19.5 Configuration for Applications

Applications rely on the existing printer queues in the same way as command line tools do. There is usually no need to reconfigure the printer for a particular application, because you should be able to print from applications using the available queues.

To print from the command line, enter lp -d queuename filename, substituting the corresponding names for queuename and filename.

Some applications rely on the lp command for printing. In this case, enter the correct command in the application's print dialog, usually without specifying filename, for example, lp -d queuename. To make this work with KDE programs, enable Print through an external program. Otherwise you cannot enter the print command.

Tools such as xpp and the KDE program kprinter provide a graphical interface for choosing among queues and setting both CUPS standard options and printer-specific options made available through the PPD file. You can use kprinter as the standard printing interface of non-KDE applications by specifying kprinter or kprinter --stdin as the print command in the print dialogs of these applications. The behavior of the application itself determines which of these two commands to choose. If set up correctly, the application should call the kprinter dialog whenever a print job is issued from it, so you can use the dialog to select a queue and set other printing options. This requires that the application's own print setup does not conflict with that of kprinter and that printing options are only changed through kprinter after it has been enabled.