Abbreviation for Access Control Lists; ACLs are used to check for the access by a given (authenticated) user. A first rough support for ACLs for printing is available from CUPS; this will be refined in future versions.
See Also Authentication.
AppSocket is a protocol for the transfer of print data, also frequently called "Direct TCP/IP Printing". Hewlett-Packard® have taken AppSocket, added a few minor extensions around it and been very successful in renaming and marketing it under the brand "HP® JetDirect"...
See Also HP® JetDirect Protocol, Direct TCP/IP Printing.
APSfilter is used mainly in the context of "classical" UNIX® printing (BSD-style LPD). It is a sophisticated shell script, disguised as an "all-in-one" filtering program. In reality, APSfilter calls "real filters" to do the jobs needed. It sends printjobs automatically through these other filters, based on an initial file-type analysis of the printfile. It is written and maintained by Andreas Klemm. It is similar to Magicfilter and mostly uses Ghostscript for file conversions. Some Linux Distributions (like SuSE®) use APSfilter, others Magicfilter (like Red Hat®), some have both for preference selection (like *BSD). CUPS has no need for APSfilter, as it runs its own file type recognition (based on MIME types) and applies its own filtering logic.
See Also Ghostscript, Magicfilter, MIME-Types, printcap.
Proving the identity of a certain person (maybe via username/password or by means of a certificate) is often called authentication. Once you are authenticated, you may or may not get access to a requested ressource, possibly based on ACLs.
See Also ACLs.
In the context of printing, a server or a host may receive additional information sent back from the printer (status messages etc.), either upon a query or unrequested. AppSocket ( = HP® JetDirect), CUPS and IPP support bi-directional communication, LPR/LPD and BSD-style printing do not...
See Also AppSocket Protocol, CUPS, Direct TCP/IP Printing, HP® JetDirect Protocol, IPP, LPR/LPD printing.
Generic term for different variants of the traditional UNIX® printing method. Its first version appeared in the early 70s on BSD UNIX® and was formally described in RFC 1179 only as late as 1990. At the time when BSD "remote" printing was first designed, printers were serially or otherwise directly connected devices to a host (with the Internet hardly consisting of more than 100 nodes!); printers used hole-punched, continuous paper, fed through by a tractor mechanism, with simple rows of ASCII text mechanically hammered on to the medium, drawn from a cardboard box beneath the table. It came out like a zig-zag folded paper "snake". Remote printing consisted of a neighbouring host in the next room sending a file asking for printout. How technology has changed! Printers generally use cut-sheet media, they have built-in intelligence to compute the raster images of pages after pages that are sent to them using one of the powerful page description languages (PDL). Many are network nodes in their own right, with CPU, RAM, a hard disk and their own Operation System, and are hooked to a net with potentially millions of users... It is a vast proof of the flexible UNIX® concept for doing things, that it made "Line Printing" reliably work even under these modern conditions. But time has finally come now to go for something new -- the IPP. It is strong proof of the flexibility of UNIX®; that "Line Printing" works reliably, even under these modern conditions. But time has finally come now to go for something new -- the IPP.
See Also IPP, CUPS, LPR/LPD printing.
Abbreviation for Common UNIX Printing System; CUPS is the most modern UNIX® and Linux printing system, also providing cross-platform print services to Microsoft® Windows® and Apple Mac® OS clients. Based on IPP, it does away with all the pitfalls of old-style BSD printing, providing authentication, encryption and ACLs, plus many more features. At the same time it is backward-compatible enough to serve all legacy clients that are not yet up to IPP, via LPR/LPD (BSD-style). CUPS is able to control any PostScript® printer by utilizing the vendor-supplied PPD (PostScript Printer Description file), targeted originally for Microsoft® Windows NT printing only. KDE Printing is most powerful if based on CUPS.
See Also ACLs, Authentication, BSD-style Printing, IPP, KDEPrint, LPR/LPD printing, PPD.
