PDF Handshake's innovative PDF Internet Printing feature supports the remote delivery and printing of PDF documents over the Internet, allowing simple transfers using any web browser. A simple web interface handles: user authorization, PDF job delivery, customizable print parameters, PDF preflight, remote notification, plus printing/archiving of PDF print jobs that can be used by every authorized Internet user.
And with PDF Handshake's built-in ColorSync/ICC-based color management as well as font management, users can benefit from professional, high-quality printing of PDF documents whether they are separations, composites, or even proof simulations.
Print houses and copy shops alike can give customers a hassle-free solution for remote delivery of their print jobs like color proofs, poster prints, forms or copy jobs. Easy to setup and use, PDF Internet Printing provides e-mail notification that new documents have arrived. Implemented as a Perl script, the cgi-program is fully customizable, enabling print houses and copy shops to brand the interface with banners, logos, advertisements, as well as for custom order information, credit card, and database connections. A UNIX server running Apache, an EtherShare license and PDF Handshake are all that is required (IP connection purchased separately).
Figure
73 shows a typical "PDF Internet Printing" workflow from the PDF file on the customer site to the printout on the production site:
From the client workstation the PDF document is sent via the Internet to the server machine at the printer site. The print server then spools and processes the job and outputs it on a digital printer, an image setter, or a press.
Fig. 73: Typical "PDF Internet Printing" workflow
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To benefit from the new "Internet Printing" feature of PDF Handshake 2.0, the following setup is required:
- A UNIX server running EtherShare 2.6 and PDF Handshake 2.0 (incl. all updates from HELIOS CD016)
- The programming language Perl (http://www.perl.org) must be installed on the UNIX server
- An Apache Web server (http://apache.org) must be installed on the UNIX server
Note: The Mac OS X server and Linux server already comprise the Apache Web server and Perl programming language module. If you are using another UNIX server (e.g. Solaris) make sure that these two modules are installed. Otherwise you have to install them manually prior to the PDF Internet Printing installation.
In order to use PDF Internet Printing, it is required to:
- copy a cgi-script and icons from the EtherShare directory to the appropriate Apache directories
- create the four configuration files in "$ESDIR/conf"
Optionally, a cron-script to periodically clean up temporary and uploaded files can be installed.
All this is done by the
webinstall script in "$ESDIR/etc" which can either be called from the "PDF Handshake Installation Menu" or directly from the UNIX command line.
Note: For the installation of the PDF Internet Printing software you have to log in as "root" on the server.
16.3.1 Installation with the "PDF Handshake Installation Menu"
PDF Handshake Installation Menu
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1) Install programs and configuration files
2) Enter activation key to license Helios programs
3) Install Internet Printing files
4) Remove all PDF Handshake files from /usr/local/es
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Select item 3 and press RETURN.
16.3.2 Installation with the "webinstall" script
In "$ESDIR/etc" type
./webinstall and press RETURN.
Installing PDF Internet Printing on host iprint ...
The PDF Internet Printing installation needs to know where the Perl binary is installed on this system.
Specify the location where the Perl binary is installed.
* Location of Perl (q to quit) [/usr/local/bin/perl]:
The PDF Internet Printing installation needs to know where the Apache Web Server daemon is installed on this system.
Now enter the path to the Apache Web Server daemon.
* Location of apache (q to quit)
[/usr/local/apache/bin/httpd]:
Where do you want to install the cgi-script pdfweb.cgi?
NOTE: Installing the script in any other than the default location can make changes in the Apache configuration file necessary.
Specify the path to the "pdfweb.cgi" script.
* Directory to install pdfweb.cgi (q to quit) [/usr/local/apache/cgi-bin/]:
Where do you want to install the icons needed by pdfweb.cgi?
NOTE: Installing the icons in any other than the default location can make changes in the Apache configuration file necessary.
Specify the path to the location of the icons needed by the "pdfweb.cgi" script.
