system-config-printer

This page is about the printer administration tool system-config-printer, which first appeared in Fedora (as part of my work at Red Hat), and later Ubuntu and other operating systems.

The purpose of the tool is to configure a CUPS server (often the local machine) using the CUPS API. The tool is written in Python, using pygtk for the graphical parts and with some Python bindings (pycups) for the CUPS API.

It is largely the same as using the CUPS web interface for configuring printers, but has the advantage of being a native application rather than a web page. It appears in the Fedora menu under System ▸ Administration ▸ Printing.

As a result of using the CUPS API the tool is able to configure remote CUPS instances and is not limited to configuring CUPS on the local machine. The CUPS library providing the API uses HTTP and IPP to communicate with the CUPS server.

Please note that I no longer maintain system-config-printer. Please visit its new home at GitHub.

Download

Download older tarball releases from:
http://cyberelk.net/tim/data/system-config-printer/

You will also require pycups from:
http://cyberelk.net/tim/software/pycups/

Source Code

The git repository is available at GitHub.

Translations

Language translations should be submitted through Zanata.

Reporting bugs

If you have found a bug in system-config-printer, please report it. If system-config-printer came with your operating system, report the bug to the operating system vendor:

  • Packagers, or people who have installed system-config-printer from source themselves, should report the bug at GitHub.  This is the “upstream” bug tracker.
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Fedora users should use Red Hat Bugzilla
  • Ubuntu users should use launchpad
  • Mandriva users should use Mandriva Bugzilla

Comments

363 responses to “system-config-printer”

  1. Pablo avatar
    Pablo

    Hi! after spending a lot of time trying to resolve this, I give up.

    I have a Epson CX5600 and I use Ubuntu 10.04. Everything works fine, but when I try to print in grayscale mode, I can see just black color.

    I printed a test page to, and the grayscale mode (10%, 20% .. ) is just white, and from 50% turns directly black.

    Any idea?

    Reply
  2. tim avatar
    tim

    aimo: it sounds like you have “banners” turned on. Double-click on the printer, then click on ‘Policies’. Check what the ‘Starting Banner’ and ‘Ending Banner’ are — “None” should be an option.

    If they are both already set to “None”, check what’s in the /etc/cups/lpoptions and ~/.cups/lpoptions (look for “job-sheets”).

    Reply
  3. tim avatar
    tim

    Pablo: it sounds like a problem with the driver you are using, or else one of the settings is wrong. I’m guessing you are using the Gutenprint driver. Double-click on the printer, then click “Printer Options” and scroll down tothe bottom. Is “Image Type” set to something other than “Mixed Text and Graphics”?

    Reply
  4. Pablo avatar
    Pablo

    Thanks! I changed to Mixed Text and Graphics and it works !!

    Reply
  5. Chris avatar
    Chris

    I’m trying to setup a Canon PIXMA IP4850 but the only way I can get it to work is with turboprint has anyone got this to work

    Reply
  6. Eric avatar
    Eric

    Our business uses Epson validation printers running on the t5455 HP terminals running through the parellel port. We have been trying to get the CUPS system to print to the terminals using a generic / text. On the factory OS, these printers print fine; however, on the CUPS system, they do not print. We get a “client-error-document-format-not-supported” even though it is a very generic driver. We have spent many hours with HP support and they cannot help us stating that the CUPS system cannot be changed at the level we need it to be. In a future update, will this generic text driver be supported? This will be a factor in purchasing hundreds of HP thin clients or not if the CUPS system will be a factory default because we must have these printers working locally. Thanks!

    Reply
  7. Eric avatar
    Eric

    Sorry, I forgot to mention that we are running CUPS version 1.3.8 which was bundled within the HP Thin Client Linux version – T5X32014 Rev. 1
    29 Oct 2010. Thanks!

    Reply
  8. tim avatar
    tim

    Eric: Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Fedora both support text-only printing using CUPS, i.e. direct text to printer without any conversion to PostScript. Have you tried using either of those?