Currently only available in German (translation is on the way), the CUPS-FAQ is a valuable resource to answer many questions that anyone new to CUPS printing might have at first.
See Also KDEPrint Handbook....
CUPS-O-Matic was the first "Third Party" plugin for the CUPS printing software. It is available on the Linuxprinting.org website to provide an online PPD-generating service. Together with the companion cupsomatic Perl-Script, that needs to be installed as an additional CUPS backend, it redirects output from the native pstops filter into a chain of suitable Ghostscript filters. Upon completion, it passes the resulting data back to a CUPS "backend" for sending to the printer. In this way, CUPS-O-Matic enables support for any printer known to have worked previously in a "classical" Ghostscript environment. If no native CUPS support for that printer is in sight... CUPS-O-Matic is now replaced by the more capable PPD-O-Matic.
See Also cupsomatic, PPD-O-Matic, Foomatic.
The Perl script cupsomatic (plus a working Perl installation on your system) is needed to make any CUPS-O-Matic (or PPD-O-Matic) generated PPD work with CUPS. It was written by Grant Taylor, author of the Linux Printing HOWTO and Maintainer of the printer database at the Linuxprinting.org website.
See Also CUPS-O-Matic, Foomatic, cupsomatic.
Abbreviation for Disk and execution monitor; Daemons are present on all UNIX® systems to perform tasks independent of user intervention. Readers more familiar with Microsoft® Windows® might want to compare daemons and the tasks they are responsible with "services". One example of a daemon present on most legacy UNIX® systems is the LPD (Line Printer Daemon); CUPS is widely seen as the successor to LPD in the UNIX® world and it also operates through a daemon.
See Also SPOOLing.
Already years ago, when Linux printing was still really difficult (only command line printing was known to most Linux users, no device specific print options were available for doing the jobs), Grant Taylor, author of the "Linux Printing HOWTO", collected most of the available information about printers, drivers and filters in his database. With the emerging CUPS concept, extending the use of PPDs even to non-PostScript printers, he realised the potential of this database: if one puts the different datablobs (with content that could be described along the lines "Which device prints with which Ghostscript or other filter?", "How well?", and "What command line switches are available?") into PPD-compatible files, he could have all the power of CUPS on top of the traditional printer "drivers". This has now developed into a broader concept, known as "Foomatic". Foomatic extends the capabilities of spoolers other than CUPS (LPR/LPD, LPRng, PDQ, PPR) to a certain degree ("stealing" some concepts from CUPS). The Linuxprinting Database is not a Linux-only stop -- people running other UNIX® based OSes (like *BSD or Mac® OS X) will also find valuable information and software there.
See Also Foomatic, Linuxprinting.org Database.
This is a method that often uses TCP/IP port 9100 to connect to the printer. It works with many modern network printers and has a few advantages over LPR/LPD, as it is faster and provides some "backchannel feedback data" from the printer to the host sending the job.
See Also AppSocket Protocol, HP® JetDirect Protocol.
The term "printer drivers", used in the same sense as on the Microsoft® Windows® platform, is not entirely applicable to a Linux or UNIX® platform. A "driver" functionality is supplied on UNIX® by different modular components working together. At the core of the printer drivers are "filters". Filters convert print files from a given input format to another format that is acceptable to the target printer. In many cases filters may be connected to a whole filter "chain", where only the result of the last conversion is sent to the printer. The actual transfer of the print data to the device is performed by a "backend".
Mike Sweet's company, which has contributed a few substantial software products towards the Free Software community; amongst them the initial version of Gimp-Print, the EPM software packaging tool and HTMLDOC (used by the "Linux Documentation Project" to build the PDF versions of the HOWTOs) -- but most importantly: CUPS (the 'Common UNIX® Printing System'). ESP finance themselves by selling a commercial version of CUPS, called ESP PrintPro, that includes some professional enhancements.
See Also CUPS, ESP PrintPro, ESP, Gimp-Print.
