Photo Image Print System Plus User's Manual

Ver.1.1-1 2004/10/20


Copyright (C) SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION 2002-2012.

Contents

  1. Licensing
  2. Overview
    1. Main Features
    2. Package Organisation
  3. Configuration
    1. Preparations
    2. Installation
  4. Basic Operation
    1. Printer Configuration
    2. Monitoring A Printer
    3. Setting Print Options
    4. Printing From Applications
    5. Setting Printer Extensions
  5. Command Reference
    1. Command Overview
    2. pipsplus
    3. pipsplus-admin
    4. pipsplus-config
    5. pipsplus-monitor
    6. pipsplusd
  6. Remarks
    1. Remote Printing Remarks
    2. Further Information

  1. Licensing

    2. The source code for Photo Image Print System Plus is distributed under the GNU General Public License (COPYING), GNU Library General Public License (COPYING.LIB) and the EPSON KOWA Public Licence (COPYING.KOWA). The documentation is (in part) covered by the GNU Free Documentation License. All object code contained in the sources are Copyright SEIKO EPSON Corporation and are distributed under the terms of the EPSON KOWA Public Licence. For the exact terms please refer to the various COPYING files included.

  2. Overview

    1. Main Features

      Photo Image Print System Plus, using the LPRng print system, aims to make printing under Linux simple and easy.

      It provides the following main functionality:
      • editing of your basic printer setup
      • fine tuning of individual printer settings
      • GUI-based print monitoring,
      • and, of course!, printing

      In addition, network-based remote printing is possible with a setup as illustrated below.


    2. Package Organisation

      Photo Image Print System Plus is organised in the following binary packages:

      1. core package

          package name: pipsplus

          Contains those software components that are required by most or all other packages.
          Provides, amongst others, the pipsplus and pipsplus-admin commands.

      2. printer driver core package

          package name: pipsplus-epson-${printer_type}

          ${printer_type} corresponds to the type of printer for which the package is intended

          For a laser printer you would need:

            pipsplus-epson-laser

          Includes the common part for a whole class of printers and allows several different printers (within that class) to be configured and used on your system at the same time.

      3. printer driver package

          package name: pipsplus-epson-${printer_name}

          ${printer_name} indicates the printer model for which the package is intended

          So for an EPSON AcuLaser C900 you would need:

            pipsplus-epson-alc900

          Includes the model specific parts needed to use your printer. You only need to install the driver package(s) for the printer(s) you have.

      4. GUI utilities package

          package name: pipsplus-${gui_name}

          ${gui_name} indicates the GUI toolkit used by the utilities it provides

          For utilities using GTK+ that would be:

            pipsplus-gtk

          Provides printer configuration and print utilities that make using your printer easy.
          Included are pipsplus-config and pipsplus-monitor.

  3. Configuration

    1. Preparations

      1. First of all, you should get all the packages you need for your particular printer. The latest, detailed information is available from EPSON KOWA Corporation's Linux home page at: You can also find the latest packages there.
      2. Photo Image Print System Plus uses a variety of free software internally. You will need to install these before you install Photo Image Print System Plus.

          3. LPRng

            provides an LPR style print spooler

          a2ps

            provides a text and image to PostScript converter

          ghostscript

            provides a converter that turns PostScript into data that your printer understands
            a number of PostScript editing utilities and format converters are included as well


      3. For use in a network environment, the following conditions also need to be satisfied:

        • TCP/IP networking needs to be configured and functional.
          This includes network security.
        • LPRng shared printers need to be configured and functional.
          This includes printer security settings.
        • Both server and client need to have the same version of Photo Image Print System Plus installed.
          Both also need to have the printer driver package installed for the printer you want to use.

        Note, you really should read the "Remote Printing Remarks" before you start configuring the software for network printing.

        As an example, we will describe here how you can test your remote print setup on Red Hat Linux 9.
        We will assume that you have a default iptables based firewall. The server uses an IP address of 192.168.1.1 and the client 192.168.1.2.

