# Printer Configuration

## Introduction

The Printer Configuration module of &systemsettings; allows you to add and manage printers using the &CUPS; print server, as well as configure the server itself.

The Common &UNIX; Printing System, or &CUPS;, is print server software developed by Apple, Inc. and used by most modern &Linux; distributions and other &UNIX;-based operating systems. For more information, visit the &CUPS; website.

## Adding a New Printer or Class

Most USB printers will be detected and automatically configured by the Printer Applet when they are plugged in. There is no need to add them manually.

Use this module only when adding a network printer, a printer using an older local connection method like parallel or serial ports, or if USB autodetection fails.

To add a new printer, or a printer class (group of printers), select the New Printer node from the left pane.

New Printer The New Printer window.

Add a new printer or class

There you will find two options:

### New Printer

To add a new printer which is connected to your local computer, home network or on the Internet, select the New Printer button. A new window will open where you can specify your printer configuration.

Choose the type of connection your printer uses from the left pane, then input the required details for the connection type in the right pane, and then click the Forward to proceed.

The following connection types are available:

AppSocket/HP JetDirect

- AppSocket and JetDirect are two similar technologies that permit printers to receive print jobs over a network. If your printer or print server supports these technologies, you may use this option to connect to the printer.

  You will need to know the hostname and port of the print server over the network to use this type of connection.

Internet Printing Protocol

- The Internet Printing Protocol, or IPP permits sending print jobs and managing print jobs over a local network or the Internet. There are three entries for IPP: secure HTTP (https), unsecure IPP (ipp), and secure IPP (ipps).

  You will need to know the printer's URI to configure this type of connection.

LPD/LPR Host or Printer

- The Line Printer Daemon (LPD) or Line Printer Remote (LPR) is a standard protocol for accessing printers over a network that was commonly used by older &UNIX; print servers and continues to be supported by newer ones like &CUPS;.

  You will need to know the host of the print server and the name of the Queue that represents the printer in order to use this type of connection.

Other

- If none of the listed connection types are appropriate for the printer you wish to add, you may select this connection type and enter any URI that is accepted by &CUPS;.

New Printer The New Printer URI entry window.

Entering a printer's URI.

On the next page, you may select the manufacturer of your printer from the list provided, or select a Postscript Printer Description (PPD) file. Then, click the Forward button.

Manufacturer Selection The New Printer manufacturer selection window.

Selecting the printer's manufacturer.

On the next page, you can select the model of printer from the left, and select the driver to use on the right. If you aren't sure which driver to use, choose the driver that ends with (recommended), which will be selected by default.

Model and Driver Selection The New Printer model and driver selection window.

Selecting the printer's model and driver.

Finally, enter a name for your printer in the Printer Name field if you wish to change the default. All printable characters except `/`, `#` and whitespace are allowed. You may also enter the Description and Location if you would like, but these fields are optional.

Click the OK to configure the printer.

New Printer Details The New Printer details entry window.

Entering details about the new printer.

### New Printer Class

To add a new printer class that specifies a group of printers to print to, click on the New Printer Class button.

On the first page, you must enter a name for the class in the Printer Name field. All printable characters except `/`, `#` and whitespace are allowed. You may also optionally enter a Description and the Location. Then, click Forward.

On the next page, you will see a list of printers present in the class on the left, and all other printers configured on your system on the right. To add a printer to the class, select it from the right and click the Left Arrow button. To remove a printer from the class, select it from the left and click the Right Arrow button.

Finally, click OK to create the new printer class.

New Printer Class The New Printer Class window.

Selecting printers for a new class.

## Configuring a Printer

All printers configured on your system will be listed under the Local Printers node. Select a printer from the list, and configuration options for it will appear on the right.

Printer options are sorted into four groups, which can be accessed using the tabs on the top.

### Settings

The Settings tab allows you to view basic configuration information about your printer like the driver it uses, as well as perform basic actions like printing a test page.

