I am working on the PPML spec on behalf of Xeikon. We are also trying to
use PPML together with IPP, using IPP to submit jobs and PPML to represent
the job itself.
When submitting a PPML job IPP is useful for checking that the printer is
likely to be able to accept the job, that it supports the media size, the
number of copies and that the job queue is not too long.
Resources are still a problem, however. PPML can refer to external images
or chunks of PDL and download them from the source, but often submitters
want to treat images as a printer resource. For example, the submitter may
have sent negatives by post to be scanned at the printer site, and wants to
know whether the images are available before submitting the job. Fonts are
a big problem. PPML can list all the fonts a job needs, but all the printer
can do is reject the job if a font is missing. It would be really useful if
an IPP client can enumerate the fonts installed on the printer and send any
missing fonts. At the moment sumitters tend to include all the fonts with
the job, which makes for big files.
Although IPP has support for media sizes, clients really want to be able to
browse different types of media and select one with a certain weight or
glossiness.
So Tom's resource idea looks good and I think it fits in well with PPML
Anthony Porter
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