/Dropbox-Printer

Script to monitor Dropbox folder for use as a print queue

Primary LanguagePython

This little script runs on a desktop linux computer and
listens for files dropped into the 'print_queue' directory
inside your Dropbox directory.  This allows you to print
easily from a mobile device.


1. Save dropbox_printer.py somewhere, make it executable
2. System->Preferences->Startup Applications (Gnome) 
 - Give it a name, eg "Dropbox Printer"
 - Browse to the script
3. Log out, log in

To use - add files to the 'print_queue' folder inside your dropbox
folder, and they will be sent to the default printer (as seen by
CUPS).  It behaves like a print queue - ie, BY DEFAULT FILES ARE 
DELETED AFTER PRINTING.

Some files need to be sent through imagemagick.  If I send a
SVG file directly to my postscript printer I get pages and 
pages of SVG markout printed out - not the graphic.  So I've
designated SVG as a format that need to be preprocessed by
imagemagick, and provided a list of file extensions that 
should aslo be preprocessed.

There are some configuration options at the top of the script:
path - path to Dropbox folder
empty_queue - whether or not to delete files after printing
ext_to_convert - file extensions to be run through imagemagick
convert_args - any arguments that should be passed to imagemagick
cups_options - CUPS job options

TODO
 - Add printer selection
 - Try PIL instead of imagemagick
 - Add error handling and logging