* Location to install icons (q to quit) [/usr/local/apache/icons/]:
Now the installation of the PDF Internet Printing program can be started:
Type
y if you want to start the installation, or
q (for "quit") if you want to quit the installation process.
* OK to start installation [y]:
Installing cgi-script in /usr/local/apache/cgi-bin/ ...
Copying icons to /usr/local/apache/icons/ ...
If you install PDF Internet Printing for the first time, default configuration files will now be generated:
Creating configuration file /usr/local/es/conf/pdfweb.conf ...
Enter the path to the directory where uploaded PDF files will be stored.
* Directory for uploading print jobs (q to quit) [/var/spool/pdfweb]:
* OK to create `/var/spool/pdfweb' [y]:
If mail notification about spooled print jobs is desired for the PDF Internet Printing administrator, enter the e-mail address. If you do not want to be notified leave it blank.
* Email address of PDF Internet Printing administrator []: joe@helios.de
To allow easy access to uploaded PDF files you can create an EtherShare volume for the upload directory. Type
y if you want an EtherShare volume to be created, or
n if not.
* OK to create EtherShare volume for /var/spool/pdfweb [y]:
Creating configuration file /usr/local/es/conf/pdfweb.passwd
Everyone who wants to use PDF Internet Printing needs a user name and a password in "pdfweb.passwd". Type
y if you want to create an initial entry with the user name "webuser" (
n if not). You can change the settings anytime in the EtherShare Admin.
* OK to create demo user 'webuser' [y]:
Specify a password for "webuser".
* Password for 'webuser' []: demo
Creating configuration file /usr/local/es/conf/pdfweb.notify ...
Creating configuration file /usr/local/es/conf/pdfweb.printers ...
Certain users can use certain printer queues according to the entries in "pdfweb.printers". Type
y if you want to make all printer queues available to all users, or
n if not. However, you can change the settings anytime in the EtherShare Admin.
* OK to make all printers available to all users [y]:
The crontab entry to periodically clean up uploaded files does not exist.
This entry effects that uploaded and temporary files are periodically erased from the print server. If you want the "crontab" entry type
y, or
n if not.
* OK to make crontab entry for pdfweb.daily [y]:
Installation completed successfully.
Later changes to the configuration should be applied through the EtherShare Admin (see chapter
16.6 "Configuration Files"). In particular, you may want to restrict the list of printer queues available to PDF Internet Printing.
16.3.3 Verifying the installation
There are some steps you should take in order to verify that the installation of PDF Internet Printing was successful:
In your browser enter the URL
http://<hostname>/cgi-bin/pdfweb.cgi
If this is successful, everything should work fine.
If not, try
http://<webservername>/cgi-bin/pdfweb.cgi
If this works neither, try
http://<IP-address>/cgi-bin/pdfweb.cgi
Example:
http://172.16.0.8/cgi-bin/pdfweb.cgi
If you are successful with using the IP-address in the URL but not with "host name" or "Web server name", the installation of PDF Internet Printing was successful and you may have a DNS configuration problem.
In a next step prove that the Apache Web server (Port 80) can be reached from outside, e.g. via "telnet":
outsidehost$ telnet iprint 80
Trying 172.16.0.8...
Connected to iprint.
If this returns an unknown host, try
outsidehost$ telnet 172.16.0.8 80
Trying 172.16.0.8...
Connected to 172.16.0.8
iprint$ telnet localhost 80
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to localhost.
Note: The host names and IP-addresses in the above given excerpts are just examples!
If the measures described above do not work, you should verify that the Apache server is up and running at all.
From a UNIX shell, get a listing of the Apache-related processes on the Web server in question:
iprint$ ps -ef | grep httpd
nobody 10351 10349 0 Nov 20 ? 0:02 .../apache/bin/httpd
nobody 10514 10349 0 Nov 20 ? 0:01 .../apache/bin/httpd
root 10349 1 0 Nov 20 ? 0:00 .../apache/bin/httpd
nobody 10352 10349 0 Nov 20 ? 0:03 .../apache/bin/httpd
nobody 10373 10349 0 Nov 20 ? 0:02 .../apache/bin/httpd
Important: Consider that under Mac OS X Server the http daemon ("httpd") is called "apache".
