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There doesn't seem to be a good way to keep track of the ink levels in your printer in KDE. I know that the information is available, windows will provide it along with warnings when any color drops below a certain level. I think having a plasma widget (also usable as a system tray applet thanks to the new tray system) that can display the levels of ink in specified printers, either any desired combination of individual levels or an average, and warns you if any ink level drops below a specified level (or two or three levels, perhaps "caution", "warning", and "critical") is a pretty basic thing that KDE is lacking.

Idea marked as duplicate of generic-level-repo ... 50323.html

This isn't a duplicate. That idea is about a backend that may or mat not provide the information needed by a widget like this. This idea is a widget that may or may not use that idea as a backend. One may benefit from the other, but one does not depend on the other nor does implementing one mean that the other is automatically implemented as well. Saying these are duplicates is like saying that because phonon exists, then an idea about a volume widget is already implemented.

My experience in dealing with printers in Windows is that hardware manufacterers provide this information vis software they ship with the product, I've never seen Windows by itself do it. This would be great to have in KDE but I don't know if its possible.

Angel Blue01 wrote:My experience in dealing with printers in Windows is that hardware manufacterers provide this information vis software they ship with the product, I've never seen Windows by itself do it. This would be great to have in KDE but I don't know if its possible.

It should be. Turboprint (http://www.turboprint.info) can do it, so KDE should be able to as well. Only problem is: it is very printer dependent so I doubt it is easily done. I don't know how the TP devs have managed to, but that's essentially all they do and have done for years now...

can the test be stressful to the ink cartridge (or some future printing aid) ? (wear and tear etc at each login or once in a while is no good)

It is a standard component of printer drivers for windows, so I do not think so.

but the user does not visit the printer tools (where its displayed) often. i assume the cartridge is tested only when the user enters there