Encryption of confidential data is an all-important issue if you transfer it over the Internet or even within intranets. Printing via traditional protocols is not encrypted at all -- it is very easy to tap and eavesdrop e.g. into PostScript® or PCL data transfered over the wire. Therefore, in the design of IPP, provision was made for the easy plugin of encryption mechanisms (which can be provided by the same means as the encryption standards for HTTP traffic: SSL and TLS).
See Also Authentication, CUPS, IPP, SSL(3) encryption, TLS encryption.
Epson inkjets are among the best supported models by Free software drivers, as the company was not necessarily as secretive about their devices and handed technical specification documents to developers. The excellent print quality achieved by Gimp-Print on the Stylus series of printers can be attributed to this openness. They have also contracted Easy Software Products to maintain an enhanced version of Ghostscript ("ESP GhostScript") for improved support of their printer portfolio.
See Also Ghostscript.
The first ever printers printed ASCII data only. To initiate a new line, or eject a page, they included special command sequences, often carrying a leading [ESC]-character. HP® evolved this concept through its series of PCL language editions until today, having now developed a full-blown Page Description Language (PDL) from these humble beginnings.
Abbreviation for Epson Standard Codes for Printers. Besides PostScript® and PCL, Epson's ESC/P printer language is one of the best known.
See Also PCL, PostScript®, HP®/GL.
Abbreviation for Easy Software Products; the company that developed CUPS (the "Common UNIX® Printing System").
See Also Easy Software Products, CUPS, ESP PrintPro.
A Ghostscript version that is maintained by Easy Software Products. It includes pre-compiled Gimp-Print drivers for many inkjets (plus some other goodies). ESP Ghostscript will produce photographic quality prints in many cases, especially with the Epson Stylus model series. ESP Ghostscript is GPL-software.
See Also Easy Software Products, CUPS, ESP PrintPro.
This professional enhancement to CUPS (the "Common UNIX® Printing System") is sold by the developers of CUPS complete with more than 2,300 printer drivers for several commercial UNIX® platforms. ESP PrintPro is supposed to work "out of the box" with little or no configuration for users or admins. ESP also sell support contracts for CUPS and PrintPro. These sales help to feed the programmers who develop the Free version of CUPS.
See Also CUPS.
Filters, in general, are programs that take some input data, work on it and pass it on as their output data. Filters may or may not change the data. Filters in the context of printing, are programs that convert a given file (destined for printing, but not suitable in the format it is presently) into a printable format. Sometimes whole "filter chains" have to be constructed to achieve the goal, piping the output of one filter as the input to the next.
See Also Ghostscript, RIP.
Foomatic started out as the wrapper name for a set of different tools available from Linuxprinting.org These tools aimed to make the usage of traditional Ghostscript and other print filters easier for users and extend the filters' capabilities by adding more command line switches or explain the driver's execution data. Foomatic's different incarnations are CUPS-O-Matic, PPD-O-Matic, PDQ-O-Matic, LPD-O-Matic, PPR-O-Matic, MF-O-Matic and Direct-O-Matic. All of these allow the generation of appropriate printer configuration files online, by simply selection the suitable model and suggested (or alternate) driver for that machine. More recently, Foomatic gravitated towards becoming a "meta-spooling" system, that allows configuration of the underlying print subsystem through a unified set of commands (however, this is much more complicated than KDEPrint's GUI interface, which performs a similar task with regards to different print subsystems).
See Also CUPS-O-Matic, PPD-O-Matic, cupsomatic.
Ghostscript is a PostScript® Raster Image Processor (RIP) in software, originally developed by L. Peter Deutsch. There is always a GPL version of Ghostscript available for free usage and distribution (mostly 1 year old) while the current version is commercially sold under another licence. Ghostscript is widely used inside the Linux and UNIX® world for transforming PostScript® into raster data suitable for sending to non-PostScript® devices.
See Also PostScript®, RIP.