If the process listing shows
apache/bin/httpd entries, your Apache server is up and running.
You may additionally inspect the Apache Web server log files "access_log" and "error_log":
In your UNIX shell move to the Apache directory and verify the log entries. The default path to the Apache log files is "/data/apache/logs":
iprint$ more /data/apache/logs/access_log
iprint$ more /data/apache/logs/error_log
Now you know that everything works fine and you may start using PDF Internet Printing.
16.4 Uninstall PDF Internet Printing
If you want to uninstall the PDF Internet Printing software from the server, e.g. in order to remove the cgi-script and the icons from the Apache directory and erase the "crontab" entry, call
./webinstall -u in the "$ESDIR/etc" directory from a UNIX shell:
A listing of the files and entries which are being removed is displayed:
Removing pdfweb.cgi from /data/apache/cgi-bin/ ...
Removing icons from /data/apache/icons/ ...
Removing crontab entry for pdfweb.daily ...
Now the PDF Internet Printing software is deinstalled.
16.5 Using PDF Internet Printing
Printing PDF jobs over the Internet is quite easy with PDF Internet Printing and requires just four steps to be taken:
In your browser, enter the URL of the Internet Printing server.
A dialog window similar to that in Fig.
74 appears. Similar in the sense that the HELIOS company banner, which appears in this example, is certainly replaced by your banner.
Fig. 74: Step 1 - "Login" dialog
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Enter
User name and
Password in the provided fields and click on the
Log in >> button.
A new dialog opens (see Fig.
75). In this, the PDF print job and the printer queue must be specified as well as - if desired - color profiles, comments, and an e-mail address for notification when the print job has been queued.
In the
PDF Document field use the
Browse... button to select the PDF document you want to print.
Fig. 75: Step 2 - "Upload PDF Job" dialog
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In the input
RGB profile and
CMYK profile fields respectively you may select a color profile for the PDF print job. In the
Printer pop-up menu determine an adequate printer queue. Additionally you may want to be informed as soon as the print job is spooled on the server. In this case enter your e-mail address in the provided field. If you want to attach any comments to your print job for the "Operator" use the
Comment text box and select an appropriate addressee from the
Comments to pop-up menu.
If the PDF file was already supplied with ICC-profile information during creation, this is used as input profile. In case that no input profiles are provided, the CMYK/RGB data of the PDF file will be printed using server default profiles.
Note: If profiles are selected in the "Upload PDF Job" dialog these profiles will override the server defaults.
The output profiles are limited to the printer queue and can be configured by the Printer Administrator only. For tagging PDF files with CMYK/RGB profiles, see also chapter
7.2 "Options for EtherShare users".
When you have completed all entries click on
Upload Files >> to proceed with the job options configuration.
Note: Please note that uploading the PDF documents may take some time (there is no feedback from the server until the upload is complete). If you are in doubt you should try with a small file first.
The job options dialog window (see Fig.
76) is virtually a combined "Page Setup/Print" dialog:
In the first section of the dialog, you can specify the number of copies, the pages you want to print, the orientation (
Portrait,
Landscape), and whether you want to flip the pages. For your information, the uploaded print job and the selected queue are stated in the dialog window, below the banner.
From the
Paper size pop-up menu you can choose one of the printer's paper sizes or
Custom.
Custom must be selected if you want to enter individual values in the
Height and
Width text fields. Dimension units can be displayed either in
Inch or in
cm. Note that if you print with custom values these values will be saved. They will be available the next time you open the dialog.
The
Offset value defines the distance from the left boundary of the print medium (e.g. a film on an imagesetter) to the left page boundary of the document, and is used to shift the whole page in X-direction. The
Offset value will not be added to the page width.
