CUPS is the abbreviation for Common UNIX Printing System. It is a modularized computer printing system for UNIX-like operating systems, which provides a common printing interface across a local network, masking differences among the printing systems on each computer. A computer running CUPS is a host that can accept print jobs from client computers, process them, and send them to the appropriate printer. It was developed by Easy Software Products (ESP) and is now owned and maintained by Apple Inc. Now CUPS is the standard printing system in most Linux distributions.
Note
Common UNIX Printing System (CUPS) is the base for streamlined printing systems for Mac OS X. CUPS can also work independently on Mac OS X. You can get more information on this at:
In this chapter, we will discuss the various features of CUPS, and the support of PostScript Printer Driver (PPD) in detail.
CUPS consists of a print spooler and a scheduler, a filter system that converts the print data to a format that the printer will understand, and a backend system that sends this data to the print device.
CUPS uses the Internet Printing Protocol (PP) to manage print jobs and queues. It also provides the traditional System V and Berkeley command line interfaces. It also provides limited support for the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol.The device drivers supplied by CUPS are based on PostScript Printer Description (PPD) files. There are a number of user interfaces for different computing platforms that can configure CUPS, and it has a built-in, web-based interface.