Re: [Gimp-print-devel] OSX support (Was Re: CITIZEN photo printers)

[<fo...@wa...>]

I have successfully built an OS X driver .bundle of Gutenprint using a modified version of Steve’s install bash script + the packaging app called Packages (http://s.sudre.free.fr/Software/Packages/about.html)

There were some hiccups in getting all the binaries signed properly in High Sierra but that has been accomplished. It’s rather straight forward and I would be happy to make a write-up if you all want to update the documentation on this. (Current documentation for OS X packaging is not up to date).

The only stumble that I have found to making vendor specific OS X variants is this: I have found NO way to have multiple variants of gutenprint in /usr/libexec/cups/driver.  This is the part of the system that populates the list of available “gutenprint printer drivers” when you go to sys prefs and then hit the + button and then calls the appropriate binary to make the ppd and install the printer. The only way to distribute a Gutenprint-derived independant driver is to pre-build the PPDs and place in >Library>Printers>PPDs>Contents>Resources>. That’s the only sticking point that I see to this.

Another thing that could use work related to making vendor spec versions would be the ability to build more specific PPDs (like the ability to only generate simple PPDs or to more eloquently customize the simple PPD options).

The other thing that I think is do-able (OS X specific) is the ability to have ColorSync select an output ICC based on the Mediatype chosen. That said, none of that programming has been done in genppd.c There is only the generics (sRGB, etc) that have been defined for OS X.

Best,
Walker



> On Feb 15, 2018, at 2:59 PM, Solomon Peachy <pi...@sh...> wrote:
> 
> On Sun, Feb 11, 2018 at 01:09:50PM -0500, Solomon Peachy wrote:
>> Can you provide some specifics to what you mean by "commercial grade"?
>> Gutenprint is already widely used for commercial purposes (such as photo
>> kiosks) and it is not clear how Gutenprint may be lacking in this
>> regard.  Are you perhaps interested in using Gutenprint as the basis of
>> an application SDK, or looking to replace your current OSX drivers?
> 
> Gary and I have done a few rounds of off-list discussion, but he's going
> to be out of the office for a few days so it seemed like time to bring
> it back into the open to see what everyone else thinks.
> 
> Essentially, Citizen is considering using Gutenprint as the basis of
> their future OSX drivers.  Thanks to customer demand, they are also
> interested in providing official Linux support too.
> 
> From our discussions, it appears as if the core printer support is
> already essentially complete and fairly well tested, so I expect there
> will only be a little bit of work to be done on the hardware enablement
> front (essentially fixing any bugs uncovered by a proper QA cycle with
> real hardware, and possibly tuning the output or creating an ICC profile
> to match what their existing drivers generate)
> 
> So while that is all good and beneficial for all involved, I believe
> they're really looking for a one-stop vendor relationship that can, for
> appropriate consideration, produce an installable driver package for
> them, and provide ongoing maintainence and feature releases as bugfixes,
> hardware, and new OS releases warrant.  They would handle end-user
> support.
> 
> That's a reasonable wish, but what's unclear is the level of polish
> they're after -- eg are they okay with a generic Gutenprint driver
> package not unlike we already supply today, or would they want some sort
> of unique-to-citizen release? Would they want unique-to-OSX features,
> like a spiffier control panel or status monitor?  And (rather
> importantly) are the terms of the GPL acceptible?
> 
> On the Linux front, exising Linux distro channels are probably okay if
> they are recent enough, but for older/enterprise/LTS-type distros it
> would be highly advantagous if we could provide more up-to-date OS
> packages.  That would tie nicely into the CI system we've been talking
> about for a while.
> 
> Personally, I don't think Gutenprint as a project is in a position to
> provide much more than we already do, mostly due to our very limited
> resources and expertise with respect to OSX.  Of our current-ish
> contributors, only Steve has the ability to even generate OSX builds,
> and we're entirely reliant upon him to test those builds.
> 
> I'm also not terribly fond of Apple, but if improving things for OSX
> gains us additional resources to make Gutenprint better for Linux and
> other Free Software platforms.. it's worth considering.
> 
> Thoughts?
> 
> - Solomon
> --
> Solomon Peachy			       pizza at shaftnet dot org
> Coconut Creek, FL                          ^^ (email/xmpp) ^^
> Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.
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