<chapter id="getting-started">
<title>Getting Started</title>

<para>This chapter of the &kdeprint; Handbook will walk you through most
of the configuration or selection options of &kdeprint;.  It will mainly
deal with &CUPS; in this version, as the author is most familiar with
it, and also because &kdeprint; started off with supporting &CUPS;
best.  Later versions of the &kdeprint; software and editions of this
handbook will support and explore more closely other printing
systems.</para>

<sect1 id="selecting-your-print-subsystem">
<title>Selecting Your Print Subsystem</title>

<para>You need to define your print subsystem, before you are able to
install any printer with the &kdeprint; framework.  There are two areas
where you can define this: either in &kcontrol; (The <guilabel>Printing
Manager</guilabel> section), or directly and <quote>on the fly</quote>
from the print dialog.</para>

<para>Navigate to <menuchoice><guimenu>K Menu</guimenu>
<guisubmenu>Preferences</guisubmenu> <guisubmenu>System</guisubmenu>
<guimenuitem>Printing Manager</guimenuitem></menuchoice>.  At the bottom
you can see a button that lets you select which printing subsystem you
want to use.  In &kde; 2.2 you can choose from the following
alternatives:</para>

<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>&CUPS; (Common &UNIX; Printing System)</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Print through an external program (generic)</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><acronym>LPR</acronym> (Standard <acronym>BSD</acronym> Print
System)</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Generic &UNIX; <acronym>LPD</acronym> print system (the
default)</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><acronym>RLPR</acronym> environment (print to remote
<acronym>LPD</acronym> servers from commandline.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>

<para>Of course, the chosen system must be installed, up and running on
your box prior to your selection, or before it takes effect.  <!-- The -->
<!-- authors personal recommendation is &CUPS; -->
</para>

<para>On it's first startup, &kdeprint; will try an autodetection.  This
only works for:</para>

<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>&CUPS;, as it is checking first for a running &CUPS; daemon</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><acronym>LPD</acronym>, as it is checking for a running
<acronym>LPD</acronym> daemon, plus a <filename>printcap</filename>
file.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>

<!-- <para>
Go to System->XY->ABC. Now you can choose from the following
alternatives: 
</para>-->

<para>The system you choose must be installed on your system prior to
your selection.  The author's personal recommendation is
&CUPS;.</para>

<para>Once autodetected, chosen, or changed, the active print
subsystem will take effect for all &kde; applications.  Different
users may have different print subsystems in use, if those do exist on
the computer and are compliant to each other.  Their settings are
stored in the <filename>kdeprintrc</filename>.  This file is unique to
every user, and is normally installed in
<filename>$<envar>HOME</envar>/.kde/share/config/kdeprintrc</filename>.</para>

<warning>
<para>This file is not intended to be directly editable, and all
available options can be set from the &kdeprint; &GUI;.</para>
</warning>

<para>You may even switch printer subsystem in use on the fly, from the
&kprinter; dialog box.</para>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="working-with-printing-manger">
<title>Working with the Printing Manager</title>

<para>Once you have chosen your preferred and installed print subsystem,
you are ready to investigate, configure administer and work with this
system through the &kdeprint; framework.</para>

<para>Navigate to <menuchoice><guimenu>K Menu</guimenu>
<guisubmenu>Preferences</guisubmenu> <guisubmenu>System</guisubmenu>
<guimenuitem>Printing Manager</guimenuitem></menuchoice>.  In the right
part of the window you will see at least 4 printers predefined.  These
are the virtual or special purpose printers, explained in section <!-- <xref 
linkend="FIXME"/> -->.  You will probably see a toolbar with 13 icons at the
top of the window, and at least 4 tabs in the lower half of the window,
labelled <guilabel>Information</guilabel>, <guilabel>Jobs</guilabel>,
<guilabel>Properties</guilabel> and
<guilabel>Instances</guilabel>.</para>

<!-- Not needed: the default view is as described, this can be mentioned -->
<!-- elsewhere <para>If you start the <guilabel>Printing -->
<!-- Manager</guilabel> module for the first time, you may be missing -->
<!-- Icons or tabs. <mousebutton>Right</mousebutton>-clicking the mouse -->
<!-- on the white background of the right part of the window opens a -->
<!-- Menu to select your viewing preferences. To get the same view as in -->
<!-- most screenshots, select: <guimenuitem>View Toolbar</guimenuitem> -->
<!-- and <guimenuitem>View Printer Information</guimenuitem> and -->
<!-- <guimenuitem>View Icons</guimenuitem> and <guimenuitem>Orientation -->
<!-- Vertical</guimenuitem>. Moving the mouse over one Button and -->
<!-- waiting a second gives you a tooltip hint about its functions. -->

<!-- 

3.3 Selection: &CUPS; or other?

If your selection of the print system is &CUPS;, you will have more 
choices at your fingertips than with any other printing 
system. &CUPS; is new to most Linux users (even the senior
hackers amongst us), and it is quite easy to use. But it
is at the same time very different from other printing systems.
Therfor the &CUPS; part in the &kdeprint; Handbook is naturally
the most detailed.

Future editions of the &kdeprint; handbook will describe in
more detail the other systems.
-->       

</sect1>

</chapter>
