Print Issues

[kaustik]

I am looking at migrating our company from Windows to Kubuntu but the last requirement to take the plunge is beginning to frustrate me.

We use Zebra ZP 500 Plus thermal printers for FedEx and USPS labels and our shipping system is 100% web based. The label is generated as a PNG and we need the printer to scale the image to fit on a 4x6 page. Every browser I have tried has its own quirks. Chromium is close, but you cannot adjust the scaling so the label almost fits, but a small portion is printing on a second page. Rekonq I can get it to print 100% perfectly, but I have to Ctrl-P, then click on page setup, click landscape, click ok and then the preview is correct. Not ideal when we ship hundreds of packages a day. Firefox uses yet another page setup which is different from both Chromium and Rekonq and scaling doesn't work correctly.

I have wasted hours fiddling with settings. Rekonq offers a quality print but for the life of me I can't get it to save the previous print settings. Any suggestions?

[doctordruidphd]

Re: Print Issues

Just thinking off the top of my head here (as well as mixing metaphors), but I wonder if setting up a default print profile in CUPS, and giving it a unique name such as LABELPRINTER, and then printing from the web browser to that printername would work.

Get to cups by pointing your browser at:

http://localhost:631/

Another thing you can do is set default printer options with lpadmin and lpoptions, but I don't think firefox or other browsers can be coaxed into using lpr directly.

[kaustik]

Re: Print Issues

Tried setting it up in CUPS within the browser as well instead of the printer configuration interface and it functions the same way. Also there is no way to specify landscape as a default page setup within CUPS administration. The 4" x 6" setting is about the only thing that carries over.

In the printer configuration, job options tab, I can set the orientation to landscape but it doesn't seem to carry over to Reconq. Landscape setting with Chromium works but as stated, the scaling does not. Firefox? That has been the most difficult to even print anything beside a blank page.

I appreciate your input.

[sithlord48]

Re: Print Issues

I usually use just the print dialog it self to scale the images, however it seams to be called in a different way from a browser then from a program like gwenview. when you print from gwenview you get more tabs under options one of them is "image settings" in that tab you can set the scaling options. so you could use kget and open all pictures saved w/ gwenview and print from that. if you can't do what Dr.druid is suggesting above. or find a way to have the browser call the extended dialog

[kaustik]

Re: Print Issues

Same problem in qwenview. I have to change to landscape every single time the program is launched.

[doctordruidphd]

Re: Print Issues

You can change the default printing option to landscape with

lpoptions -o landscape

but I'll warn you -- once you do this, it's the default option for EVERYTHING. I had to search out the config file it wrote -- I think it's in .local or .config somewhere, to get rid of it. But it may actually be what you want. I'm sure there's a way to get it to work with a specific print queue, but I never mess with it that much. You might take a look at its man page, and also the man page for lpr, for its list of options.

Edit - oops, that should be lpoptions -o landscape, I changed it.
Edit again: also be aware that this is on a per user basis -- the file is stored in each user's home, unless you change it in the /etc file mentioned in the man page.

[doctordruidphd]

Re: Print Issues

Actually, maybe
System Settings > Printer Configuration > (choose printer) > Job Options > Orientation

might be that simple.

[kaustik]

Re: Print Issues

Actually, maybe
System Settings > Printer Configuration > (choose printer) > Job Options > Orientation

might be that simple.

Yeah I have that set already but it still default to Portrait when printing in Reconq. I'll try the command when I'm back in the office and see what effect that might have. Maybe I could do a simple script that they can click on to set for portrait then back to landscape.

Our print needs are about 50/50. Invoices print portrait whilst shipping labels are landscape. I would hate for such a silly issue to prevent us from migrating.

[doctordruidphd]

Re: Print Issues

If worse comes to worst, you might try contacting the rekonq developers:

http://rekonq.kde.org/contact

That's an issue they should be able to help with. My guess is that somewhere buried in its configuration files is some sort of printer setup. Maybe not, but worth the try.