01 Dec 2011

I’ve just discovered it’s possible to print through the LDP protocol without CUPS (cups-ldp in Ubuntu).

For a unkown reason I had always though that all linux systems required to have CUPS installed to talk to any printer, which is not the case. LPD can be used perfectly to print to remote printers.

$ rlpr -h -Plp -HIP_OF_THE_PRINTER_LDP_SERVER_HERE  file.[ps|pdf]

In 2011 most Linux application can print to pdf/ps files, so you can skip cups-pdf as well 😊. To print images, convert (part of the imagemagick suit) can do the job:

$ convert image.jpg  file.ps

And for plain text files, vim shines:

:hardcopy > file.ps

Aliases can help in case you find yourself typing the ip too often, eg alias print.192.168.1.11=’rlpr -h -Plp -H192.168.1.11’:

$ print.192.168.1.11  file[.ps|pdf]

All my requirements are covered 😎

The printer/copier referenced on this post is the Canon ImageRunner 6570: