Version: (using KDE KDE 3.4.92) Installed from: Gentoo Packages It would be good to have the printing system 1. let the user query the ink levels of the printer (if supported by the hardware and required libraries are present on the system), 2. when starting a print job, notify the user if the ink levels are getting low / critically low. (There is an old (KDE2-era) and closed bug (#35973) with a similar wish.) libinklevel (see libinklevel.sf.net) can be used for many HP and Epson printers. There is a KDE frontend, KInk (kink.sf.net), maybe it could be integrated or used as a starting point. It's last version is dated 2003, but it compiled fine for me (KDE 3.5_beta2).
#1 is implemented in KDEPrint
Ooops, I've never noticed that feature. Now I looked at the source and noticed escputil under /tools. So does it work only for Epson printers (I have a HP Deskjet 6540)? If so, wish #1 is modified to include support for other models/utilities as well.
Bug 83257 is related to wish #2: Communicate more system status info to the user, like "(almost) out of ink", "out of paper", "printer is down", etc.
Wish #2 is out of scope for KDEPrint to implement. KDEPrint utilizes 3rd party utilities once they are available (like for wish #1, where we use "escputil"). There is currently no utility available (to my knowledge) which can do on-the-fly computations of inks amoung used for current job, query the printer for rest level of inks and warn the user if this is dangerously lo. Daniel, feel free to re-open this bug (or a new one) once you learn of such a utility -- then we can implement a KDE frontend for it. Cheers, Kurt
Closing old Resolved status bug.