Getting Started
This chapter of the &tdeprint; Handbook will walk you through most
of the configuration or selection options of &tdeprint;. It will mainly
deal with ∪︀ in this version, as the author is most familiar with
it, and also because &tdeprint; started off with supporting ∪︀
best. Later versions of the &tdeprint; software and editions of this
handbook will support and explore other printing
systems more closely.
Selecting Your Print Subsystem
You need to define your print subsystem, before you are able to
install any printer with the &tdeprint; framework. There are two areas
where you can define this: either in &kcontrol; (The Printing
Manager section), or directly and on the fly
from the print dialog.
Navigate to K Menu
Preferences System
Printing Manager. At the bottom
you can see a button that lets you select which printing subsystem you
want to use. In &tde; 2.2 you can choose from the following
alternatives:
∪︀ (Common &UNIX; Printing System)
Print through an external program (generic)
LPR (Standard BSD Print
System)
Generic &UNIX; LPD print system (the
default)
RLPR environment (print to remote
LPD servers from the command line)
Of course, the chosen system must be installed, and up and running on
your box prior to your selection, or before it takes effect.
On it's first startup, &tdeprint; will try an autodetection. This
only works for:
∪︀, as it is checking first for a running ∪︀ daemon
LPD, as it is checking for a running
LPD daemon, plus a printcap
file.
The system you choose must be installed on your system prior to
your selection. The author's personal recommendation is
∪︀.
Once autodetected, chosen, or changed, the active print
subsystem will take effect for all &tde; applications. Different
users may have different print subsystems in use, if those do exist on
the computer and are compliant with each other. Their settings are
stored in the tdeprintrc. This file is unique to
every user, and is normally installed in
$HOME/.kde/share/config/tdeprintrc.
This file is not intended to be directly editable, and all
available options can be set from the &tdeprint; &GUI;.
You may even select a different printer subsystem, on the fly, from
the &kprinter; dialog box.
Working with the Printing Manager
Once you have chosen your preferred and installed print subsystem,
you are ready to investigate, configure administer and work with this
system through the &tdeprint; framework.
Navigate to K Menu
Preferences System
Printing Manager. In the right
part of the window you will see at least 4 printers predefined. These
are the virtual or special purpose printers, explained in section . You will probably see a toolbar with 13 icons at the
top of the window, and at least 4 tabs in the lower half of the window,
labeled Information, Jobs,
Properties and
Instances.