How to print with GSI/Linux

Printing from KDE 3

All print jobs must be submitted to the central server printserver.gsi.de that takes care of print job queueing and submission to the printers.

Take a look at the printer manpage by entering man printer on a GSI Linux machine for an overview of the available printers.
To print something from the command line, you may use the GSI homebred pop command or try the standard rlpr otherwise.

KDE 3 comes with a quite sophisticated printing subsystem called KDEprint. It provides the most convenient solution to send any kind of document to a printer.

You can configure it by choosing Preferences -> Peripherals -> Printers in the KDE menu or by typing print:/manager in Konquerors URL-field (either filemanager or browser).

You'll have to add some printers by yourself, as it is impossible to create a reasonable system default with the GSI print system at the moment. The list of print queues available to the add printer wizard (wand icon in the top row of kprinter) also explains which key letters to add to a printer name. E.g if you find printer p170 conveniently near to your office, you could add it as printer queue p170wcd, which woulkd give you white color d duplex print outs. Other names might be possible depending on the capabilities of the printer. As a default there are some pseudo printers found in the kprinter menu (i. e. write or mail your print job as a PDF files).

After you have configured some printers, you will be able to print from any KDE application.

kprinter

To print from any other applications you can use KDEprint's GUI utility kprinter. It is backward compatible with lpr but does not simply send a file to the standard printer.

Calling kprinter file or command | kprinter will pop up a dialog where one may choose the appropriate printer and do conversion of the autodetected input data to PostScript. kprinter is available even if kde isn't running at all.

Application-specific configuration for kprinter

Acrobat Reader

Simply enter kprinter as the Print Command in the Print dialog.

Emacs

Set the lpr-command option to kprinter: Hit Meta-x (Meta usually means Alt), type customize-option, hit Enter, type lpr-command, hit Enter again and fill in the option input field. Finally click Save for Future Sessions and then Finish.

Mozilla

Choose File -> Print and click the Properties button. As the Print Command type kprinter, then choose OK.

OpenOffice/StarOffice

Note: kprinter is already configured as the system-wide default in both OpenOffice and StarOffice.

• Call oopadmin (spadmin resp.).
• Click New Printer,
• Add a printer (Next >>),
• Generic Printer (Next >>),
• enter kprinter as the command line (Next >>),
• choose any name you like (Finish).

Xpdf

Put psFile |kprinter in your ~/.xpdfrc

Printing from KDE 4 using CUPS

Please take a look at PrintingHowto.

-- Christo - 06 Sep 2004