Contrary to its name, Gimp-Print is no longer just the plugin to be used for printing from the popular Gimp program -- its codebase can also serve to be compiled into... *...a set of PPDs and associated filters that integrate seamlessly into CUPS, supporting around 130 different printer models, providing photographic output quality in many cases; *...a Ghostscript filter that can be used with any other program that needs a software-RIP; *...a library that can be used by other software applications in need of rasterising functions.
See Also Lexmark, RIP, Ghostscript.
Abbreviation for Hewlett-Packard; one of the first companies to distribute their own Linux printer drivers. -- More recently, the Company has released their "HPIJS" package of drivers, including source code and a Free licence. This is the first printer manufacturer to do so. HPIJS supports most current models of HP Ink- and DeskJets.
Abbreviation for HP® Graphical Language; a HP® printer language mainly used for plotters; many CAD (Computer Aided Design) software programs output HP®/GL files for printing.
See Also ESC/P, PCL, PostScript®.
A term branded by HP® to describe their implementation of print data transfer to the printer via an otherwise "AppSocket" or "Direct TCP/IP Printing" named protocol.
See Also AppSocket Protocol, Direct TCP/IP Printing.
Abbreviation for Internet Engineering Task Force; an assembly of Internet, software and hardware experts that discuss new networking technologies and very often arrive at conclusions that are regarded by many as standards. "TCP/IP" is the most famous example. IETF standards, as well as drafts, discussions, ideas and useful tutorials, are put in writing in the famous series of "RFCs", which are available to the public and included in most Linux and BSD distributions.
Abbreviation for Internet Printing Protocol; defined in a series of RFCs accepted by the IETF with status "proposed standard"; was designed by the PWG. -- IPP is a completely new design for network printing, but it utilises a very well-known and proven method for the actual data transfer: HTTP 1.1! By not "re-inventing the wheel", and basing itself on an existing and robust Internet standard, IPP is able to relatively easily bolt other HTTP-compatible standard mechanisms into its framework: * Basic, Digest or Certificate authentication mechanisms; * SSL or TLS for encryption of transferred data; * LDAP for directory services (to publish data on printers, device-options, drivers, costs or also to the network; or to check for passwords while performing authentication).
See Also CUPS, PWG, IETF, RFC, TLS encryption.
The new printing functionality of KDE since version 2.2 consists of several modules that translate the features and settings of different available print subsystems (CUPS, BSD-style LPR/LPD, RLPR...) into nice KDE desktop GUI windows and dialogues to ease their usage. Most important for day-to-day usage is "kprinter", the new GUI print command. -- Note: KDEPrint does not implement its own spooling mechanism or its own PostScript® processing; for this it relies on the selected print subsystem -- however it does add some functionality of its own on top of this foundation...
See Also BSD-style Printing, CUPS, kprinter, KDEPrint Handbook....
...is the name of the reference document that describes KDEPrint functions to users and administrators. You can load it into Konqueror by typing "help:/kdeprint" into the address field. The KDEPrint website is the resource for updates to this documentation, as well as PDF versions suitable for printing it. It is authored and maintained by Kurt Pfeifle.
See Also CUPS-FAQ.
kprinter is the new powerful print utility that is natively used by all KDE applications. Contrary to some common misconceptions, kprinter is not a CUPS-only tool, but supports different print subsystems. You can even switch to a different print subsystem "on the fly", in between two jobs, without re-configuration. Of course, due to the powerful features of CUPS, kprinter is best suited for use with a CUPS frontend. kprinter is the successor to "qtcups", which is no longer being actively maintained. It has inherited all the best features of qtcups and added several new ones. MOST IMPORTANT: you can use kprinter with all its features in all non-KDE applications that allow a customized print command, like gv, Acrobat Reader, Netscape, Mozilla, Galeon, StarOffice, OpenOffice and all GNOME programs. kprinter can act as a "standalone" utility, started from an X-Terminal or a "Mini-CLI" to print many different files, from different folders, with different formats, in one job and simultaneously, without the need to first open the files in the applications! (File formats supported this way are PostScript®, PDF, International and ASCII Text, as well as many different popular graphic formats, such as PNG, TIFF, JPEG, PNM, Sun RASTER, etc.)
