Gimp-Print 4.2.6, released January 11, 2004, is a stable release in the Gimp-Print 4.2 series. This is expected to be the last release in the 4.2 series.

Gimp-Print is a suite of printer drivers that may be used with most common UNIX print spooling systems, including CUPS, lpr, LPRng, or others. These drivers provide high quality printing for UNIX (including Macintosh OS X 10.2 and newer) and Linux systems in many cases equal to or better than proprietary vendor-supplied drivers, and can be used for many of the most demanding printing tasks.

This software includes the Print plug-in for the Gimp, and GhostScript and CUPS drivers, including Foomatic data.

The Print plug-in for the GIMP requires the Gimp 1.2. The Gimp 1.3 is not supported at this time.

The CUPS driver requires CUPS 1.1.9 or higher. 1.1.14 or above is highly recommended, as certain translation-related bugs are fixed and it is possible to print true CMYK.

The Ghostscript driver requires GNU Ghostscript 5.10, 5.50, 6.51, or any later GNU Ghostscript release based on 6.51 (e. g. 6.52). It may also be used with GNU Ghostscript 7.05, or with ESP Ghostscript 7.05.

The IJS GhostScript plugin driver requires GNU Ghostscript 6.53 or later, ESP Ghostscript 7.05 or later, or APFL GhostScript 7.04 or later.

Users of Macintosh OS X 10.2 and above can use this package, as the printing system is based on CUPS, which is supported by Gimp-print. Note that Macintosh OS X 10.0 and 10.1 (including 10.1.5) cannot use this package. We recommend that Macintosh OS X users download the precompiled installer package from
http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/MacOSX.php3 rather than attempt to build this package from source, as using the installer is much simpler. We further recommend that Macintosh OS X users install ESP GhostScript, to permit printing from Carbon applications (such as most Adobe applications) that generate PostScript rather than PDF output. Directions for that are also available at http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/MacOSX.php3.

Please read the README file for full instructions on installing this package from source code.

Gimp-Print 4.2.6 contains the following major changes over Gimp-Print 4.2.5:

* Major bugs fixed:

1) (bug 627266) The CUPS driver offers an "Autoselect" option for the media source (input slot). This behavior cannot be disabled. Previous versions of Gimp-Print did not handle this option appropriately. This option is now handled appropriately, by treating it as the default input slot for the printer.

2) (bug 729918) The PostScript driver (used only in the Print plugin for the GIMP) did not operate correctly if the locale was set to something other than the US English locale.

3) (bug 668342) The Canon S-450, and other Canon printers, only printed the first page of a multi-page job if the printer was hosted on a Windows system.

4) (bug 842715) The Epson Stylus Color 600, 800, 850, 1520, and 3000 failed to print in black and white or grayscale at certain resolutions.

5) (bug 865253) In certain cases, the PPD file generator for CUPS may not generate all of the PPD files, or may not generate them correctly. The underlying problem is some versions of CUPS specify a linker command line that forces an old version of the Gimp-Print driver library to be used when building the PPD files.

This fix works correctly unless --disable-static (to disable building static libraries) is passed on the command line. Normally, only people packaging up Gimp-Print for distribution use this option. If you wish to use this option, please read the Exceptions and Workarounds *carefully* for a full description of the problem along with suggested methods of procedure.

* New Functionality:

1) A number of newer Epson Stylus printers and multi-function devices are supported. Please see the supported printers list at the bottom of this file for full information on supported printers.

2) The Canon S200 is now supported.

3) The European 10x15 cm and US Engineering C paper sizes have been added.

4) The CUPS driver now offers normal and reversed paper order, permitting printing documents in the correct page order on inkjet and some laser printers.

5) A Czech language translation has been added.

* Quality improvements:

1) Under OS X, the options are grouped more appropriately, making for easier use.

2) Some Epson printer resolution names have been changed for clarity. This change does not introduce an incompatibility.

3) The escputil command no longer hangs if the printer does not respond.

4) Minor speed improvement for the HP LaserJet IIP.

5) Minor adjustment to the HP DeskJet 340 margins.

6) The PPD files have been audited for conformance to the PPD specification.

* Exceptions and Workarounds:

1) There are longstanding reports of problems printing with certain USB-parallel adapters on Macintosh OS X. In particular, many users have reported problems with the Keyspan adapter; we recommend that users having problems try different brands of adapters, and avoid using USB hubs. Please check our web site (http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/MacOSX.php3) for a link to a user feedback forum regarding these cables.

2) Mac OS X users who use the Epson Printer Utility (provided by Epson with their standard driver set) to check ink levels and perform maintenance tasks, such as head cleaning or head alignment, may encounter print job failures when attempting to print with the Gimp-Print driver after using the Epson utility. The cause for this failure is currently unknown, but the workaround is to completely power-cycle the printer, after which the Gimp-Print driver should again print normally. Another option is to disable the Epson Printer Utility.

