On Sat 12 Mar 2016 at 09:56:37 (+0000), Brian wrote: > On Fri 11 Mar 2016 at 12:39:58 -0600, David Wright wrote: > > > On Fri 11 Mar 2016 at 17:48:01 (+0000), Brian wrote: > > > > > > The AirPrint facility handles a PDF (it has to). > > > > I don't understand this statement. If a printer doesn't have a PS > > interpreter (or emulation thereof), are you saying that it acquires > > one by virtue of supporting AirPrint? > > No. (I think you meant PDF).
I guess so. Using your terminology below, "PDF converter" is ok with me. > The PDL of choice for AirPrint capable devices is PDF. A PDF document > sent to an Airprint capable printer is converted to BUL (the Brother > Unknown Language) as it would be if it was processed on a workstation by > CUPS. > > Note that this is a conversion, not an interpretation. An interpreter > produces a raster image and this happens later when the RIP deals with > BUL. So you appear to be saying that what passes through the AirPrint wire or wifi link is a PDF. The printer then converts it to BUL, then raster. > > > Whether the printer > > > handles direct PDF printing is questionable. But it's a decent idea to > > > try. > > > > It would seem odd to support PDF printing and be silent on the matter > > in the printer's literature, eg > > www.printerbase.co.uk/spec/pdf/brother-mfcj5720dw.pdf > > http://support.brother.com/g/b/spec.aspx?c=eu_ot&lang=en&prod=mfcj5720dw_us_eu_as > > The important word is "direct". The MFC-J5720DW doesn't have a PDF > interpreter. Hence the silence. So if a PDF arrives by AirPrint, how does the MFC-J5720DW interpret it if it doesn't have a PDF converter? (I am genuinely ignorant and confused.) I'm used to this: Paper -> scanner -> PDF containing image -> [...wifi...] -> computer where the PDF is really just a container with an image in it. And then its converse (but not its inverse): Computer PDF -> CUPS -[convert]-> BUL -> [...wifi...] -> BrotherPrinter -[RIP]-> paper where the Computer PDF contains some postscript-like code mixed in with fonts etc which has to be "converted". So now with AirPrint we have: Phone PDF -[no-driver]-> [...wifi...] -> AirPrint -[convert]-> BUL -[RIP]-> paper Linux computer PDF -> CUPS -> [...wifi...] -> AirPrint -[convert]-> BUL -[RIP]-> paper but what does the backend of CUPS have to do? Why not just cp ~/my-file.pdf dnssd://Brother%20Printer... if you're not bothered about queueing/scheduling etc. Cheers, David.
