TA/UTAX Print Panel 9.4
January 17, 2024


About
The TA/UTAX Print Panel Package includes a new, stand-alone UI that organizes and enhances printer features using a convenient tab system. In the UI, the Printer tab lists all of the installed TA/UTAX printers on the user's computer. To adjust the feature settings for a particular printer, a user highlights the device in the printer list, and then navigates through the tabs, making feature adjustments as desired. These changes, if applied, will be the new printer default settings.

----------

Installation
NOTE: Superuser access is required for installation.

1. Open a terminal. Navigate to the appropriate .deb or .rpm file.
For Ubuntu, Kubuntu, or Debian, run the following command:
	sudo dpkg -i (package_name).deb
If dependencies are required, run the following command:
	sudo apt-get -f install
For RedHat, Fedora, and CentOS, run the following command as root:
	yum install (package_name).rpm
	or
	dnf install (package_name).rpm
For OpenSUSE, run the following command:
	sudo zypper install (package_name).rpm

Note: 
- If "package not signed" will display during installation process of RPM package, user can continue by pressing "i" (ignore). Alternatively, user can run the installation command with --nogpgcheck parameter. We do not sign our Linux packages. 
- During OS installation, it is required to install "Development tools" for RHEL and CentOS. If distro is already installed, install the package using this command "sudo yum group install "Development Tools".

2. Connect to the printer using the Common Unix Printing System (CUPS) Web interface at http://localhost:631, or using the native Linux Printer Settings dialog (system-config-printer).
3. Manually install the driver by selecting the correct model from the driver files located at /usr/share/ppd/ta_utax.
4. Launching the UI can be done through the application launcher. The application is listed as TA/UTAX Print Panel. Alternatively, the terminal command ta_utax_dialog9.4 can be used.

For Debian-based systems that do not have the driver's dependencies, there's no need to run:
	sudo dpkg -i (package_name).deb
again in the terminal after running the command:
	sudo apt-get -f install
as the latter will finish the installation of driver package.

Note: RPM package installation is not recommended when there is another package currently installed in the system including older versions. In RedHat distributions, this will cause an error due to overlapping files. However, this is not the case for DEB packages which can upgrade from version 5 and above.

----------

Uninstallation
NOTE: Superuser access is required for uninstallation

Open a terminal window. From any location, run the following command:
On a Debian-based distribution run:
	sudo dpkg -r ta-utax-dialog
    or
    sudo apt-get remove ta-utax-dialog
        
    *Note: to remove all configuration files, run:
    	sudo apt-get purge ta-utax-dialog
 
On a Redhat-based distribution run as root:
	yum remove ta_utax_dialog
	or
	dnf remove ta_utax_dialog
On OpenSUSE run:
	sudo zypper remove ta_utax_dialog

----------

Usage
The UI is designed to change the default settings of a printer such that these settings will be applied when future print jobs are submitted. A user wishing to print with certain settings would first launch the Print Panel, select the printer they will print with, and then adjust settings to their preference. Once these settings have been applied, launch the desired application and perform the print job as normal. The resulting print job should have the user's settings applied.

Some applications may have their own methods of setting Page sizes. If this is the case, the user will need to set the page size in the application before printing.
TA/UTAX Print Panel cannot set some features like page orientation and n-up. These must be set from the application the user is printing from.

----------

Previously Known Limitations
1. Issue: Watermark angle is always relative to the Portrait layout, even when Landscape is selected.

2. Issue: Printing Stamp with Outline causes an outline to print along the whole page as well.

3. Issue: Depending on the application and operating system, using the Watermark feature may cause the watermark to be applied beyond normal page margins.

4. Issue: LibreOffice may not always render .DOC formats correctly, causing certain advanced printing features to not apply to them.
   Solution: Convert the document to .ODT first, and then apply advanced printing features. If this does not work, then converting the document to PDF may help.

5. Issue: Collate related features will not work properly when Collate is enabled via application. This includes Job Settings.
   Solution: Disable Application Collate before using any Job Settings (i.e. Proof and Hold), or with other features such as Rotate Collate.
   Note: LibreOffice has an advanced collate option that prints out multiple print jobs. It is recommended to disable the option first for best results.
         In some versions of LibreOffice, the option may have different string names. Older ones use "Create single print jobs for collated output" while later versions of the application use "Create separated print jobs for collated output".

