I have a networked printer (Canon iP8720) and it mostly works just fine out of the box with CUPS on Kubuntu 22.10. However the printer is capable of borderless printing, higher resolution than the 600dpi it's presently limited to, and a few other things. I've tried to manually edit the PPD file for it but it invariably fails, even after making only trivial changes. I mostly grok what the PPD file parameters do but I'm very much a novice in this domain.
First and foremost, how can I get it to do borderless printing? I've changed the hwmargins as well as the print areas for different page sizes to no avail.
Secondly, how can I get the higher resolutions (it's good for 600dpi in B/W and 9600x2400 color) to work, and have it limited to 600 in B/W? For that matter how do I find out which resolutions are supported?
Finally, thinking long term, how does CUPS figure out what the printer's parameters are and turn that into a PPD file? My thinking here is that if it's missing some pretty important functionality when it's going through this process maybe there's room for some improvement on that end of things; maybe I can put my (atrocious) programming skills to work making CUPS that much more capable. Ha ha yeah right but I can dream.
This is the edited version of the PPD. Are there any really obvious errors?
*PPD-Adobe: "4.3"
*FormatVersion: "4.3"
*FileVersion: "1.28.16"
*LanguageVersion: English
*LanguageEncoding: ISOLatin1
*PSVersion: "(3010.000) 0"
*LanguageLevel: "3"
*FileSystem: False
*PCFileName: "drvless.ppd"
*Manufacturer: "Canon"
*ModelName: "Canon iP8720"
*Product: "(Canon iP8720)"
*NickName: "Canon iP8720, driverless, cups-filters 1.28.16"
*ShortNickName: "Canon iP8720"
*DefaultOutputOrder: Reverse
*ColorDevice: True
*cupsVersion: 2.4
*cupsSNMPSupplies: False
*cupsLanguages: "en"
*cupsFilter2: "image/urf image/urf 0 -"
*cupsFilter2: "image/jpeg image/jpeg 0 -"
*cupsManualCopies: True
*OpenUI *PageSize/Media Size: PickOne
*OrderDependency: 10 AnySetup *PageSize
*DefaultPageSize: 4x6
*PageSize 3.5x5/3.5 x 5″: "<</PageSize[252 360]>>setpagedevice"
*PageSize 4x6/4 x 6″: "<</PageSize[288 432]>>setpagedevice"
*PageSize 5x7/5 x 7″: "<</PageSize[360 504]>>setpagedevice"
*PageSize 8x10/8 x 10″: "<</PageSize[576 720]>>setpagedevice"
*PageSize 13x19/13 x 19": "<</PageSize[936 1368]>>setpagedevice"
*PageSize Env10/Envelope #10: "<</PageSize[296.985826771654 684]>>setpagedevice"
*PageSize EnvDL/Envelope DL: "<</PageSize[311.811023622047 623.622047244094]>>setpagedevice"
*PageSize Legal/US Legal: "<</PageSize[612 1008]>>setpagedevice"
*PageSize Letter/US Letter: "<</PageSize[612 792]>>setpagedevice"
*PageSize Tabloid/11 x 17″: "<</PageSize[792 1224]>>setpagedevice"
*CloseUI: *PageSize
*OpenUI *PageRegion/Media Size: PickOne
*OrderDependency: 10 AnySetup *PageRegion
*DefaultPageRegion: 4x6
*PageRegion 3.5x5/3.5 x 5″: "<</PageSize[252 360]>>setpagedevice"
*PageRegion 4x6/4 x 6″: "<</PageSize[288 432]>>setpagedevice"
*PageRegion 5x7/5 x 7″: "<</PageSize[360 504]>>setpagedevice"
*PageRegion 8x10/8 x 10″: "<</PageSize[576 720]>>setpagedevice"
*PageRegion 13x19/13 x 19": "<</PageSize[936 1368]>>setpagedevice"
*PageRegion Env10/Envelope #10: "<</PageSize[296.985826771654 684]>>setpagedevice"
*PageRegion EnvDL/Envelope DL: "<</PageSize[311.811023622047 623.622047244094]>>setpagedevice"
*PageRegion Legal/US Legal: "<</PageSize[612 1008]>>setpagedevice"