Fig. 76: Step 3 - "Job Options" dialog
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If your width is e.g. 15 cm, it will still be 15 cm after specifying an offset of e.g. 1 cm. In that case, the document page must fit on the remaining 14 cm. This parameter is ignored by most standard desktop printers. The
Gap value defines the length of the form feed at the end of the page. This distance will be added to the page height.
Center/shrink to fit can be selected to fit your document pages on the selected paper size. Likewise, if you specify an
Input tray you have to keep in mind that the selected paper size must be valid for this particular tray.
From
the
Halftone pop-up menu you can select global halftone settings. These settings will be used for all elements in the PDF file unless you have checked
Preserve PDF Halftones (see Fig.
77), and they will be used for all separation plates unless you enter individual values for a specific plate.
Fig. 77: Step 4 - "Color Setup" dialog
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When you have completed all entries click on
Next >> to proceed with the color setup.
In the color setup dialog window (see Fig.
77) the options regarding separation printing, color conversion, PDF halftone preservation, etc. can be specified and configured.
Print separations: This option effects a separated output of the document, and individual plate settings can be specified.
Spot To Process: Convert all spot colors into process colors. The process color space depends on the printer profile that has been defined for your current printer queue and can be either CMYK or RGB. By default, the spot colors are converted into CMYK.
Overprint black: Whenever the color "Black" appears on a colored background, the background separation plate will usually show knock outs. Setting this option will make sure that there are no knock outs on the background separation plates. "Black" will overprint the background color.
Preserve PDF Halftones: Use the halftone information that is contained in a PDF file. A PDF file can contain halftone information for single or for all elements. With this option, the available halftone information will be used. Else, all halftone information in the PDF file will be ignored. Please note that it depends on the Distiller's job options whether or not a PDF file contains any halftone information at all.
Negative Print: Negative print the whole document. Usually this function is only applied when printing separations.
Print registration marks: Registration marks are printed, and the document pages will be re-adjusted on the output medium so that the registration marks will fit in the bottom left corner. This could lead to cropping of the upper and right part of the document if the document pages and the registration marks do not fit on the output medium.
Having completed all entries, click
Start Print Job >> to transfer the parameters and to start printing.
Sending the PDF job to the server
When the print job has been sent to the print server it is listed in a status table in the printer queue dialog window (see Fig.
78).
Fig. 78: "Printer Queue" dialog (spooling)
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Print jobs to this queue, even if not sent via PDF Internet Printing, are listed also. The content of this dialog window is the same as the one you would receive when calling the "$ESDIR/lpq" command from a UNIX shell.
After the print job has been processed, it disappears from the status table, or if it was the only print job on the queue, the table disappears at all (see Fig.
79).
Fig. 79: "Printer Queue" dialog (ready)
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Click on
Next Print Job if you want to load up another print job on the server, or on
Log out if you want to quit.
The "Help" banner is engaged in the head of each dialog window whenever the online-help is called (see figure
80).
If an error occurs during the printing process, e.g. due to faulty operation in the dialog windows caused by the user, a "Problem" dialog window opens with the respective banner in the head (see Fig.
81).
Fig. 81: "Problem" dialog
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PDF Internet Printing needs four configuration files which reside in "$ESDIR/conf" and can easily be edited in the EtherShare Admin. These files contain configuration information for different tasks. The table below explains briefly what they are about.
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Main configuration file for PDF Handshake Internet Printing.
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File that contains user name, passwords, and e-mail address for all users who have access to PDF Handshake Internet Printing.
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File that contains an individual list of printers available for each user and selectable in the "Upload PDF Job" dialog.
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This file contains all names appearing in the "Comments to" list in the "Upload PDF Job" dialog, together with their e-mail addresses.
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Modifications in these files can be carried out directly on the host, e.g. with the help of a standard editor program such as vi. However, it is much easier to use the Macintosh application EtherShare Admin for these tasks since the files in the middle column can also be accessed from the EtherShare Admin.