6. Issue: Apply must be used for each printer changed; it does not save settings for all printers listed, only the one selected.

7. Issue: Occasionally, images embedded in pages will not print.

8. Issue: Printing a test page from the CUPS Web UI will sometimes result in filter failure.

9. Issue: On CUPS 1.6.x, printing in A4 paper size may cause Duplex to fail.

10. Issue: Using Collate features in certain applications will cause the job to split into multiple jobs, which may be directed into different trays depending on output tray capacity.

11. Issue: Booklet folding does not work with the constraints set out by media size. The media size in booklet fold is actually double the size of what is required by the printer. 

12. Issue: Super Watermark and duplex do not work together. 

13. Issue: Systems which require su to be run from tty cannot use su for changing installed options. This is set by default in most Debian based systems.
    Solution: Either use sudo authentication to change installed options, or change system settings to allow su to be run from an application.

14. Issue: The PCL Generic drivers have a smaller printable area, and so can often cutoff text from some applications.
    Solution: This can be solved by setting the margins from the application.

15. Issue: Landscape documents print booklet fold with the opposite binding edge chosen.
    Solution: For left-edge binding, select right-edge binding and vice-versa. 

16. Issue: Konqueror will not display negative values in the cups UI (localhost:631) properly.
    Solution: Use other web browsers such as Firefox or Chrome.

17. Issue: Printer configuration files will not be removed when a printer is deleted.
    Solution: These configuration files can be removed from /usr/share/kyocera/<username>/<printer name>

18. Issue: Shared printers can show up in Print Panel when improperly configured. These printers cannot be properly modified from Print Panel.

19. Issue: The Debian uninstaller will not remove all KDE desktop icons. This is a problem in how KDE handles desktop icons. 
    Solution: These desktop icons can be removed by hand. 

20. Issue: FS-9350DN and FS-9130DN cannot print booklet or booklet stitch with the PCL driver. 

21. Issue: LibreOffice 4.1.X does not support publishing features by default.
    Solution: In printing properties, change the Printer Language type from Automatic PDF to Postscript (Level from driver). 

22. Issue: LibreOffice prints Duplexed A4 documents incorrectly when A4 override is enabled on the printer. It ignores duplex, which can cause problems with publishing.
    Solution: Switching the printer language level to Postscript (Level from driver) will correct this.

23. Issue: The PCL driver cannot print more than one page at a time for large paper sizes (A3, Ledger, B4, 8K) in CentOS 6.5-6.7.

24. Issue: The PCL driver does not work on OpenSUSE 13.1 and CentOS 6.5. This is because the gstoraster filter provided by the distro does not work with PJL commands.
    Solution: The filter could be replaced with the pstoraster filter, which works with PJL commands. This requires changing the mime types though and is not recommended.

25. Issue:  TASKalfa 300ci has resolution problems when using the Generic driver.

26. Issue:  LibreOffice cannot pass the copy count properly to the PCL driver when the base printer language is Postscript. Collate and other features relying on multiple copies will not work.
    Solution: Switch the Printer Language Type to PDF in the printer device properties in LibreOffice.

27. Issue: IPP installed printers will not show up in Print Panel in CUPS 2.1 and up.

28. Issue: KDE Applications can overwrite the lpoptions file used to save settings from the print dialog. This can be avoided by not using the application preference dialogs.

29. Issue: Okular will fail to print if N-up and watermark are selected together for the Postscript PDL.
    Solution: The PDF Filter can support watermark and N-up for 2- and 4-up. 

30. Issue: The PDF Filter cannot print watermark with a reportlab version < 2.4.

31. Issue: The system-config-printer utility will sometime report that it is unable to identify USB printers before properly selecting the correct driver.

32. Issue: GtK+ Applications can truncate Job Accounting IDs with leading zeros.

33. Issue: PCL Generics do not support pre-defined Job accounts.

34. Issue: The watermark relies on TrueType fonts, and can print some characters incorrectly.


35. Issue: System-config-printer can leave strings untranslated when first installing a printer.

36. Issue: PCL filters with aQrate enabled and Color restriction may fail when sent from KDE applications.

37. Issue: Page size may be ignored by KDE Applications.

38. Issue: Monochrome Adjustment does not work with Okular.

39. Issue: Monochrome Adjustment does not work with the poppler filter.

    Solution: Switch to the Ghostscript filter.

