Gimp-Print 4.3.15, released June 1, 2003, is a development release of this package. Like all development releases, this version is considered unstable and should only be used by those individuals tolerant of the likelihood of problems. Individuals desiring a stable release of Gimp-Print should use the latest 4.2 release.

Gimp-Print is a suite of printer drivers that may be used with most common UNIX print spooling systems, including CUPS, lpr, LPRng, or others. These drivers provide high quality printing for UNIX (including Macintosh OS X 10.2 and newer) and Linux systems in many cases equal to or better than proprietary vendor-supplied drivers, and can be used for many of the most demanding printing tasks.

This software includes the Print plug-in for the Gimp, and Ghostscript and CUPS drivers, including Foomatic data.

This package requires libxml2 2.5 or above. You may need to install a package named "libxml2-devel" or the like on many distributions.

The Print plugin for the Gimp requires the Gimp 1.2 (later versions of the Gimp are not supported). You may need to install a package named "gimp-devel" or the like on many distributions.

The CUPS driver requires CUPS 1.1.15 or higher. You may need to install a package named "cups-devel" or the like on many distributions.

The Foomatic data will work with either Foomatic 2.x or 3.x. Foomatic 3.x has additional capabilities that this package detects and takes advantage of.

The IJS-based GhostScript plugin driver requires GNU Ghostscript 6.53 or later, ESP Ghostscript 7.05 or later, or APFL GhostScript 7.04 or later. It also requires that glib 1.2 be installed. You may need to install a package named "glib-devel" or the like on many distributions.

Users of Macintosh OS X 10.2 and above can use this package, as the printing system is based on CUPS, which is supported by Gimp-print. Note that Macintosh OS X 10.0 and 10.1 (including 10.1.5) cannot use this package.

Please read the README file for full instructions on installing this package.

Gimp-Print 4.3.15 contains the following major changes over Gimp-Print 4.3.14:

1) The code for handling ink shades and drop sizes has been extensively overhauled; results should be much more consistent. In particular, the same balance between ink shades is now used at all resolutions for a given printer, and the driver always tries to use the smallest ink drop size it usefully can. The result is that colors should be much more uniform across different resolutions with the same printer (particularly with variable drop size printers), and output should be smoother. It is likely (although this has not been verified) that printing is faster, too.

There may still be some issues; please report any problems.

Internally, this is implemented by means of a new "channel" architecture, which is responsible for conversions of this type.

2) A long-standing build problem whereby the package will not build on systems that already have Gimp-Print 4.2 or earlier versions of Gimp-Print 4.3 installed has been fixed.

3) The existing Line Art image optimization has been renamed to Uncorrected, which is a better description of its effect. There is a new Threshold mode, which simply computes a threshold value (either on or off for each color).

4) The default image optimization mode is now Photographs (which has the best color correction) rather than the old Line Art (which as noted above is now called Uncorrected).

5) An experimental driver for the Olympus P-300 has been added. This driver has significant limitations; the size of an image much closely match the size of a print from this printer.

6) The Fast and Very Fast dither algorithms are significantly different from before. The Fast dither algorithm now uses the same dither pattern previously used by the Very Fast algorithm, and the Very Fast algorithm only uses the largest drop size. The Ordered algorithm should now run as fast as the Fast algorithm did before.

7) This package now uses gettext 0.11 internally.

Gimp-Print 4.3.16, released June 7, 2003, is a development release of this package. Like all development releases, this version is considered unstable and should only be used by those individuals tolerant of the likelihood of problems. Individuals desiring a stable release of Gimp-Print should use the latest 4.2 release.

Gimp-Print is a suite of printer drivers that may be used with most common UNIX print spooling systems, including CUPS, lpr, LPRng, or others. These drivers provide high quality printing for UNIX (including Macintosh OS X 10.2 and newer) and Linux systems in many cases equal to or better than proprietary vendor-supplied drivers, and can be used for many of the most demanding printing tasks.

This software includes the Print plug-in for the Gimp, and Ghostscript and CUPS drivers, including Foomatic data.

This package requires libxml2 2.5 or above. You may need to install a package named "libxml2-devel" or the like on many distributions.

The Print plugin for the Gimp requires the Gimp 1.2 (later versions of the Gimp are not supported). You may need to install a package named "gimp-devel" or the like on many distributions.

The CUPS driver requires CUPS 1.1.15 or higher. You may need to install a package named "cups-devel" or the like on many distributions.

The Foomatic data will work with either Foomatic 2.x or 3.x. Foomatic 3.x has additional capabilities that this package detects and takes advantage of.

The IJS-based GhostScript plugin driver requires GNU Ghostscript 6.53 or later, ESP Ghostscript 7.05 or later, or APFL GhostScript 7.04 or later. It also requires that glib 1.2 be installed. You may need to install a package named "glib-devel" or the like on many distributions.

Users of Macintosh OS X 10.2 and above can use this package, as the printing system is based on CUPS, which is supported by Gimp-print. Note that Macintosh OS X 10.0 and 10.1 (including 10.1.5) cannot use this package.

Please read the README file for full instructions on installing this package.

Gimp-Print 4.3.16 contains the following major changes over Gimp-Print 4.3.15:

1) There are many quality and functionality improvements for Epson Stylus printers. All users of 4.3 who are using an Epson printer (particularly newer models of photo printers) should take this release. Specific quality improvements include:

* Most photo printers have been retuned for significantly improved color quality. In particular, color casts when printing grays are greatly reduced.

* The Epson Stylus Photo 2200 (using Photo Black ink) now prints correct blacks, and with correct density. The Photo Black ink has been tuned with Premium Glossy Photo Paper and Premium Semigloss Photo Paper. We recommend using the default setting for Ink Type (which is 7-color photo) at all times.

* The Epson Stylus Photo 950/960, 2100/2200, PM-950C, and PM-970C had a minor color registration bug in 6 and 7 color modes; in particular, the light inks were offset by 1/360" from the dark inks. The change is probably unnoticeable in continuous-tone images, but may have been visible when printing solid colors with sharply-defined edges.

* Support for Epson Premium Semigloss and Archival Matte papers has been added (Archival Matte for the Stylus Photo 2100/2200 and Stylus Pro 7600 and 9600 only).

* Support for Epson UltraChrome Ink with Matte Black has been added. The combination of Matte Black ink and Archival Matte paper has been tuned, at least for the Stylus Photo 2200. We recommend using the default setting for Ink Type (which is 7-color photo) at all times.

* Internally, there have been many changes to the data organization in the driver.

The Epson Stylus Pro 7600 and 9600 should work well, although this is untested and we would appreciate volunteers. It's likely that the dot sizes on these printers are different from the 2200; most likely resolutions below the highest resolution will not work optimally, although 2880x1440 should use the same drop size on all UltraChrome printers.

We recommend using the Color mode and default setting for Ink Type at all times with UltraChrome ink. These inks appear to have been designed to work together as a set, and very strong color shifts *will* occur if this is not done.

4) A few compilation problems have been fixed.

5) A new modular interface to the color code has been created. This will permit addition of color management later.

6) The user interface now enables and disables options based on other option settings more accurately.