How to access CUPS printer from wine applications ?

[Manish Jain]

On 04/25/16 15:05, Polytropon wrote:
> On Mon, 25 Apr 2016 14:35:14 +0530, Manish Jain wrote:
>> I am trying to do something complicated with my HP 1112 printer that is
>> working very nicely with cups. I want my Microsoft applications (MS
>> Office::Word 2000 chiefly) installed under Wine to be able to access the
>> printer. Is there any way I can do  that ?
> Not tested, just an idea:
>
> If Wine has networking functionality, you could enable the printer
> in CUPS for sharing on the "virtual network" and then access it
> as a network printer from within the application that wants to
> print. The default output should be PS (Postscript), as this is
> the easiest (and standard) format to feed into printer queues.
> Make sure to restrict the printer access locally.
>
> If this fails, you could use the "Print to file" functionality
> and save the file to a specific directory that's accessible from
> the application running under Wine. Use "winecfg" to assign a
> "drive letter" to that directory, so it's easier to write files
> there (for example P: for "printer"). Then have a shell script
> check for new files in that directory and feed them to lpr, then
> delete it. As I said, when this is PS data, it shouldn't be
> problematic.
>
> Wine's access to USB, and then using the "Windows" software for
> printing, is probably not possible to achieve.
>
> Also keep in mind Wine probably doesn't have a full printing
> subsystem and sufficient driver support. Doing so from a VM
> (with a "Windows" installed in it) is surely easier, but also
> more "voluminous".
>
> Follow-up question:
>
> Why don't you install OpenOffice / LibreOffice / AbiWord and use
> your documents from there? Is there a reason to use a more than
> 15 years old office application? Do you have a specific need to
> make it that complicated? :-)
>
>

Printing from wine is not particularly important : it would just have 
been a nice add-on functionality that would have eliminated the 
occasional need to boot into my Windows XP installation.

Although I shall install AbiWord as you have suggested, there is a 
freelance writing project that I am involved in, and those guys want MS 
.doc strictly, with a lot of formatting rules that are most easily 
accomplished under MS Office. As for the version of Word (2000) that I 
strongly prefer - I find the appearance of new Office applications 
pretty obnoxious, mostly owing to the Ribbon that the new versions of 
Office use.

Thanks a lot for your reply.


Regards
Manish Jain