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+
+Foomatic 3.0.2
+==============
+
+foomatic-filters
+----------------
+
+Filter scripts used by the printer spoolers to convert the incoming
+PostScript data into the printer's native format using a
+printer/driver specific, but spooler-independent PPD file.
+
+
+Grant Taylor <gtaylor@picante.com>
+Till Kamppeter <till.kamppeter@gmx.net>
+http://www.linuxprinting.org/
+
+This usage documentation file is written by Till Kamppeter
+
+
+Intro
+-----
+
+Foomatic is a database providing information about the usage of
+printers with free operating systems and free printer drivers, where
+"free" is meant as free software in the sense of the Free Software
+Foundation (http://www.gnu.org). Therefore the database only contains
+information about printer drivers which are free software. The
+technology of this database can also be used for non-free drivers, but
+the database entries have to be published in separate packages
+then. The database can also be run under non-free operating systems
+(as commercial Unixes) as they often use GhostScript and free printer
+drivers.
+
+Since most free operating systems (GNU/Linux, *BSD, ...) are
+compatible to Unix, their applications send PostScript to the printer
+queues. Therefore one usually hands over the PostScript directly to a
+PostScript printer (sometimes with some prepended PostScript commands
+for options) or uses GhostScript for generating the data format the
+printer needs. This is done by the printer spooler which also stores
+the data in a spool directory when the printer is still occupied by
+another job, transmits the data to a print server in the network, and
+so on.
+
+The printer drivers for non-PostScript printers are either compiled
+into GhostScript, a plug-in for GhostScript (e. g. IJS drivers), or
+they are an extra filter which converts a generic bitmap generated by
+GhostScript into the printer's data format. For this the spooler has
+to call complicated command lines of GhostScript and the extra filter
+(if needed). The user of a free operating system normally does not see
+these command lines because an installation program takes appropriate
+filter scripts and/or description files from a database and assigns
+them to the printer queue.
+
+Widely used databases were the RHS-Printfilters and the APS
+filters. Their disadvantages were that they only supported one spooler
+(LPD/LPRng) and only a small part of the driver's options (mostly page
+size and resolution). Foomatic supports all options of the drivers and
+all known spoolers (LPD, LPRng, GNUlpr, CUPS, PPR, PDQ, CPS, direct
+spooler-less printing). In addition, all known free software printer
+drivers are supported. Foomatic also supports printing of various
+non-PostScript file types for spoolers which do not support this by
+themselves (LPD, LPRng, GNUlpr, spooler-less printing). To enable this
+feature you need to have "a2ps", "enscript", or "mpage" installed.
+
+Another problem is that the way how to install queues, to print files,
+and to handle jobs is very different with different spoolers. LPD for
+example requires editing of configuration files for adding a queue,
+whereas CUPS and PPR have specialized command line utilities. Foomatic
+puts a layer between the applications and the spoolers so that one has
+a common, spooler-independent command line interface for all spoolers,
+so that switching of spoolers or administration of a network with
+different spoolers gets much easier, because for the same operations
+there are the same commands, independent of the spooler.
+
+This command line interface can also be used as a base for
+spooler-independent graphical frontends.
+
+
+Installation
+------------
+
+Foomatic runs on all systems where one can run the Perl
+interpreter.
+
+foomatic-filters needs nothing else than the Perl interpreter to build
+and run.
+
+To connect to remote printers, you need additional connectivity
+software (as "rlpr", "nc", "smbspool', ...). To print non-PostScript
+files with LPD, LPRng, GNUlpr, or without spooler, you will need a2ps,
+enscript, mpage, or similar filters which convert non-PostScript files
+to PostScript. a2ps, enscript, and mpage will be automatically used by
+the scripts when they are installed.
+
+Download sources:
+rlpr: http://freshmeat.net/projects/rlpr/ or
+ http://www.linuxprinting.org/download/printing/
+netcat: http://freshmeat.net/projects/netcat/
+
+This package does not require any other Foomatic package. it can be
+used with PPD files downloaded from linuxprinting.org, with
+manufacturer-supplied PPDs for PostScript printers, and probably with
+other PPD files.
+
+Note: PPD files for native CUPS drivers, as the ones shipping with
+CUPS or Gimp-Print cannot be used with other spoolers than CUPS.
+
+For non-PostScript printers one also needs GhostScript (5.50 or newer,
+ESP GhostScript 7.05.4 or newer highly recommended) and the
+appropriate printer driver.