    Reply
  9. Eric avatar
    Eric

    Apparently this has been fixed with a later version of CUPS. Unfortunatly, the newest HP Thin Client version doesn’t have the latest CUPS version. Hopefully, it’ll be updated soon. Thanks! https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/cups/+bug/385797

    Reply
  10. tim avatar
    tim

    Eric: this was only ever broken on Ubuntu and derivatives, as far as I can see. They took the driver I wrote for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 but it seems as though they missed out a vital part by mistake.

    Reply
  11. aimo avatar
    aimo

    My printer SAMSUNG CLX-2160 states, that I have wrong colors. I bought yesterday 4 refilled color containers from a special shop. They fill those for me continuously. I never had any difficulties before with them. They are using very good materials and are very trustworthy people. If I were using Windows instead of ubuntu 10.4, I could change the way, my computer behaves, but now I can t.
    Is there any way to make the printer work? Those colors are very, very expencive!

    Reply
  12. Patty avatar
    Patty

    I am running Ubuntu and Windows XP on this one computer. The printer (HP Photosmart 2610 ) works in this program but not in Windows. Printer icon does not even show up in Windows, yet it works here. Is there anything in Ubu2 I need to do, as I have tried everything in Windows. Thank you.

    Reply
  13. thys matthee avatar
    thys matthee

    Cannot print with my samsung laserjet ml 1665 on ubuntu 10.04! please help!
    thank you!

    Reply
  14. tim avatar
    tim

    I’m afraid you need to download a driver from Samsung for this printer:
    http://www.openprinting.org/printer/Samsung/Samsung-ML-1665

    Reply
  15. Marteinn avatar
    Marteinn

    I’m using canon 5200R on ubuntu 10.10.

    Canon PIXMA iP5200 – CUPS+Gutenprint v5.2.6

    The button for cleaning the printer heads is grey (inactive).

    Any suggestions how to activate the button.

    Reply
  16. cary holmes avatar
    cary holmes

    After quite a few updates and program installs the system-config-printer utility lost it’s ability to print or search Windows Shared printers. In fact the Windows Network Search option is gone from system-config-printer menu.

    To fix I took uninstall all of SAMBA from the system and then reinstalled system-config-printer but the problem remains.

    Any ideas on how to fix other than reformatting the hard drive and starting over

    Thanks

    One thing that may help one to zero in on problem is the following message that appears for a samba printer that has been installed on the Linux Mint 10 machine for quite a while.

    In settings it looks like this

    Description: Brother MFC-240C
    Location CSH-Main
    Device URI: smb://CSHHOME/CSHW7-MAIN-B1/Brother%20MFC-240C%20USB%20Printer
    Make and Model: Brother MFC-240C Cups V1.1
    Printer State: Stopped – Backend /usr/lib/cups/backend/smb does not exist!

    I did the obvious and created the smb directory, it didn’t help

    That’s it

    Reply
  17. Na zdraví PyGI! « Martin Pitt

    […] main goal and occupation during this week was to start porting a bigger PyGTK application. I picked system-config-printer, as it’s two magnitudes bigger than the previous projects, exercises quite a lot more of the […]

    Reply
  18. Paul Campbell avatar
    Paul Campbell

    I have noticed on Fedora 14 that when I print a document either from google chrome or command line that an icon appears on the panel border beside the speaker icon.
    Along with that appears a small dialog box telling me about the print job.

    I don’t want to get this notificiation. How can I turn it off? I don’t even need the printer icon.
    I actually am comfortable using http://localhost:631 to admin my printer.

    Reply
  19. tim avatar
    tim

    Marteinn: it means the driver (i.e. gutenprint) doesn’t support that functionality for that printer.

    cary holmes: you need to install the samba-client package.

    Paul Campbell: I’m afraid it is not possible to configure it not to display those messages at the moment; however you can remove the system-config-printer package and that will prevent the icon (and its messages) from appearing.

    Reply
  20. Simon avatar
    Simon

    Have 2 identical OKI MB470 network printers. Before Ubuntu 10.10, used as a pool from each desktop. Can Ubuntu 10.10 share these 2 printers as a pool.

    Thanks.

    Reply
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