40. Issue: Firefox does not support the P16K or 216x340mm file sizes.

41. Issue: Applications that do not support application text input.

    Solution: Use Print Panel for all custom settings.

42. Issue: aQrate does not function with Publishing Features

43. Issue: PCL Generic cannot always process aQrate Color restrictions.

44. Issue: Cups 2.2 and up can have issues with Publishing features, while using the default pdftops filter.

    Solution: Switch to the poppler filter by using the command lpadmin -p <printer> -o pdftops-renderer-default=pdftops

    Additional: Make sure to switch printer language level to Automatic:PDF.

45. Issue: aQrate features may require dbus to be restarted first.

    Solution: After installation, restart dbus or your system.
    
46. Issue: Cups 2.2.4 and up can cause issues with ppd features for ipp printers.

    Solution: Use a different connection method.
    
47. Issue: aQrate messages may not always appear at the forefront.

48. Issue: Cups 2.2 can cause Monochrome Adjustment to fail.

49. Issue: aQrate messages may not appear if multiple users are logged in.

50. Issue: Upgrading previous Phases to the current Phase may not handle certain features that experienced significant changes.

51. Issue: aQrate may not always correctly display page size.

52. Issue: The KPDL drivers do not support aQrate queue based print restrictions. 

53. Issue: Behavior on unstable and/or unofficial releases of OS, and softwares is not guaranteed.

54. Issue: Using the IPP protocol and the generic drivers, Linux distros that have CUPS below 2.0 are not guaranteed to have a successful print output in some settings (e.g., Duplex).

    Solution: Use a different protocol connection e.g., TCP/IP (AppSocket)

    Note: Ensure that the Duplex setting is matched in the print panel, CUPS server, and application.

55. Issue: Duplex printing is not working in some KPDL drivers especially if paper size is mismatched in the application and the print panel.

    Workaround: For duplex printing, paper sizes must be the same in both application and print panel.

56. Issue: Printing using a KPDL driver will log the total page number of a B/W document in the Full Color column of the aQrate server.

57. Issue: Versions below CUPS 2.3 will cause KPDL printers to log a 2 fixed B/W copies when using a aQrate server.

58. Issue: System Dark Mode may sometimes cause driver print panel to show black GUI contents.

    Workaround: Relaunch driver print panel or the just the dialog having the issue;
                Hovering through GUI elements may also fix the issue.

59. Issue: Scrolling through lines of text (like in help view, and licenses) may sometimes cause the text to be rendered incorrectly.

    Workaround: Relaunch dialog and step through text slower.

60. Issue: In OpenPrinting CUPS UI, some tabs appears to be empty even if it supports the option. It is because CUPS will read some options as General and will move them to the General Tab.

    Workaround: Check General Tab if the desired option is present.
    
61. Issue: Fedora 37 & 38: When clicking features with a combo box, there are instances that the list opens but then immediately closes. Hence, you do not get to pick from the list properly.

    Workaround 1: Click-Hold-Drag - Instead of just clicking a combo box, user can click-hold & then drag the cursor to the preferred option in the list.
    Workaround 2: Click the top portion of the Combo box. Issue is observed only when clicking the middle or bottom portion of the Combo box.
    
62. 62. Issue: In OpenPrinting CUPS UI, opening the Job settings for Generic PCL models will display two "None" options. The other "None" option is supposedly for the Private Print information.

63. Issue: In some Fedora OS, icon in the taskbar and task view will appear broken.

64. Issue: Starting Fedora 38, the watermark feature works, but if coupled with features like page insert & cover pages, the watermark will also be printed on the additional pages.

65. Issue: In the event both cover mode and page insert settings will affect the same page, only one of the said settings will be applied.

66. Issue: LibreOffice in Fedora 39 crashes when Paper Size is set to 16K.

67. Issue: Print panel constraints do not gray out in Fedora 39.

----------

Custom Settings 
These settings will also not appear in the standard print dialog, only in the Print Panel UI. These settings are as follows
	- User Login
	- Job Storage Access Code
	- Private Print information
	- Custom Box information
	- Any Publishing feature

Adjustment settings can appear in application print dialogs, however if it has been set in the Print Panel UI, then the application choices will be ignored.

Committed Settings from Print Panel will override that of CUPS Web UI. Commited means that changes are applied to the print panel by pressing the 'OK' or 'Apply' button.