        1. You will need to relax the server's firewall rules to allow traffic on the lpr port (515) to and from your client(s).
          • On the server, execute the following commands with root permissions:
            # iptables -I INPUT -i eth0 -s 192.168.1.0/24 -d 192.168.1.1 -p tcp --dport 515 -j ACCEPT
            # iptables -I OUTPUT -o eth0 -s 192.168.1.1 -d 192.168.1.0/24 -p tcp --sport 515 -j ACCEPT

        2. You also need to allow traffic to port 35000 which is used by the Photo Image Print System Plus daemon.
          • On the server, execute the following commands with root permissions:
            # iptables -I INPUT -i eth0 -s 192.168.1.0/24 -d 192.168.1.1 -p tcp --dport 35000 -j ACCEPT
            # iptables -I OUTPUT -o eth0 -s 192.168.1.1 -d 192.168.1.0/24 -p tcp --sport 35000 -j ACCEPT

        3. Disable all LPRng shared printer security settings
          • On the server, execute the following commands with root permissions:
            # mv /etc/lpd.perms /etc/lpd.perms.bak
            # echo "DEFAULT ACCEPT" > /etc/lpd.perms

        Note, the above is only meant to test your network printing setup. By no means does it imply to be a secure setup. You should carefully consider the security implications yourself and take whatever measures you deem necessary.

    2. Installation

      Use the rpm command to install the packages.

      As an example, for an EPSON AcuLaser C900, installation would look as follows:

      1. File check

          Make sure you have all the RPM packages you need. The packages needed for a EPSON AcuLaser C900 are:
          • pipsplus-1.1-1.i386.rpm
          • pipsplus-epson-laser-1.1-1.i386.rpm
          • pipsplus-epson-alc900-1.1-1.i386.rpm
          • pipsplus-gtk-1.1-1.i386.rpm

            Note, the version number may differ from that used above.

      2. Install

          Assuming you have saved all the required packages in the same directory, execute the following rpm command with root permission:

            # rpm -i *.rpm

        This completes the installation of Photo Image Print System Plus

        Note:
          The pipsplus packages have internal dependencies. Changing their order of installation may cause the installation to fail or your setup to malfunction.

      Packages should be installed in the order listed below.
      pipsplus
      |
      +------>pipsplus-${gui_name}
      |
      +------>pipsplus-epson-${printer_type}
      |
      +---------------------------->pipsplus-epson-${printer_name}

  4. Basic Operation

    5. Here we will illustrate the steps necessary to set up Photo Image Print System Plus on your system all the way to producing printed output using a simple example.

    1. Printer Configuration

      In order to use a printer in a networked environment, you first need to configure the printer as a local printer on the print server. After that, clients can configure it as a remote printer.

      As root, run pipsplus-config



      Select "Add Printer"




      In case of a (server-side) local printer:

      • enter a printer name
      • select the printer model from the pull-down list
      • select the device the printer is connected to from the pull-down list



      Note: In case of a local printer, please do not configure several printer to use the same device.
      For the printer name you should stick to lower and upper case letters, digits and any of plus (+), minus (-) and underscore (_). Using characters outside this set may cause your printer to not function properly.
      As an example, the at mark (@) and the slash (/) could be mistakenly interpreted as the remote printer name separator.


      In case of a (client-side) remote printer:
      • enter a printer name
      • enter the server's host name or IP address and perform a "Search"
      • select the printer you want to use from the list presented


      Note: only printers that are local to the server will be listed.

      Once you have finished all selections, do not forget to "Save" your settings.


      The pipsplusd daemon will be restarted automatically.
      After the pipsplusd daemon has restarted, please restart the lpd daemon.


      For example, on Red Hat Linux 9, the lpd daemon can be restarted (as root) with the redhat-config-services utility and the like.

      Execute redhat-config-services




      Select lpd and "Restart" it.



    2. Monitoring A Printer

      You can monitor the status of every printer you have configured.

      As whatever user you like, execute the pipsplus-config command, select the printer you want to monitor and start the "Status Monitor".



      After a little while the printer's status will be displayed.



    3. Setting Print Options

      Via the pipsplus-config "Configuration Printer" menu, you can configure the default options used when printing.




      Set the "Basic" options.




      Set the "Layout" options.



      After you finished setting the default options, make sure you "Save" them.

      The options you have configured here will serve as the defaults used by the pipsplus command.
      Note: Options and values available may vary with printer model and the version of the printer driver package used.

      Note:

        Option settings saved with root permissions will serve as system-wide defaults and affect all users.
        System-wide defaults will be overridden by the user's own customised settings.
        However, unless you "Save" your customised option settings, they will not take effect.


    4. Printing From Applications

      When you want to print from applications such as the GIMP, you can use a print command such as "pipsplus -p rp1", where you specify the printer via the -p option of the pipsplus command.





      The application should then print using the option settings you set (and saved!) via the pipsplus-config command as illustrated before.

