Adobe PostScript Printer Driver is recommended for use with all Adobe PostScript printers, film recorders, and imagesetters. The driver features advanced functionality, such as support for all Adobe PostScript Level 1 and Level 2 products, EPS. Adobe PostScript translates documents into print – exactly as intended. Released in 1984 as Adobe’s founding technology, PostScript played a key role in the Desktop Publishing Revolution. It was the first device-independent Page Description Language (PDL), and also a programming language.
This document describes how to develop printer drivers for PostScript printers. Topics include: printer driver basics, creating new PPD files, importing existing PPD files, using custom filters, implementing color management, and adding macOS features.
See Also | Programming: Developing Raster Printer Drivers Programming: Filter and Backend Programming Programming: Introduction to the PPD Compiler Programming: Raster API References: PPD Compiler Driver Information File Reference Specifications: CUPS PPD Extensions |
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Contents
Adobe Postscript Driver
- Creating New PPD Files
Printer Driver Basics
A CUPS PostScript printer driver consists of a PostScript Printer Description (PPD) file that describes the features and capabilities of the device, zero or more filter programs that prepare print data for the device, and zero or more support files for color management, online help, and so forth. The PPD file includes references to all of the filters and support files used by the driver.
Every time a user prints something the scheduler program, cupsd(8), determines the format of the print job and the programs required to convert that job into something the printer understands. CUPS includes filter programs for many common formats, for example to convert Portable Document Format (PDF) files into device-independent PostScript, and then from device-independent PostScript to device-dependent PostScript. Figure 1 shows the data flow of a typical print job.
The optional PostScript filter can be provided to add printer-specific commands to the PostScript output that cannot be represented in the PPD file or to reorganize the output for special printer features. Typically this is used to support advanced job management or finishing functions on the printer. CUPS includes a generic PostScript filter that handles all PPD-defined commands.
The optional port monitor handles interface-specific protocol or encoding issues. For example, many PostScript printers support the Binary Communications Protocol (BCP) and Tagged Binary Communications Protocol (TBCP) to allow applications to print 8-bit ('binary') PostScript jobs. CUPS includes port monitors for BCP and TBCP, and you can supply your own port monitors as needed.
The backend handles communications with the printer, sending print data from the last filter to the printer and relaying back-channel data from the printer to the upstream filters. CUPS includes backend programs for common direct-connect interfaces and network protocols, and you can provide your own backend to support custom interfaces and protocols.
The scheduler also supports a special 'command' file format for sending maintenance commands and status queries to a printer or printer driver. Command print jobs typically use a single command filter program defined in the PPD file to generate the appropriate printer commands and handle any responses from the printer. Figure 2 shows the data flow of a typical command job.
PostScript printer drivers typically do not require their own command filter since CUPS includes a generic PostScript command filter that supports all of the standard functions using PPD-defined commands.
Creating New PPD Files
We recommend using the CUPS PPD compiler, ppdc(1), to create new PPD files since it manages many of the tedious (and error-prone!) details of paper sizes and localization for you. It also allows you to easily support multiple devices from a single source file. For more information see the 'Introduction to the PPD Compiler' document. Listing 1 shows a driver information file for a black-and-white PostScript printer.
