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(This question is for Windows 10/11, but could apply to other OS's that use Postscript PPDs.)

Does a Postscript Printer Definition (PPD) have support for the external file read capabilities of the Postscript language?

I am researching a problem where the PPD for a Postscript Universal Cloud Print Driver is unable to directly query the printer for its capabilities, or to know the default settings configured by an administrator, because there is no printer locally installed.

The PPD output job is instead routed through a local service process that forwards it to a remote print server via HTTPS POST.

The PPD would instead need to rely on the local service process to periodically query the remote print server and download the capabilities and default preferences via HTTPS to a local configuration file for the PPD to read.

This may also work for a PPD to get current status info from a remote printer (ink/toner/page amounts, jam status, etc.), with the local service process also downloading that to a local file.

 

If there are no such PPD external I/O capabilities, then another potential workaround is for the postscript cloud print service process to periodically entirely download a replacement PPD with hardcoded capabilities and defaults, generated by a script on the remote print server.

Dale Mahalko
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    PPDs don't contain any active content at all. They aren't PostScript (though they generally contain PostScript program fragments), they are read by conforming applications and then the information is used by that application (a print device or print spooler usually). In general that will mean inserting the PostScript fragments from the PPD into a PostScript program. Note; the docs describe PPD as PostScript Printer **Description**, essentially these files are a list of device capabilities and a piece of PostScript to enable that capability. – KenS Feb 04 '23 at 10:01
  • You are my accepted answer. I'm not sure why you didn't just write this as an answer, because this is what I was looking for. – Dale Mahalko Feb 14 '23 at 17:46
  • I don't write answers on Stack Overflow any more, just comments. Feel free to write it up as an answer yourself though! – KenS Feb 15 '23 at 15:12

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