• Diff for "PrintingGlossaryandIndex"

An aid to locating items of interest on the Printing Portal pages.

A

• AIO

  • All-in-One. See MFD.

• AirPrint

  • A facility offered by almost all modern printers and AIOs. AirPrint printers are obliged to accept Apple raster as a PDL. The Debian printing system is able to produce Apple raster to send to the printer. Sending to a suitable device may be done over ethernet, Wi-Fi or USB.

• Apple Raster

  • A raster file format devised by Apple for using with AirPrint devices. See URF

• Auto Discovery

  • Techniques which lead to automatic discovery of remote, shared queues and printers on the local network and making them available for printing to.

• autorotation

  • The default behaviour of cups-filters to fit landscape pages in a printed document on paper.

• Avahi

  • A framework for Multicast DNS Service Discovery (DNS-SD). It allows programs to publish and discover services and hosts running on a local network with no specific configuration and is the equivalent of Bonjour.

• avahi-browse

  • A utility to browse for DNS-SD announced printers and queues on the local network using Avahi daemon.

B

• Backend

  • Used for printer discovery and sending a document processed by CUPS and cups-filters to the device after it has been converted to a format understood by the printer.

• Bonjour

  • An implementation of DNS-SD by Apple. Most recent network printers have it as facility.

• bInterfaceClass

  • The USB standard defines class code information that is used to identify a device’s functionality. Printers are allocated code 7. The host gets information about a connected printer from USB descriptors and loads a suitable device driver such as the usblp kernel module.

• bInterfaceProtocol

  • The protocol code of the printer that the USB organisation assigned. Indicates what the device is capable of doing. For example, code 2 indicates that it accepts bidirectional communication; code 4 indicates that IPP-over-USB is a capability.

• booklet

  • A cups-filters option to output a document in booklet format.

C

• Classic Printer

  • See Printer.

• client.conf

  • Print without a local CUPS server.

• CUPS

  • Manages all aspects of printing a document and is at the heart of Debian's default printing system. A fork of Apple CUPS is maintained at OpenPrinting and used as the basis for Debian's packages.

• cupsctl

  • A utility for configuring cupsd.conf options.

• CUPS Error Log

  • A file for diagnosing issues and misbehaviours of the printing system. Logging to the file is done not only by CUPS but by other printing processes such as cups-filters and Tea4CUPS.

• CUPS Web Interface

  • Provided as an alternative to using lpadmin directly. The address to give the browser is http://localhost:631.

• cups-browsed

  • A setup tool for print queues and printers. Comes as a package separate from cups-filters and is essential on Debian 8 (jessie) and 9 (stretch) for automatic discovery and setup of remote queues and printers. It also supports facilities (such as browsing the broadcasts of pre-1.6.x CUPS servers, servers on other network segments and queue clustering) which are no longer supported by CUPS.

• cupsfilter

  • A diagnostic program included with CUPS. Convert a file to a specific format, just as if it had been printed through CUPS. Nothing is sent to the printer.

• cups-filters

  • A project providing backends, filters and other software such as cups-browsed and driverless. Under continual upstream development.

• cupsd.conf

  • A primary file for configurong a CUPS server.

• cups-files.conf

  • A file for configuring the files and directories used by a CUPS server.

D

• DNS-SD

  • This is a public service protocol used to advertise and discover printing services on a local network. The services are resolved to hostnames using standard DNS queries. Being a public service, no filtering of announcements is offered. A CUPS server automatically uses the protocol to publicise its queues and it is a feature of many recent printers which have AirPrint. Bonjour is Apple's implementation of DNS-SD and is handled on Debian by Avahi.

• Device URI

  • A Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) is an addressing technology for identifying where to dispatch the file sent by a backend. USB and network printers are supported by CUPS with various schemes.

• Dialog

  • See Print Dialog

• Driverless Printing

  • Printing using only free, open-standard software and filters. No vendor-specific drivers or PPDs. Any needed PPD is generated from the reponses given by the printer or queue to IPP queries. cups-browsed has a PPD generator which is practically the same as the one in CUPS.

• driverless

  • A utility to find the URI of an IPP printer and generate a PPD for driverless printing. Provided by cups-filters.

E

• EWS

  • See Embedded Web Server.

