Hello Mike,
Thank you for your reply. I understand that although the client may be able to rotate for paper settings with long-edge feed, the printer should not always expect this to happen. And it is recommended that the printer be able to perform rotation itself if a job with the different orientation is received.
I have some additional questions.
1. Some of our printers are designed to feed standard-size paper such as A4 in a long-edge direction. For these printers, although it is possible to implement rotation on the printer side, doing so may affect print speed.
We believe that performing rotation on the client side, when possible, is preferable in order to minimize inconvenience for customers migrating from driver-based environments.
On the other hand, I understand that your perspective is that only one set of media-source-properties should be notified for each tray in media-ready.
If printers want to convey the following two requests to the client, what would be the appropriate way to notify them in media-col-ready?
- The tray is loaded with media in a long-edge feed orientation, and, if possible, it is desired to perform rotation for long-edge feed paper by client side.
- The tray contains plain paper, and both portrait and landscape documents can be printed.
2.
>I hesitate to make it about media-type since you'd always be playing "catch up." Rather, the presence of media-source-orientation should indicate the directionality of the media.
We have considered media-source-feed-orientation and media-source-feed-direction to be properties that indicate the feed direction. Therefore, we believed that by notifying the client of just one set of these properties per one paper tray, the client would be able to recognize the paper orientation and appropriately place the image on the paper according to the user’s selected orientation (portrait or landscape).
Some printers currently on the market notify only one set of media-source-properties for each tray media.
Do that may lead that client restricts the print settings for users (users cannot select portrait or landscape in the print settings)? We have concern it could lead to a poorer user experience.
Best regards,
Tomomi
-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Sweet <msweet at msweet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2025 12:25 AM
To: PWG IPP Workgroup <ipp at pwg.org>
Cc: Shiraki, Tomomi (BIL-PS SC) 白木 智美 <tomomi.shiraki at brother.co.jp>
Subject: Re: [IPP] Question Regarding PWG Raster and media-source-properties
Tomomi,
> On Aug 26, 2025, at 5:10 AM, Tomomi Shiraki via ipp <ipp at pwg.org> wrote:
> ...
> Question) Which is the desired behavior for a PWG-raster printer that supports long-edge paper feed for an particular paper size and tray, and for plain paper?
> A. The printer notifies the m-s-f-orientation and m-s-f-direction and expects the client to rotate the image for long-edge feed paper.
> B. The printer rotates the image for long-edge feed paper itself, regardless of whether it notifies m-s-f-orientation and m-s-f-direction.
C. Both A and B.
Basically, advertise what you need so that the Client can provide optimal raster data for your printer, but accept raster data with the wrong rotation and do the transform on the Printer as needed in order to provide working printing.
> ...
> > Four printing methods today:
> > ⁃ PWG Raster: Client does all the necessary rotation"
> Question) Is the case of long-edge feed paper excluded from this general rule?
I can't give you are firm answer on that. Many Clients know how to support media-source-properties, so those Clients will include the long-edge feed transform as well. But in the case of a Printer that supports both long and short edge feed (depending on the tray) and a Client using the "auto" source, it is possible for the raster data to not match the paper tray being used so the Printer still needs to handle that case...
FWIW, other PDLs like PCL, PostScript, and PDF put the onus of supporting this situation on the Printer as well, so look at supporting raster rotation as a conformance requirement for a long-edge feed printer.
> ...
> Question) For regular sheet media cases, if the printer notifies a single m-s-p entry for an particular paper size and tray as shown below, what is the expected behavior of the client:
> {A4, tray-1, short-edge-first, 3 (portrait), stationaly} A. Ignore the
> m-s-p and show users orientation settings such as portrait and landscape (two directions), or portrait, landscape, reverse-portrait, and reverse-landscape (four directions).
> B. Refer to the m-s-p and show users only one orientation (Portrait).
Given where we've gone during the development of the envelope media extensions, I think we want to recommend that a Client treat the media-source-properties/media-feed-orientation value at least as the default orientation for the print job (basically B). Certainly existing Clients that support media-col-ready should be able to do this.
> 3.
> How does a client distinguish whether the sheet media is "special" cases (envelopes, letterhead, etc.)? Is this determined by media-type?
I hesitate to make it about media-type since you'd always be playing "catch up." Rather, the presence of media-source-orientation should indicate the directionality of the media.
> ...
> Question) For "special" media cases such as envelopes, can users generally print in only one orientation? For example:
> media-col-ready {C5, by-pass-tray, short-edge-first, 3 (portrait), envelope} -> The user can print only in "Portrait" orientation.
> media-col-ready {C5, by-pass-tray, long-edge-first, 3 (portrait),
> envelope} -> User can print only "Landscape" orientation ( long-edge
> feed + 0 degrees = landscape aspect image, as shown in section 4.2 of
> wd-ippenvelope10-20250529.pdf .) media-col-ready {C5, by-pass-tray,
> long-edge-first, 5 (reverse-landscape), envelope} -> User can print
> only "Portrait" orientation (long-edge feed −90 degrees = portrait
> aspect image, as shown in section 4.2 of
> wd-ippenvelope10-20250529.pdf.)
I'll refer back to your third question - I think at a minimum we want Clients using media-col-ready to default the orientation to the media-source-feed-orientation for the selected media. (I think the same can be said for media-col-database, but I know that most Clients don't preserve the linkage between size, type, and feed-orientation for supported media...)
________________________
Michael Sweet