See Also QtCUPS.
was one of the first companies to distribute their own Linux printer drivers for some of their models. However, those drivers are binary only (no source code available), and therefore cannot be used to integrate into other Free printing software projects.
Linuxprinting.org = not just for Linux; all UNIX®-like OS-es, like *BSD and commercial Unices may find useful printing information on this site. This web site is the home for the interesting Foomatic project, that strives to develop the "Meta Print Spool and Driver Configuration Toolset" (being able to configure, through one common interface, different print subsystems and their required drivers) with the ability to transfer all queues, printers and configuration files seamlessly to another spooler without new configuration effort. -- Also, they maintain the Printing Database; a collection of driver and device information that enables everybody to find the most current information about printer models, and also generate online the configuration files for any spooler/driver/device combo known to work with one of the common Linux or UNIX® print subsystems.
See Also Linuxprinting.org Database.
....Database containing printers and drivers that are suitable for them... ...a lot of information and documentation to be found... ...it is now also providing some tools and utilities for easing the integration of those drivers into a given system... ...the "Foomatic" family of utilities; being the toolset to make use of the database for most of the commonly used print subsystems, for generating "on the fly" working configurations for your printer model.
See Also Foomatic.
LPR == some people translate Line Printing Request, others: Line Printer Remote.
See Also BSD-style Printing.
Similarly to the APSfilter program, Magicfilter provides automatic file type recognition functions and, base on that, automatic file conversion to a printable format, depending on the target printer.
See Also APSfilter.
Abbreviation for Multipurpose (or Multimedia) Internet Mail Extensions; MIME-Types were first used to allow the transport of binary data (like mail attachments containing graphics) over mail connections that were normally only transmitting ASCII characters: the data had to be encoded into an ASCII representation. Later this concept was extended to describe a data format in a platform independent, but at the same time non-ambiguous, way. From Windows® everybody knows the .doc extensions for Microsoft® Word files. This is handled ambiguously on the Windows® platform: .doc extensions are also used for simple text files or for Adobe Framemaker files. And if a real Word file is renamed with a different extension, it can no longer be opened by the program. MIME typed files carry a recognition string with them, describing their file format based on main_category/sub_category. Inside IPP, print files are also described using the MIME type scheme. MIME types are registered with the IANA (Internet Assigning Numbers Association) to keep them unambiguous. CUPS has some MIME types of its own registered, like application/vnd.cups-raster (for the CUPS-internal raster image format).
See Also CUPS, Easy Software Products, ESP PrintPro, Gimp-Print.
Abbreviation for Printer Control Language; developed by HP®. PCL started off in version 1 as a simple command set for ASCII printing; now, in its versions PCL6 and PCL-X, it is capable of printing graphics and colour -- but outside the Microsoft® Windows® realm and HP-UX® (HP®'s own brand of UNIX®), it is not commonly used...
See Also ESC/P, HP®/GL, PDL, PostScript®.
Abbreviation for Page Description Language; PDLs describe, in an abstract way, the graphical representation of a page. - Before it is actually transferred into toner or ink laid down on to paper, a PDL needs to be "interpreted" first. In UNIX®, the most important PDL is PostScript®.
See Also ESC/P, HP®/GL, PCL, PostScript®.
Abbreviation for Picture Element; this term describes the smallest part of a raster picture (either as printed on paper or as displayed on a monitor by cathode rays or LCD elements). As any graphical or image representation on those types of output devices is composed of pixels, the values of "ppi" (pixel per inch) and dpi (dots per inch) are one important parameter for the overall quality and resolution of an image.
