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PPD Features

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Important

The modern print platform is Windows' preferred means of communicating with printers. We recommend that you use Microsoft's IPP inbox class driver, along with Print Support Apps (PSA), to customize the print experience in Windows 10 and 11 for printer device development.

For more information, see Modern print platform and the Print support app design guide.

PPD features are defined in the PPD file within *OpenUI/*CloseUI structure keyword pairs, and in certain PPD keywords that are treated similarly by the Pscript driver. Although EnumFeatures lists the *LeadingEdge and *UseHWMargins keywords, they aren't defined within PPD *OpenUI/*CloseUI structure keyword pairs.

The GetOptions and SetOptions methods ignore these keywords if they appear in the feature list. The PPD feature/option keywords are case sensitive.

SetOptions handles certain PPD features in a special way:

  • If the printer's PPD file includes the *OutputOrder feature keyword and SetOptions is called to change the option selection for this feature, then the %PageOrder driver feature setting will be changed to match the new output order. This is done in order to prevent the spooler from performing unnecessary page order simulation.

  • If the printer's PPD file includes the *OutputBin feature keyword and SetOptions is called to change the option selection for this feature, and the change causes the current setting of the %PageOrder driver feature to be the opposite of the printer's page ordering, and %MetafileSpooling is "False", then %MetafileSpooling will be reset to "True".

  • When spooler EMF spooling is enabled, and Collate is set to "True" (this can be set either directly in the public portion of the DEVMODEW structure or by calling SetOptions on the PPD's *Collate feature keyword), but the Collate feature isn't currently available, and %MetafileSpooling is "False", then %MetafileSpooling will be reset to "True". This is done when all requested settings in the SetOptions call are applied.

  • If Duplex is set to simplex (this can be set either directly in the public portion of the DEVMODE structure or by calling SetOptions on the PPD's *Duplex feature keyword), but %PagePerSheet is set to "Booklet", then %PagePerSheet will be changed to "2". This is done when all requested settings in the SetOptions call are applied.