Kprinter

Part of the KDE print system includes a tool that doesn't get anywhere near enough attention. That tools is kprinter, a universal KDE printing front end that you can call from anywhere (or by using your <Alt+F2> shortcut). Check out Figure 8-12 for an idea of what it looks like.

Figure 8-12. Sending jobs to the printer with KPrinter.

What I like about kprinter is that you can manually add a list of files you would like to have printed by navigating your directories (see the Files tab). Then, modify your job by selecting number of copies from the Copies tab and so on.

You can also substitute kprinter for simple commands like lpr in scripts where you would like to have a nice graphical pop-up for the user. Being able to use the command in this way just provides an added layer of flexibility to the print system.

 kprinter /path_to/some_file some_command | kprinter