• Embedded Web Server

  • An embedded web server resides on the printer in its firmware. It can be used to manipulate how the printer is presented on the network. It may also offer other facilities, such as scanning.

• Error Log

  • See CUPS Error Log.

• Everywhere

  • Used to refer to an IPP Everywhere printer or to setting up a print queue with the everywhere model.

• Everywhere Model

  • A queue which is set up with -m everywhere rather than with -m <PPD> or -P <PPD>. The remote queue or printer is queried to generate a PPD.

• Evince

  • A PDF and PostScript file viewer.

F

• Filter

  • Programs or scripts for converting from one input format to another format that can be printed directly or sent to another filter. Examples are texttopdf, pdftopdf, gstopdf and rastertopwg. Both CUPS and cups-filters provide filters for the printing system.

• file:/ device

  • Print a job to a file rather than to a printer or queue. Intended to be used for diagnostic testing.

• fit-to-page

  • An option passed to pdftopdf to scale a file to fit on the page.

G

• gv

  • A PDF and PostScript file viewer.

• group (lpadmin)

  • See lpadmin group

H

• HPLIP

  • Free software exclusively for Hewlett Packard (HP) printing, scanning and faxing devices.

I

• IPP

  • The protocol used by CUPS for local and network communication between client devices (computers, mobile phones, tablets, laptops etc.) and printers and print servers.

• Internet Printing Protocol

  • See IPP.

• ippeveprinter

  • AN IPP server conforming to the IPP Everywhere specification

• IPP Everywhere

  • A standard for driverless printing produced by the Printer Working Group.

• IPP-over-USB

  • An extension to the USB standard that makes IPP available over a USB interface. Most modern AirPrint printers should have this facility.

• ippfind

  • A utility to find the URI of an IPP printer or queue on the local network.

• ipptool

  • A utility for querying an IPP printer or queue on the local network.

• ipp-usb

  • Extends driverless printing (originally available only on a printer when connected by ethernet or wireless) to a suitable USB connected device.

J

• job

  • See Print Job

K

L

• landscape

  • A CUPS option (passed to pdftopdf) to rotate pages in a document.

• Legacy Printer

  • See Printer.

• lpadmin

  • The fundamental utility for setting up a print queue. Used by all other setup programs.

• lpadmin group

  • Setting up a printer with a driver and a PPD is a superuser task; that is, the user has to have root privileges unless they belong to the lpadmin group.

M

• MFD

  • A multifunction device. A peripheral that offers a combination of the printing, scanning, photocopying and faxing functions.

• MFP

  • Multifunction Peripheral. See MFD.

• Minus90

  • A PPD option controlling page rotation. Acted on by pdftopdf.

• Modern Printer

  • See Printer.

• MuPDF

  • A PDF file viewer.

N

• Non-free Drivers

  • Quite a few printers only provide vendor-specific non-free software, which is not allowed to be distributed with Debian. Recent printers from such manufacturers falling into this category should be capable of being used with driverless printing to avoid this restriction.

O

• Okular

  • A PDF and PostScript file viewer.

• orientation-requested

  • An IPP option (passed to pdftopdf) to rotate pages in a document.

P

• Page Description Language

  • A computer language that describes the appearance of a printed page. PDLs of particular importance to a modern printing system are PDF, Apple Raster and PWG Raster. The most well-known non-vendor-specific PDL is probably PostScript.

• PCLm

  • A streaming, PDF-based raster protocol supported by the cups-filters rastertopclm filter but not by CUPS.

• PPD Generator

  • A technique used by CUPS and cups-filters to produce a PPD to use with driverless printing.

• PDF/A

  • A PDF format aimed at reliable, long-time preservation of archived digital documents.

• PDF-Centric Workflow

  • All files submitted to a queue are first converted to a PDF. After that, the PDF produced by the conversion is processed by pdftopdf before being sent for further processing and then on to the printer via a backend.

• PDF Printer

  • Convert a file to PDF using the printing system.

• PDL

  • See Page Description Language.

• pdfautorotate

  • See autorotation

• pdffonts

  • A utilty to list the fonts and information about each font present in a PDF document.

• pdfinfo

  • A utilty to extract information from a PDF document.

• pdftopdf

  • A page management filter that is central to the PDF-centric workflow.

