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GNOME Goal: Print To File

Guidelines

The goal is to make sure that every application that offers to print something set a suitable filename for print-to-file when showing a print dialog. The GTK+-provided fallback, '~/Documents/output.pdf', is not something we want to default to. GTK+ 3.5.4 added improved support for setting a default filename when printing to a file.

To fix this, one needs to set a suitable value for GTK_PRINT_SETTINGS_OUTPUT_BASENAME (or alternatively GTK_PRINT_SETTINGS_OUTPUT_URI) on the GtkPrintSettings object before passing it to the GtkPrintOperation. The printing demo in gtk-demo has code to demonstrate this, see http://git.gnome.org/cgit/gtk+/tree/demos/gtk-demo/printing.c (around line 184). If a full URI is used, then the path of the URI as well as the basename is set as default in the print dialog. If only the BASENAME is set, then the G_USER_DIRECTORY_DOCUMENTS folder in the users home will be used as the default folder and the basename is appended to this.

Note: The use of GTK_PRINT_SETTINGS_OUTPUT_URI should be avoided. Instead a combination of GTK_PRINT_SETTINGS_OUTPUT_FILE_FORMAT, GTK_PRINT_SETTINGS_OUTPUT_BASENAME and GTK_PRINT_SETTINGS_OUTPUT_DIR should be used. This avoids extra application code like having to process what file format should be attached to the URI.

The applications will only need a few additional lines of code. Something like this should probably work:

    /* code to setup the printing operation ...  */

    GtkPrintSettings *settings;
    settings = gtk_print_settings_new ();
    gtk_print_settings_set(settings, GTK_PRINT_SETTINGS_OUTPUT_BASENAME, "Document Title");
    //which will default to "~/Documents/Document Title.pdf"
    gtk_print_operation_set_print_settings (operation, settings);

    /* code to run the print operation */

alternatively you can prepare a whole uri and set the uri with:

    gtk_print_settings_set (settings, GTK_PRINT_SETTINGS_OUTPUT_URI, uri);
    //which will use the uri's basename AND path for the filename

but you should only do this if you have particular reasons to not use the default Documents directory, for example if you want to save the file to G_USER_DIRECTORY_PICTURES or any of the other special user directories.

Instructions on how to recognize a module affected by this goal.

This affects any module which ships an application that can print something, using the GTK+ print dialog.

Comments before approval

Add your comments to this goal proposal here

A patch has already been accepted in gtkprintbackendfile.c which reduces the code involved in each application. See: 657322.

TODO: GTK_PRINT_SETTINGS_OUTPUT_BASENAME and GTK_PRINT_SETTINGS_OUTPUT_DIR should have comments added to their definitions in the GTK code base so that documentation is auto generated and can be easily discovered by developers.

Status of this goal

Tip: If you choose to work on a module, create the bug report on the GNOME bugzilla for the relevant module, and make it block bug 686927. This way people will know someone already works on it, and won't duplicate the work you're doing.

State	Markup
todo	`<: #ff8080> todo`
patch	`<: #ffc849> [[GnomeBug:xxxxx\|patch]]`
done	`<: #80ff80> [[GnomeBug:xxxxx\|done]]`
not needed	`<: #80ff80> not needed`

Above are the states and corresponding markup to update the modules state table below.

