The Technical Print Service enables an application to use
a Print Dialog Manager to display the appropriate print dialog box
for a selected printer model. Although it appears that the application
posts the print dialog and responds to subsequent user interaction,
the Print Dialog Manager manages this activity.
When the Technical Print Service is started, an X print server
and a print dialog manager daemon are started as a matched set.
When an application requests access to a Print Dialog Manager, the
print dialog manager daemon (dtpdmd)
responds. It starts a Print Dialog Manager, or PDM, appropriate
for the selected printer. When the PDM finishes, control is returned
to the dtpdmd,
and the application is notified.
Print Dialog Manager
The Technical Print Service provides a general purpose Print
Dialog Manager. The PDM is a process that is independent of the
X print server. It displays printer-specific dialog boxes on the
behalf of an application.
The PDM presents a set of printing options based on the selected
printer. If a particular option is not available for a printer,
the item will be greyed in the PDM dialog box. If the option is
supported by the printer, but not available in the PDM, check the
printer attribute specifications in the printer
attribute file.
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 | NOTE: Printer manufacturers may choose to package a custom
Print Dialog Manager with their product. |
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Error Messages
When a Print Dialog Manager daemon is started, any error messages
are recorded in a log file located in the /var/dt
directory. The log file name is dtpdmd.*.log
where * represents the display number of the corresponding X print
server.
Print Setup Dialog
Typically an application displays a print dialog box when
a Print command is executed. The Technical Print Service provides
a Print Setup Box (DtPrintSetupBox) for this purpose. This dialog
box includes a Setup
button, which invokes the Print Dialog Manager.
Choosing the Setup
button displays the Print Dialog Manager dialog box with Printer
and Job options choices. The Printer and Job dialogs are shown on
the next pages.
Related Man Pages
For additional information refer to these man pages:
Printable version
