LINUX Printing Scott Davidson National Product Support Manager
Options LPR PDQ CUPS Third Party Vendor
LPR Advantages Easy setup – Edit Hosts and /etc/printcap files Disadvantages Command Line Printing No Advanced Features “lp path/file_name”
PDQ Advantages Free Shipped on KM Digital Library CD Disadvantages Must setup PDQ for command line and XPDQ for graphic interface No per job settings Not for shared printers
Cups Advantages Ships free with major LINUX Distributions Uses our PPD files to enable all advanced features Also compiled for most UNIX Distributions Printers can be shared to other LINUX or Windows users Disadvantages Some applications may not see Cups printers or will need additional settings in the application
Third Party Solutions Advantages Provide graphic interface Support advanced functions Can support Fail Safe printing and load balancing Push Driver from Server to Client Autorun installation Disadvantages Cost
Recommended Solution CUPS – Common Unix Printing System
Setting up CUPS CUPS ships with most LINUX Distributions Latest version always available at
Sharing LINUX Printers
Resources pdq.sourceforge.net