+
+For drivers which have to be compiled into GhostScript ("Execution
+style: GhostScript" on the driver pages on linuxprinting.org) check
+with "gs -h" whether the driver is in your GhostScript. If not you
+need to compile the driver into your GhostScript or use a GhostScript
+version which already contains it.
+
+If the driver page says "Execution style: Uniprint", it is much
+easier, check whether the appropriate ".upp" file is in one of the
+directories listed under "Search path:" in the end of the "gs -h"
+output. Copy the ".upp" file to one of these directories when it was
+not there already.
+
+The third type of driver is marked with "Execution style: Filter",
+this means, that you have to install a filter executable in addition
+to GhostScript. Check with "which <name of the filter>" whether the
+filter is already there, otherwise download and install the
+appropriate package.
+
+
+
+foomatic-filters can be installed using these commands (if you have
+downloaded this package from CVS, run "./make_configure" at first, for
+that you will also need the "autoconf" and "aclocal" utilities,
+"aclocal" is in the "automake" package in some distributions):
+
+ ./configure
+ make
+ make install
+
+"make install" must be run as "root", the other commands can be run as
+a normal user.
+
+The "configure" script will auto-detect where the scripts have to be
+installed and where the Perl interpreter is located. If "configure"
+fails because of something not being installed, do
+
+ rm -rf config.cache autom*.cache
+
+before you run "configure" again (after installing the missing parts).
+
+By default, foomatic-filters is installed into subdirectories of /usr/local
+(e. g. /usr/local/bin/foomatic-gswrapper), to get it into subdirectories
+of /usr (/usr/bin/foomatic-gswrapper), enter:
+
+ ./configure --prefix=/usr
+ make
+ make install
+
+There are other things which can be adjusted by options on the
+"configure" command line, enter "./configure --help" for more
+info. You can also modify variables in the beginning of the "Makefile"
+after running "configure", but note that every run of "configure"
+re-creates the "Makefile".
+
+You can also run Foomatic out of its source directory (for example
+when you want to try it out, or when you don't have root
+access). Therefore enter (can be done as a normal user):
+
+ ./configure
+ make inplace
+
+and enter the commands with "./" in the beginning
+(e. g. "./foomatic-rip ...", "man ./foomatic-rip.1"). This also works
+on a machine where a system-wide Foomatic is already installed.
+
+In addition, you should install a utility to make PostScript out of
+non-PostScript files, so that you can print those non-PostScript files
+and also a list of available options using the "docs" option. The
+supported utilities are "a2ps"
+(http://www-inf.enst.fr/~demaille/a2ps/), "enscript"
+(http://people.ssh.fi/mtr/genscript/), and "mpage"
+(http://www.mesa.nl/pub/mpage). Recommended is "a2ps" because it
+detects many file types (text, PDF, most image formats) and together
+with ImageMagick (for images) and GNU/ESP/AFPL GhostScript 6.51 or
+newer (for PDF) it converts them to PostScript. The other tools
+convert only text files. The tool you have installed is auto-detected
+by foomatic-rip and used automatically if
+necessary. PPR needs this tool only for printing the option
+list, and CUPS does not need it at all. PPR and CUPS use internal filters for printing non-PostScript files.
+
+If you have a multi-function device from HP, install HPOJ from
+
+ http://hpoj.sourceforge.net/
+
+before starting to set up printer queues with foomatic-filters. This
+is needed for printing on USB devices and for scanning and photo
+memory card access on all devices. If you use CUPS 1.1.12 or newer
+together with the old HPOJ 0.8, you need also the latest "ptal"
+backend script from
+
+ http://www.hornclan.com/~mark/cups/
+
+License information and installation instructions for this script you
+find in the beginning of the script itself. See also the end of the
+"Adding a queue" section in this file to see how to use this script.
+
+The "ptal" backend script is already included in HPOJ 0.9.
+
+
+Setting up printers
+-------------------
+
+If you have "foomatic-db-engine" installed, see the USAGE file there.
+
+If not, see, depending on your spooler:
+
+CUPS:
+
+ http://www.linuxprinting.org/cups-doc.html
+
+LPD, LPRng, GNUlpr:
+
+ http://www.linuxprinting.org/lpd-doc.html
+
+PPR:
+
+ http://www.linuxprinting.org/ppr-doc.html
+
+PDQ:
+
+ http://www.linuxprinting.org/pdq-doc.html
+
+CPS:
+
+ http://www.tww.cx/cps.php
+
+Direct, spooler-less printing:
+
+ http://www.linuxprinting.org/direct-doc.html
+
+Usage of PPD files (for all spoolers):
+
+ http://www.linuxprinting.org/ppd-doc.html
+