GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 126303
print using mozilla xprint backend when available
Last modified: 2004-12-22 21:47:04 UTC
At this time, postcript rendering by mozilla is poor, which make that printing complex web pages with many images ( with transparent png ) with mozilla is not right ( konqueror handles this morenicely ). Because of this mozilla have a new printing engine : xprint ( http://www.mozilla.org/projects/xprint/ ) the client side is not integrated by default in mozilla, and it works when Xprt, the server, is installed ( http://xprint.mozdev.org/ ) With xprint printing quality is a lot better ( http://xprint.mozdev.org/screenshots.html ), truetype fonts are supported, and png with transparency are handle nicely. Whereas the server/network part is not usefull for galeon ( this could be set appart with CUPS and gnome-printing API ), the better postscript output, the usage of ttf, the png transparency handling are things interesting to integrate xprint provides (copy&paste from FAQ ) : * Xprint allows an application to query what features (paper size, trays, orientation, resolutions, plexes, fonts and much more) a printer supports. For example it is avoidable that a user accidently prints DIN-A4 on a DIN-A0 poster printer (the print dialog would only offer DIN-A0 as paper size, e.g. offers only choices which are valid for this printer). * Server-side, localizeable configuration - changes to the server config apply to all users without the need to change/updating anything on the user side (the user may still start his/her own Xprt instance using his/her preferred configuration). * Small footprint - ideal for for mobile devices (client side does not need to process any fonts - that's the job of the server side). * API not restriced to PostScript (X11R6.5.1 comes with PCL and Raster implementations - and PDF/G3-FAX/SVG would be possible without problems). * Scaleable - Xprint can use as many Xprt servers as the user/admin wants. * "Xprint is designed for the enterprise", e.g. Xprint was designed to match the needs of large company networks. * Automatic font handling - font download or the existence of printer-builtin fonts is automagically handled by Xprt - the application does not need to know/handle any details (but the application can optionally get information and control the usage of printer builtin fonts). * You can print anything what you can render on the framebuffer(=video card) Xserver. * Existing code can be reused 1:1 for printing - which means reduced development costs. * Easy support for I18N (internationalization) - you simply render any fonts in any language with Xprint. * Network-transparent design - Client can use local or remote Xprt servers like any other Xserver. * Uses the X11 protocol - easy adoption of existing code to implement printer support. And all the network goodies like firewall proxies, compressors etc. can be used for Xprint without modifications. * Security: Xprint can use all authentification schemes available in X11 (like Kerberos5, SecureRPC, MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE or host-based authentification). * Enhachements on the server side (Xprt) to not require the change of client-side code. * Optimized job output (like the PostScript created by the PostScript DDX) is usually a lot smaller than the PS code created by other PostScript engines.
I think this will trivial when we use gnomeprint with CUPS backend. *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 120924 ***