Expanded Printer Support

This feature is new in the Solaris Express 6/04 release and in the Solaris 9 9/04 release.

In this release, modifications have been made to incorporate support for a wide array of printers. This support is accomplished through the use of additional transformation software, raster image processor (RIP), and PostScript^TM Printer Description (PPD) files.

These additions provide functionality that enables you to print to printers, such as the Lexmark Optra E312 and Epson Stylus Photo 1280, by using PPD files.

This feature is useful in an environment where printers do not have resident PostScript processing capabilities.

In addition, the existing Solaris printing tools have been modified to include a new -n option to the lpadmin command. With this option, you can designate a PPD file to use when creating a new print queue or when modifying an existing print queue.

Also, the Solaris Print Manager screens have been updated to enable you to choose a PPD file for the print queue through the selection of make, model, and driver. This new feature differs greatly from previous Solaris software releases. In previous releases, the provided list of printer types, and information about whether the printer accepted PostScript or ASCII text, was limited.

For more information, see the lpadmin(1M) man page and the System Administration Guide: Advanced Administration.