Once your printer is properly installed (refer to Section 5, “Configuring Printers with PrinterDrake” for instructions on printer installation) it's time to put it to use. In the past, printing was quite an issue under GNU/Linux but as you will soon discover, this has changed a lot. KDE applications support a simple printing method based on a program called kprinter. kprinter can even be used to build PDF files and to send faxes.
From KDE applications, clicking on the print button or selecting -> will invoke kprinter directly. Make sure you select the page range, the printing quality, the number of copies, etc., and click on the button.
GNOME applications
have to be set up to print with kprinter. In fact, every
X application which supports the definition of its printing
command (for example, Mozilla) can use
kprinter. All you have to do is invoke the print options (by
typing Ctrl-P, or by selecting
+ )
then look for an option named “Print command”,
“Printer”, “Printer Options” or similar,
and fill it with kprinter --stdin
. This way,
kprinter will be invoked every time you ask that application
to print. Then click on the button and
you will see kprinter's main window (no actual document will
be printed at this point).
kprinter allows you to set many options[10] for printing your documents, such as the output device (generally a physical, local or remote printer), the number of copies, the paper size, the printer resolution, etc.
In the Printer section you can choose the printer from a pull-down list. Depending on the printing system you use, you can also add new printers (clicking on the magic wand icon will launch a wizard to help you to do this) and you can further configure the printer settings by clicking on the button.
At the bottom of the window are buttons which allow you to kprinter's options. The button gives you access to global printing configuration. The other buttons ( , , ) speak for themselves.
In this section, you set the device which will receive your print job and its properties, such as page size, resolution, etc. All the available printers are listed in the Name pull-down list. Just select the one you want to print to.
Click on the button to change the device's options. Please note that the options available will depend on the chosen device.
Most options available are self-explanatory. One worth mentioning is Pages per sheet (set to 2 in the example). This allows you to put up to 4 pages onto a single sheet of paper (or 8 if you can print on both sides). This is a nice feature to save paper when printing book drafts or other lengthy material which changes often.
If you want to change printer-specific options such as the resolution of the printing device, you click on the Driver Settings tab. Here you will find the Resolution option as one of the available categories. When you click on it, the available resolutions will be displayed in the bottom part of the window. Select the one you want from the list.
Other settings include printing modes which use much less toner or ink (search for something like “Economy Mode”, “Toner Density” or “Toner Saving”). However, the output is much paler. If this is not available, choosing a lower resolution often has similar effects.
You can use the button to save the current settings for future printing jobs. Once you are satisfied with your settings, click on .
After clicking on the button, kprinter's dialog changes to the one shown in Figure 10.11, “More Printing Settings”.
In the Copies tab you have the page range settings and the number and order of the copies. Page selection can be set to:
Prints only the document's current page. This option might not be available at all times.
Allows you to
specify page ranges to print. You can specify pages or
groups of pages separated by commas:
1,2,5
prints pages 1, 2 and 5;
1-3,7,21
prints pages 1 to 3 and
pages 7 and 21, 10-
prints from page
10 to the end of the document, and -3
prints the first three pages of the document).
The Page set pull-down list lets you specify pre-defined sets of pages to print (All pages, Odd pages or Even pages). This allows you to print double-sided documents on a printer without a duplex unit: print the odd pages, turn the stack of printed pages over and put them back into the input tray, then print the even pages.
Under the Copies section, use the little arrows to increase or decrease the number of copies or just type the number of copies you want to print in the Copies field.
When you are printing multiple copies, you may check the Collate check box to print the whole document before starting to print the second copy, instead of getting all copies of page number 1, then all copies of page number 2, and so on.
The Reverse check box makes the printing job start at the last page and end at the first one (the document is printed “backwards”). This option is useful if your printer leaves the paper sheets face-up in the output tray.
In the Advanced options tab you may set some options concerning printing time, priority of the print job and so on.
Click on the button to return to the “minimal” display mode of kprinter.
Creating a PDF file from
your document is very easy with kprinter. Simply select the
Print To File (PDF) special printer,
enter the file name in the Output file field
as shown in Figure 10.12, “Generating a PDF File”, and click on
. A PDF file will be written
(print.pdf
in your home directory in our
example).
The special Send To Fax printer allows you to send the document you are working on directly by fax. When you click on the button, a dialog (Figure 10.13, “Faxing Main Window”) will appear.
First, you need to make sure that your fax modem is properly configured. To configure your fax modem, select -> from the menu. Fill the information under the Personal section with your name, company and fax number. In the System section make sure that the correct faxing system and its corresponding parameters are set. An example is shown in Figure 10.14, “Fax Settings”.
Fill in the Fax
number field and click on the button, or press the Enter key,
to send the fax immediately.
The
button (Ctrl-L) will show you a window with the fax
activity log (check it to make sure your fax has been sent
correctly).
The button (Ctrl-A) will open the KDE address
book to let you select fax numbers to dial.
Once your fax has been sent you can quit the fax window by selecting -> from the menu or pressing Ctrl-Q keys.
This icon appears on the KDE panel whenever
you have print jobs, printing or queued. Clicking on it will open
the print queue control window.
Table 10.3, “Jobs Queue Control Buttons” lists the most important job queue control functions. Please bear in mind that, unless you have sufficient rights, you can only control print jobs launched by yourself. You won't have control on print jobs launched by other users. Also note that not all buttons might be enabled at all times.
Table 10.3. Jobs Queue Control Buttons
[10] The actual printing options you will be able to set will depend on the output device you have selected. Not all devices have the same capabilities.