Last modified on $Date: 2003/10/12 20:47:51 $
PyKota features a print quote generator, named pykotme. This command line tool can be used to learn in advance how much a print job will cost to you if you really send it to a printer. You can then decide if printing your document is a good idea or not, and do it knowingly.
To get a print quote, you have to launch pykotme from the command line, passing your print job's content in the PostScript format, either in the form of one or more file names on the command line, or on its standard input (i.e. in a shell pipe or redirection).
Without any command line argument, pykotme automatically reads your job's data from its standard input.
By default, pykotme will display a quote for your job on all printers. You can restrict this by using the -p | --printer command line option followed with either a printer's name or a wildcard which will be used to search all printers which name matches. You can pass more than one printer name wildcard, separating them with commas.
Here are some examples of pykotme usage.
The simplest form :
port50-2:~$ pykotme pykota.ps Your account balance : 16.25 Job size : 22 pages Cost on printer apple : 1.35 port50-2:~$
More complex, with printer name wildcard and within a pipe :
port50-2:~$ a2ps -o - pykota/README | pykotme --printer "a*" [pykota/README (plain): 6 pages on 3 sheets] [Total: 6 pages on 3 sheets] sent to the standard output Your account balance : 16.25 Job size : 3 pages Cost on printer apple : 0.40 port50-2:~$