Tarball	Status
core
at-spi2-core	not needed
at-spi2-atk	not needed
dconf	not needed
evolution-data-server	not needed
glib-networking	not needed
gnome-bluetooth	not needed
gnome-online-accounts	not needed
gnome-control-center	not needed
gnome-desktop	not needed
gnome-icon-theme	not needed
gnome-icon-theme-extras	not needed
gnome-icon-theme-symbolic	not needed
gnome-keyring	not needed
gnome-menus	not needed
gnome-packagekit	not needed
gnome-power-manager	not needed
gnome-screensaver	not needed
gnome-session	not needed
gnome-settings-daemon	not needed
gnome-shell	not needed
gnome-themes-standard	not needed
gsettings-desktop-schemas	not needed
gvfs	not needed
mousetweaks	not needed
mutter	not needed
network-manager-applet	not needed
pulseaudio	not needed
telepathy-mission-control	not needed
core-utilities
baobab	to do
brasero	to do
empathy	to do
eog	done
epiphany	done
evince	done
gcalctool	not needed
gnome-contacts	to do
gnome-dictionary	to do
gnome-disk-utility	to do
gnome-font-viewer	not needed
gnome-screenshot	to do
gnome-search-tool	to do
gnome-system-log	to do
gnome-system-monitor	to do
gnome-terminal	not needed
gucharmap	to do
nautilus	to do
sushi	to do
yelp	to do
core-extras
gnome-backgrounds	not needed
gnome-user-share	not needed
vino	not needed
gnome-user-docs	not needed
core-fallback
GConf	not needed
gnome-panel	to do
metacity	to do
notification-daemon	not needed
core-os-services
accountservice	not needed
avahi	not needed
ConsoleKit	not needed
dbus	not needed
gdm	not needed
NetworkManager	not needed
PackageKit	not needed
polkit	not needed
upower	not needed
core-deps
atk	not needed
atkmm	not needed
cairo	not needed
cairomm	not needed
cantarell-fonts	not needed
caribou	not needed
clutter	not needed
clutter-gtk	not needed
clutter-gst	not needed
cogl	not needed
dbus-glib	not needed
dbus-python	not needed
desktop-file-utils	not needed
enchant	not needed
expat	not needed
farsight2	not needed
folks	not needed
fontconfig	not needed
gamin	not needed
gnome-js-common	not needed
gtksourceview	not needed
gdk-pixbuf	not needed
gjs	not needed
glib	not needed
glibmm	not needed
gmime	not needed
gnome-doc-utils	not needed
gnome-video-effects	not needed
gnutls	not needed
gobject-introspection	not needed
gst-plugins-base	not needed
gst-plugins-good	not needed
gst-plugins-farsight	not needed
gstreamer	not needed
gtk+	to do
gtk-doc	not needed
gtkmm	not needed
gudev	not needed
hicolor-icon-theme	not needed
icon-naming-utils	not needed
iso-codes	not needed
itstool	not needed
intltool	not needed
java-gnome	to do
js185	not needed
json-glib	not needed
libatasmart	not needed
libcanberra	not needed
libchamplain	to do
libcroco	not needed
libdaemon	not needed
libdiscid	not needed
libgpg-error	not needed
libgcrypt	not needed
libgee	not needed
libgdata	not needed
libgnome-keyring	not needed
libgnomekbd	to do
libgsf	not needed
libgtop	not needed
libgweather	not needed
libical	not needed
libmusicbrainz	not needed
libnice	not needed
libnotify	not needed
liboauth	not needed
libpeas	not needed
libproxy	not needed
librest	not needed
librsvg	not needed
libsigc++2	not needed
libsndfile	not needed
libsoup	not needed
libtasn1	not needed
libwnck	not needed
libxklavier	not needed
libxml2	not needed
libxslt	not needed
mm-common	not needed
nspr	not needed
nss	not needed
p11-kit	not needed
pango	not needed
pangomm	not needed
pixman	not needed
polkit-gnome	not needed
poppler	not needed
py2cairo	not needed
pygobject	not needed
rarian	not needed
seed	not needed
shared-mime-info	not needed
sound-theme-freedesktop	not needed
speex	not needed
sqlite3	not needed
startup-notification	not needed
telepathy-glib	not needed
telepathy-logger	not needed
telepathy-farsight	not needed
totem-pl-parser	not needed
tracker	not needed
vala	not needed
vte	not needed
webkit	to do
yelp-tools	not needed
yelp-xsl	not needed
zenity	to do
libnl	not needed
lcms2	not needed
colord	not needed
apps
accerciser	to do
aislerot	to do
anjuta	to do
cheese	not needed
devhelp	to do
evolution	to do
file-roller	not needed
gedit	done
ghex	to do
glade	to do
gnome-color-manager	to do
gnome-devel-docs	to do
gnome-documents	to do
gnome-games	to do
gnome-nettool	to do
nautilus-sendto	to do
nemiver	to do
orca	to do
rygel	to do
seahorse	not needed
totem	not needed
vinagre	not needed
Other
abiword	to do
atomix	to do
banshee	not needed
banter	to do
beagle	to do
contact-lookup-applet	to do
dia	to do
eggcups	to do
f-spot	to do
ghex	to do
gimp	to do
glom	to do
gnome-blog	to do
gnome-bluetooth	to do
gnome-cups-manager	to do
gnome-disk-utility	to do
gnome-main-menu	to do
gnome-mud	to do
goocanvas	to do
goocanvasmm	to do
GParted	not needed
GNOME Phone Manager	to do
Gnumeric	to do
gossip	to do
gtetrinet	to do
gthumb	to do
gtranslator	to do
krb5-auth-dialog	to do
libbtctl	to do
libchamplain	to do
libgda	to do
libgnomekbd	to do
libgoffice	to do
libgsf	to do
nautilus-sendto	to do
nautilus-vcs	to do
NetworkManager	to do
planner	to do
rhythmbox	not needed
xchat-gnome	not needed