Old Instructions@Elias Garcia

The LIP printing system

The LIP printing system is based on CUPS the Common UNIX Printing System. All printing goes through the CUPS print servers.

Most modern Linux systems are CUPS enabled and do not require any configuration. The CUPS clients learn automatically about available CUPS servers and about the printers that they serve.

Print servers

At LIP there are two CUPS print servers named print1.lip.pt and print2.lip.pt.

Printer names at LIP

See the following links to obtain the printer names:

Under Linux you can also obtain the list of printers with the command:

lpstat -p -d

Printing

Under Linux you may print a file with:

lpr -P printer filename

Printing a Postscript file in the first floor laser printer:

lpr -Plj_1f_ps paper.ps

Printing a plain text file such as a program source code can be done in several ways. First and although not being a postscript file it can be sent directly to a postscript printing queue because the print servers will automatically detect the content of the file and will perform the conversion to postscript. In this example a plain text file is sent to the ground floor laser printer:

lpr -Plj_gf_ps  myprogram.c

For plain text file printing you can get better results by first formatting the output with a formatting application such as enscript, mpage, a2ps. The utility a2ps can be used to obtain a pretty printing of a program file by adequately formatting it.

a2ps --pretty-print=c  -o- myprogram.c | lpr -Plj_1f_ps

a2ps --pretty-print=fortran  -o- myprogram.f | lpr -Plj_1f_ps

For a normal text file that does not contain source code:

a2ps  -o- mydocument.txt | lpr -Plj_1f_ps

enscript -p-  mydocument.txt  | lpr -Plj_1f_ps

mpage -2 -bA4 -P- mydocument.txt  | lpr -Plj_1f_ps

Printing the same plain text file on both sides of the page.

lpr -Plj_gf_ps2  myprogram.c

a2ps --sides=duplex -o- mydocument.txt | lpr-Plj_1f_ps

enscript -p- -DDuplex:true mydocument.txt | lpr -Plj_1f_ps

mpage -2 -bA4 -t -P- mydocument.txt  | lpr -Plj_1f_ps

To print a pdf file you should convert it first to postscript. Printing a pdf can also be accomplished directly from a pdf viewer such as evince, xpdf or acroread. To convert it in the command line you can use pdf2ps or pdftops:

pdf2ps mydocument.pdf output.ps

lpr -Plj_1f_ps output.ps

Windows clients

To use the CUPS printing system it is not required to have a CUPS clients installed. Since the CUPS print servers support the typical printing protocols they can be used as any other UNIX print server. However in windows you need to install some Windows printing components. Under VISTA this can be accomplished by:

Open the Programs and Features control panel
Click on Turn Windows features on or off In
Print Services select both
- Internet Printing
- Client LPR Port Monitor

To add a new printer under Windows you need to known its name you may find them in:

Currently there are two ways to intall printers under windows

1) Perform the following steps:

Open the "Printers" control panel
Click Add a Printer
Click Add a Local Printer
Click Create a New Port
- Type of port must be LPR port
- Name or address of server must be print.lip.pt
- Name of printer must be one of the LIP printers for instance
  - lj_1f for the first floor black/white laser printer
  - lj_gf for the ground floor black/white laser printer
- Then select the type of the printer for instance
  - HP LaserJet 4350 PS for the lj_1f laser printer
    - Lexmark W840 PS for the lj_gf laser printer

2) Perform the following steps:

Open the "Printers" control panel
Click Add a Printer
Click Network printer Click
Connect to printer on the Internet
- URL must be http://print.lip.pt:631/printers/Name of printer
- Name of printer must be one of the LIP printers for instance
  - lj_1f for the first floor black/white laser printer
  - lj_gf for the ground floor black/white laser printer
- Then select the type of the printer for instance
  - HP LaserJet 4350 PS for the lj_1f laser printer
  - Lexmark W840 PS for the lj_gf laser printer

You may need to install additional printer drivers if the printer types that you need are not found in the Windows Manufacturer or Printers choosers.

Mac

From the Apple menu, choose System Preferences.
From the View menu, choose Print & Fax.
Click the Add (+) button.
Click IP.
From the Protocol pop-up menu, choose “Internet Printing Protocol – IPP.”
In the Address field, enter print.lip.pt
In the Queue field, enter: printers/Queue-Name
- Ex: printers/lj_1f
From the "Print Using" pop-up menu, choose the printer type. If you’re not sure of the type, try Generic PostScript Printer.
Click Add.

Firewalls

On the client side CUPS needs both the TCP port 631 and UDP port 631 open. The UDP protocol is used by the servers to broadcast to the clients the information required for auto configuration.

More information

See the following links:

CUPS online help

Links