See Also Filter, Ghostscript, PostScript®, Raster Image.
Abbreviation for Print Job Language; developed by HP® to control and influence default and per-job settings of a printer. It may not only be used for HP®'s own (PCL-)printers; also many PostScript® and other printers understand PJL commands sent to them inside a print job, or in a separate signal.
See Also PCL.
PostScript® (often shortened to "PS") is the de-facto standard in the UNIX® world for printing files. It was developed by Adobe and licensed to printer manufacturers and software companies. As the PostScript® specifications were published by Adobe, there are also "Third Party" implementations of PostScript® generating and PostScript® interpreting software available (one of the best-known in the Free software world being Ghostscript, a powerful PS-interpreter).
Abbreviation for PostScript Printer Description; PPDs are ASCII files storing all information about the special capabilities of a printer, plus definitions of the (PostScript- or PJL-) commands to call on a certain capability (like print duplexing). As the explanation of the acronym reveals, PPDs were originally only used for PostScript® printers. CUPS has extended the PPD concept to all types of printers. PPDs for PostScript® printers are provided by the printer vendors. They can be used with CUPS and KDEPrint to have access to the full features of any PostScript® printer. The KDEPrint Team recommends using a PPD originally intended for use with Microsoft® Windows NT. PPDs for non-PostScript printers need a companion "filter" to process the PostScript® print files into a format digestible for the non-PostScript target device. Those PPD/filter combos are not (yet) available from the vendors. After the initiative by the CUPS developers to utilise PPDs, the Free Software community was creative enough to quickly come up with support for most of the currently used printer models, through PPDs and classical Ghostscript filters. But note: the printout quality varies from "hi-quality photographic output" (using Gimp-Print with most Epson inkjets) to "hardly readable" (using Foomatic-enabled Ghostscript filters for models rated as "paperweight" in the Linuxprinting.org database).
See Also CUPS, Linuxprinting.org, PostScript®.
PPD-O-Matic is a set of Perl scripts that run on the Linuxprinting.org web server and can be used online to generate PPDs for any printer that is known to print with Ghostscript. These PPDs can be hooked up to CUPS/KDEPrint, as well as used inside PPD-aware applications like StarOffice to determine all different parameters of your printjobs. It is now recommended, in most cases, to use "PPD-O-Matic" instead of the older CUPS-O-Matic. To generate a PPD, go to the printer database, select your printer model, follow the link to show the available Ghostscript filters for that printer, select one, click "generate" and finally save the file to your local system. Be sure to read the instructions. Make sure that your local system does indeed have Ghostscript and the filter, which you chose before generating the PPD, installed.
See Also PostScript®, CUPS-O-Matic, Linuxprinting.org, Foomatic.
In BSD-style print systems, the "printcap" file holds the configuration information; the printing daemon reads this file to determine which printers are available, what filters are to be user for each, where the spooling folder is located, if there are banner pages to be used, and so on... Some applications also depend on read access to the printcap file, to obtain the names of available printers.
See Also BSD-style Printing.
Abbreviation for Printer-Management Information Base; the Printer-MIB defines a set of parameters that are to be stored inside the printer for access through the network. This is useful if many (in some cases, literally thousands) network printers are managed centrally with the help of SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol).
Abbreviation for Printer Working Group; the PWG is a loose grouping of representatives of the printer industry that has, in the past years, developed different standards in relation to network printing. These were later accepted by the IETF as RFC standards, like the "Printer-MIB" and the IPP.
See Also PostScript®, IPP, Printer-MIB, SNMP.
You can use a syntax of "print:/..." to get quick access to KDEPrint resources. Typing "print:/manager" as a Konqueror URL address gives administrative access to KDEPrint. Konqueror uses KDE's famous "KParts" technology to achieve that.
.
See Also Linuxprinting.org Database.