*PageRegion Letter/US Letter: "<</PageSize[612 792]>>setpagedevice"
*PageRegion Tabloid/11 x 17″: "<</PageSize[792 1224]>>setpagedevice"
*CloseUI: *PageRegion
*DefaultImageableArea: 4x6
*DefaultPaperDimension: 4x6
*ImageableArea 3.5x5: "0 0 252 360"
*PaperDimension 3.5x5: "252 360"
*ImageableArea 4x6: "0 0 288 432"
*PaperDimension 4x6: "288 432"
*ImageableArea 5x7: "0 0 360 504"
*PaperDimension 5x7: "360 504"
*ImageableArea 8x10: "0 0 576 720"
*PaperDimension 8x10: "576 720"
*ImageableArea 13x19: "0 0 936 1368"
*PaperDimension 13x19: "936 1368"
*ImageableArea Env10: "0 0 296.985826771654 684"
*PaperDimension Env10: "296.985826771654 684"
*ImageableArea EnvDL: "0 0 311.811023622047 623.622047244094"
*PaperDimension EnvDL: "311.811023622047 623.622047244094"
*ImageableArea Legal: "0 0 612 1008"
*PaperDimension Legal: "612 1008"
*ImageableArea Letter: "0 0 612 792"
*PaperDimension Letter: "612 792"
*ImageableArea Tabloid: "0 0 792 1224"
*PaperDimension Tabloid: "792 1224"
*HWMargins: "0 0 0 0"
*ParamCustomPageSize Width: 1 points 252.283464566929 932.59842519685
*ParamCustomPageSize Height: 2 points 360 1916.220472440945
*ParamCustomPageSize WidthOffset: 3 points 0 0
*ParamCustomPageSize HeightOffset: 4 points 0 0
*ParamCustomPageSize Orientation: 5 int 0 3
*CustomPageSize True: "pop pop pop <</PageSize[5 -2 roll]/ImagingBBox null>>setpagedevice"
*OpenUI *InputSlot/Media Source: PickOne
*OrderDependency: 10 AnySetup *InputSlot
*DefaultInputSlot: Auto
*InputSlot Main/Main: "<</MediaPosition 1>>setpagedevice"
*InputSlot Auto/Automatic: "<</MediaPosition 0>>setpagedevice"
*CloseUI: *InputSlot
*OpenUI *MediaType/Media Type: PickOne
*OrderDependency: 10 AnySetup *MediaType
*DefaultMediaType: Photographic
*MediaType Stationery/Stationery: "<</MediaType(Stationery)>>setpagedevice"
*MediaType Photographic/Photo Paper: "<</MediaType(Photographic)>>setpagedevice"
*MediaType Envelope/Envelope: "<</MediaType(Envelope)>>setpagedevice"
*CloseUI: *MediaType
*% ColorModel from urf-supported
*OpenUI *ColorModel/Print Color Mode: PickOne
*OrderDependency: 10 AnySetup *ColorModel
*ColorModel RGB/Color: "<</cupsColorSpace 19/cupsBitsPerColor 8/cupsColorOrder 0/cupsCompression 0>>setpagedevice"
*ColorModel Gray/Monochrome: "<</cupsColorSpace 18/cupsBitsPerColor 8/cupsColorOrder 0/cupsCompression 0>>setpagedevice"
*DefaultColorModel: RGB
*CloseUI: *ColorModel
*OpenUI *OutputBin/Output Tray: PickOne
*OrderDependency: 10 AnySetup *OutputBin
*DefaultOutputBin: FaceUp
*OutputBin FaceUp/Face Up: ""
*PageStackOrder FaceUp: Reverse
*CloseUI: *OutputBin
*DefaultResolution: 600dpi
*OpenUI *cupsPrintQuality/Print Quality: PickOne
*OrderDependency: 10 AnySetup *cupsPrintQuality
*DefaultcupsPrintQuality: Normal
*cupsPrintQuality Normal/Normal: "<</HWResolution[600 600]>>setpagedevice"
*cupsPrintQuality High/High: "<</HWResolution[1200 1200]>>setpagedevice"
*cupsPrintQuality Super/Super: "<</HWResolution[2400 2400]>>setpagedevice"
*cupsPrintQuality Ultra/Ultra: "<</HWResolution[9600 2400]>>setpagedevice"
*CloseUI: *cupsPrintQuality
*OpenUI *print-scaling/Print Scaling: PickOne
*OrderDependency: 10 AnySetup *print-scaling
*Defaultprint-scaling: auto
*print-scaling auto/Automatic: ""
*print-scaling auto-fit/Auto-fit: ""
*print-scaling fill/Fill: ""
*print-scaling fit/Fit: ""
*print-scaling none/None: ""
*CloseUI: *print-scaling
*cupsFilter2: "application/vnd.cups-pdf application/pdf 0 -"
