kcmprinter - a tool for configuring printers
kcmprinter 0.3, 6 May 1998
Main Window
The main window of kcmprinter contains a list of the printers
installed on the system, and four buttons offering administrative functions.
If logged in as a normal user, kcmprinter can only be used to
inspect the list of available printers -- pressing any of the administrative
buttons will result in an error message. If logged in as root, pressing
a button will produce a dialog allowing administrative functions to be
carried out.
Note that all the dialogs make their changes immediately upon pressing
the dialog "OK" button. The "Apply" button at the bottom of the main window
has no effect, and the "OK" and "Cancel" buttons serve only to dismiss
kcmprinter.
The four administrative functions are as follows:
Add Local Printer
The Add Local Printer Dialog presents a number of items of information,
almost all of which will be filled in with suitable default values.
-
The printer name, which will generally be of the form "lp" followed
by one or two digits. If this is the first printer to be added, the name
will also contain the alternate "lp", which will be the default
printer.
-
The spool directory name, which will be of the form /var/spool/lpd/<printername>.
If the printer name is edited, the spool directory will change to match.
-
The device name, which may be chosen from the list of devices detected
by kcmprinter, or manually edited.
-
The printer type, which determines the type of filtering used when printing.
-
A small note box, allowing you to add other information, such as where
the printer is located.
At any point, the "Cancel" button may be pressed to dismiss the dialog.
When you're happy with the printer details (remembering to select a printer
type -- this is not done by default), press "OK" to commit the changes.
Add Remote Printer
The Add Remote Printer Dialog is very similar to the Add Local Printer
Dialog. However, in place of the list of printer types there are
two boxes for entering the name of the remote host and the queue on that
host. As there are no sensible defaults for these, the boxes will
be empty, and must be filled in before pressing the "OK" button.
Note that the assumption is that no filtering will be carried out when
printing to a remote printer.
Edit Selected Printer
If a printer is selected from the list (using the left mouse button), its
details may be edited. A dialog similar to the Add Local Printer or Add
Remote Printer dialogs will appear (depending on the location of the printer)
and the details may be changed.
Remove Selected Printer
If a printer is selected from the list (again, using the left mouse button),
it may be deleted. kcmprinter will delete the entry from the printcap
file
and, optionally, remove the associated spooling directory.
kcmprinter is written by Neil
Hart with contributions by others.
kcmprinter is released under the GPL.
View the changes since version 0.1 here.
View other notes about kcmprinter here.