Open the menu
Lists > PDF Internet Printing... in the EtherShare Admin (see Fig.
82) and select the list you want to modify.
Fig. 82: Configuration files in the EtherShare Admin
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Modifications in one or more of these configuration files take effect after saving it on the server and logging in anew.
To save changes on the server, close the configuration file you have modified and confirm
Save changed text? by clicking the
Yes button.
Note: If you save changes by performing Save as..., the EtherShare Admin just saves a copy of the settings locally instead, and not on the server.
In the following, the typical content of the four configuration files is described, and examples are given.
16.6.1 Configuration file of "pdfweb.conf"
"pdfweb.conf" is the main configuration file for PDF Handshake Internet Printing.
iconprefix is an extension for accessing the "pdfweb.*.gif" banner files. The "pdfweb.cgi" script will access the icons with <IMG SRC="<iconprefix>/pdfweb.*.gif" ...>.
The default is
iconprefix=/icons
printjobsdir specifies the directory for uploaded print jobs, temporary files, etc. This parameter must be set to an existing directory:
printjobsdir=/var/spool/pdfweb
logfile is the name of the log file. By default, this parameter is empty, i.e. no logging takes place:
The following example shows the specified path to a log file:
logfile=/var/spool/pdfweb/pdfweb.log
deletefiles is a flag to delete PDF document and
ICC-profiles after a print job has been spooled:
Set
deletefiles=1 to delete the files.
Set
deletefiles=0 if you want to keep all files.
If this parameter is not specified the PDF document and the ICC profiles are not deleted.
deletefilesafter defines the number of days after which uploaded print jobs and temporary files are deleted. The script "$ESDIR/etc/pdfweb/pdfweb.daily", which should be run by
cron once a day, uses this parameter.
Set
deletefilesafter=0 to keep files forever
Set
deletefilesafter=7 to dump files after 7 days
If this parameter is not specified no files are deleted by "pdfweb.daily".
sendmail specifies the path to the "sendmail" program:
The default is
/usr/sbin/sendmail.
printcap specifies the path to the printer capability database. It is used to find the spool directories of the EtherShare printers.
The default is
/etc/printcap.
admin-email is the e-mail address of the PDF Internet Printing Administrator. For every printed document, a notification is sent to this address. The default is empty, i.e. no notification is provided:
Example:
admin-email=joe@helios.de
refresh specifies the refresh time of the "Show Print Queue" dialog in seconds.
refresh=0 means no refresh.
The default is
refresh=60.
Set
cleartextpasswd=0 to use crypted passwords.
Set
cleartextpasswd=1 to use clear text passwords
The default is
cleartextpasswd=1
deflanguage is the default language used in "pdfweb.cgi". The file "$ESDIR/etc/pdfweb/pdfweb_<xx>.pl" must exist, where "<xx>" is the default language. If this parameter is not specified, "en" is used as default language. See also chapter
16.7.2 "Language support".
defunits is the default value for the
Dimension units pop-up menu in the "Job Options" dialog. Possible values are:
If this parameter is not specified, "cm" is used as default unit.
16.6.2 Configuration file of "pdfweb.passwd"
"pdfweb.passwd" is the file comprising user name, passwords, and an optional e-mail address for all users which have access to PDF Handshake Internet Printing.
The lines in this file have the form:
user:password:mailaddress (optional)
Entries can then be created or modified with the Apache "htpasswd" program.
cd /usr/local/es/conf
/usr/local/apache/bin/htpasswd pdfweb.passwd <user>
In the following example the user is
webuser and the (uncrypted) password is
demo:
webuser:demo:webuser@helios.de
Note: When you specify an optional e-mail address in "pdfweb.passwd" this is used as default entry in the "Upload PDF Job" dialog (see Fig. 75).
16.6.3 Configuration file of "pdfweb.printers"
The file "pdfweb.printers" contains the printer queues available for each user and displayed in the printer list in the "Upload PDF Job" dialog.