3) The Mac OS X print dialog may offer an "Autoselect" option as the default media source (input slot) on some printers. This option may not be valid and can result in nothing being printed. The workaround is to choose a different setting (explicitly select the input slot you wish to use).

4) The new HP DesignJets have not been fully tuned. In particular, there are reports that they print too light. This can be corrected with the Density adjustment (try 1.5~1.7 or thereabouts).

5) The list of compatible and potentially compatible Hewlett-Packard printers has been updated with the latest available information. If a particular printer does not work with the recommended driver, we recommend that you try other similar drivers, check the Feature Requests at
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=101537&group_id=1537&func=browse, and if the printer is not listed please file a feature request (via the Submit New button).

6) Borderless (full-bleed) printing is not quite correct on the Epson Stylus Photo printers that support it (see bug 621668). Typically, the left or right margin is off by 1 mm or less, resulting in a very fine white strip on that edge.

7) Many Canon printers do not print correctly at 720x360 DPI. The workaround is to use 360 or 720 DPI.

8) Many new Epson Stylus printers do not return status to the escputil command (for ink level check, etc). We recommend use of the mtink tool (please see http://xwtools.automatix.de) for this purpose.

9) With certain versions of CUPS and in certain configurations, if a new version of Gimp-Print is installed over an existing version genppd will create PPD files based on the older version of Gimp-Print rather than the newer version. This will happen if all of the following are true:

1) The cups-config provided by the CUPS driver adds -Wl,rpath=/usr/lib. This is done by some versions of CUPS reportedly because in some cases the runtime linker does not pick up libraries out of /usr/lib. This can be checked by running

cups-config --libs --ldflags

and inspecting the output for any mention of "rpath", "RPATH", "RUN_PATH", or the like.

2) There is presently a version of Gimp-Print installed in /usr (--prefix=/usr) rather than /usr/local or the like.

3) Gimp-Print is built dynamically only (--disable-static)

Note that in general if you install CUPS into a non-standard location, and install Gimp-Print into the same location, this problem can surface.

This bug is difficult to detect in a normal build. It does not cause an error to happen during build; the only failure is that some PPD files may not be built or may be built with missing options.

In this case, the run path embedded in the genppd executable points to the version of Gimp-Print installed in /usr/lib. This run path overrides any attempt by libtool to look in the build directory. The result is that genppd is run against the older version of Gimp-Print. If the new version contains additional features (more printers, etc.) they will not be available to genppd.

If you wish to use only shared libraries, and do not wish to build static libraries at all, there are three workarounds available:

1) Build and install Gimp-Print into /usr (rather than /usr/local) and then rebuild Gimp-Print from scratch. This will install the correct libgimpprint.so in /usr/lib, and in the rebuild genppd will be run against the correct library.

2) Remove the old version of Gimp-Print prior to building the new version of Gimp-Print. The important files to remove are anything named /usr/lib/libgimpprint*.

3) Edit cups-config to remove the reference to the run path.

The following bugs have been fixed in Gimp-Print 4.2.6:

627266 Mac OS X: Autoselect option incorrectly offered 668342 Canon S-450 prints only one page of a job 729918 Postscript family driver fails in non-US locale 735493 CUPS PPD files lacking *OutputOrder 842715 Epson 600/800/850/1520/3000 fail at certain resolutions BW 865253 genppd may not generate new PPD files (4.2)

The following bugs have been tested and cannot be reproduced:

764041 CNR: Epson 3000 720x360DPI problem 828993 CNR: Epson SC 850 using Microweave prints tall characters

The following bugs are currently open:

470049 CUPS PPD files not translated on all systems 538097 QUALITY-Canon S400 dark and yellow cast 549677 Canon BJC-1000 functions incorrectly at 720x360 DPI 557868 QUALITY-HP DeskJet 560 is washed out 581168 Canon BJC 250 just spits out pages 601767 Mac OS X: Canon BJC 2100 does not print multiple pages 602933 QUALITY-Canon S800 dark and grainy 613054 Mac OS X: Printing from InDesign 2.0 on OS 10.2.1 614882 QUALITY - Canon BJC-55 is too pale and desaturated 621668 Epson Stylus full bleed prints have slight margin 627978 QUALITY: Canon BJC-6500 has magenta cast. 631937 HP DesignJet Sheet Cutter Problem 641981 QUALITY: HP DesignJets print too light 645116 QUALITY: HP DeskJet regression from 4.1.7 647035 QUALITY: Colors don't match OEM drivers 662988 HP DeskJet 970Cxi page horizontally squeezed 672692 Epson photo 700 single page of multi page job 687656 Paper Positioning Problems Epson 7600 704334 QUALITY: Epson SP 2100: Green Cast/Dark Colours/Poor Greys 811062 Reverse printing