Building a Full Print System Testing Pipeline

Modern printer testing remains heavily dependent on physical hardware, making it slow, expensive, and difficult to scale for regression testing. While OpenPrinting already provides a Go-based MFP simulator and a Python-based image evaluation framework, these components are not yet integrated into a unified, automated testing system. This project proposes to build an end-to-end, hardware-free print testing pipeline that bridges this gap. The system will be implemented as a Go-based orchestration tool that directly leverages the simulator’s internal libraries for efficient control, while embedding Python to execute advanced image evaluation. It will automatically load printer models, create CUPS queues, enumerate all supported print modes, execute print jobs, capture simulator outputs, and evaluate them against expected results. The pipeline will support both single and batch testing modes, enabling scalable regression testing and seamless CI/CD integration. It will generate detailed, structured reports with quality metrics (e.g., SSIM, PSNR) and pass/fail analysis. By transforming isolated components into a cohesive, automated system, this project will significantly enhance reliability, reproducibility, and scalability of printer testing in the OpenPrinting ecosystem.