Connect Mac OSX to a CUPS printer
Snow Leopard update for connecting OSX to a CUPS printer
Updated 3.Nov.2009 – Without any configuration change on the same CUPS printer of this setup, Snow Leopard detected the installed printers on the CUPS server using zeroconf (Bonjour). Right after a clean install of Snow Leopard, just go to Printer and Fax preferences pane, you should see the default printers exposed by your CUPS print server.
If you need to connect Mac OSX to a remote CUPS printer
Steps for Leopard; if you are using Snow Leopard, you won’t need this, zeroconf should have kicked in, see the update above.
- Then click “Print and Fax”
- On Printers column, click the plus sign to add a printer
- The “Protocol dropdown will say “Line Printing Daemon” or LPD, you need to change this to “Internet Printing” or “IP”, click the drop down and find “Internet Printing”
- On the address field, type the IP address or the hostname of the CUPS server, just write the hostname, don’t include the protocol. Hence you would write
cupsipaddress, notipp://cupsipaddress. - On the queue input field, type the queue name of the target printer attached to the CUPS server, the queue name of printers in a CUPS server is always prefixed by the word “printers/” — you need to ask your administrator what is the name of the printer as defined on the CUPS server. If you are the administrator, the name of the queue name is the same as what you typed on the name field of a printer when you were installing your printer to the CUPS server. See my other post which explains how to setup a clp 315 on a CUPS server, hence what you need to type on the queue input field is
printers/nameofprinteroncups. - On the name field, type something that you can easily recognize, when you have several printers installed on your MAC, it helps if the printer names are easily recognizable.
- On the “print using” field, choose “select a driver to use”, and just choose your appropriate driver .
- That should work now. Your Mac OSX is actually a CUPS server itself, there is a UNIX-ish way of installing printers on OSX, just open Safari, and type
http://localhost:631
you will be greeted by the CUPS opening page.
That’s it, now your OSX can print to a remote CUPS server in your home network.
If you want to show appreciation for my efforts dear reader, you could buy me a tall hazel nut Americano ($2) via PayPal. Thanks{1 Comment below .. you can add one }
6.4.2009at 10:50
Hi, good post. I have been woondering about this issue,so thanks for posting. I’ll definitely be coming back to your site.