Bug 83831

Summary:	[KDE4] Also provide print preview when printing from ps files
Product:	[Unmaintained] kdeprint	Reporter:	Sebastian Trueg <trueg>
Component:	general	Assignee:	KDEPrint Devel Mailinglist <kde-print-devel>
Status:	CLOSED UNMAINTAINED
Severity:	wishlist	CC:	jlayt
Priority:	NOR
Version:	unspecified
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Compiled Sources
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Sebastian Trueg 2004-06-22 22:43:57 UTC

Version:            (using KDE KDE 3.2.2)
Installed from:    Compiled From Sources
OS:                Linux

When printing from non-kde applications via kprinter it is not possible to select "print preview". I think this is because kprinter "thinks" one does not need a preview when printing from a ps file. Well, I'd like to be able to see the preview anyway.

Comment 1 Kurt Pfeifle 2004-11-07 22:59:53 UTC

I think it is desireble to give a sort of preview. It should apply to all
printable file types, not just PostScript (PDF, ASCII, images....).

But I dont think we should call it "print preview", because this may be
misleading. 

If it is a JPEG, use an image viewer, if it is ASCII, use kwrite or whatever 
the user configures, etc.

If we'd choose to "preview the printfile" it would mean we'd have to run (in
the case of CUPS) the whole of the CUPS filtering chain up to the point where
we have "application/vnd.cups-postscript". This is the closest we could
possibly get to a "printjob preview", and I dont think it is worth while the
CPU and effort. 

However, the preview of the original file may help in many use cases.

Comment 2 Michael Goffioul 2004-11-08 14:58:37 UTC

Actually, all the needed code is there to "preview" any type of file, this is simply based on the file association rules of KDE. However, I disabled the "preview" check box in the kprinter executable intentionally. Why? Because "kprinter" can be used to print many files in one shot, and in those cases the "preview" check box looked meaningless to me. So until I add code to solve those cases, I disabled that feature.

Comment 3 Thomas Friedrichsmeier 2005-04-07 17:19:00 UTC

Regarding comment #2. Maybe another option would be not to hide the "preview" check box, but to disable it, when more than one file is to be printed and to (re-)enable it when there is only one file or --stdin.
Having the preview feature even when invoked from the command line would really, really be useful.

Comment 4 John Layt 2009-01-03 01:59:11 UTC

KDEPrint in KDE3 is unmaintained and will have no more new features
implemented.  This request will never be implemented in KDEPrint as a result.  

In KDE4 the print dialog is provided by Qt and any issues will need to be raised directly with them.

The Qt dialog does not support Print Preview from the dialog, nor is there a kprinter tool to print other files or apps.

Closing.