with
&Microsoft; Windows NT.
PPDs for non-PostScript printers need a
companion "filter" to process the &PostScript; print files towards
a format digestable for the non-PostScript target device. Those
PPD/filter combos are not (yet) available from the vendors. After
the initiative by the ∪︀ developers to utilize PPDs, the Free
Software community was creative enough to quickly come up with
a support for most of the currently used printer models through
PPDs and classical Ghostscript filters. But note: the printout
quality differs from "hi-quality photografic output" (using
Gimp-Print with most Epson inkjets) to "hardly readable" (using
Foomatic-enabled ghostscript filters for models rated as
"paperweight" in the Linuxprinting.org database).
∪︀
Linuxprinting.org
&PostScript;
PPD-O-Matic
PPD-O-Matic is a set of Perl-Scripts that run on the Linuxprinting.org
webserver and can be used online to generate PPDs for any printer that is known
to print with ghostscript.
These PPDs can be hook up to ∪︀/KDEPrint as well as
used inside PPD-aware applications like StarOffice to determine all different
parameters of your printjobs. It is now recommended for most cases to
use "PPD-O-Matic" instead of the older ∪︀-O-Matic.
To generate a PPD, go to the printer
database, select your printer model, follow
the link to show the available ghostscript filters for that printer, select
one, click "generate" and finally safe the file to your local system.
Make sure to read the instructions. Make sure your local system
does indeed have ghostscript and the filter installed, which you chose
before generating the PPD.
&PostScript;
∪︀-O-Matic
Linuxprinting.org
Foomatic
printcap
The "printcap" file holds in BSD-style print systems
the configuration information; the printing daemon reads this file
to know which printers are available, what filters are to
user for each, where the spooling directory is located,
if there are banner pages to be used, and so on...
Some applications also depend on reading access to the printcap
file to grap the names of available printer.
BSD-style printing
Printer-MIB
Abbreviation for
Printer-Management
Information Base; the
Printer-MIB defines a set of parameters that are to be
stored inside the printer for access
through the network. This is useful if many (in some cases, literally
thousands of) network printers are managed centrally
with the help of SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol).
PWG
SNMP
PWG
Abbreviation for
Printer Working
Group; the PWG is a loose grouping of
representatives of the printer industry that has in the past
years developed different standards
in relation to nework printing, which were later accepted by the
IETF as RFC standards, like the "Printer-MIB" and the IPP.
&PostScript;
&PostScript;
IPP
Printer-MIB
SNMP
print:/ KIO Slave
You can use a syntax of "print:/..." to get quick access
to KDEPrint ressources. Typing "print:/manager" as a Konqueror URL
address gives administrative access to KDEPrint. Konqueror uses &kde;'s
famous "KParts" technology to achieve that.
IO Slave
KParts
Printer Data Base
.
Linuxprinting Data Base
Qt∪︀
co-developer of Qt∪︀ and KUPS, the predecessors of KDEPrint,
sole developer of KDEPrint -- a very nice and productive guy and quick bug fixer... ;-)
kprinter
Raster Image
In the last resort, every picture on a physical medium
is composed of a pattern of discrete dots in different colors and (maybe)
sizes. This is called a "raster image".
This is opposed to a "vector image"
where the grafic is described in terms of continuous curves, shades,
forms and fills, represented by mathematical formula. Vector images
normally are of a smaller file size and may be scaled in size
without any loss of information and quality --- but they can't be
output directly, they always need to be "rendered" or "rasterized"
first to the given resolution, the output device is capable of...
The rasterization is done by a Raster Image Processor (RIP,
often the Ghostscript software) or some other filtering
instance.
Pixel
Ghostscript
&PostScript;
Filter
RIP
RIP
Abbreviation for
Raster Image
Process(or); if used in the context of
printing, "RIP" means a hardware or software
instance that converts &PostScript; (or other print files
that represented in one of the non-Raster PDLs) into a
raster image format in such a way that it is acceptable
for the "marking engine" of the printer.
&PostScript; printers
contain their own PostScript-RIPs. A RIP may or may not be located
inside a printer.
For many &UNIX; systems, Ghostscript is the package that provides
a "RIP in software", running on the host computer, and pre-digesting
the &PostScript; or other data to become ready to be sent to the
printing device (hence you may sense a "grain of truth" in the
slogan "Ghostscript turns your printer into a &PostScript;
machine", which of course is not correct in the sense of the
letter.)
Filter
Ghostscript
&PostScript;
PDL
Raster
RLPR (Remote LPR)
Abbreviation for Remote
Line Printing
Request; this is a a BSD-style printing system,
that needs no root priviledges to be installed and no "printcap" to
work: all parameters may be specified on the command
line.
RLPR comes in handy for many laptop users who are
working in frequently changing environments, because it
may be installed concurrently with every other printing
sub system and allows a very flexible and wuick
way to install a printer for direct access via LPR/LPD.
KDEPrint
has an "Add Printer Wizard" to make RLPR usage even more
easy. The kprinter command allows to switch to RLPR "on
the fly" at any time.
KDEPrint
kprinter
printcap
SNMP
Abbreviation for Simple
Network Management
Protocol; SNMP is widely used to control
all sorts network nodes (Hosts, Routers, Switches, Gateways,
Printers...) remotely.
PWG
Printer-MIB
SSL(3) encryption
Abbreviation for Secure
Socket Layer;
SSL is a proprietary encryption method for data
transfer over HTTP that was developed by Netscape and is now being
re-placed by an IETF standard named TLS.
Daemon
SPOOLing
Abbreviation for Synchronous
Peripherals Operations
OnLine;
SPOOLing enables printing applications
(and users) to continue their work
as the job is being taken care of by a system daemon
who stores the file at a temporary location until the printer is ready
to print.
Daemon
TLS encryption
Abbreviation for Transport
Layer Security;
SSL is an encryption standard for
data transfered over HTTP 1.1; it is defined in RFC ???? [#look up
number --TO BE DONE--] ; although based on the former SSL development
(from Netscape) it is not fully compatible to it.
Daemon
System V-style printing
This is the second flavour of traditional &UNIX;
printing (as opposed to BSD-style printing). It uses
a different command set (lp, lpadmin,...) from BSD,
but is not fundamentally different from it. However, the
gap between the two is big enough to make the two
incompatible so that a BSD-client can't simply print
to a System V style print server without additional
tweaking... IPP is supposed to resolve this weakness
and more.
BSD-style printing
IPP
TurboPrint
A Shareware providing photo quality printing for many
inkjet printers; it is useful if you don't find a driver for your
printer otherwise; it may be hooked into a traditional Ghostscript
or into a modern ∪︀ system.
Gimp-Print
XPP
Abbreviation for X
Printing Panel;
XPP was the first Free
graphical print command for ∪︀, written by Till Kamppeter,
and in some ways a model for the "kprinter" utility in &kde;.