| Linux printing standards groups unite |
Jul. 19, 2006
The Free Standards Group announced on July 18 that Linuxprinting.org, the de facto standard repository for printer drivers on Linux, is merging with the FSG's OpenPrinting workgroup and will be supported in the Linux Standard Base (LSB).
The result is expected to be easier and more standardized printing functionality on Linux, and better support for Linux and printing vendors, FSG spokeswoman Amanda McPherson said.
Major printing vendors -- including Ricoh, HP, Epson, Kyocera, Brother, and many others -- currently use Linuxprinting.org as a standard support vehicle for their Linux printer drivers. The system also is used by the printer setup tools of most Linux distributions, including Red Hat, Novell, Ubuntu, Debian, Mandriva, and others.
The result of the merger will be a central place for all printing-related topics, which include:- standard printing APIs and libraries
- hardware manufacturer and ISV support and consulting
- legacy driver integration
- end-user support
The Linuxprinting.org database currently lists 250 free software printer drivers and 2,000 printers, with about 10,000 people visiting the website for printing support each day.
The database is implemented in XML and is accompanied by a universal Postscript Printer Description (PPD) file based print filter and software, which automatically creates Adobe-compliant PPD files and complete print queues for all known free spoolers: CUPS, LPRng, LPD, GNUlpr, PPR, CPS, PDQ, and spoolerless printing. With these queues, the user has access to the full functionality of the printer driver and can use all printer options out of applications (such as OpenOffice.org) or from Windows/Mac clients.
"This unifies all standardization activities for the Linux meta-platform, including desktop, server, application interoperability, developer support and printing," McPherson said. It "also makes the Free Standards Group the central organization for printing on Linux and open source Unix."
"Since its start, Linuxprinting.org has grown to become the de facto standard site for end users to get their printers to 'just work,'" said Olaf Meeuwissen of Epson Avasys Corp. "The FSG's OpenPrinting work group has been a mostly vendor-driven effort to standardize printing. We expect the merge to get both sides to understand one another better, ultimately leading to a better printing experience for both."
The San Francisco-based Free Standards Group is a nonprofit organization dedicated to developing and promoting open source software standards.
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