QtCUPS and KUPS were the predecessors of KDEPrint; they are now deprecated and no longer maintained. What was good in qtcups is all inherited by "kprinter", the new KDE print dialogue (which is much improved over qtcups); what you liked about kups is now all in the KDEPrint Manager (accessible via the KDE Control Centre or via the URL "print:/manager" from Konqueror) -- with more functionality and less bugs... Its former developer, Michael Goffioul, is now the developer of KDEPrint -- a very nice and productive guy and quick bug fixer...
See Also kprinter.
Every picture on a physical medium is composed of a pattern of discrete dots in different colours and (maybe) sizes. This is called a "raster image". This is as opposed to a "vector image" where the graphic is described in terms of continuous curves, shades, forms and filled areas, represented by mathematical formula. Vector images normally have a smaller file size and may be scaled in size without any loss of information and quality --- but they cannot be output directly, but always have to be "rendered" or "rasterised" first to the given resolution that the output device is capable of... The rasterisation is done by a Raster Image Processor (RIP, often the Ghostscript software) or some other filtering instance.
See Also Pixel, Ghostscript, PostScript®, Filter, RIP.
Abbreviation for Raster Image Process(or); if used in the context of printing, "RIP" means a hardware or software instance that converts PostScript® (or other print formats that are represented in one of the non-Raster PDLs) into a raster image format in such a way that it is acceptable for the "marking engine" of the printer. PostScript® printers contain their own PostScript-RIPs. A RIP may or may not be located inside a printer. For many UNIX® systems, Ghostscript is the package that provides a "RIP in software", running on the host computer, and pre-digesting the PostScript® or other data to become ready to be sent to the printing device (hence you may perceive a "grain of truth" in the slogan "Ghostscript turns your printer into a PostScript® machine", which of course is not correct in the true sense of the meaning).
See Also Filter, Ghostscript, PostScript®, PDL, Raster Image.
Abbreviation for Remote Line Printing Request; this is a BSD-style printing system, that needs no root privileges to be installed, and no "printcap" to work: all parameters may be specified on the command line. RLPR comes in handy for many laptop users who are working in frequently changing environments. This is because it may be installed concurrently with every other printing sub system, and allows a very flexible and quick way to install a printer for direct access via LPR/LPD. KDEPrint has an "Add Printer Wizard" to make RLPR usage even easier. The kprinter command allows switching to RLPR "on the fly" at any time.
Abbreviation for Simple Network Management Protocol; SNMP is widely used to control all types of network node (Hosts, Routers, Switches, Gateways, Printers...) remotely.
See Also PWG, Printer-MIB.
Abbreviation for Secure Socket Layer; SSL is a proprietary encryption method for data transfer over HTTP that was developed by Netscape. It is now being replaced by an IETF standard named TLS.
See Also TLS encryption.
Abbreviation for Synchronous Peripheral Operations OnLine; SPOOLing enables printing applications (and users) to continue their work as the job is being taken care of by a system daemon, which stores the file at a temporary location until the printer is ready to print.
See Also Daemon.
Abbreviation for Transport Layer Security; TLS is an encryption standard for data transfered over HTTP 1.1; it is defined in RFC 2246; although based on the former SSL development (from Netscape) it is not fully compatible with it.
See Also SSL(3) encryption.
This is the second flavour of traditional UNIX® printing (as opposed to BSD-style printing). It uses a different command set (lp, lpadmin,...) to BSD, but is not fundamentally different from it. However, the gap between the two is big enough to make the two incompatible, so that a BSD-client cannot simply print to a System V style print server without additional tweaking... IPP is supposed to resolve this weakness and more.
See Also BSD-style Printing, IPP.
Shareware software providing photo quality printing for many inkjet printers. It is useful if you are unable to find a driver for your printer and may be hooked into either a traditional Ghostscript system or a modern CUPS system.
See Also Gimp-Print.
Abbreviation for X Printing Panel; XPP was the first Free graphical print command for CUPS, written by Till Kamppeter, and in some ways a model for the "kprinter" utility in KDE.
