Gimp-Print development milestone reached

By Chris Williams. Published: 19th Jan 2004, 18:34:02 | Permalink | Printable

GPDriver completed [Updated] 21/1/2004

MW Software's Gimp-Print project has progressed further this month by announcing the completion of the GPDriver software.

Gimp-Print is MW Software's daring project to give the RISC OS platform a significantly greater range of modern, high quality printer drivers, by utilising the popular open source gimpprint library.

Speaking to drobe.co.uk earlier last week, Martin Wuerthner of MW Software explained the significance of completing the GPDriver: "It just means that the main technical parts of the project are now completed.

"What remains to be finished is the GPSetup application, the setup window for the advanced options, though it is relatively simple. And, last but not least, the installation and usage instructions have to be completed.

"Maybe the first beta release (to a small selected group of testers) would be worth mentioning. I hope to be able to start the beta test phase on Monday."

Update at 20:53: Note that the Gimp-Print project was once called GemPrint, which was once called ROUGPS. We're awaiting the next change to be 'The Project Formly Known As Gimp-Print' or something else that'll catch us out.

Update at 11:33 21/1/2004
Martin of MW Software has dropped drobe.co.uk an email to say: "The coding phase of the Gimp-Print for RISC OS project has been completed yesterday. A small number of beta testers will receive the software this week followed by a release to all supporters of the project before the end of this month.

"Within a couple of days supporters of the project will receive a notification asking them to send the promised money to me."

A gallery of screenshots of the software in action is now online, as is a list of supported printers.

Links

Gimp-Print project website

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Discussion

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Good news indeed.

Revin Kevin on 19/1/04 7:17PM
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Yes sounds very good. I most certainly will be purchasing a copy, as soon as the final product goes on sale

Timothy609 on 19/1/04 7:30PM
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YES ME TOO.

pmcd on 19/1/04 11:51PM
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Will there be demonstrations at the upcoming South West Show? With this project, Cino and Aemulor Pro being so far advanced, things are definitely looking up.

JWCR on 20/1/04 12:53AM
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Yes, this is indeed excellent news.

I was considering buying R-Comp's UniPrint, but the concept always seemed unelegant. Gimp-Print will mean that I can stick to native RISC OS printing and use some of the nice colour printers that are about. And, as JWCR points out, it's one of several exciting developments in the RISC OS scene at the monent and will hopefully contribute positively to people deciding on buying an IYONIX pc.

fylfot on 20/1/04 1:09AM
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Whilst fylfot has a point about the elegance of having everything on one machine, the amounts of data involved in processing/printing high resolution photo graphics means that UniPrint's method of offloading said work onto a Windows PC will most likely remain the fastest way of printing, if you have the hardware. I may be proven wrong, but RISC OS systems have never been particularly strong in CPU/memory hammering tests like this, whereas x86 machines can be useful workhourses for that! Better than using them as doorstops or storage heaters! Having said that, I applaud the work on Gimp/GemPrint because I think it may well encourage some people to stick with RISC OS hardware who might otherwise jump ship, and thus help move people forwards onto Iyonix etc.

arawnsley on 20/1/04 10:01AM
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Personally, I would buy both, I have an Epson 600 Connected to my RiscPC (Ok not exactly high on the resolution front (720 dpi under windows)), and on our network we have an A3 1270 or something like it (2700 dpi IIRC) connected to my Mothers XP machine... thus usefull apps in both cases!

Now all I need is the money for the Uni Print - £500 coming from work oughta do it

em2ac on 20/1/04 1:11PM
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I thought that it was a free release, with request for donations?

In which case why is it being distributed to 'supporters'?

either way £10 is availible

em2ac on 21/1/04 2:03PM
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em2ac: It may or may not be a free release eventually. However, the first release will certainly be to supporters only. One reason is that the support effort is likely to be higher at the beginning so this is a way to limit it. Besides, I thought it a good idea if there was at least some benefit for those who donate.

wuerthne on 21/1/04 3:06PM
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arawnsley: I agree. If someone has got a PC networked to his RISC OS box already, then the Windows driver is likely to outperform Gimp-Print on RISC OS. Of course, someone who does not have a PC does not really have a choice - unless you suggest buying a PC just to print is a good idea - I do not think so. Maybe, while the beta testers are busy testing I could do some speed comparisons between UniPrint and Gimp-Print.

wuerthne on 21/1/04 3:10PM
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Just a shame it won't work on my parents Lexmark Z55

But I can't blaim (or complain) to martin about that one... Incidently, is there any advantage in using gimp print for a PS printer? Or this is just a feature 'because Gimp-print has it'?

Rimmer on 22/1/04 10:31AM
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You may find that it will work using the Z53 driver. I'm hoping my Canon S750 will work with one of the other Canons in the list. Cheers!

The Doctor on 22/1/04 11:18AM
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Does GimpPrint use DAs so it could be used with Virtualise? I assume so

mavhc on 23/1/04 10:53AM
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mavhc: To quote from the Gimp-print website under system requirements "It is likely that a virtual memory manager like Clare's !Virtualise can be used instead of physical RAM"

Why people don't read websites I'll never know *shakes head*

Rimmer on 23/1/04 11:04AM
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