The Gutenprint project is pleased to announce the first public release of Gutenprint 5.0. This release, which has been under development for over four years, offers improved quality, greatly enhanced functionality, and support for many more printers than our previous version, Gimp-Print 4.2.

Currently only the source package is available. We expect to release a binary installer for Macintosh OS X in the very near future.

The package may be downloaded from http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/gimp-print/gutenprint-5.0.0.tar.bz2?download.

Please see the full release notes at http://sourceforge.net/project/shownotes.php?release_id=435706&group_id=1537. Abbreviated release notes follow.

I) GENERAL REQUIREMENTS
Gutenprint will run on any reasonably modern computer running Linux, Macintosh OS X (10.2 or above), Solaris, or any other UNIX-like operating system. If you plan to compile this package from source, you will also need an ANSI C compiler, such as gcc (recommended). A compiler is not required if you are installing a pre-compiled package.
Processor and memory requirements vary depending upon the printer and runtime options selected; it is suggested that you have at least 64 MB of memory for general purpose printing, 256 MB or more for high quality printing on a good printer, and 1 GB or more for large format printing at high resolution. You should have at least 50 MB of free disk space to compile and install Gutenprint. Disk space requirements for printing will vary depending upon how you use Gutenprint, but are generally modest except as noted below. We recommend a processor speed of at least 300 MHz. Fast printers may require a faster processor to achieve maximum printing speed.
For general use, you should have the Common UNIX Printing System, CUPS (version 1.1.15 or above) or Foomatic (2.0 or above) installed. Please the rest of the release notes, in particular the Exceptions and Workarounds, for full details on installation, as there is important information to be aware of. CUPS is the printing system used on Macintosh OS X 10.2 and above, and many other systems use it. The combination of CUPS and Gutenprint provides a flexible, general purpose printing system capable of producing the highest quality output with any of the printers supported by this package. We strongly recommend using CUPS with Gutenprint as a general-purpose printing solution.

The enhanced Print plug-in for the GIMP requires either the GIMP 2.0 or above, or 1.2.3 or above on the 1.2 line (1.2.5 is recommended). This plug-in will work with any printing system, and offers a comprehensive user interface to control all aspects of the printing process. If you are printing photographs in large format from the GIMP at very high resolution, disk space requirements may be substantial, and we recommend at least 2 GB of free disk space for that purpose.

The Ghostscript driver requires GNU Ghostscript 6.53 or higher, ESP Ghostscript 7.05 or higher, or AFPL Ghostscript 7.04 or higher. It uses the IJS package included with these versions of Ghostscript to create a driver that may be built much more easily than traditional Ghostscript drivers. This driver should be used in conjunction with Foomatic to configure printers.

Users of Macintosh OS X 10.2 (Jaguar), 10.3 (Panther), and 10.4 (Tiger) can use this package, as the printing system is based on CUPS. For ease of installation, a pre-built package with installer is normally supplied a few days after the release of the source package. We strongly recommend that OS X users use the pre-built package rather than attempt to build it themselves.
NOTE: This package will not work with any version of OS X 10.0 and 10.1 (such as 10.1.5). The printing system used with these versions of OS X is not compatible with Gutenprint. OS X 10.2 and above use CUPS as the basis of the printing system, which is compatible with Gutenprint.

The README file included with this package provides full instructions for building and installing Gutenprint.

================================================================
II) MAJOR CHANGES FROM PREVIOUS RELEASES
A) MAJOR CHANGES BETWEEN GUTENPRINT 5.0.0 RELEASE CANDIDATE 3 AND GUTENPRINT 5.0.0:

1) A serious problem with margins when printing from CUPS in some cases was introduced in Gutenprint 5.0.0-rc3. The symptoms are that when printing certain kinds of material on certain printers, the print is positioned incorrectly on the page (too far to the right and too far down the page). This problem has been fixed.
2) The Ghostscript driver used with Foomatic now prints all pages of a document correctly. Previously it did not print any page except the first page of a document, or printed all other pages with possibly incorrect settings (bug 1501816).
3) A new user's manual has been added in doc/gutenprint-users-manual.odt (ODF format) and doc/gutenprint-users-manual.pdf, replacing the old manual that was based on Gimp-Print 4.2 (bug 1260142).
4) The Postscript driver now handles PPD files with non-integer imageable areas correctly in all locales (the PPD files certain HP inkjet printers using the HPIJS driver have non-integer imageable areas for some paper sizes). In 5.0.0-rc3, this was handled incorrectly in locales that do not use the decimal point (".") for separating fractions from integers.
5) The PPD file parameter is now always accessible when using the Postscript driver in third party Gutenprint-enabled applications. This was not an issue with the enhanced Print plugin for the GIMP.

6) The Epson driver now chooses unidirectional vs. bidirectional mode more intelligently on new printers that are capable of producing excellent quality in bidirectional mode at high resolutions. This improves printing speed with the default settings in certain cases and in some cases improves print quality.

7) The Epson driver offers the same quality choices as 5.0.0-rc2 for certain new printers such as the R800, R1800, and R2400. Certain quality choices (in particular Super Photo and Ultra Photo) were not available in 5.0.0-rc3.

8) Various minor problems in the PPD files have been fixed. The most notable change is that the names of the option groups have been shortened so that they are shorter than 40 characters in all cases except for one case in French.
9) The French, Danish, Hungarian, and Swedish translations have been updated.

10) In the GIMP 2.4 and above (forthcoming as of Gutenprint 5.0 release), the enhanced Print plugin will be named "Print with Gutenprint" so as not to collide with the GtkPrint-based plugin bundled with that version of the GIMP. The Print plugin bundled with GIMP 2.0 and 2.2 is based on Gimp-Print 4.2; the Print plugin in this package simply replaces the Print plugin in those versions of the GIMP (related to bug 1444700).
11) Crashes in the Ghostscript and IJS drivers on certain non-Linux platforms have been fixed (bug 1518126).
12) A problem with margins with A4 paper on Kyocera printers has been fixed (bug 1518131).

13) A problem with the preview in the GIMP 1.2 plugin (which also affects Cinepaint) not being updated properly if orientation changes has been fixed.

14) A problem with Foomatic data generation in certain locales has been fixed (bug 1033007).

15) The Epson Stylus Photo R800 and R1800 now print closer to the bottom edge of the page.

The following bugs open in prereleases have been fixed in Gutenprint 5.0.0:

1033007 Foomatic XML data generation is locale-dependent 1260142 User documentation needs updating for 5.0.0 1444700 print menu item on wrong position 1501816 ijsgutenprint/foomatic only prints first page 1518126 rastertogutenprint core dumps on Solaris 10 1518131 Kyocera KM-2530 CUPS+Gutenprint PPD - A4 paper