1 README - CUPS v1.2.0b1 - 01/10/2006
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7 **** WARNING: THIS IS BETA RELEASE SOFTWARE AND MAY BE ****
8 **** TOTALLY UNSTABLE. DO NOT USE IN ENVIRONMENTS ****
9 **** WHERE RELIABLE SOFTWARE IS REQUIRED! ****
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14 Looking for compile instructions? Read the file "INSTALL.txt"
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20 **** IF YOU HAVE A NON-POSTSCRIPT PRINTER, YOU WILL ALSO ****
21 **** NEED TO INSTALL ESP GHOSTSCRIPT OR A PATCHED VERSION ****
22 **** OF A STANDARD GHOSTSCRIPT RELEASE. ****
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30 CUPS provides a portable printing layer for UNIX(r)-based
31 operating systems. It has been developed by Easy Software
32 Products to promote a standard printing solution for all UNIX
33 vendors and users. CUPS provides the System V and Berkeley
34 command-line interfaces.
36 CUPS uses the Internet Printing Protocol ("IPP") as the basis
37 for managing print jobs and queues. The Line Printer Daemon
38 ("LPD") Server Message Block ("SMB"), and AppSocket (a.k.a.
39 JetDirect) protocols are also supported with reduced
40 functionality. CUPS adds network printer browsing and
41 PostScript Printer Description ("PPD") based printing options to
42 support real-world printing under UNIX.
44 CUPS includes an image file RIP that supports printing of image
45 files to non-PostScript printers. A customized version of GNU
46 Ghostscript for CUPS called ESP Ghostscript is available
47 separately to support printing of PostScript files within the
48 CUPS driver framework. Sample drivers for Dymo, EPSON, HP, and
49 OKIDATA printers are included that use these filters.
51 Drivers for thousands of printers are provided with our ESP
52 Print Pro software, available at:
54 http://www.easysw.com/printpro/
56 CUPS is licensed under the GNU General Public License and GNU
57 Library General Public License. Please contact Easy Software
58 Products for commercial support and "binary distribution"
64 Binary distributions require a minimum of 10MB of free disk
65 space. We do not recommend using CUPS on a workstation with less
66 than 32MB of RAM or a PC with less than 16MB of RAM.
68 If you are installing from source you'll need ANSI-compliant C
69 and C++ compilers and optionally one or more image file support
70 libraries. Complete source installation instructions can be
71 found in the file "INSTALL.txt".
76 The following operating system software is required to install
77 one of the binary distributions from Easy Software Products:
80 - HP-UX 11.00 or higher
82 - Linux 2.4 with glibc 2.2 or higher
83 - Solaris 7 or higher (SPARC or Intel)
86 INSTALLING "PORTABLE" CUPS DISTRIBUTIONS
88 We are currently distributing "portable" CUPS binary
89 distributions in TAR format with installation and removal
90 scripts generated by our ESP Package Manager (EPM) software,
91 which is available from:
93 http://www.easysw.com/epm
95 WARNING: Installing CUPS will overwrite your existing printing
96 system. Backup files are made by the installation script and
97 restored by the removal script, so if you experience problems
98 you should be able to remove the CUPS software to restore your
99 previous configuration. However, Easy Software Products makes
100 no warranty for this and will not be liable for any lost
103 To install the CUPS software you will need to be logged in as
104 root (doing an "su" is good enough). Once you are the root
105 user, run the installation script with:
109 After asking you a few yes/no questions the CUPS software will
110 be installed and the scheduler will be started automatically.
113 INSTALLING HOST-SPECIFIC (RPM, DEBIAN, ETC.) DISTRIBUTIONS
115 The host-specific distributions use the operating system
116 software installation tools. To install a host-specific
117 distribution please consult the CUPS Software Administrators
118 Manual or your operating system documentation.
121 READING THE DOCUMENTATION
123 Once you have installed the software you can access the
124 documentation (and a bunch of other stuff) on-line at:
128 If you're having trouble getting that far, the documentation is
129 located in the "/usr/share/doc/cups" directory in the binary
130 distributions, and under the "doc" directory in the source
133 Please read the documentation before asking questions.
136 GETTING SUPPORT AND OTHER RESOURCES
138 If you have problems, READ THE DOCUMENTATION FIRST! We also
139 provide many discussion forums which are available at:
141 http://www.cups.org/newsgroups.php
143 Commercial support (with a guaranteed response time) is available
144 from Easy Software Products. For more information see:
146 http://www.easysw.com/cups/
148 See the CUPS web site at "http://www.cups.org/" for other site
152 SETTING UP PRINTER QUEUES USING YOUR WEB BROWSER
154 CUPS 1.2 includes a web-based administration tool that allows you
155 to manage printers, classes, and jobs on your server. To access
156 the printer administration tools open the following URL in your
159 http://localhost:631/admin
161 You will be asked for the administration password (root or any
162 other user in the sys/system/root group on your system) and then
163 shown a menu of available functions.