The lines in this file have the form:
user:printer1:printer2...:printerN
printer1...printerN are the UNIX names of EtherShare printer queues.
A line beginning with
all: means that the printers specified in that line are available for all users.
The following example shows that for the user
webuser the printer queues
preview,
tcp-print, and
tek are available:
webuser:preview:tcp-print:tek
16.6.4 Configuration file of "pdfweb.notify"
This file contains all names appearing in the
Comments to pop-up menu of the "Upload PDF Job" dialog, together with their e-mail addresses.
The lines in this file have the form:
In this example, there are two entries in the
Comments to pop-up menu:
John (Accounting):john@helios.de
Administrator:joe@helios.de
The files which are related to PDF Internet Printing are located in several subdirectories in "$ESDIR".
The installation program
webinstall is located in the "$ESDIR/etc" directory. Whenever you need to install parts of the software again, e.g after you installed updates to PDF Internet Printing, you have to call this program.
In the "$ESDIR/etc/pdfweb" directory reside
- the cgi-script "pdfweb.cgi"
- the "pdfweb.*.gif" files, which are used for the banners in the dialog window
- the "pdfweb_<xx>.pl" files, which contain the text for the dialog windows in different languages
- the Perl program "inst-pdfweb.pl", which is used by webinstall
In the "$ESDIR/conf" directory reside the configuration files "pdfweb.conf", "pdfweb.passwd", "pdfweb.printers", and "pdfweb.notify".
By these four files the PDF Internet Printing dialog in the browser is configured.
The PDF Internet Printing feature supports different languages in the dialog windows for user operation. The dialog language is determined in the browser's preferences. To set the language, proceed as follows:
In the
Netscape Communicator, go to
Edit > Preferences... and choose
Languages from the category
Navigator.
In the
Internet Explorer, go to
View > Internet Options..., and click on the
Languages... button. A new window opens.
The language which is - hierarchically seen - on first place of the list will be the browser dialog language for PDF Internet Printing. Select the language of your choice and move it to the top. You can also add and delete languages, or redesign their order. Then save the changes and log on to the PDF Internet Printing server anew. The "Login" dialog (see Fig.
74) should now appear in the selected language, except for the buttons which are generated by the browser itself, e.g. the
Browse... button.
The languages which are supported by PDF Internet Printing can be seen in the "$ESDIR/etc/pdfweb" directory. They have the form: "pdfweb_<xx>.pl", where "xx" represents the ISO-country code (e.g. "pdfweb_en.pl" for "English"). As of HELIOS CD016 we support the following languages:
pdfweb_it.pl (Italian)
pdfweb_ja.pl (Japanese)
pdfweb_ko.pl (Korean)
pdfweb_de.pl (German)
pdfweb_sv.pl (Swedish)
pdfweb_en.pl (English)
pdfweb_fr.pl (French)
16.7.3 Customizing the banners
You may want to replace the banners in the "PDF Internet Printing" dialog windows (see figures
74 to
81) with customized ones, e.g. banners of your company:
In your UNIX shell, move to the directory where the banner files have been installed (e.g. "/usr/local/apache/icons") and replace the following GIF-files by those of your choice.
Important: It is most important that you maintain the file names of the GIFs when you replace them with your's! This means e.g. that your personalized "login" banner must have the file name "pdfweb.login.gif"!
According to the steps that must be taken while working with PDF Internet Printing, the banners later appear in the sequential order:
pdfweb.login.gif
pdfweb.upload.gif
pdfweb.printjob.gif
pdfweb.colorsetup.gif
pdfweb.printq.gif
pdfweb.help.gif (for the "Help" section)
pdfweb.error.gif (for the "Problem" section)
Important: Whenever you run webinstall, e.g. after installing updates to PDF Internet Printing, the banner files from "usr/local/apache/icons" are overwritten with those of "$ESDIR/etc/pdfweb". This means that have to customizeyour icons anew.
