manage paper and trays with CUPS on network printer
 

The Situation:
I have a printer with two paper trays and use HPLIPS with CUPS to print from my linux workstations. The printer is network connected and shared among several workstation ... including win-dose boxes.

I sometimes print using special papers for photos, brochures, postal cards, envelopes, and such.

The Problem(s):
How do I tell CUPS and HPLIPS that I have special papers and to block print jobs that don't use those papers?

Related Issues:
How do I tell my printer that it has special papers available vs. plain paper? The hardware is an HP OfficeJet 8500 All-in-One. The printer "detects" some papers but not everything. (I know this is a hardware issue, but this is an important part of the overall solution.) I will keep digging here.

Since the printer is a network resource, it makes decisions about whether to accept jobs from workstations. Win-dose printing and CUPS+HPLIPS printing have their own protocols for this negotiation. Until I solve the printer paper issue, win-doze print jobs may still step on special papers. (I know that I can configure a server for the printer and then direct win-doze printing to that server.)

Thanks in advance,
~~~ 0;-Dan

Seems like if there are two paper trays then you need to set up two print queues. Jobs coming out of each queue can be prefaced with the PCL command to select the right tray. If you have the queues on Linux, you might be able to use Samba to allow Windows to print to the queues instead of directly to the printer, although this blocks some of the useful feedback that you get if you connect directly. My printer is always trying to sell me ink cartridges -- I'd really miss that.

Documents (through LibreOffice and OpenOffice) have embedded paper stock -- what mainframe folks used to call "forms" -- settings. CUPS and HPLIPS can report which paper stock is involved in a print job when you inspect the printer queues.

One thing I don't find is any sort of user interface such that if a print job wants a specific paper, there is some way to ask the end-user to change the paper or at least be aware that the installed paper does not match what is attached to the print job.

In ancient times, one would queue print jobs with whichever "forms" were required. The print queue -- we called it the "spooler" -- knew which "form" was mounted to the printer. All the jobs for the current "form" were completed before a message appeared at the console asking for a paper change. Someone -- we called them an "operator" -- would set-up the printer with the different form and tell the spooler of that change.

A lot of this went away when we shifted from preprinted multi-part "forms" to documents that could be drawn by a lazer or ink-jet printer. Now any sort of "form" details could be printed at the same time as the data content.

We still use "forms" for things like photo paper, glossy paper, linen or rag paper (resume stock), special sizes (5x7, labels, letter, legal, etc). Have we lost the ability to handle unique and custom papers with risking putting a draft spreadsheet onto photo or label paper?

Stumped,
~~~ 0;-Dan