      Note:

        Depending on the data to be printed, it may take quite a while to print a single page.
        Furthermore, in case of invalid print options the print action may be cancelled without warning.


    5. Setting Printer Extensions

      For activities such as setting the printer's suspend mode, changing of the toner cartridge, start pipsplus-config and select the "Printer Settings" menu on the "Extension" tab.




      Note:

      • The "Extension" tab is not available for remote printers.
      • Please refrain from using this functionality for printers other than it was intended for.
      • When communication with the printer can not be established, this functionality can not be used.

  5. Command Reference

    1. Command overview

      The Photo Image Print System Plus software contains the following commands:

      (included in the pipsplus package)
      pipsplusprinting front-end
      pipsplus-adminconfiguration command
      pipsplusdcommunication service/daemon

      (included in the pipsplus-gtk package)
      pipsplus-configGUI-based configuration tool
      pipsplus-monitorGUI-based printer status monitor

      The following types of command-line options can be used:
      option typeexampleexplanation
      short option without argument-V no argument should be given
      long option without argument--version equivalent to corresponding short option
      short option with argument-p PRINTER argument is required
      long option with argument--printer=PRINTER equivalent to corresponding short option
      short option with optional argument-l[SECTION] argument is not required
      long option with optional argument--list[=SECTION] equivalent to corresponding short option

      Note:
      When specifying an argument for a short option that optionally takes an argument, do not separate the option from the argument with a space. That is, use:
      $ pipsplus-admin -lmodel
      instead of:
      $ pipsplus-admin -l model

    2. pipsplus

      Handles various document formats, including:

      • ASCII Text, Postscript, JPEG, TIFF, PNG

      invocation: $ pipsplus [option] file-name

      Command-line options
      short namelong namedescription
      -p PRINTER--printer=PRINTER sets the printer to use
      -o KEY:VALUE--option=KEY:VALUE sets a print option
      --mode=gtk use the GTK-based GUI interface to set print options
      (requires pipsplus-gtk)
      --dump-printer output print options on standard output
      -t FILE--ticket=FILE use the ticket specified
      --dump-ticket output the ticket on standard output
      (output control options)
      -v[REPEAT]--verbose[=REPEAT] display more progress messages
      -?--help display a summary of command-line options
      --usage display a short explanation on how to use the command
      -V--version display the command's version information

      Example

      • Print file.ps on lp1, setting options via the GUI-based interface
        $ pipsplus -p lp1 --mode=gtk file.ps

      • Printing the EUC-JP encoded file nihongo.txt on A4 paper on rp1
        $ pipsplus -p rp1 -o Encoding:EUC-JP -o PaperSize:a4 nihongo.txt

      Note:

      • The encodings that can be used for the VALUE for Encoding, can be listed with the following command
        $ a2ps --list=encodings

      • The printer options that you can set via the -o option differ per printer.
        For details see the "Printing Option Manual" included with every printer driver package.

      Although you specify all print options on the command-line via the -o option, setting and saving your preferred settings in advance makes the pipsplus command invocation a lot easier. You will only need to override those settings that differ from your saved preferences.
      For details, see "pipsplus-admin".

    3. pipsplus-admin

      Manipulates a wide variety of printer related settings.

      Printer related settings can be divided in two basic groups: those that define a printer to the system, and settings used when printing with (one of) the defined printer(s).

      The former are system settings so must be performed with root privileges. The printer definitions are saved in /etc/pipsplus/pipsplus.conf. If this file is changed, it is necessary to restart lpd and pipsplusd.

      The latter can be changed freely on a per user basis. With root privileges these settings are saved under the /etc/pipsplus/printers/ directory and become the system-wide defaults. For normal users the settings are saved under the $HOME/.pipsplus/printers/ directory. The file name for a printer by the name of lp1 would be lp1.conf. These settings (combined if both are present) become the default settings from the next time you print via pipsplus.

      Command-line options
      short optionlong optiondescription
      (action options)
      -a--add adds a printer definition
      -k--delete removes a printer definition
      -e--edit changes a printer definition
      -l[KEY]--list[=KEY] displays the information requested KEY
      (KEYs that can be used with -l)
      printer displays printer definition information (default)
      model displays available printer models
      device displays available devices *1
      (other options)
      -p PRINTER--printer=PRINTER specifies the printer
      -r HOSTNAME/PRINTER--remote=HOSTNAME/PRINTER specifies the remote printers host name and printer name
      -o KEY:VALUE--option=KEY:VALUE sets option KEY to VALUE
      (output control options)
      -v[REPEAT]--verbose[=REPEAT] display more progress messages
      -?--help display a summary of command-line options
      --usage display a short explanation on how to use the command
      -V--version display the command's version information
      Note:
        *1: The list of available devices does not contain merely a list of devices with printers connected to them, but a list of all devices that could have a printer connected to them.

