Once your printer is properly installed (refer to the section called “PrinterDrake: Configuring Printers” for instructions on printer installation) it is time to put it to use. In the past printing has been a “hard” topic under GNU/Linux but as you will soon discover, that has changed a lot. Both KDE and GNOME 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” 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[9] for printing your documents, like the output device (generally a physical, local or remote printer), the number of copies, the paper size, the printer resolution, etc.
As you can see in Figure 11.14, the interface is quite clean and simple[10]: in the Printer section you can choose the printer from a convenient pull-down list. Depending on which 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. In the lower part of kprinter's window is a pull-down list which allows you to select the printing system to use. Many printing systems are available under GNU/Linux but CUPS is the most convenient one. Hence this is the one we will refer to. Please make sure that the list value is set to CUPS (Common Unix Print System).
At the bottom of the window are buttons which allow you to Expand kprinter's options. The button gives you access to global printing configuration. Then, the buttons to get , your document or that printing operation.
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.
Usually, your local printer, the “Print to file” printers (both PDF and Postscript) and the “Fax” printer are listed. However, if you are in a network, all printers available on the network will be listed too, so network printing becomes very simple.
Click on the Properties... 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 lets you 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 have to click on the Driver Settings tab. Here you will find the Resolution option under one of the available categories. When you click on it, all 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 the button.
After clicking on the button, kprinter's dialog changes to the one shown in Figure 11.17.
In the Copies tab you have the page range settings and the number and order of the copies. Page selection can be set to:
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 can 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 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.
The HTML Settings tab lets you define options concerning HTML pages printing like: a “Printer friendly mode” which does not print the background and prints all text black to save toner or ink, and whether or not to print images and a header.
In the Advanced options tab you are able to 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 11.18 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 faxes like you do with Windows applications, by “printing to the fax”. When you click on the button, a dialog like the one shown in Figure 11.19 appears.
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. Under the Fax section make sure that the Fax/Modem device pull-down list is set to Standard Modem Port as shown in Figure 11.20.
Fill 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.
Some printers are known as multi-function devices. This generally means that the printer can also be used as a scanner and maybe also as a fax. There are also printers that can read digital photo camera memory cards, some can even print photos directly from the memory card.
If you have a multi-function device with scanning functionality, please note that the scanner is configured with PrinterDrake and not with ScannerDrake. Please refer to the section called “PrinterDrake: Configuring Printers”.
In any other case, please refer to your printer documentation for information on operating the different functions or devices your multi-function printer has.
[9] The actual printing options you will be able to set will depend on the output device you select, not all devices have the same capabilities.
[10] For applications defined to use the kprinter --stdin command, the interface will open showing the expanded view by default. Click on the button to change to the simplified interface.