Listing 1: 'examples/postscript.drv'
Required Attributes
PostScript drivers require the attributes listed in Table 1. If not specified, the defaults for CUPS drivers are used. A typical PostScript driver information file would include the following attributes:
Attribute | Description |
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DefaultColorSpace | The default colorspace: Gray, RGB, CMY, or CMYK. If not specified, then RGB is assumed. |
LandscapeOrientation | The preferred landscape orientation: Plus90, Minus90, or Any. If not specified, Plus90 is assumed. |
LanguageLevel | The PostScript language level supported by the device: 1, 2, or 3. If not specified, 2 is assumed. |
Product | The string returned by the PostScript product operator, which must include parenthesis to conform with PostScript syntax rules for strings. Multiple Product attributes may be specified to support multiple products with the same PPD file. If not specified, '(ESP Ghostscript)' and '(GNU Ghostscript)' are assumed. |
PSVersion | The PostScript interpreter version numbers as returned by the version and revision operators. The required format is '(version) revision'. Multiple PSVersion attributes may be specified to support multiple interpreter version numbers. If not specified, '(3010) 705' and '(3010) 707' are assumed. |
TTRasterizer | The type of TrueType font rasterizer supported by the device, if any. The supported values are None, Accept68k, Type42, and TrueImage. If not specified, None is assumed. |
Query Commands
Most PostScript printer PPD files include query commands (?PageSize, etc.) that allow applications to query the printer for its current settings and configuration. Query commands are included in driver information files as attributes. For example, the example in Listing 1 uses the following definition for the PageSize query command:
Query commands can span multiple lines, however no single line may contain more than 255 characters.
Importing Existing PPD Files
CUPS includes a utility called ppdi(1)which allows you to import existing PPD files into the driver information fileformat used by the PPD compiler ppdc(1). Onceimported, you can modify, localize, and regenerate the PPD files easily. Typethe following command to import the PPD file mydevice.ppd into thedriver information file mydevice.drv:
If you have a whole directory of PPD files that you would like to import,you can list multiple filenames or use shell wildcards to import more than onePPD file on the command-line:
If the driver information file already exists, the new PPDfile entries are appended to the end of the file. Each PPD fileis placed in its own group of curly braces within the driverinformation file.
![Postscript Driver For Mac Postscript Driver For Mac](/uploads/1/1/7/6/117648718/340562534.png)
Using Custom Filters
Normally a PostScript printer driver will not utilize any additional print filters. For drivers that provide additional filters such as a CUPS command file filter for doing printer maintenance, you must also list the following Filter directive to handle printing PostScript files:
Postscript Driver For Pdf
Custom Command Filters
The application/vnd.cups-command file type is used for CUPS command files. Use the following Filter directive to handle CUPS command files:
To use the standard PostScript command filter, specify commandtops as the path to the command filter.
Custom PDF Filters
The application/pdf file type is used for unfiltered PDF files while the application/vnd.cups-pdf Controllermate mac download windows 10. file type is used for filtered PDF files. Use the following Filter directive to handle filtered PDF files:
For unfiltered PDF files, use:
Custom PDF filters that accept filtered data do not need to perform number-up processing and other types of page imposition, while those that accept unfiltered data MUST do the number-up processing themselves.
Custom PostScript Filters
The application/vnd.cups-postscript file type is used for filtered PostScript files. Use the following Filter directive to handle PostScript files:
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Implementing Color Management
CUPS uses ICC color profiles to provide more accurate color reproduction. The cupsICCProfile attribute defines the color profiles that are available for a given printer, for example:
where 'ColorModel.MediaType.Resolution' defines a selector based on the corresponding option selections. A simple driver might only define profiles for the color models that are supported, for example a printer supporting Gray and RGB might use:
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The options used for profile selection can be customized using the cupsICCQualifier2 and cupsICCQualifier3 attributes.
Adding macOS Features
macOS printer drivers can provide additional attributes to specify additional option panes in the print dialog, an image of the printer, a help book, and option presets for the driver software:
PostScript, or PS, is a printer driver language commonly used in Mac environments and has been designed to provide a high-quality colour output. This is achieved by efficiently translating a computer’s RGB (Red-Green-Blue) values into the CMYK (Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Black) values used by your device.
In contrast to PCL, PostScript is a device independent printer language. This means that all the print data processing is completed on the computer before sending the print job to the printer. Generally, print jobs are not as efficient as they would be by using a PCL driver, however, the output is more consistent from printer to printer, as there is no variation in how data has been processed.
PostScript drivers have an accompanying PPD (PostScript Printer Description) file, which contains information about the capabilities and restrictions of your device.
As with our PCL drivers, we have created the Generic Plus PS3 drivers to work on various Canon devices, allowing full functionality for all supported models, using the same driver.