My CUPS Runneth Over

Printing in Linux has changed out of all recognition from the early days. Today, you no longer need a PostScript printer or to set the options for print laboriously by hand. Thanks to OpenPrinting’s database, you can immediately find whether a given printer will work on Linux, and, thanks to CUPS (originally, the Common Unix Printing System), you can easily configure a printer with a GUI. As with most of the inner workings of a Linux system, however, working at the command line remains the easiest way to see what is actually going on when you print. 

Before you dive into the subject of printing, a very brief reminder of the basics might be useful. Today, all major distributions install CUPS as a matter of course, as well as a number of printer drivers in the form of PostScript Printer Descriptions (PPDs), which are generally stored in /usr/share/ppd and consist of a series of formatting and operational options. Should you need more PPDs, look in your distribution’s repositories for the HPLIP, Gutenprint, and Foomatic Database drivers, the basic sources for printer support.