      Example

      • Display a list of defined printers
        $ pipsplus-admin -l

      • Display a list of supported printer models
        # pipsplus-admin -lmodel

      • Add an AcuLaser C900 as lp1 on the parallel port
        # pipsplus-admin -a -p lp1 -o model:AL-C900 -o device:parport0

        Note: To add a local printer the printer name (-p), the model (-o model) and device (-o device) are required command-line options.

      • List the printers available at a print server by the name of foo.epkowa.co.jp
        # pipsplus-admin -l -r foo.epkowa.co.jp

      • Add the lp1 printer on foo.epkowa.co.jp as remote printer rp1
        # pipsplus-admin -a -p rp1 -r foo.epkowa.co.jp/lp1

      • Set the system-wide default for lp1's Color option to monochrome
        # pipsplus-admin -e -p lp1 -o Color:black

      • Check the current system-wide default settings for lp1
        # pipsplus-admin -l -p lp1

      • Make 2-up printing your preferred default layout on printer lp1
        $ pipsplus-admin -e -p lp1 -o PrintLayout:2up

      Note:

      • Print options settings are determined in the following order of priority:
        1. pipsplus command-line options
        2. user preferences
        3. system-wide defaults
        4. driver compile-time values

        As an example, if you give the pipsplus command a command-line to use 2-up printing (-o PrintLayout:2up), then, no matter what your saved preferences are, no matter what the system-wide default are, your data will be printed in 2-up format.

      • When printing remotely, the server settings are completely ignored. Only the client's settings are used.

    4. pipsplus-config

      A GUI-based version of pipsplus-admin

      Like pipsplus-admin, manipulates a wide variety of printer related settings.
      When executed with root permissions, all functionality can be used.
      When used by a normal user, printers can not be added, removed or modified.

      With the pipsplus-config command you can do the following:

      • addition, removal and modification of printers
      • setting of print options for individual printers
      • controlling printer extensions (suspend mode, changing toner cartridges, etc)
      • monitoring a printer's status (starts pipsplus-monitor)

      There are no command-line options.

      Note: controlling the extensions of a remote printers is not supported.

    5. pipsplus-monitor

      Displays a printer's status

      With the pipsplus-monitor command you can do the following:

      • display a printer's status
      • check on printer resources such as paper, ink, etc.
      • cancel the current print job

      Command-line options
      short optionlong optiondescription
      -p PRINTER--printer=PRINTER specifies the printer you want to monitor
      (output control options)
      -?--help display a summary of command-line options
      --usage display a short explanation on how to use the command
      -V--version display the command's version information

    6. pipsplusd

      Absolutely essential printer device communication server

      This program runs as a daemon process on the system and takes care of the communication between the Photo Image Print System Plus utilities and your printer hardware. As all these utilities use pipsplusd to access your printer(s), it must be running at all times.

      Note:

      • It is normally started when the system starts up.
      • If settings are changed, be sure to restart pipsplusd and lpd. If they are not restarted, the new settings will not take effect. Furthermore, be sure to restart pipsplusd first, and only then lpd.

      There are no command-line options.

  6. Remarks


    1. Remote Printing Remarks

      • Version 1.0 of Photo Image Print System Plus does not provide support for remote printing.
        When using the remote print facilities, both the server and client need to have the same version of Photo Image Print System Plus installed.


      • It is assumed that the remote printer can be used as such with LPRng.
        Please make sure that your network settings and network and printer security settings are correct before installing and configuring Photo Image Print System Plus.

        Should you have a printer you are familiar with, we recommend you verify remote printing via the lpr command with that printer before you install Photo Image Print System Plus.

      • Photo Image Print System Plus uses port 35000 for data communication.
        You will need to adjust your network security settings (firewall etc.) to allow traffic on this port, as well as port 515 used by lpr, between server and client.

      • Remote printer hopping is not supported.
        This means that printing on or monitoring a printer connected to server C via print server B from client A (as depicted below) is not possible.

    2. Further Information

      For new releases, additional information and the latest news on Photo Image Print System Plus please refer to our home page at:
      http://www.epkowa.co.jp/english/linux_e/linux.html