• pdftops-renderer

  • A cups-filters option for a queue or when printing. Convert PDF to PostScript using a chosen renderer.

• PPD

  • A PostScript Printer Description (PPD) file describes the capabilities of the printer. These capabilities are displayed in the dialogs of applications and with lpoptions and are sent to the queue when selected. A PPD file is often referred to as a driver. Removal of support within CUPS for PPDs is planned for the future.

• Plus90

  • A PPD option controlling page rotation. Acted on by pdftopdf.

• Printer

  • A peripheral device that communicates with the output of a queue to put graphics or text on a medium such as paper. It is useful to distinguish between printers that require vendor printer drivers and those that don't with the terms legacy/classic and modern.

• PostScript Printer Description File

  • See PPD.

• Print Dialog

  • Different Graphical Use Interfaces (GUIs) obtain printing options from CUPS in different ways and differ in the way the application displays them in a user-selectable dialog.

• Printer Drivers

  • Used to apply printing options via a PPD and convert a document into a form which can be understood by the printer. Removal of support within CUPS for drivers is planned for the future.

• Print Job

  • A document or set of documents to be sent to a queue.

• Print Queue

  • A file to be printed is submitted to a queue, which is managed by CUPS. cups-filters is involved in processing the file and the output is usually sent to a printer. A single printer can be associated with many queues. A local queue has a PPD in /etc/cups/ppd and is a permanent queue. It is displayed in the output of lpstat -a. A temporary queue, displayed with lpstat -l -e, is a non-local queue.

• PWG Raster

  • A raster file format devised by the Printer Working Group for use with IPP Everywhere printers.

• pstoncapcpca

  • A filter for Canon UFR-II printers.

• pstoufr2cpca

  • A filter for Canon UFR-II printers.

Q

• qpdfview

  • A PDF and PostScript file viewer.

• Queue

  • See Print Queue.

• Quirk

  • See USB Quirk.

R

• RasterView

  • A CUPS, PWG, and Apple raster file viewer.

• Raw Queue

  • A queue which is set up with -m raw; that is; no PPD is used. The job bypasses the filtering system and goes directly to the device uri specified for the queue. Removal of support within CUPS for raw queues is planned for the future.

• rastertopwg

  • A filter to convert a file to Apple Raster or PWG Raster

S

• system-config-printer

  • A utility for setting up a print queue. Uses lpadmin.

• SLP

  • See Service Location Protocol

• Service Location Protocol

  • A discovery protocol that allows the finding of printers connected to a local area network (LAN). It is very likely replaced by DNS-SD on recent printers.

T

• Tea4CUPS

  • Tea4CUPS is a CUPS backend. Besides transporting data to a printer it allows them to be modified and manipulated before reaching the printer. The modified data can then be sent to any number of outputs.

• Temporary Print Queue

  • A feature of CUPS 2.2.4 and later when remote, shared queues and IPP printers are advertised on the network. The queue is only brought into existence when it is printed to; it is an on demand queue.

• texttopdf

  • A filter to convert text to PDF. The output is generally sent to the pdftopdf filter for the pages to be managed.

U

• UFR

  • The Ultra Fast Renderer. A printer driver langage for Canon printers.

• Ultra Fast Renderer

  • See UFR.

• URF

  • A raster format devised by Apple for use with AirPrint-capable printers. The acronym appears to have originally stood for Universal Raster Format but it is now known as Apple Raster. CUPS converts files to Apple Raster with its rastertopwg filter.

• URI

  • See Device URI

• USB

  • A USB interface is a very common way of setting up a printer, particularly when it has no ethernet or wireless interface. Consider using ipp-usb with a printer which is capable of interacting with a driverless printing system.

• USB Quirk

  • A CUPS rule to deal with a printer's possible deviation from the USB standard.

• usb-no-reattach

  • A CUPS option to deal with problematic USB printers.

• usb-unidir

  • A CUPS option to deal with problematic USB printers.

V

• Viewers

  • The outputs of some filters are viewable with various utilities.

W

• Web Interface

  • See Cups Web Interface.

• Wi-Fi Direct

  • Connect over wireless directly with a printer without the need for a wireless access point.

X

• Xpdf

  • A PDF file viewer.

Y

Z

• zathura

  • A PDF and PostScript file viewer.

See Also

• The Debian Printing Portal

CategoryPrinter