IO Slaves enable KDE applications to access remote resources as easily as local resources (making them “network transparent”). Remote resources (e.g. files) might be stored on SMB shares or similar.
The KDE Input/Output system which makes use of so-called “IO Slaves”.
KParts is an embedding technology which allows KDE applications to embed other KDE applications. For example, the text view used by Konqueror is a KPart.
See Also Konqueror.
KSycoca (KDE System Configuration Cache) is a configuration cache which, for example, guarantees fast access to the menu entries.
See Also KBuildSycoca.
If mentioned in context with KDE, antialiasing often means the smoothing of the fonts visible on the screen. Qt™ version 2.3.0 or higher used together with XFree86 4.x makes this possible under KDE as well.
The X-Server represents a basic layer upon which the various GUIs like KDE are built. It manages the basic mouse and keyboard input (from the local host as well as from remote hosts) and provides elementary graphic routines to draw rectangles and other primitives.
KBuildSycoca is a command line program and regenerates the so-called KSycoca. This is useful, for example, if some or all modules in KControl are missing.
This is the project and filename of the KDE control centre. KControl allows you to customise virtually every configuration option of KDE.
See Also KDE.
Kicker is the nickname as well as project name of the KDE panel.
Konqueror is a filemanager, web browser, picture viewer and more, and a core part of the KDE project. You can find more information about Konqueror at www.konqueror.org.
See Also KDE.
KSirc is the default IRC client, which is shipped with KDE. You can use KSirc to chat with anyone on an IRC network.
See Also IRC.
This concept tries to replace many actions like copying files from one place to another by a certain mouse movement, e.g. clicking on an icon in a Konqueror window, moving the mouse to another window while keeping the mouse button pressed, and releasing the mouse button (“dropping” the object) copies files.
See Also Konqueror.
Abbreviation for Graphical User Interface. Every desktop environment (like KDE) is a GUI. Most GUIs feature mouse support and/or windows to manage the programs.
See Also KDE.
Abbreviation for “K Desktop Environment”, a leading GUI for UNIX®-based systems. You can find more detailled information at www.kde.org.
See Also GUI.
GNU Network Object Model Environment, one of the leading UNIX® GUIs.
See Also GUI.
Refers to the panel (also known as “Kicker”) which often resides at the bottom of the screen.
The process of reading audio data from a CD-ROM drive and storing it on the hard disk.
The GUI of KDE is built on top of the Qt™ toolkit, which provides many graphical elements (so-called “Widgets”) which are used to construct the desktop. You can find more information about Qt™ at www.trolltech.com.
Abbreviation for “internationalisation”. KDE supports many different languages, and several i18n techniques make it easy to translate the GUI as well as the accompanying documents of KDE into all these languages. More information about the i18n process is available at i18n.kde.org.
Abbreviation for “localisation”, the process of adapting a program to the local environment. This includes e.g. the currency used for monetary values or the time format.
See Also i18n.
Graphical elements like scrollbars, buttons or input fields which are used by KDE to construct the GUI.
Concurrent Version System. The CVS is a very elegant way of managing file versions that allow more than one developer to easily work on the same project. You can find a description of how to get the latest (developer) version of the KDE sources via anonymous CVS on http://www.kde.org/anoncvs.html. More about CVS is available at www.cvshome.org.
Request For Comment. A common way to publish new protocol ideas or procedures for evaluation of the Internet community. Though RFCs are not mandatory, many applications try to adhere to them, once they have been approved by the community. More information about RFCs can be found at the RFC Homepage.
Server Message Block. A network protocol used in Microsoft® Windows® networks to access the filesystems of other computers.
See Also IO Slave.
Internet Relay Chat. A protocol defined in RFC 1459, which handles the specification to enable real time text chat.
See Also RFC.
This can either be a name from your /etc/hosts file (mycomputer), an Internet name (www.kde.org) or an IP-Address (192.168.0.10).