The Settings Tab The Settings tab in a printer's configuration.

Modifying basic printer settings.

The following options are available:

Printer Description

- Location

- An optional description of the printer's location.

Printer Description

- A textual description of the printer, that will be displayed alongside it in many applications.

Device URI

- The Uniform Resource Identifier of your printer. This may be a &URL; for a printer on the Internet, a &UNIX; device file, or another URI used by &CUPS; to locate your printer.

This is the default printer

- This allows you to select this printer as the default printer. The default printer will be automatically selected when invoking the Print option of applications.

  If this is the only configured printer, this option will be disabled.

Driver Details

- Printer Model

- This describes the manufacturer and model of the printer, and also lists the driver currently in use.

Change

- Select this button to change the manufacturer, model, or driver of this printer.

Printer State

- This describes the current state of your printer. If it's not printing, it will say Idle, otherwise it might inform you that your printer is currently printing, or that there is an error, like a printer jam or that it is of paper or ink.

Printer Status

- Enable

- When this checkbox is selected, the printer will print any jobs that it currently has or accepts. When disabled, it will not print.

Accepting

- When this checkbox is selected, the printer will accept new jobs. When disabled, it will not accept new jobs.

  If you plan to take a printer offline for a short time, but want it to continue to accept jobs that will be printed when it is restored, you can unselect Enabled but leave Accepting enabled. If you plan to take a printer offline for a long time, you could leave Enabled selected but uncheck Accepting, so the printer will print all remaining jobs but not accept any new ones.

Sharing

- This enables or disables sharing the printer with other computers.

Print Test Page

- Click this button to print a test page using this printer, to verify that it is working correctly.

Remove Printer

- Click this button to remove this printer from the &CUPS; server.

### Policies

The Policies tab allows you to add a banner to every page printed and disable or enable it for certain users.

The Policies Tab The Policies tab in a printer's configuration.

Modifying printer policy settings.

The following options are available:

Banner Settings

- A banner page is a special page that is printed before or after a printed document, and may optionally define a header or footer that is displayed on a document. For more information on banners, see the relevant section of the &CUPS; documentation.

  Starting Banner

- Select a banner page that is printed before every printed document.

Ending Banner

- Select a banner page that is printed after every printed document.

User and Group Permissions

- This permits you to enable or disable this printer for certain users or groups on your system.

  To configure it such that only the listed users or groups can use the printer, select Deny printing for everyone except these users. To configure it such that all users and groups can print except those listed, select Allow printing for everyone except these users.

  To add a user or group to the list, click the Add button, then enter the username or group name. To remove a user or group from the list, select it and click the Remove button.

### Printer Options

The Printer Options tab allows you to select options that will be applied by default to various jobs, like the size or type of the paper used or the quality of printing that the printer will perform.

These options are specified by the driver used by your printer. Rarely, a printer may not offer some of the options listed here. Quite frequently, there will be more than are listed here.

The Printer Options Tab The Printer Options tab in a printer's configuration.

Modifying advanced printer options.

The following options are usually available in most printers:

Media Size

- This lets you select the size of the media being printed on. A list of standard sizes is provided.

Media Type

- This permits you to select the type of media that will be printed on. This usually is as simple as plain or photo paper, but advanced printers can directly print on things like CD or DVD discs.

Print Quality

- This lets you choose the quality of printed documents. Higher quality printed documents generally appear better than lower quality ones, but they will also take longer to print and use more ink or toner.

Here are some additional options that are present in some printers:

Double-Sided Printing

- This enables or disabled double-sided printing, which may or may not be automatic depending on the model of printer used.

Media Source

- This allows you to select for instance the tray that will be used, if your printer has multiple paper trays.

Output Mode

- This permits you to configure the printer to print in color or grayscale, if your printer supports doing so.

Duplexer Installed

- Printers that support a duplexer can print to both sides of a page automatically, usually by mechanically flipping the page. Select this option if your printer supports this.

