[Desktop_printing] How to make a good GUI for page overrides

[Till Kamppeter]

Oi,

one part of printing where there is not much talked about, are page
overrides. This means that one can assign printing options differently
for each page. The most prominent application for that is taking ketter
head paper for the first page and normal paper (or follow-up-page paper)
for the other pages. Or one uses color and higher resolution only on the
pages with color images.

This functionality was also talked about at FSG OpenPrinting, for the
JTAPI, but it did not make it into the current version of JTAPI.

I have even implemented page override support already, in Foomatic. See
the README file of the foomatic-db-engine package:

http://www.linuxprinting.org/foomatic-db-engine/USAGE

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[...]

Applying options only to selected pages
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With most spoolers options can be supplied only to selected pages when
Foomatic is used. The queues can be either Foomatic queues or they can
use a manufacturer-supplied PPD file with "foomatic-rip". To make CUPS
using "foomatic-rip" with manufacturer-supplied PPD files, add the
line

*cupsFilter:    "application/vnd.cups-postscript 0 foomatic-rip"

to the PPD file. To make an option setting acting only on certain
pages one only needs to preceed the option by a page specification:

CUPS, GNUlpr, CPS, no spooler:
  lpr -o 1:InputSlot=Letterhead
  lpr -o even:Watermark=on
  lpr -o 1,6-10,15,20-:MediaType=YellowPaper

LPRng:
  lpr -Z 1-2:MediaType=Cardboard

LPD:
  lpr -J "1,6-10,15,20-:MediaType=YellowPaper"

PPR (RIP):
  ppr --ripopts "1:InputSlot=Letterhead"

PPR (Interface)
  ppr -i "1:InputSlot=Letterhead"

The syntax is "even", "odd", or giving comma-separated page numbers or
page ranges. Applying options to selected pages with PDQ is not
supported. Note that specifying a page selection with the "-F" option
of "ppr" does not work.

Option settings with page selection override option settings for the
whole document on the appropriate pages. More specific (less pages
selected) settings override less specific settings on the appropriate
pages.

Page-specific option settings cannot be set as default in the PPD
files, but they can be set by editing the ~/.lpoptions file of CUPS.

[...]

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One reason why most users are not much aware of page overrides is, that
there is no GUI for using them, and therefore I am posting here.

I would like to hear from the desktop experts here, how one could turn
page overrides into an easy-to-use GUI. It schould make users aware of
the functionality but not confuse them.

Any ideas?

Would also be some interesting subject for paper prototyping on the Summit.

   Till