165 DO NOT use the hostname for your machine - it will not work with
166 the default CUPS configuration. To enable administration access
167 on other addresses, consult the CUPS Software Administrators
171 SETTING UP PRINTER QUEUES FROM THE COMMAND-LINE
173 CUPS works best with PPD (PostScript Printer Description)
174 files. In a pinch you can also use System V style printer
177 Six sample PPD files are provided with this distribution that
178 utilize the PostScript and image file RIPs and the sample EPSON
179 and HP printer drivers. To add the sample DeskJet driver to the
180 system for a printer connected to the parallel port, use one of
181 the following commands:
185 /usr/lib/lpadmin -p DeskJet -m deskjet.ppd -v parallel:/dev/c2t0d0_lp -E
189 /usr/lib/lpadmin -p DeskJet -m deskjet.ppd -v parallel:/dev/plp -E
193 /usr/lib/lpadmin -p DeskJet -m deskjet.ppd -v parallel:/dev/lp0 -E
194 /usr/lib/lpadmin -p DeskJet -m deskjet.ppd -v parallel:/dev/lp1 -E
195 /usr/lib/lpadmin -p DeskJet -m deskjet.ppd -v parallel:/dev/lp2 -E
199 /usr/lib/lpadmin -p DeskJet -m deskjet.ppd -v parallel:/dev/bpp0 -E
200 /usr/lib/lpadmin -p DeskJet -m deskjet.ppd -v parallel:/dev/ecpp0 -E
202 Similarly, for the other sample drivers you can use:
205 ----------------------------- ------------
206 Dymo Label Printers dymo.ppd
207 EPSON Stylus Color Series stcolor.ppd
208 EPSON Stylus Photo Series stphoto.ppd
209 EPSON Stylus New Color Series stcolor2.ppd
210 EPSON Stylus New Photo Series stphoto2.ppd
211 EPSON 9-pin Series epson9.ppd
212 EPSON 24-pin Series epson24.ppd
213 HP DeskJet Series deskjet.ppd
214 HP New DeskJet Series deskjet2.ppd
215 HP LaserJet Series laserjet.ppd
216 OKIDATA 9-Pin Series okidata9.ppd
217 OKIDATA 24-Pin Series okidat24.ppd
219 These sample drivers provide basic printing capabilities, but
220 generally do not exercise the full potential of the printers or
221 CUPS. For commercial printer drivers check out our ESP Print
224 http://www.easysw.com/printpro/
229 CUPS provides both the System V "lp" and Berkeley "lpr" commands
235 Both the "lp" and "lpr" commands support printing options for
238 lp -omedia=A4 -oresolution=600dpi filename
239 lpr -omedia=A4 -oresolution=600dpi filename
241 CUPS recognizes many types of images files as well as PDF,
242 PostScript, HP-GL/2, and text files, so you can print those
243 files directly rather than through an application.
245 If you have an application that generates output specifically
246 for your printer then you need to use the "-oraw" or "-l"
252 This will prevent the filters from misinterpreting your print
258 CUPS is Copyright 1993-2006 by Easy Software Products. CUPS,
259 the CUPS logo, and the Common UNIX Printing System are the
260 trademark property of Easy Software Products.
262 The MD5 Digest code is Copyright 1999 Aladdin Enterprises.
264 The PDF filter (pdftops) is based on the Xpdf software,
265 Copyright 1996-2005 by Derek B. Noonburg.
267 This software is based in part on the work of the Independent
270 CUPS is provided under the terms of the GNU General Public
271 License and GNU Library General Public License. This program is
272 distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
273 WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY
274 or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the "LICENSE.html",
275 "LICENSE.txt", or "cups.license" files for more information.
277 For commercial licensing information, please contact:
279 Attn: CUPS Licensing Information
280 Easy Software Products
281 44141 Airport View Drive, Suite 204
282 Hollywood, Maryland 20636 USA
284 Voice: +1.301.373.9600
285 Email: cups-info@cups.org
286 WWW: http://www.cups.org
288 Note that commercial licensors may also require a license from
289 Derek B. Noonburg who developed the Xpdf software used to print