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 Technical Print Service System Administrator's Guide: > Chapter 1 Chapter 1: Introducing the Technical Print Service

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The Technical Print Service enables X applications to generate and send X imaging data to a non-display device such as a printer. Applications integrated with the Technical Print Service can send printed output to a variety of printers regardless of the associated page description language.

The Technical Print Service provides print drivers for the existing X server as well as X protocol extensions, which allow page description language (PDL) output to be created. Print drivers provided by the Technical Print Service include postscript, PCL5+ and raster image.

This product is an implementation of the X Print Service technology developed by Hewlett Packard for the X Consortium.

Technical Print Service Components

The Technical Print Service is a collection of components derived from the X11 Window System, Motif, and Common Desktop Environment technologies. It includes a new X Server Extension and X Print Extension library which provides an application programming interface.

For a system administrator, the primary components include:

  • X print server

  • Printer configuration files

  • Print Dialog GUI

  • Print Dialog Manager

Figure 1-1 Title not available (Introduction)

  • X Print Server

    The X print server is similar to the standard video X server. Whereas a video driver modifies pixels in a video frame buffer, a print driver generates page description language (PDL). This output can be sent to a print spooler such as lp or retrieved by the application.

    NOTE: The HP-UX implementation requires that the video and print server be configured separately.

    When the X print server starts, it reads several configuration files. These provide information to the X print server so that it knows what print drivers to load, what printers to support, and the capabilities of each printer.

    Applications integrated with the Technical Print Service interact with both the X print server and a Print Dialog Manager. When a user performs a Print action, the application makes a display connection with the X print server. Typically the application displays a Print Setup Dialog box that allows the user to set basic printing options.

    The Print Setup Dialog box provides a Setup button. When a user selects Setup, the Print Dialog Manager provides a set of secondary dialog boxes — Print Options and Job Options. These are used to set printer-specific options. Although it appears that the application displays these dialogs, they are actually posted by the Print Dialog Manager.

    Refer to Chapter 4 “Chapter 4: Configuring an X Print Server ” for instructions to configure an X print server.

  • Printer Configuration Files

    Printer model capabilities are identified in a set of configuration files provided by the Technical Print Service. Some of these files are never modified, while others can be customized.

    Chapter 5 “Chapter 5: Printer Configuration Files ” provides an overview of printer configuration files. Instructions for adding a printer can be found in Chapter 6 “Chapter 6: Adding and Configuring Printers ”.

  • Print Setup Dialog Box

    The Technical Print Service provides a Print Setup Dialog box (DtPrint) that an application can use to present initial printer setup information to a user. Selecting the Setup button in this dialog box displays the Print Dialog Manager secondary print dialogs.

  • Print Dialog Manager Daemon

    The Print Dialog Manager daemon (dtpdmd) and X print server are started as a matched set. The Print Dialog Manager daemon starts a Print Dialog Manager as needed to service print setup requests.

    The Print Dialog Manager is a process which provides application print dialogs for setting printer-specific options. For more information refer to Chapter 7 “Chapter 7: Print Dialog Manager Daemon ”.

Printers Supported

The Technical Print Service supports the following printers:

  • LaserJet 3 Series

  • LaserJet 4 Series

  • LaserJet 5 Series

  • DesignJet 220

  • DesignJet 330

  • DesignJet Series 650C (postscript only)

  • DesignJet Series 750C (postscript only)

  • DeskJet 1200C

  • DeskJet 1600C

  • DeskJet 1600CM

Other printer models may have been added since the publication of this manual. Refer to the Technical Print Service Release Notes for possible additions to this list. The Release Notes are located in the directory, /usr/share/doc/TechPrtServ/C, and titled RelNotes.

Summary of Components

The Technical Print Service consists of a run-time product and a Developer's Toolkit. A summary of components follows:

  • X Server Print Extension

  • X Print Extension API (API for applications to use the X Print Extension Protocol)

  • X Print device dependent X (ddx) drivers

    Title not available (Introduction)

    PCL

    Converts core X to native PCL

    Postscript

    Converts core X to native Postscript

    Raster

    Generates X Window Dump (xwd) raster images which can be converted to PCL or Postscript raster images

  • Motif library (libXmPrint.a)

  • A collection of Common Desktop Environment (CDE) print GUIs (libDtPrint)

  • Print Dialog Manager daemon (dtpdmd)

  • A Print Dialog Manager (dtpdm)

Requirements

System software requirements include:

  • HP-UX 10.30 operating system or later releases

  • Common Desktop Environment 1.0

  • X11 R6 Window System

Documentation

  • The Technical Print Service System Administrator's Guide is provided online. It can be viewed using the CDE Help Manager.

  • The online information is also available in a hardcopy version which can be sent directly to a printer. A PCL and Postscript file can be found in the /usr/share/doc/TechPrintServ/C directory. The file names are: tpsGuide.pcl and tpsGuide.ps.

  • Technical Print Service Release Notes are also located in the /usr/share/doc/TechPrtServ/C directory.

  • Related man pages include:

    • dtpdm(1M)

    • dtpdmd(1M)

    • tps(5)

    • tpsconfig(1M)

    • tpsconvert(1M)

    • tpsdocument(4)

    • tpsjob(4)

    • tpsprinter(4)

    • tpsedit(1M)

    • tpsshowmodel(1M)



Chapter 1 Chapter 1: Introducing the Technical Print Service
  		 


Chapter 2 Chapter 2: Installing the Technical Print Service  
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