[jggimi]

Originally Posted by spacebar_permissions

I just wanted to confirm with others here that without a printer specific driver it's not possible to print and/or use the full capabilities of my printer when setting up printing with lpr.

This may be true for your printer. It is not necessarily the case with all printers. Mine does not have a specific driver, as explained below.

I may be confused about Ghostscript as it's mentioned in the above article as a collection of print drivers, yet a printer specific driver is also needed (which also has the PPD file specific to the printer).

For printing, GhostScript may be considered a PostScript emulator. Postscript is a graphic layout language, that some printers understand. A Postscript-capable printer does not need a printer specific driver -- it understands Postscript files sent to it for printing. Postscript is not OS-specific, and Windows, Mac, and *nix systems can produce Postscript files for printing, either through OS, graphical middleware, or the application layer. Consider Postscript the standard, default, graphical printing facility that is OS-agnostic.

But not every printer understands PostScript. It's a licensed technology. So for non-PostScript printers, there is GhostScript. GhostScript translates PostScript files into printer-specific graphical data for printing, using specific printer languages and in some cases printer specific drivers. WIth Ghostscript, a non-PostScript printer can be operated as if it is a PostScript printer.

PPD files are PostScript Printer Description files, which contain the specific features and capabilities of an individual Postscript printer: paper sizes, paper trays, duplexing, colors, fonts, printable areas, densities .... all these sorts of things are defined within a PPD. The operating layer that communicates with the printer uses this to request specific colors, fonts, paper .... and other printing features. So someone with a PostScript printer doesn't need a specific driver -- just a PPD file.

In my example from last year, above, I used lpd as my spooler, a PostScript capable printer, and a program called "foomatic-rip" to integrate my PPD file into the lpd spooler. This program is currently part of the print/cups-filters package, though I am not using CUPS. And my PPD file is provided by the manufacturer, HP, and for my printer model happens to be included in the print/hpijs package, with many other PPDs. That package is described as HP's GhostScript driver, but I am not using GhostScript ... just the PPD file for my model of printer.