Workshop at Linux-Kongress 2002 Cologne, Germany:
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by Kurt Pfeifle,
Network Printing Consultant, Author of CUPS-FAQ and KDEPrint Handbook |
CUPS, the Common UNIX Printing System, is thought by many to become an epoch making printing application -- for the Linux and UNIX realms of computing. What is not yet clearly seen: it could also -- in tandem with Samba's new features of RPC-based printer driver downloads -- make a big impact on Windows clients network printing in the future.
This paper dissects the inner workings of the CUPS filtering system and envisages a few ideas about its deployment as a print server of a new kind: not just spooling Windows client print files as "raw" jobs, but also processing them through its internal PostScript RIP (Raster Image Process) -- thusly providing more stability and job accounting features to its environment.