### Job Options

The Job Options tab lets you select the default settings that are applied to each print job, like the number of copies to be printed. These options can be changed in the print dialog of all &kde; applications as well as many others.

The Job Options Tab The Job Options tab in a printer's configuration.

Modifying default job options.

All options are listed below. Each option, except for the custom options, provides a Reset to the right of the option. Click this button to restore that setting to its default value.

Common Options

- Copies

- Each document will be printed the number of times configured here.

Orientation

- Allows you to select the orientation of printed documents, such as Portrait or Landscape.

Scale to fit

- When this option is selected, documents larger than the media will be shrunk to fit completely on it, while smaller documents will be expanded.

Pages per side

- This lets you print multiple pages on one page, for instance by splitting it in half.

Pages per side layout

- This lets you select how multiple pages printed on one page will be arranged.

Brightness

- This configures the darkness of the printed document.

Finishings

- Some printers support optional finishings, such as staples, hole punches, or folding. If you printer supports this, you may select one here.

Job priority

- Some print servers will print certain jobs before others. This allows you to ensure your job is printed quickly or after more important ones.

Media

- This configures the size of media that the job will be printed on.

Sides

- This configures double-sided printing.

Hold until

- This instructs the print server to not print your job until a specified time, or never.

Image Options

- These options affect only printed images.

  Mirror

- If selected, the image will be reversed, as if it appeared in a mirror.

Scaling

- This permits you to reduce or enlarge the image to a specified size.

Saturation

- This configures the saturation, or intensity, or the color printed. For more information, see the Saturation article on Wikipedia.

Hue adjustment

- This shifts the hue, or pure color, of the image. For more information, see the Hue article on Wikipedia.

Gamma

- This affects the gamma correction of the image. For more information, see the Gamma Correction article on Wikipedia.

Text Options

- These options affect only jobs that consist solely of plain text.

  Characters per inch

- Configures the density of characters in the printed document.

Lines per inch

- Configures the density of lines in the printed document.

Margins

- You can configure the size of the left, right, top, and bottom margins in the number selection boxes provided.

Pretty print

- When enabled, a header we be placed at the top of each page that contains the page number, job title (usually the file name), and the date. C/C++ keywords will be highlighted and comments italicized.

Word wrap

- The enables or disabled wrapping of long lines.

Columns

- This configures the number of columns (or the width) of printed text.

Custom Options

- In addition to the options defined above, &CUPS; supports a number of additional options that aren't yet exposed in the user interface or are specific to certain printer models. These can be modified at the bottom of the Job Options screen.

  To add a custom option, enter the name of the option in the text box at the very bottom of the screen and click the Add button.

  To change an option, select the desired option from the drop down box to the right of the option's name.

  To remove a custom option, click the Remove to the far right of the option's name.

## Configuring Server Settings

To modify settings that affect the &CUPS; print server itself, select the Server Settings node from the left pane.

Server Settings The Server Settings window.

Modifying the print server's settings.

The following options are available:

Show printers shared by other systems

- When enabled, &CUPS; will look for printers shared by other systems and list them in the New Printer interface.

Share published printers connected to this system

- This globally enables sharing of shared printers to the local network only.

  Allow printing from the Internet

- This enables sharing of shared printers on the Internet, in addition to the local network.

Allow remote administration

- This enables access to the &CUPS; web administration interface from other systems on the local network or Internet.

Allow users to cancel any job (not just their own)

- Ordinarily, normal user accounts can only cancel jobs they started. When this option is enabled, users can cancel any job.

Save debugging information for troubleshooting

- When enabled, &CUPS; will dump a lot of extra information to its log file. This can be used by developers to troubleshoot issues with the printing system.

## Credits and License

Special thanks to Google Code-In 2011 participant Robin Kumar for writing much of this article.

&underFDL; &underGPL;