need enhanced print dialog

[Jim Michaels]

the print dialog needs more controls.
- center on page option
- fit to page option
- x,y position in inches/points/pixels/picas relative to margin (this way I can wrestle those cd labels onto a page)
- upper left of page option
- landscape/portrait
- left margin amount in (inches/points/pixels/picas) (bug 171271)
- right margin amount in (inches/points/pixels/picas) (bug 171271)
- top margin amount in (inches/points/pixels/picas) (bug 171271)
- bottom margin amount in (inches/points/pixels/picas) (bug 171271)
- [DONE] scale percentage using a double/float/real number. (this way I can wrestle those cd labels onto a page)
- CMYK separations OR color OR grayscale
- CMYK plate labels option
- negative option
- background option if there is such a thing as a background in inkscape
- corner crop marks option (bug 170758)
- center crop marks option (bug 170758)
- registration marks option
- optional image name
- [DONE] printer selection (could possibly be in its own menu, or could be just a drop-down combobox or listbox)
- [DONE] number of copies to print

in windows the printer driver must be queried to find out what the driver's margins are before printing, so that the image is not cut off. so if the user puts in 0 for margins, the margin should fix itself to the printer driver's minimum setting. the default margins should be set to 1.25" sides and 1" top & bottom.

[Alexandre Prokoudine (alexandre-prokoudine)]

This bug report provides a nice summary of missing features, but

a) some of the features are printer specific and thus rely on particular drivers, to the best of my knowledge;
b) CMYK related features are not possible without some kind of CMYK implementation in Cairo.

But as I already wrote this is a nice summary and it's good to have it around and close as fixed one fine day ;-)

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Margins are covered by bug 171271.
Crop marks are covered by bug 170758.

Printer selection, number of copies to print, and scaling are implemented in the current print dialog.

[Mantas Kriaučiūnas (mantas)]

I also have one inkscape printing problem - there are no way to print to CD hub.
So, I need to export my graphics to png and print using the Gimp - it has a feature "Print with Gutenprint".
In "Print with Gutenprint" dialog I can choose my printer model and "Media Source". When I set "Media Source" to "CD tray" then option "CD Hub Size" appears and I can set "Print to Hub" in this option.
AFAIK this feature is easy to add - just add one control "CD Hub Size" or "Print to Hub" in printing dialog and show this control when user sets "Media Source" to "CD tray"

[Jim Rorie (jfrorie)]

I'm going to "ME TOO" on the center for print function. I was designing a business card and needed a proof of it. The resulting print was in the lower left corner of the page and clipped by the margins. Such a great package needs good solid output.

[Mads Boserup Lauritsen (madsbola)]

Regarding the print dialog I can only agree on the issues in the "wishlist/bug" reported above.

Print preview, bug (https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/171099) should also be implemented.
Page Tiling, bug (https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/170274) should also be implemented.

In Illustrator these are combined to a strong tool, where you are able to place the origin of the printed page as you wish, and hereby print a large poster with page tiling in the "most optimal" way.

I have no scripting skills, unfortunately, but let me know if I can be at any help developing the print dialog.

Best regards,

Mads Boserup Lauritsen, Denmark

[Eugene W. Olson (geneolson67)]

I see this is labelled as "wishlist." I would not consider printing from a vector graphics program a "wishlist" item. If I can't accurately print something the program is worthless to me. I am trying to print business cards and will now have to use GIMP to do it since Inkscape is unable to handle the job. The fact that I have to go to a program that works best with bitmaps over a program that is designed to do vector graphics is truly unacceptable.

[Hachmann (marenhachmann)]

We've had a question in the answers section about a very minimalistic printing menu for two network printers. I'm not entirely sure if linking it to this bug is correct, so unlink if it wasn't appropriate.