[Info-vax] Direct print of PDF files on PDF compatible printers.

[Bill Gunshannon]

On 3/2/22 10:08, chris wrote:
> On 03/01/22 23:05, gah4 wrote:
>> On Tuesday, March 1, 2022 at 9:16:42 AM UTC-8, Jan-Erik Söderholm wrote:
>>
>>> Some of the Xerox laser printer models support direct print of PDF 
>>> files.
>>> Now, we uses DCPS för most of our printing needs. So, should I look for
>>> a way to setup a DCPS queue that will be transparent and just let the
>>> PDF file through (DCPS itself dosn't support PDF input)? Or is it
>>> simpler to just setup a queue using the telnetsym, lpd_smb or such?
>>
>> As well as I know it, PDF is a subset of PS.
>>
>> Enough of a subset that there is an automated process to convert
>> PDF into PS, and the program pdftops to do it.
>>
>> Are there printers that support PDF, but not PS?
> 
> One thing that might solve the problem long term would be to port
> cups. Pretty foolproof and works out of the box on all the systems
> and os's tried here. Just about every printer model supported as well.
> 
> You could argue that it's not the os's task to process pdf or any
> other format, other than transparently passing the data. Pdf should be
> handled by the pdf reader itself, as with most systems these days...
> 

Who would argue that?  Most of us remember when printers were just
dumb boxes. Used to have to put a loop of punched paper tape in just
so it could find the beginning of the page!

bill