Pup is a GUI utility for maintaining your printer under Linux or other operating systems that support Gtk+, Zlib, and GNU C.  Currently it supports the Lexmark Optra Color 40 , 45 , E310, and HP 2100M, 4000, and LJ4 Plus printers.  If your computer is configured for printer read back, Pup additionally supports all other PJL printers (or partially, depending on the printer).

The services Pup provides are ink cartridge maintenance/replacement (Lexmark Optra Color 40/45 only),  printing of various test and configuration pages,  querying of the printer's settings and status, and setting of the printer's defaults. Want to print a photo on the highest quality settings? No problem! Use Pup to set the printer's paper type, color correction, and print quality before printing the photo. 

This is Pup's main window. The two smaller pictures show the other tabs.
 

Along with PJL, the above listed printers have the advantage of supporting PostScript in the hardware. (The LJ 4 Plus requires an add on module for PostScript.) Postscript is the language Linux applications use for printing. If the printer is not Postscript capable then a program such as Ghostscript is used to convert the Postscript to the printer's language. Depending on the printer's language and how proprietary it is, Ghostscript may or may not do the best job. Usually text comes out fine but photos may be of lessor quality.

A Postscript printer means no driver or filter is required to use it. The printer hardware itself interprets the Postscript. An application would send Postscript directly to the printer, bypassing Ghostscript.  When printing a non Postscript file from the command line, you would convert it to Postscript first.  A program such as a2ps can be used to convert text files.  The lpr command can be used to send a Postscript file to a Postscript printer by setting up a printcap entry without a filter. Alternatively you can just send the file directly to the printer device (e.g. cat filename.ps >/dev/lp0).

Note there are some printer manufacturers claiming a printer to be (or emulate) Postscript or claiming to have a Postscript option available for an extra charge, but somehow neglect to tell you the Postscript is supported in software only.  This means the printer will not support Postscript in Linux, as I know of no printer manufacturers writing drivers for Linux. The key thing to find out is if the printer supports Postscript or Postscript emulation in the hardware (such as the above listed printers).

Pup issues printer commands in PJL (Printer Job Language) or PostScript. For the cartridge maintainance it issues binary NPA commands specific to the Lexmark Optra 40/45. The setting of printer defaults can be accomplished in two ways: through the Dynamic Choices window (if you have printer read back) or the Fixed Choices window. The Dynamic Choices window queries the printer and then presents a list of choices for you to change based on what came back from the printer. That's why it can (potentially) support any PJL printer. The Fixed Choices window is intended for those folks without printer read back as it works in uni-directional mode. The choices presented are based on the above listed printers I queried before hand and hard coded into Pup. The Dynamic Choices window high-lights current settings in red for you to verify your changes; for the Fixed Choices window you will have to print a settings page to verify your changes. The Fixed Choices window does not offer as many choices as the Dynamic Choices window because I elliminated those choices that cannot be verified on the printed settings page (the printer does not print all settings available); therefore it is better to get your system configured for printer read back and use the Dynamic Choices window.

Pup uses GTK+   ( The Gimp Toolkit) for its GUI, and Zlib to store some compressed things. You must have libgtk, gdk-imlib1, libglib, and zlib to run it. To compile it you also need the related header files. This program is simple enough to refer to when learning GTK and provides examples of a lot of the various widgets and setting some of the attributes. I wrote pup so I could learn GTK. I learned by referring to the GTK tutorial and Eric Harlow's book, Developing Linux Applications with GTK+ and GDK,  reading through the GTK and GDK header files, and of course a lot of experimentation. I would like to acknowledge the folks who gave us GNU C,  Linux, XFree86, GTK+,  Zlib,  and uuencode, without which I could not have written this program. Thanks!

There is also a stand alone program included in the source code called mydeflate.c, which can be compiled separately. It will compress and base64 encode any file, which you can put into an array and write some code to decode and uncompress it as needed. Pup does this with some images and PostScript it uses for some output commands, line by line on the fly during output as an example of a way to save run-time memory. See the source file header for more information.

Pup offers what I call Explain technology.   Simply put, when Pup cannot complete a command successfully, instead of crashing and/or bringing down the whole operating system which might normally happen on another platform,  it pops up the Explain button which will bring up a window stating and explaining the error detected, and offer suggestions as to how to fix the problem. This happens when and where it is needed. Even if you forget to turn your printer on or hook up the printer cable, Pup's Explain technology will politely inform you. Likewise,  you may cycle the printer's power or switch printers without crashing Pup or the operating system. 

Pup outputs commands to a printer, a pipe to a printer, or a file. Inputs (queries) are only allowed from a printer device. If you output commands to a file, you may ftp this file to a remote printer or cat it directly to an output device in order to execute the commands.

I have released pup under the GNU General Public License (GPL). This means anyone can download, use, modify, and redistribute it as long as the source code goes with it. Read the GPL for more info. It can be found here and is also included with the download. I would ask, however, that any modifications useful to others be resubmitted to me so that I may maintain the master copy.

The source code and compiled binary (for Linux on x86) are available for download.  The sources have a simple Makefile and should not give you problems. Of course it goes without saying that you need to have development capabilities installed on your system, i.e. Make, gcc, includes, and applicable libraries. 

The  README  file accompanying Pup has more information about Pup's features, supported printers, and platforms, as well as instructions on how to add support for your PJL printer. It also tells how to filter out choices you don't want showing up in the Dynamic Choices window. Pup's help windows provide additional explanations on each feature.

In addition to other formats, I am now offering Pup as a Debian package. I am currently in the process of becoming a Debian maintaner and will soon have Pup on the Debian web site. The package is available here too.

Versions

Ideas (for 1.2 ?)

Notes

The Pup project group page can be found here.

Pup is tuned for 1280x1024 displays, and looks good down to 1024x768. For 800x600, some of the windows are too tall. This can easily be fixed by changing the source code (search on "height"). For 640x480, forget it. If you really want to use 640x480 or Pup is too big to suite you for 800x600, in addition to changing the height (and width) you can also change to a smaller font. The default font is set at the beginning of the program in main() and all other fonts are set in set_font().

To be able to use Pup as not root, either change permissions to the output device (e.g. /dev/lp0) or add your user to the group that belongs to this device and make sure it has group rw permission.