Add Custom Printer Option dialog

The dialog is launched from the Print Wizard Dynamic PPD Options page.

The Add Custom Printer Option dialog allows you to add your own customized PostScript printer snippets. The custom PostScript can utilize dynamic Connect metadata variables that will get resolved when the custom PostScript is run.

PostScript coding can be an arcane art, given the wildly differing capabilities of PostScript printers.
We recommend that only those fully conversant with both their printer and the PostScript language itself attempt to write complex customized PostScript code.

Usage Scenarios

Tailored PostScript snippets could be used in a number of ways. Such as:

Selecting a custom paper size

Sometimes a printer supports a custom paper size, but requires that paper size to be explicitly set. This cannot be done with a printer option from a PPD, because a PPD does not have a mechanism for variables.

A custom PostScript snippet could be used to enable this functionality.

Selecting the number of copies (NumCopies) to print

OL Connect currently does not currently support setting the number of copies to print on a printer that itself can create copies. To currently achieve such functionality OL Connect needs to create multiple copies of the content in the print file itself, and have each sent to the printer.

However the new custom PostScript functionality could allow the printer to print multiple copies of the one job, via the PostSript NumCopies instruction. This instruction could be combined with runtime variables (metatdata) to dynamically select the number of copies to print.

The following Usage example shows how to do this.

Usage example

The following PostScript instruction determines the number of copies to be printed. The amount of copies is contained in the metadata "Copies" entry, which will be set at runtime.

%%BeginFeature:
<</NumCopies ${Number(document.metadata.Copies),0.###,en} >>
setpagedevice
%%EndFeature

Dialog Interface

The dialog consists of the following options:

  • Name: Enter a name for the customized .

  • Custom PostScript code: Enter your PostScript code here. The code can incorporate document metadata, which is accessible via the Add button.

    A reminder that PostScript code is case sensitive.