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CUPS

CUPS is a open source printing software developed for unix and unix-like systems.

Setup

The software can be setup via Docker with the linuxserver image. Additionally to this a client is needed on the system that need access to the server software.

Client

To use CUPS an additional client software is needed.

For Linux computers follow these instructions:

  • Install the CUPS-client package (in Arch Linux it is included in cups)
  • Edit /etc/cups/client.conf and insert ServerName <ip to print-server>:631
  • Restart the CUPS service: systemctl restart cups
  • Test connectivity: lpstat -r
  • Check the detected printers with: lpstat -v

Usage

This section addresses the usage of the CUPS.

Adding a Printer

A printer can be added using the webinterface. The webinterface is normally reachable on port 631. This process is guided and should be self-explanatory. However in some cases additional drivers have to be installed. For example Brother label printers of the ptouch series feature drivers that are available for most Linux distributions in a package named printer-driver-ptouch. When adding the printer a network address has to be given. For USB printers this can be done via the USB protocol. Continuing the example Brother label Printer QL-600 the connection usb://Brother/QL-600 is sufficient. When using multiple printers the serial number can be given in addition to this. This is done by appending it the the mentioned connection string and will look like usb://Brother/QL-600?serial=000J1Z140282. The examples using the Brother printer are taken from a dwaves article.

Custom Formats For Brother Printers

This section is based on an entry in the german FAQ on the brother website.

Especially when using continuos-length Brother label printers it can be useful to set up custom formats. After setting up the CUPS install the package that provides brpapertoollpr_<printer name in cups> which differs from printer to printer. For example when using a Brother QL-600 this command is named brpapertoollpr_ql600 and on some Linux distributions like Arch Linux is provided in a package called brother-ql600.

To then set up a new custom format run the following command.

brpapertoollpr_<printer name in command> -P <printer name in cups> -n <format name> -w <width> -h <height>

<printer name in command> is the part of the command that corresponds to the printer as described in the previous sentence. <printer name in cups> and <format name> are the name of the printer already set up and given in CUPS and the name chosen for the new format. And <width> and <height> are width and height of the new format both given in millimeters. A complete command could look something like the following.

brpapertoollpr_ql600 -P Brother_QL-600 -n "62mmx12mm" -w 62 -h 12

The command to delete a custom format is the following. It uses the same variables and names as the command above.

brpapertoollpr_ql600 -P <printer name> -d <format name>

The usage of this command could look similar to the following example.

brpapertoollpr_ql600 -P Brother_QL-600 -d "62mmx12mm"

After setting up the new format it can be selected in the CUPS interface and used with the Brother printer it was set up for.