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For printing with CUPS there are two comfortable graphical tools available:
xpp and qtcups, but one might also use the command
line, the syntax is compatible to that of the old LPD.
CUPS understands a lot of file formats: PostScript, PDF, HP-GL/2, plain text
(also with accents and diacritical marks as used in French, German,
Portuguese, etc.), and many image formats (JPEG etc.).
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xpp, the X Printing Panel, was the first free
graphical printing tool for CUPS. It is designed to go easy on resources and
to be independent of the desktop in use. Just run it instead of
lp or lpr.
At the command line print a file or standard input with
xpp [file name]
or
[command] | xpp
where [file name] can be the name of any file in a format
which is understood by CUPS and [command] any command with output
in a format understood by CUPS. You can also enter the xpp
command as the standard printing command in any application. 'xpp' is also available in
the desktop menus: choose "Applications"/"Publishing"/"X Printing Panel"
When 'xpp' is started, a window presents a list of all available printers,
a prompt line for the name of the file to print, and some additional
buttons.
Choose the printer on which you want to print from the printer list and enter
the names of the files to be printed on the prompt line (or leave it empty for
printing from standard input). You can edit this prompt line or you can add
file names using the "Browse" button. At the bottom of the window you can
adjust the number of copies to print and the priority of the job. "Cancel"
closes the window without printing and "Print" prints the file. The "Options"
button opens the options dialog where you can set up many options to suit the
printout to your needs.
In the "Options" dialog the options are dispensed on several tabs. The
first three tabs are always the same, they show the printer-independent
options provided by CUPS. Here you can choose which pages to print, toggle
double-sided printing, 2 or 4 pages per page, adjust character size and
margins for plain text printing, brightness, saturation, hue, gamma for
images, and so on. Beginning from the fourth tab you will find
printer-specific options, as paper trays, resolution, printout quality, and so
on. The printer-specific options for PostScript printers are the same as under
Windows or Mac Os. For other printers it depends on the configured driver
which options can be found here. Some drivers offer even adjustment sliders
for the colors or for the alignment of the printer heads.
You can save your preferred options with the "Save" button. With the "This
printer as default" button you can set the currently chosen printer as your
personal default printer.
If you run 'xpp' from your personal account, the options and default
printer information is stored in the '.lpoptions' file in your home directory,
so that the changes are only made for the current account. If 'xpp' is run by
'root', the default printer and option settings are stored in
'/etc/cups/lpoptions', and thus apply to all users.
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'QtCUPS' fulfills the same task as xpp, in that it is
also a graphical tool for printing. You start it like xpp,
just type qtcups instead of xpp".
In contrast to 'xpp', you can't set a default printer or enter a file name,
but otherwise it provides quite the same functions. The difference lies in the
user interface, which closely resembles similar tools in Microsoft Windows. In
the "Properties" dialog you will find all the options you can set up for your
printer, but in contrast to 'xpp' all the options have an icon which
illustrates what the option does. The printer-independent options for
brightness, saturation, and hue even have a sample image which shows the
effects of these options.
When you are using KDE's 'Konqueror' you can print files with 'QtCUPS'
simply by dragging them onto the printer icon on the desktop. 'QtCUPS' is
assigned to this icon by default.
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CUPS' command line tools offer maximum compatibility to the old LPD system,
allow printing from scripts and the console.
The most important command is lpr, which features exactly the
same options and shows the same behavior as LPD's lpr command. So
all applications which use the
lpr command for printing will still print with CUPS. Using
lpr without specifying a printer prints on the default printer, but you can choose the
printer as with the former lpr" command:
lpr -P [printer] [file]
What's new with CUPS' lpr" command is that you can supply
options with -o":
lpr -P [printer] -o page-ranges=1-4,7,9-12 -o media=Upper
[file]
This command line prints only the pages 1-4, 7, and 9-12 and the paper is
taken from the upper tray. You will find an overview of all
printer-independent options in the CUPS Software Users
Manual; for a listing of the printer-specific options, type:
lphelp [printer] | less
You can also save options as your personal defaults or set your default
printer:
lpoptions -d [printer]
sets [printer] as your default printer and
lpoptions -p [printer] -o media=Upper -o number-up=2
sets two pages per sheet and paper from the upper tray as default options
for [printer]. All further lpr, xpp, and QtCUPS calls will use these
options as their default settings. To remove the -o number-up=2
option, enter
lpoptions -p [printer] -r number-up
and to remove all personal default options for [printer],
use
lpoptions -x [printer]
If you are logged into your personal account, the options are stored in the
'~/.lpoptions' file in your home directory. If you are logged in as 'root',
the options are stored in '/etc/cups/lpoptions', the file for system-wide
defaults.
For further information on these commands enter man lpr and
man lpoptions", or read the CUPS Software Users Manual.
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